Richer Than God - Amelia Wilde Page 0,40

lips over her clit, then press a kiss to it. Another. Another. A lick. Brigit arches back, silent, while the plates meet the linen tablecloth. While the waiter arranges them just so. He goes back for a pitcher of water and fills our glasses while I suck her skin, soothing it with my tongue. Ice clinks in the glasses.

Her thighs are shaking by the time the waiter leaves. “You’re horrible,” she whispers, red-faced, eyes bright.

“But you feel so much better now, don’t you?” I close her legs and pull her dress down, then put her back on the floor. She goes back to her seat on unsteady legs. I wait for her complaint. I wait for no.

“Yes.” Brigit finishes her wine and puts the glass delicately on the table. “So much better.”

17

Brigit

I’ve been up all night. Most of the night. When I was awake, I spent all my time waiting for my uncle—and probably my father—to burst into the room and take me back to the house. Or the courtroom. They want a ring on my finger and a marriage contract signed. It’s a sick trade, and they can’t make it without me.

When I slept, I dreamed it was happening. Over and over. More than once, Zeus sat to the side of the proceedings, watching with empty golden eyes no matter how much I pleaded and begged.

“It’s toast,” says Alicia.

We’re in the dining room, sitting at the corner table, and I’m not putting on a very good show. It occurs to me that I’ve been watching butter melt into a slice of toast for way too long. “I know.” I pick it up and take a bite, but the bread feels too dry. The stakes are too high to eat toast in a patch of sunlight. “I don’t feel very well.”

“I can help with that.” Savannah’s voice scares the shit out of me, and my hand flies to my chest. Another outfit was delivered this morning—the same things as yesterday, only this time the shirt is wine-colored, and the leggings are black. I don’t know what to make of the outfits. He could give them to me all at once, but it’s like Zeus wants me to wonder if he’s forgotten about me every single morning.

I haven’t forgotten about him.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” I tell her. Savannah’s face swings into view, her hair making a curtain between us and the rest of the room. “Where did you even come from?”

“I heard what you said.” She flips her blonde hair over her shoulder. “I know the perfect tea to perk you up.” Savannah pats my hand, and I jerk mine away. What the hell is she doing? “Stay here, and I’ll go get it.”

Alicia’s been done eating for ten minutes, and she looks from the retreating Savannah back to me. “I was going to go upstairs, but now I think I’d better stay.”

“It’s tea.” I’m not reassured by my own words, but Alicia doesn’t have to babysit me. I didn’t come here to be everyone’s problem. “I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

“Are you sure?”

I’m not. “Of course I’m sure.”

Alicia goes reluctantly, while Savannah hovers over the marble countertop set into one wall. A teapot flashes in the light. A wisp of steam rises above her head. Her wrist rises and falls, almost like she’s conducting an orchestra. She’s steeping tea. Maybe it’s for the best. I feel so off this morning, so unsteady, and I’m going to be worthless if I don’t get myself together.

I don’t have time to be worthless.

It feels wrong, and terrible, to be rushing into selling myself. But if I’m ever going to get to Saint-Gaultier—to the airport, even—then I have to do it soon. At this party.

I have to pass inspection.

Most of me is still sore from yesterday, and the pain hasn’t only settled between my legs. I saw something yesterday, in Zeus’s eyes. I heard it in his voice when he stormed into the spa. I don’t know what it was. The memory folds itself open and closed like an origami bird, never revealing all its folds. But he is a locked door, and I’m never going to be the key.

Lovesick. The word floats into my mind and takes root. I try to rip it out. Too absurd. I’m not falling in love with that cruel, beautiful man. It’s only the circumstances. It’s only the fact that I came here to be a whore that’s making everything seem breathless but alive.

I’ve never been