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I wasn’t dressed to the nines. Hadn’t clipped up my curly white-blonde hair or slipped on a pair of high heels like Mother’s stilettos. Nothing I did or said at that point would please Mother, so why try?
Three pairs of eyes staring at me caused my stomach to clench up tight.
Mother handed over the bouquet to a waiting household staff member, her glare deepening with every downward step I took.
“Lloyd, darling,” she purred, linking her arm in his. Her unhappy gaze seared my face as I crossed the foyer toward them. “This is my sweetheart, Addilyn.”
I peered up at the man looming beside Mother rather than dealing with her fake-assed smile and the icy orbs that promised I would be hearing her disapproval of my disobedience later.
Mr. Destil’s dark-eyed gaze slid down over my school uniform as though sizing me up like Mother did before allowing me out of the house. Unlike Mother’s disdain, his eyes held a hint of the smile on his lips.
A shiver of a different sort slid through me, the kind that raises your neck hairs when you’re outside in the dark.
“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, young lady.” Mr. Destil’s low voice rumbled through me.
Tearing my attention off Mother, I stepped back on instinct rather than shake his outstretched hand even though his gaze appeared harmless enough.
“Addilyn,” Mother admonished with a tone that let me know I’d be sorry for my bad manners.
“It’s quite alright, darling. This is my son, Gideon,” Mr. Destil said rather than making a scene. He turned to motion the younger man forward with the hand I’d refused to shake.
Piercing blue eyes glanced down over the curves I’d inherited from Mother at too young of an age, but rather than feeling weirded out by Gideon’s good long look at me, warmth tingled into the tips of my breasts. Heat flooded his eyes when they met mine—but blinked out like a flashlight, his face becoming cold and hard.
And leaving me breathless. Shaky and unsettled in a way I didn’t know how to deal with.
“Sis,” he said, his tone as mocking as his slow smirk that fluttered my belly.
Proper poise, I could hear Mother’s echoing hiss from many times before between my ears.
I lifted my chin to do the same as he’d done to me, my narrowed gaze sliding down over his suit as though I found him lacking in every way—which I totally didn’t. Broad shoulders for seventeen, he could have been out felling trees. And that hair…those bedroom eyes, my best friend Jenny would say, could talk a girl into giving up her first kiss.
He stirred things inside me I didn’t understand, and I hated him for the curiosity tingling through my limbs and whispering in my mind.
“I’m not your sis,” I shot back with a huff and flounce of my hair.
“Addilyn Jane!” Mother’s sternness tore my gaze off of him. Lips pressed tight, she told me all I needed to know without a single word of reprimand and consequence.
Bad manners equal loss of privileges, Mother always said, and my only interest since middle school had become my cell phone.
Holding back my sigh, I handed it over, knowing arguing would only keep my cell hidden in her massive walk-in closet for an extra week.
“Well.” Her voice brightened, all syrupy sweet again as she tucked the pilfered lifeline away in a pocket of her pale yellow slacks.
So much for calling Jenny later and filling her in on the latest shit in my life.
“Shall we?” Mother patted Lloyd’s arm and led him toward the formal dining room, murmuring about the fish our chef had prepared for dinner as her Jimmy Choos clacked on the marble flooring.
While I was safe for the time being, Mother excelled at hiding her pissiness behind her plastic smile. I’d catch hell for misbehaving later, no doubt.
“I expected you to be a rich little snob, but shit, you give the word new meaning,” Gideon said quietly with a sneer, his smirk still fixed in place as he peered down at me.
“Go to hell,” I whispered and spun on my heel, following after Mother and Mr. Destil.
“Already headed there, princess,” he stated, not loud for enough our parents to hear.
“Don’t call me princess!” I growled over my shoulder.
Gideon’s gaze plastered to my backside, and those flutters rushed through me again, warming me between the thighs and heating my face.
