Total pages in book: 152
Estimated words: 147966 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 740(@200wpm)___ 592(@250wpm)___ 493(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147966 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 740(@200wpm)___ 592(@250wpm)___ 493(@300wpm)
I turn my head and spear him with a look. “You also enjoyed the tumbet?”
“Zoe’s food is always amazing,” he says, patting his flat stomach. “I’m gonna need to step it up in the gym.”
“See you there in the morning, then.”
“Luc, come on, man. Some of us need to sleep.”
What I wouldn’t give to be able to sleep more than a few hours at a time.
“Are you enjoying dinner?”
“What are you asking, Jacques?”
“Nothing. It’s just… Emmy doesn’t eat with you and the kids every night.”
“Emmy eats with the children most nights, as do I when I’m home. Sometimes we have dinner together. Other times, it means we do not. Correlation does not equal causation.” As I speak, my mind is yelling for me to shut the fuck up. Since when have I felt the need to explain myself to him?
“Sure,” his mouth says. But his face needs a punch. “Primrose told me about the virgin conversation,” he says with a crooked grin.
“What?” My body jolts—she’s not a virgin, just inexperienced. Isn’t she? She’s just chosen her partners badly. Been fucked by selfish men.
“I hear you nearly choked when Sylvie announced that Sophia is a virgin over tomato flan.”
Ah. That. The Armagnac must be clouding my brain.
He gives a huff of a laugh. “I’m pretty sure Maria hopes she’s a virgin.”
“Vegan,” I mutter, leaning forward to take up my glass again. “I almost showered the table in wine.”
“Not the rosé!” He makes to clutch invisible pearls. “You wanna make Jose cry?”
“The rosé. Sylvie wants him to put away a crate of it for her eighteenth birthday.”
He pulls a face.
“I know. I don’t want to think about her being eighteen.”
“I was thinking more of how rancid it’ll taste by then.” Jacques reaches for his beer, hooking a finger around the long neck. “You know, I’m not sure which I’d rather be, a vegan or a virgin. I guess it would depend how long I’d have to suffer.”
“Both are unlikely states for you.”
He gives a grin. “Everyone was a virgin once, though I doubt your memory goes back that far. Do you remember your first time?”
“Juliette,” I say with a fond smile. “My fourteenth birthday. She was the older sister of a friend.”
“Older?” He quirks a brow.
“By a couple of years.”
“That is a pattern for you.”
I ignore him. Allegra was only three years older than me. And now she’s suspended in time.
“Not much older than Felix, really.”
“Are you trying to upset my peace?”
“I’m just sayin’.”
“Say less,” I mutter, stretching my legs out in front of me, crossing one ankle over the other.
“Getting laid is the best. It resets everything for me, puts me in a flow state.”
I make an unhappy noise, and his amused gaze slides my way.
“You ought to be invested.”
“I think I’d rather be deaf.” Deaf to this conversation, at least.
“The better I fuck, the harder I work.”
“I think I work hard enough.”
“But do you fuck enough?”
“That’s none of your business,” I answer smoothly.
“So secretive these days.” He gives a pause. “Man, I remember being Felix’s age. Talk about being a slave to hormones.”
“Felix is twelve. The only thing he’s interested in is Pokémon.”
“And Sophia. One minute, it’s Pikachu, I choose you! Next, it’s damn, girl, I wanna Squirtle on them Jigglypuffs.”
“I don’t even want to know what you just said.”
“We were all jerking off to hotter, older girls at his age. And if we say we weren’t, then—”
“I’m not ready to have this conversation.” Not when I feel like a ball of raging hormones myself.
“Fine. How about this instead? You could do worse.”
“Than what?”
“She’s smart and beautiful. From a similar background.”
“Sophia?” I jerk upright, the poor girl’s name out of my mouth before I can correct my train of thought.
“Primrose.”
“Stop talking.” I reach for the bottle and splash more into my glass.
“She’s kind of ideal. You’re both rich. At least, her family is. You have the commonality of an English mother. And she’s here temporarily.”
“You are my assistant, not my priest.”
“That’s true. I help cover up your sins, not absolve you of them.”
“She’s far too young for me.”
“She’s twenty-eight, not a kid.”
“Do you think I don’t already know that?” I almost explode. “Enough.” I make a cutting motion in the air to signal enough. “Primrose is the nanny and nothing else.”
“She’s no nanny. I don’t even know how you got her to come to Mallorca.”
“I’m sure she has her reasons. Reasons we’re not privy to.”
“I’d hate to think you were taking your dark dealings elsewhere.”
“Meaning?”
His mouth turns down and he makes a motion with his hands. “You don’t usually dig up your own dirt.”
“There is no dirt in this instance, no manipulation,” I lie. She tried it first. I just happen to be better at it. “As far as I’m aware, she’s here because of Emmy. Because of her friend.”
From the corner of my eye, Jacques’s expression twists. “Must be some friendship,” he huffs. “A weekend, sure. But a month?”