Matchmaker (Empire High #4) - Ivy Smoak Page 0,137
guns at him. Apparently I’d lost my fucking mind.
He pointed his own back at me. “Pew, pew! Secrets!” He blew on his pointer fingers like his gun was smoking.
I couldn’t even make fun of him. I’d started that weirdness. And now I had a weird secret thing that Nigel and I did together. What had I just done?
The taxi pulled away.
I’d worry about how to get out of a bath chat later. Right now I had to go appease Poppy for the last time.
Chapter 42
Friday
“What the hell are you wearing?” Poppy grabbed my arm and pulled me back towards the ballroom entrance.
“I didn’t have time to change,” I said.
“I told you to wear a tux and you don’t even have a suit jacket?” She looked like she wanted to scream. “It doesn’t matter. Hopefully everyone will be staring at my dress.” She stared at me like she was waiting for me to comment on how she looked.
The answer…she looked fine. I wasn’t attracted to her. At all. I couldn’t help it, but whenever I looked at her I saw Isabella. I’d never been attracted to Wizzy either. “Or you could just tell everyone the truth. That you’re blackmailing me and I had no choice but to be here tonight.”
“Very funny. Just stand there and look pretty and don’t say a word.” She pulled me back into the ballroom. “God, people are staring.”
She’d told me not to speak, so I didn’t bother telling her that people were probably staring at her because she was demon spawn.
“Maybe someone took off their jacket before dancing.” She perused the room for a jacket to steal.
“I’m not going to wear an ill-fitting stolen jacket.”
“So now you care what you look like?” She leaned in to whisper. “This wasn’t part of the deal. You’re embarrassing me.”
“I don’t actually remember impeccable dress being part of the deal.”
“New amendment. Dress better.”
I looked fine. Why did people always diss my clothes? “If I’m embarrassing you, I’m happy to leave.”
“Not until Uncle Richard sees us being a happy couple. Come on, let’s find him.” She grabbed my hand, her nails digging into my palm. She probably didn’t even realize her fake nails were stabbing me.
I wasn’t sure what was worse…being clawed to death by Poppy or having to see Mr. Pruitt. The last time I’d seen him, I’d said a lot of nasty, albeit true, things. He brought out the worst in me. But tonight I had to be on my best behavior. Angering him wasn’t going to help matters. It would probably just lead to Poppy realizing a relationship with me was useless and offing Scarlett without any kind of deal. That couldn’t happen.
“Where did he go?” Poppy asked. “I swear he was just here.” She froze. “You know what? I have a great idea to pass the time while we wait for him. Let’s dance.” She pulled me to the dance floor, moved my hands to her hips, and laced her fingers behind my neck. Her eyes darted around, searching for her uncle.
But when she led us over to a table of men much younger than Mr. Pruitt, I had a sickening feeling this had nothing to do with her uncle. “Is he even here?”
“Who?” Poppy asked.
“Mr. Pruitt.”
She looked up at me. “Yeah. Of course. He probably just went to the bathroom or something. Dip me.”
“What?”
“Dip. Me.” She started leaning backward.
Fuck. I caught her before she fell onto the dance floor. “What are you doing right now?”
She pulled back up and started laughing. “You’re so funny, Matthew. You always make me laugh,” she said way too loudly for polite conversation.
“Poppy, what the hell is going on?”
She leaned forward and whispered in my ear. “Be cool. My ex is here. And now he’s staring at us and just…just be cool, Matthew.” She moved in a little closer to me, pressing her hips to mine.
For fuck’s sake. It was one thing to pretend for Mr. Pruitt. But making her ex jealous? Now I understood why she was so insistent on tonight. Definitely not part of the deal. “Poppy…”
She grabbed both sides of my face and kissed me.
Gag. I was pretty sure I threw up in my mouth a little. I turned my head away from her. “Cut it out. I’m not here to make your ex jealous. I’m here to convince your uncle that you’re ready to take over the company. Period.”
“Two birds, one stone.” She leaned in for another kiss.