Page 15 of The Grumpy Billionaire
Reid shook his head then glanced at me from beneath lowered brows. His turquoise eyes looked stormy. “I’m from bad stock, Mara. Just like your dad says.”
“Screw my dad.”
Placing my palms on either side of Reid’s face, I made sure he was looking straight into my eyes.
“Seriously. Screw him. Screw everyone. And don’t talk about yourself like you’re some kind of prized bull—your ‘stock’ doesn’t mean anything. What matters is what’s in here.”
I pointed to his chest, tapping the tip of my finger over his heart.
Reid covered my hand with his then grasped it tightly, bringing it to his mouth for a soft kiss. “You’re unbelievable, you know that? I don’t know what I’d do if I ever lost you.”
“You will never have to find out.”
Smiling and appearing to fight back tears, Reid squinted and looked off to the side in the general direction of a nautical themed oil painting on the wall.
“Sometimes I think it would be nice to have a dad—even a shitty one like him, you know?” he said. “But then I think… there was a reason my mom didn’t want me growing up with him. I don’t need his money. I don’t give a shit about being rich. All I care about is being with you. As long as I have you, I don’t need anything else.”
“Then you’re in luck.”
I gave him a naughty grin as I stood up and started peeling my party dress off my shoulders and down my body, revealing the special underwear I’d bought just for tonight.
“Because you have me. And you can keep on having me… anytime you want.”
FIVE
Kryptonite
Mara
It was, hands down, the best night of my life. The next morning was the absolute worst.
Attempting to sneak in at dawn, I’d turned my key in the lock as quietly as possible and slipped my shoes off, intending to tiptoe through the house up to my bedroom without waking anyone.
Unfortunately, it was impossible to wake my parents because they were already awake—waiting up for me.
My father asked me to join him in his office for aconversation.
“I want you to stop seeing him—immediately,” he said. “Break off all contact.”
It felt like someone had hit me in the chest with a fifty-pound medicine ball. “How can I do that? He lives here.”
“That’sabout to change.”
Reid’s dire prediction had come true. He and his mom were about to be homeless, and it was all my fault.
“No. Please. Don’t evict them,” I begged. “Cheryl doesn’t have the money for another house.”
“That’s not my problem. This is what she deserves for not educating her son properly on his social standing.”
He stood from his desk chair then sat down again, clenching his hands atop its surface.
“The thought of you with that… greasy little gutter rat sickens me. His father is a common thug. He’s an ex-con for Christ’s sake.”
“Reid isnotlike his father. He doesn’t even know him. He’s never even talked to him.”
“But it’s in his blood,” Dad sneered. “Good breeding always shows—so does bad. The kid’s a mongrel. I’m sorry I ever allowed your mother to take Cheryl and her little fatherless runt in.”
I didn’t want to cry in front of my father, but my fury wouldn’t stay suppressed, streaming out in angry rivulets down my cheeks.
