Page 59 of Ruthless Legacy

“No, I don’t believe you have.”

“Well, I do. So, in the spirit of collaboration, I want you to help me reach completion.”

Her lips call to me, and I answer with a toe curling kiss. Our battling tongues stoking the fire that’s always on a low simmer when she’s around.

She pushes me away to check her phone. “Who the hell is calling you this damn early?”

She pulls her phone away when I try to take it from her, and takes a step around me, walking towards the door. “Have fun in your shower, Finn.”

“Finn!”

I shutter my features, moving my daydreams of showering with Thea to the back of my mind before facing Eloise. Just a little longer and I won’t ever have to deal with her again.

“You bellowed?” I ask, affecting a bored tone.

“You bastard! What is this?” She shoves the papers she’s holding against my chest.

I smooth out the wrinkles and flip through the pages as if I’m really reading over them. “It appears to be our tentative engagement contract.”

She stabs her finger in the air. “That’s not the document I agreed to sign.”

“Your name, address, and date of birth are at the top of the form.”

“What are all those changes on the second and third pages?”

I bite back a laugh. Changes that I knew she’d have issues with. Changes she’ll have to come with a counter offer for. Like dad said, I can’t come right out and cancel our arrangement without a better plan, but I can amend it as much as I want and send this shit to stall purgatory.

That’s really all I’m doing at this point. Stalling until I come up with a plan that I can get my friends to agree to. “Eloise, we’re still in negotiations. I’m well within my rights to add stipulations.”

“But these are demeaning.”

“You call it demeaning. I think it’s sexy. I’m tired of pretending I don’t have these urges. If you’re gonna be my wife, you have to be willing to meet my desires. If you can’t, then amendment two also offers some acceptable alternatives.”

“By letting you have a mistress that you flaunt in public? The other wives would laugh at me.”

“That’s interesting. What other women will think is more important than what I think? That’s not very wifely of you.” I flip through the pages. “I guess you didn’t make it to the small print. You’re not required to agree to any of this. If you’re displeased with me as your chosen husband, we can just end things.”

“You mean break our contract?”

“Yes. Just say the word and this arrangement is over. We’ll both be free to start over with new candidates.”

“They have matched us in high school. It’s too late to change, and you’ll never find someone to accept all those rules.”

“You’re small vision, Ellie. I don’t have tofindsomeone. I already have someone. Several someone’s waiting in the wings to take your place.”

“Who?”

I see the gears turning in her head, like she can somehow scare them off. “I know what you’re thinking, and there’s no way you’ll get any of them to back out. And if I hear of you targeting anyone with your bullshit, you’ll gain the sort of attention from me you don’t want.”

She’ll never agree to calling this off, because she’s a power hungry bitch. I despise her for what she’s done to my girl. I’m done keeping up the charade. Holden and Pax exit the elevator. I move to join them in the lounge.

“Sign it, or don’t, Eloise. I really don’t care either way.”

Chapter25

Thea

I’ve stalled long enough, so I’m finally sticking to my end of the deal and walking my perky ass over to the table from hell. The energy in the room is manic. I thought coming to breakfast early would be the easiest thing to do, because fewer people are up this early in the morning. It was a miscalculation on my part. Apparently, people come here early to get a seat, so they’re already in place when the guys walk in.

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