AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What are you talking about?” I ask as he shifts his grip to my wrist, turns on his heel and leads us toward the bar.
He snorts and doesn’t loosen his hold on me. “Didn’t even ask who I was referring to.” His words have a violence all their own. It’s a side of Ethan I don’tknow, not really, although I’ve seen glimpses. “A whiskey and a gin and tonic. Make the whiskey a double,” he tells the bartender once we reach the bar.
“I don’t think you need a double,” I tell him when he finally lets me go, and I rub my wrist.
“Really? You’re not the one who just told Sullivan Fox the engagement is off. So yeah, don’t mind if I have a fucking triple.”
I bite my tongue. I’m sure it was no easy task telling his father.
He attempts to put on a smile for someone walking past. He takes his drink but leaves mine on the bar. I reach for it, sip. Maybe I should have asked for a double too.
He shifts his gaze to me, lets it drop to the heavy ruby choker circling my neck.
“It’s an albatross,” he mutters. I’m not sure I heard him right, but he continues, gesturing to the choker. “The things we do for money and status. And for what?” He drinks down his whiskey. “I’m sure Mom wasn’t thrilled about lending it to you, considering.”
Honestly, it feels like it’s slicing into my neck and when I catch a glimpse of myself in one of the many mirrors mounted on the walls surrounding us, all I can think of is Bluebeard and the gift he made of the ruby choker to his young wife. What it foreshadowed.
Ethan watches me shudder. He shakes his head. “Don’t embarrass me tonight, Phee.”
“Embarrass you?”
“With him. I know you’re looking for him. I’m not stupid.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“I mean it. I’m warning you?—”
“You’re warning me?” I can imagine my eyebrows disappearing into my hairline.
“Just don’t.”
“Why would your parents invite Silas, anyway? It’s no secret how you feel about him.”
“He didn’t exactly give us a choice.”
“What do you mean?”
“Nothing,” he says, just as a couple and an older man approach us. I recognize the older man, Mr. Bennett, whom I like. He’s a business associate of the Foxes. The woman, too, looks familiar. I notice how Ethan straightens up and clears his throat as they join us.
“Here’s the couple of the moment,” Mr. Bennett says.
I force a smile. Had the Foxes leaked news of the announcement?
“Ethan. It’s been forever,” the woman says and leans in to hug him, pressing her breasts against his chest and kissing each of his cheeks.
“Anya,” he says, glancing at me. “I didn’t realize you’d be here.”
Anya. Now I place her. They were friends, more than that, actually. Their relationship goes as far back as high school. She was a senior when I was a sophomore.She’s also the woman I spied Ethan kissing at this same event years ago. I’d been seventeen, almost eighteen, and Ethan was nineteen.
It was one of the reasons I wondered why Mr. and Mrs. Fox kept pushing us together when he clearly had an interest in this woman. I remember it hadn’t bothered me as much as I thought it should, even then.
“I wouldn’t miss it. When Grandfather told us you’d be announcing your engagement tonight, I couldn’t stay away.”
My gaze snaps to Ethan, but he ignores it.
“Phee, you remember Anya?” he says instead, his hand at Anya’s lower back. We’d been introduced a few years ago.
Anya holds out her hand. It’s limp, and she barely clutches my fingers. “Nice to see you again, Anya.”
