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“How was she looking at me?”
“Like you were a tasty crème brûlée she wanted to slurp up.”
His lip twitched. “You think?”
“If there’s anything I know it’s how to spot a phony bitch, and I guarantee you, that bitch is phony. And while she definitely wouldn’t mind a ride for old time’s sake, she is not to be trusted long-term. So, sorry, I guess, for threatening her.” But not really.
That annoying dimple—the one that only popped up when he was teasing her—made an appearance. “You were jealous.”
Of fucking course, she was!
Tenley scoffed. “No. I mean…no. Never. I don’t get jealous.”
He nodded, then leaned down and whispered in her ear, “You’re fucking gorgeous when you’re jealous.”
And that was…not the reaction she’d expected. If he wasn’t mad at her for being rude, maybe he wouldn’t be mad that she’d stolen the bitch’s diamond bracelet during their handshake, either.
But that was an admission for another time.
She cleared her throat. “Well, OK then. Let’s get this shit over with so you can take me back to the pool house and show me just how fucking gorgeous you think I am.”
There was a distinct twinkle in his eye as he dropped a kiss on the top of her head. “Sounds perfect, wife.”
It really did, too. In fact, it was getting scary how perfect the word wife was starting to sound to her.
CHAPTER 23
Knox would rather have a colonoscopy, sans anesthesia, in the middle of a tax audit, while being waterboarded, than be sitting at this dinner with these people.
If Thadeus’s goal was to convince him to get the hell out of town as soon as dessert was served, he couldn’t have done a better job of it. The dining room was full of assholes, and their combined income was probably enough to fund a giant war or feed a couple of small countries for a month.
What a fucking waste of time, food, and emotional energy this was.
Except for Tenley, of course. She looked like she was genuinely having fun talking to these fools. They probably assumed she was enjoying their company. Only Knox knew she thought they were as insufferable as he did. The truth was that Tenley was looking at a room full of easy marks, and she had dollar signs in her eyes. This room was her Christmas, birthday day, and 4th of July all rolled up into one glorious money-making opportunity.
And he wasn’t sure, but he thought he’d seen her lift at least three wallets and stow them away in her skirt.
Knox didn’t blame her. He couldn’t imagine a more deserving group of assholes. Who was he to deny her a little fun?
The dining table was comically large. He’d seen apartments with less square footage, which meant that if you were sitting on one of the long ends of the rectangle and wanted to talk to either person sitting at each short end, you had to yell.
Not that he wanted to talk to either of the fuckwads at the ends of the table.
Thadeus sat at one end, and John Richter, head of the board at Wilder Days, sat at the other.
Richter was probably only sixty years old, but looked much older thanks to his yellowish blond combover and nicotine addiction. He was at least a foot shorter than Knox and outweighed him by probably eighty pounds. Most of that weight was in his belly, which was currently spilling over the table a little as he ate. The guy was crooked as the day was long, and Knox had never understood why his father had let this man anywhere near his business.
Next to Richter was his wife, Vanessa. She was a good decade younger than her husband. She was either bored, stoned, or so Botoxed she could no longer move the muscles in her face, because as far as Knox knew, she hadn’t said a word or made a single expression all night. She was pretty, though, and knowing Richter, that was all she had to be in his presence. Smart, capable women probably set him on edge.
Kay Marks sat next to Vanessa. She was the kind of woman Richter probably had nightmares about. Easily the smartest and most well-educated businesswoman in the room, Kay had been his mother’s best friend. He imagined it killed her to be around assholes like Richter and Thadeus all the time.
The best news for Kay was that she was a vegetarian, so she was spared the lobster’s, um, special seasoning.
Tenley and Knox got stuck sitting between Kay and Thadeus while Rebecca, Waylin, and Tiffany grabbed their seats on the opposite side of the table.
He’d been doing his best to avoid the lingering looks Rebecca was shooting his way. She was obviously working up to saying something to him when Tenley wasn’t around, and he was not looking forward to it. Talk about awkward. He was almost embarrassed for her.
Almost.
