Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 70574 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70574 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
He winked. “I mean, if there’s someone special traveling in your group, don’t worry about me pouting with jealousy or getting upset.” Another wink. “May the best man win, is all I can say to that.”
My dad cleared his throat, interrupting Eli’s torture of me. It was a good thing—I hadn’t had a proper comeback for his may the best man win comment. What had he meant? Like he would get into a physical altercation with any significant other he might foolishly believe I had…or something else?
“Stop being an ass, Eli,” Baker said. “We’re here to convince Arizona the necessity of a bodyguard to ensure his safety, not to play high school boyfriend games. Get your shit together and get on board.”
Wow. That outburst didn’t seem very Baker-ish. Maybe I had somebody in my corner after all? Thinking maybe Baker was on my side gave me a wee bit of courage.
“How did you get in here? Only my friends and family have the security code.” Which meant three people had the code, but none of them needed to know that. “Why in the hell would you ever think I’d allow you to go on a cruise with me, as my bodyguard or my ex-friend? It’s too late to get you a room anyway. They are fully booked. And, most of all, you’ll never be the best man, so you’ll never win.” Bullshit flowed from my mouth the same way water spurted from the tap. Nothing but bullshit. Some bullshit here, some bullshit there, some bullshit everywhere.
Eli didn’t seem the least bit fazed by my heaping-helping of crap. He leaned against the wall, crossed his arms over his chest, and crossed his ankles—looking all casual like he wasn’t about to ruin my boring life with his explosive appearance. How could he be so casual while my heart thundered like I’d rounded the final turn at the Kentucky Derby?
“Okay, let’s see,” Eli began. “Your father gave me the code, so I could join the meeting this morning. Sorry I’m late, but I was busy booking a cruise. As a matter of fact, the cruise ship is fully booked but, thankfully, I’m sharing a room with someone, so it wasn’t a problem. I’ll be there as your bodyguard, but I guess we could also refer to me as ex-boyfriend.” He grinned like an evil, yet devilishly handsome demon. “Boyfriend—you forgot to add the boy in front of the friend a few minutes ago.” He raised a hand and tapped a finger against his chin. “What else was there? Oh, yeah, I remember. I’m not the best man, so I’ll never win. The only way I know how to address that one is with only time will tell.”
He was so fucking smug. I couldn’t believe how much it turned me on. Most of my life had been a display of weakness, and it pissed me off that I was going to allow Eli back into that weakness column…but there was something about the man that made me want to throw caution to the wind and simply let someone else take over the reins for a while. It was exhausting trying to portray this image of me that didn’t really exist.
“It’s settled then; if you want to go on this cruise, Eli will accompany you as your bodyguard,” my dad piped up, interrupting my morbid thoughts. Yes, morbid. The thoughts of me falling in love with Eli again could only be categorized as morbid. He’d stomped on my pride and heart and once he’d completely flattened both, he’d thrown them away without a backward glance. The morbidity was the fact that he was clearly still my biggest fantasy.
My head whipped around so I could face my father, otherwise known as ‘the traitor’. “What? I’m not an underaged teenager. You can’t dictate my vacations, who I vacation with, or anything else for that matter! That isn’t how things work in the real world.”
“This isn’t the real world, Ari. It’s a dangerous world and after the attempt on your life, we all realize it became an even more dangerous world. How is it that every other adult in this room sees this except for you?”
I watched my father physically brace for the temper tantrum he expected to follow his ridiculous attempts at not only scaring me but trying to imply I was too young to make an intelligent decision. The lovable bastard knew the age thing always got to me. Too bad. He was going to be disappointed. Another plan had formed in my head, and I decided to run with it. I hated confrontations and this discussion was headed straight toward confrontation land at a high rate of speed. When I couldn’t lie my way out of a situation, I always went with my next best talent—evasion.