Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 156392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 782(@200wpm)___ 626(@250wpm)___ 521(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 156392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 782(@200wpm)___ 626(@250wpm)___ 521(@300wpm)
I resist the urge to spar with him, mainly because I won’t allow anything to sour my mood today. I’m so going to end the night with a shattering bang and I have no time to engage with wankers.
“Thanks for the compliment, Lan.” I hug him and then step on his toe with my five-inch stilettos. He stifles a groan and I release him with a grin.
So yes, I might not fight with words, but I’m still as vengeful as a ghost.
“Ava!” My sister comes running, wearing a glittery black top, shorts, and fishnet stockings. Her dark hair is held in a tight ponytail that enhances her cat-eye makeup. “Look who I found!”
She’s dragging an uninterested Remi behind her. He’s tall, handsome, and reeks of aristocratic blood—part British, part French, as he likes to remind us. He’s around Lan and Bran’s age, already at uni, and thinks it’s beneath him to hang out with secondary school kids.
The only reason we get together is because our parents belong to a tight-knit community in London. We share the same tax bracket and luxurious holidays in different guarded properties around Europe.
It’s virtually impossible for us to avoid each other when our parents have been best friends since school, so we stick together. Ride or die of a sort.
“Let me go, peasant.” Remi pushes Ari away and wipes his hand on his shirt as if he touched something foul.
Soon, however, he smiles upon seeing Creighton lounging behind Lan and Bran, then wraps an arm around his shoulder. I honestly didn’t notice him until now. He’s been silent, seeming bored to death as he munches on some shrimp.
“Creigh!” I squeal, attacking him in a quick hug, and disengage before he hugs me back with his shrimp hand and ruins my dress.
He’s about Cecily’s age and, more importantly, he’s her cousin and Eli’s younger brother.
But they don’t share any physical traits. Where Eli mostly takes after his father, Creigh looks different. His skin is more tanned, his face shape is longer, and he’s handsome in a medieval prince kind of way.
Those who aren’t close to the family aren’t aware that Creigh is adopted. Probably because Aunt Elsa and Uncle Aiden don’t treat him any differently than Eli.
And because Eli is always pestering him for hugs, asking him to swim with him, and vying for his attention at every turn. But Creigh remains silent to a fault and barely speaks, even when poked.
Oh to be Creigh in Eli’s eyes.
But like a female version who’s not sibling material.
“Here.” Remi opens his arms. “I’ll let you hug my lordship since it’s your birthday. You can enjoy the honor while it lasts.”
I roll my eyes and hug him. “More like you are honored.”
“Don’t be blasphemous. It’s not a good start for your birthday.”
“Strange birthday, if you ask me.” Lan throws a look around, not bothering to hide his disdain for the entirety of the invitees. “What type of seventeen-year-old throws a party that includes parents? Trying to be a debutante in the sixteenth century or something? In that case, your clothes would be frowned upon and cause a scandal.”
“I thought it’d be fun to have them here and then we can leave. And my clothes are perfectly fine.”
So maybe my skirt stops way above my knees and is a bit too short. But I have beautiful long legs and I have to take every opportunity to show my assets. Especially today.
“Have Aunt Elsa and Uncle Aiden come around, Cray Cray?” I ask with a note of undisguised excitement.
“Just ask if Eli showed up and drop the act,” Remi says with a dramatic shake of his head.
“I’m not asking about…him.”
“But you’re well content to give him heart eyes whenever he’s around?” Lan supplies needlessly.
“I do…not.”
Glyn winces. “You actually do.”
“Glyn!” I interlink my arm with my best friend’s. “Cecy, tell them that’s not true.”
“Stop hiding facts when you’re shit at it. You’re totally going to confess to him like a lovesick idiot today,” Remi says.
“Which is why you invited the parents. You knew he wouldn’t come if his mum didn’t drag him along,” Lan says.
I stare at Cecy, my eyes nearly bulging out. “You…you told them?”
“I swear I didn’t.” She juts a finger in Remi’s direction. “He eavesdropped when we were in the south of France and blasted it all over their little group chat.”
My heart falls.
My skin crawls.
I think I’m going to throw up.
My voice sounds foreign when I speak. “The group chat with Eli in it?”
Bran offers me a sympathetic smile and nods once.
“Oh God.” I nearly faint against Cecily.
“You went too far, Remi.” She points at him again. “You had no business sharing that secret.”
“Bitch, puh-lease. At this point, everyone from the royal family to the local delivery office knows about her little crush.”
“Including Eli, if that doesn’t imply it,” Lan says with a wicked smile. “He just chooses to behave as if you’re a wallflower whose existence he couldn’t care less about.”