a daughter. And judging by what I’ve seen of Ivy tonight, he got it.
I should feel sad to see such a fierce competitor defeated by the life that cages her, but instead, I count myself fortunate. I have every intention of using her forced compliance to my every advantage. Although, it’s a shame she won’t be as much fun this time.
Escorting Ivy to one of the lesser occupied white tents set up throughout the large party, I lean against a half wall that runs the perimeter of the yard.
My eyes search her face, my carefully controlled expression feigning concern instead of superiority. And fuck me, she’s somehow grown more beautiful in the ten years since we’ve seen each other.
It can’t matter.
I have a job to do.
Yet it reminds me of one underlying problem I’ve had when it comes to her:
There has never been a moment when I didn’t want her as much as I hated her.
Voice a soft croon that disguises my contempt, I ask, “Why should you hate me?”
She’s a vision in blue, the color of her one-shouldered gown highlighting the startling white blond of her hair and the hypnotic aqua of her eyes.
Seeing tears shimmering at the rims, I’m a bit thrown off. Ivy has been known to do many things, but crying was never one of them.
Never.
Not when I wrecked her sweet sixteen party, her prom or her graduation.
She never cried.
Ivy simply got even.
But then, that was our history.
What the hell had the last ten years done to her?
Her gaze escapes me for only a second before returning to my face. Stepping closer, she doesn’t pull away when my hands reach forward to take soft possession of her hips.
She’s definitely subdued.
The girl I once knew would have rather sucked face with a piranha than let me anywhere near her.
“I can’t pay the price Tanner wants. Not if it’s against my dad.”
She wipes a tear from her cheek, her eyes blinking them away. “I’ve already caused him enough problems. I’ll do anything else.”
Anything?
Interesting...
Another flicker of a glance away from me, and when I follow the direction of it, I see Governor Callahan standing with a group of men, his polished smile firmly in place.
Really, I have nothing against the guy, and I couldn’t care less about whatever political aspirations he may have.
But Warbucks feels differently. Which only makes my life hell.
Ivy leans against me, the scent of her floral perfume wafting beneath my nose, a soft strand of her hair brushing against my face.
“I can’t do it,” she insists. “He’ll disown me if I fuck up again. He almost did last time.”
Salty tears slip from her eyes to roll down her cheeks. I watch each and every one of them, staring at the way they slide down her immaculate skin.
It’s impossible to know if they’re real or fake, but from the way she’s shaking, I want to believe she’s truly frightened.
Good.
She deserves it for everything she’s put me through.
And bad.
This will make the entire game boring.
Still, I can’t help wondering what happened to her. This is not the woman who matched me toe for toe when we were growing up.
This isn’t the girl who somehow filled my locker with sex lube and smiled to see me open it. That shit doused the bottom of my legs and tops of my shoes when it poured out. Walking away was damn near impossible. I looked like a newborn giraffe on shaky legs walking through a particularly nasty porn set. After watching me bust my ass twice, Tanner finally stopped laughing long enough to slide me the fuck out of there.
This definitely isn’t the girl who managed to hide a glitter bomb in my backpack. The fucking thing exploded in my face, and no matter how hard I scrubbed my skin for the next month, I looked like a reject vampire who was denied a role on Twilight every time I walked in sunlight.
And it most certainly isn’t the devious bitch that snuck fifty live chickens into my house an hour before I was throwing a blowout party. I’d intentionally not invited her just to piss her off, but the guys and I had to call everything off as soon as we got there and discovered the chaos. We spent most of the night chasing the feathered fuckers through my house before spending the next few hours cleaning up bird shit.
To this day, I still can’t figure out where she got the chickens.