Page 1 of My Fantasy Daddies

Prologue

Esme

If Ignite’s purpose was to get me hot, it fell short.All around me, people were laughing, drinking, flirting, while I sat on a private couch, watching.I’d seen a few people making out and even a couple sneaking into the bathroom to hook up.

Yet I couldn’t have been less hot if I were sitting on an iceberg in the middle of the Arctic Ocean.Maybe if it were Amelia with me rather than my sister, I would have enjoyed myself.But no, I had to put up with Eloise instead.My gaze went to the bottle of champagne in the ice bucket, my fingers itching to wrap around the slender neck.

My sister was home from college for the weekend for a little family bonding.But that was just code for she wanted to see her friends who were still local.Depending on whose perspective my family dynamic was viewed from, some would say we were close, some would say we didn’t know each other well enough to even count as family.Sometimes I wondered which one was more true.Especially when Eloise informed our parents she was going to Ignite, and they told her to take me along.

Why the fuck would I want to do that?

That wasn’t just some random thought, but a question I’d screeched so loudly atMamanthat I could have broken glass.

I loved my sister.Truly, I did.But she was not exactly my favorite person.She was definitely not in my top five on a good day—barely made it into the top one hundred on a bad one.Not even our thirty-thousand-square-foot childhood home had had enough space for us to cohabitate peacefully together as kids.

Perhaps if Eloise hadn’t made everything a competition, we would have gotten along more.But there was never any peace between us.She was older by three years, which meant she could do anything first.First didn’t mean best, though.

Jealousy wasn’t my scene.Too much work for someone who didn’t matter to me.Yet my sister let it rot her mind, at least where I was concerned.It wasn’t good enough that she got to experience many things before I even cared enough to want to do them.She needed to do everything better than me, but the majority of the time, she couldn’t.Which was when the true shitshow began.I refused to let anyone make me feel less-than, especially for no other reason than some idiotic rivalry.Blood didn’t give her the right to treat me like shit.

She craved one-upping me.

Maybe that was how it was for all sisters, but I detested it.With her, the smallest thing became a race or contest of who did it better.Grades.Awards.Guys.Friends.She was so focused on the unimportant things that she never had time to savor the true beauty of life.

Which would have been fine if she didn’t continually try to intrude on my inner serenity with her pettiness.

No one was going to rob me of my peace.

I learned at a young age how to deal with my sister’s bullshit.Overall, it was a good life lesson, because it taught me not to accept anyone’s poor treatment.But fuck, that got old fast.

Eloise and I hadn’t simply gotten into shouting arguments growing up.Hair-pulling as most sisters engaged in?We got bored with that by the time I was three and moved to more inventive ways of causing excruciating physical pain.

Even that became a competition, one she had yet to win.We had drawn blood, literally and often.I’d once picked up a vase and broken it over my dear sister’s head, then proceeded to hold a shard of the piece of French history to Eloise’s delicate throat until she apologized to me.I can’t even remember what she’d done to make me angry, but I did remember the terror in her eyes.

After that, I thought she would stop.But no.She had to keep going.Keep antagonizing me.There was no being the bigger person with Eloise, because that would only make her jealousy that much worse.So when she wanted to go toe-to-toe, I indulged her.

Her going off the college was a nice break from all the insanity she stirred until I couldn’t see anything but red.When she came home for breaks and occasional weekends, I attempted to avoid her so I wouldn’t have to engage.

YetMamanwanted us to spend time together on purpose?

No fucking thank you!

But that was what our bodyguards were supposedly for, as Papa had reminded us.I almost smirked at the memory.Our personal security had been set in place not because we were billionaire Arnaud Barbier’s cherished daughters, but to keep me from actually killing my elder sister.Papa could joke all he wanted, tell himself he had hired Otto and Astro and Eloise’s two buffoons to ensure we were protected from anyone who would try to use us to get to him.But we all knew the real reason for the guards.

Papa said he only feared three things in life—Maman, Eloise, and me.

If he gulped a little when he said my name while laughing it off, no one ever called him on it.But we all knew.

Eloise, especially.

My gaze flickered to where Otto and Astro were standing, ever vigilant.I tolerated the two of them because I liked them.They were very much in my top ten favorite people.We got along well, which couldn’t be said for many people.I tapped my nails on my glass, noting they were far enough away with Eloise’s guards to give us the illusion of privacy, but close enough that if I suddenly picked up the bottle of champagne, they could stop me before I bludgeoned her to death with it.

Most likely.

I wasn’t going to test that theory.Eloise hadn’t done anything to set me off.Yet.Except tap-tap-tap away on her phone.That wasn’t a good reason to smash her beautiful face in with a five-thousand-dollar bottle of bubbly.

Definitely not agoodreason—but still a reason.

If I wanted a boring Saturday trying to ignore my sister’s existence, I could have stayed home and finished my chemistry homework.There was only one person I would have willingly brought with me to Ignite, but Amelia was trapped at home with her horrible family.

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