Page 57 of Don't Love Me
14
The next morning
Ashleigh
I knockedon the carriage house door even though I had a key, because I wanted to give him a warning. A second to get ready to deal with me again after last night.
The door opened and he was in a pair of board shorts and a T-shirt, wearing a sour expression I interpreted immediately.
“Are you going to be weird?” I asked him.
“For what? Kissing you or sucking on your tits?”
I scrunched my nose and pushed past him into the carriage house. I knew George was still with my father, which meant we were alone.
“You don’t have to be crude,” I said over my shoulder as he closed the door behind me.
“Sorry. Guys say tits but I’ll clean it up for you. For sucking on your breast. Your nipple. Your areola. Is that better?”
I crossed my arms over my chest and huffed at him.
“Are you going to be weird?” he asked, even as he crossed his arms over his chest.
“About what? You kissing me or sucking on my tits?”
He snorted, and that officially moved us past weird.
He flopped down on the couch, laying himself out so I couldn’t sit there, and crossed his arms behind his head. I took a seat in what I knew to be George’s recliner.
“Okay, what’s up? What’s the big mystery?”
“I wanted to let you know that…” This sucked. Just saying the words sucked. “I’m not going to Princeton this semester.”
He sat up abruptly. “The fuck? Why not?”
“Arthur thinks I’m not ready.”
“Since when did you start referring to your father asArthur?”
I winced at the memory. “Not long before he told me I couldn’t go to Princeton. He doesn’t think I’m ready socially.”
“What do you think?”
“I think I don’t have a choice. He’s already told Admissions and they’ve given my place to someone else.”
He stood then, pacing in front of the couch. “That is absolute horseshit! You’ve been working towards this for years. You’re one of the smartest people I know. You’re going to kill it at school. What the hell are you supposed to do instead? Stay here in the castle?”
I took a breath. “No, I’m going to a finishing school in Switzerland. Arthur thinks I need more polish.”
He tilted his head back and laughed. “Oh, that is so fucking rich. Daddy is sending his princess to Switzerland instead of Princeton. And you are seriously going along with this?”
“I told you. I don’t have a choice.”
“Bullshit. You’re eighteen. You’re legal. You have all the choices in the world.”
I clenched my jaw shut. “You don’t understand.”
I should leave. I should get up and leave, because this was the part that was going to get nasty. He would never admit it, but my not being at Princeton with him was going to be upsetting. My being as far away as Switzerland would make it worse.
