Page 65 of Ruthless Legacy

Thea looks over her shoulder and waves. I turn in time to see a few people at the table wave back. Seems she’s made some friends. “Here’s the thing. If seating arrangements go by bloodline status, then the thirteenth table isn’t really where I’m supposed to sit. In order for me to slot into the correct table, we’d have to move people around.”

She’s figured out the legacy numbering system? Good girl. I thumb through my book, pretending to read.

“I didn’t want to be a bitch and tell people where to sit, so seeing there’s a free spot right here, I’ve claimed it as my own today. Tomorrow that may change. I’m flexible like that.”

Eloise snarls, “Get your trashy ass up.”

She studies Eloise, smiles brightly and says, “My ass is not trashy. It’s cute and perky, or so I’ve been told.” Thea stands and turns, wiggling it a little bit. “I’m open to second, third, and fourth opinions. What do you think?” She grabs a cheek and gives it a little squeeze. “Come on, don’t be shy. You have my permission to touch it and tell me on a scale of zero to ten how perky is it?”

I bite back my growl when three people stand up, but Finn’s not as restrained. “No one needs to touch her ass. All of your eyes work and can see it’s perky.”

Thea sits back down and grabs her pizza. Before biting into it, she shrugs and says, “See? Finn says it’s perky, so it must be true.” She folds the slice and bites into it, the grease dripping down her chin. She drags her fingers across her chin, wiping the grease off, and sucks each one into her mouth.

Eloise hisses. “Fine, then take yourperkyass back where it belongs.”

“You were late, so you missed it, but I don’t mind repeating what I told them. I don’t belong at the thirteenth table.” She chuckles. “I realized you guys were probably hazing me, since the table assignments are based on bloodline levels, and I would technically be in one of the twelve lines. The thirteenth table is like a catchall, for all other legacy families and their affiliates.”

She takes another bite of her pizza and swallows. “So if we’re playing musical tables, then we need to draft up a memo or something. You know, give them time to prepare. Do you think two days is enough time for them to check the bloodline registry or call their parents and ask where they fall? Because quite a few people need to be displaced in order for everyone to sit where they belong.” She sucks her drink, staring pointedly at Eloise.

Finn chuckles. “Would you like to do the honors, and issue them their vacate notices, Pet? I’d be happy to come to your room and help your perky ass hammer out all the finer points and details. We can pull an all nighter pressing through until we’re both spent with exhaustion.”

“Just seeing you for this little bit of time makes my skin crawl. I’d never survive an extended period in your presence.”

Finn says, “That’s not disgust you’re feeling. Those are tingles and butterflies.”

Thea puts her finger in her mouth, pretending to make herself throw up. Finn bites his lip and groans, “I keep telling you, that gagging on it isn’t the turn off you mean it to be.”

Eloise shrieks, “Finn!”

“What?”

The table quiets. Everyone stops what they’re doing. Forks, spoons, drinks stall midway to their mouths or the table, waiting for her to answer.

“Stop encouraging her.”

“Encouraging her to do what?” I ask, flipping the page in my book. I ignore the gazes I feel on me. The open curiosity on their faces that I’m actually talking.

“To, uh, be disrespectful.”

“Ri-ight.Herbehavior is disrespectful. Unlike you, screeching a Trium’s name, like it belongs to you.”

Eloise has the unmitigated gall to snap at me. “Finn does belong to me.”

I raise my head, but before I can respond, Thea says, “Finn has themisfortuneof being promised to you, but you are not now, nor will you ever be his owner or equal. Or did the rules suddenly change? Did someone appoint your nagging ass to the fourth bloodline when I was in the bathroom this morning, taking a shit?”

Thea really has been doing her homework. Fuck, that makes me hard, and jumping to Finn’s defense the way she just did makes me even harder. Thea might be mad at us, but she still takes issues with other people staking claim to us. I can work with that.

I say, “That would require Eloise fucking the right people to even get her family name submitted for consideration. Eloise, have you finally expanded your repertoire, or did the nomination committee have to imagine you were someone else to get off?”

“You- you can’t talk to me like this.” She looks over at Pax for help.

I slam my book closed. “Why are you looking at him? You’re dealing with me now, and if you look to one of my brothers to intercede, or tell me how the fuck I can or cannot talk to you again,Iwill take it as a sign of disrespect.”

Her face reddens, and she stammers, “I didn’t mean, I was… I only meant that if the goal is to help Thea adapt here, the behaviors and tendencies she’s shown need to be curtailed, and you heard what she said to Finn. Pretending to be sickened by his attention is just wrong.”

“Interesting. And what should the consequences be for someone insinuating they’re sickened by a Trium’s presence?”

Her chin lifts. “They shouldn’t be acknowledged or shown any attention.”

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