his arm on the back of my chair and leaned in to whisper, “I can even hear the need behind your lies.”
“Stop it.” He was driving me crazy, and he didn’t even need to touch me to do it.
“I don’t think I can.” His lips skimmed my ear, and I barely bit back a moan.
“Ever, please.” Common sense told me that he was only getting back at me for getting him grounded, but my body didn’t care as it responded to his touch. I clearly needed to take notes on vengeance. What method was more clever than making your victim beg for it? “We’re enemies,” I said more firmly.
“Says who?” When I felt him nip my ear, then lick the abused flesh, I wanted to give in to whatever this was, but then I remembered a year of isolation that had been all his doing.
“You did,” I answered through gritted teeth. “When you told your father to send me away.” Before he could get inside my head and succeed in making a fool out of me, I hopped from the stool and almost knocked Jamie over when I tried to flee.
“Whoa,” he cautioned. His hands on my arms halted my escape. “Where ya headed, Speedy?”
“Let me go.”
“What’s the password?” he teased. Either he was completely oblivious to the tension in the room or he just didn’t care. Perhaps he was using me again to get under Ever’s skin. Whatever his reason, I was ready to knee him when Ever’s growl froze us both.
“Take your hands off her.”
I looked over my shoulder and saw that he’d abandoned his breakfast and now stood with his fists clenched.
“Why would I do that, cousin? You seem to enjoy having your hands all over what’s mine.”
“I’m not going to ask again,” Ever shot back. I didn’t miss that he’d completely ignored his cousin’s accusation, and apparently, neither had Jamie.
Without warning, Jamie gently pushed me behind him and was ready to charge his cousin when Thomas suddenly appeared between his son and nephew. I never even noticed him enter the kitchen. A minute more and Ever and I would have been caught.
“What the hell is going on here?”
“Ask your son,” Jamie sneered.
Thomas wasted no time regarding his son, who looked positively murderous. My heart skipped a beat. Knowing Ever was Exiled, I wasn’t so sure I shouldn’t heed his current mood.
“Well?” Thomas demanded.
Ever’s gaze had fallen on me while he blatantly ignored his father.
I stopped breathing.
Why must I anticipate his every move with bated breath?
It was all for nothing anyway. He rolled his eyes and calmly strolled from the kitchen, leaving his father without an explanation and me feeling more empty than ever.
PROMISES WERE SOMETHING I FOUND impossible to break, which was why I rang the doorbell ready to play the gentleman. I was surprised when Bee, dressed in a white cocktail dress, appeared on the other side of the door. Her parents were the type who felt it was beneath them to answer their own doors because of their wealth.
The panicked look on Bee’s face cleared the moment she saw me.
“You came.”
I sighed and handed her the bouquet of roses. Elliot and Melissa would have expected nothing less for their daughter. “I said I would.”
She scanned my gray wool blazer, white dress shirt, black tie, and chinos before nodding her approval and waving me inside. Her parents, dressed in their dinner finery, waited for us in the sitting room.
“Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery,” I greeted with excitement I didn’t feel. I played my role well, shaking her father’s hand and kissing her mother’s cheek.
“Son, I told you before. Call me Elliot.”
“Habit, sir.” I fought an eye roll.
“I can’t find fault with a good upbringing, can I, son?” He clapped me on my back and offered me a drink even though I was underage.
I shook my head, knowing it was a test.
One of the help came to announce that dinner was served. Bee was standing dutifully by my side, probably as rehearsed, when her mother beamed at the bouquet she held. “What lovely flowers, young man.” To her daughter, she said, “Shouldn’t you put those in water?”
“Excuse me.” My girlfriend wasted little time fleeing the room and leaving me with her parents.
“Shall we?” Melissa announced.
I followed them to the grand dining room. The feast was a little much for a casual Friday dinner, but over the top was the Montgomery way. And how I got into this mess.
Bee returned just as we were seated.
“Son, I’m glad you