Page 34 of The Rogue and His Flower

For the restof the afternoon, I wander through the streets of Princetown and stop by some of the local stores, picking up a couple of tops and a skirt from the charity store that caught my eye. Feeling a little thirsty, I head over to Bandits Bar for a drink. Despite still being relatively early, there are quite a few regulars inside, and I take a seat on one of the barstools waiting for Ben, the owner, and one of Drix and Dalton’s good friends, to serve me.

“Hey, Daisy, what can I get you?” he asks, giving me one of his signature smiles that lights up his striking green eyes as soon as he spots me.

“Just a lemonade, I’m driving.”

“Coming right up,” he replies, grabbing a glass and filling it before adding some ice and a slice of lemon.

“Thank you,” I say, taking it from him.

“So, where’s your other half?” he asks, flitting his eyes around the bar in search of Dalton, no doubt.

“Counting his obscene amounts of money back at the mansion, I guess,” I reply with a shrug, taking a sip of the sweet liquid.

Ben smirks. “Does he know you’re here alone?”

“No, besides it’s really none of his business where I choose to spend my time.”

“He’s your fiancé, Daisy, I think that makes it his business, don’t you?”

“So you know then?”

“I received the invite to your engagement party.”

“I haven’t even seen them,” I reply, huffing out a breath.

“That figures. Carl is–”

“A domineering bastard?” I finish for him.

“That’s one way to describe him,” Ben concedes with a wink. “Plus you’ve got a rock on your finger the size of Gibraltar, and I happen to be best mates with your brotherandyour fiancé, so I have some insider knowledge.”

“I bet you do,” I reply, rolling my eyes, and refraining from asking howthatconversation went down.

“I can already tell you’re running rings around Dalton. Bet he’s loving the chase,” Ben smirks.

“I never said that I’d make this easy for him,” I shrug.

“You shouldn’t, he could use a little humbling.”

Despite being an heir to the Pike’s family fortune, Ben’s a lot more down to Earth than Dalton is, and I’ve always liked him. You wouldn’t find many billionaire heirs serving drinks behind a bar.

“Dalton is used to getting what he wants, and I’m not in the business of allowing that,” I reply. “If I want to have a drink, then I will.”

“Daisy, maybe you should just–” Ben begins but the door to the bar swings open and a group of about twenty men walk in. One of them is wearing a huge penis hat and the others are pushing and shoving him in jest. Clearly they’re on a stag do. “Ah fuck. Sorry, Daisy, looks like I’m going to have to cut this conversation short.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m just going to drink this and then head out anyway.”

Pushing off my stool, I head to a corner table to get out of the way of the group of men who are clearly a little worse for wear. For the next few minutes, I watch them with mild amusement, sipping on my lemonade when my phone vibrates in my bag.Fishing it out, I notice I have several text messages from Dalton, more appearing as I read.

“Oh for goodness sake, can this man be any more infuriating?” I mutter, casting my eyes over them.

Ben texted. What the fuck are you doing at Bandits Bar?

I glance over at Ben and shake my head, regretting my decision to have a drink here. They’re all in cahoots together. Urgh.

Daisy, answer me.

Daisy, I swear to fuck if you don’t answer me.

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