Page 23 of Relentless (The Titans of Founder's Ridge 2)

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Light slants in across my eyes the next morning, waking me from a deep sleep and the warm, hot body wrapped around me. Levi’s breath dusts across my forehead in short bursts, lifting a section of tangled hair. I lift my lips to the bottom of his jaw and lightly press a lingering kiss against it.

Last night was everything I could have ever wanted, but we agreed it would be a one night, one time thing. With that running through my head, I give myself another minute to enjoy his warmth before I sneak out from under his heavy arm.

Starting today I am moving forward, no looking back. I don’t have any clothes in here because he carried me up from the pool naked. I see a balled-up t-shirt on the floor and pull it over my head. It falls almost to my knees and smells like him. I’m definitely keeping this to sleep in.

I creep across the hall to my room, which is unnecessary. Frank and Mom are away for the weekend, and even if they were home, their room is on the opposite side of the house. I check my phone and see a few missed texts from Oliver and a couple of my friends from boarding school.

I have a few hours before I have to be ready for Oliver to pick me up.

8

LEVI

“You ready?”Con asks from the doorway of my bedroom. “I want to get in and out, putting our appearance in at this shitshow before Margaux shows up and tries molesting me again. I had to bathe in hand sanitizer and rubbing alcohol to remove the stench of her desperation last weekend.”

“Thirsty bitches, man.” I pat his shoulder as I move past him into the hall.

“Is Ivy coming with us?” Griff shoots a look at her door.

“Nah, Oliver picked her up about an hour ago.” I can’t bring myself to tell them about last night. It was so meaningful and special for me that chatting about it would cheapen it.

I stupidly thought that last night changed things for her. Maybe it did, but when I woke up this morning, the bed beside me was cool to the touch. She didn’t have to sneak out, Babs doesn’t even work on weekends when Dad and Jennifer are gone so no one is here. I’ll have to hunt her down tonight after the fights at The Abyss so we can talk.

“You okay with that?” Con asks with a lazy drawl that would fool anyone else into thinking he was completely apathetic. In reality, he would throw down right here if I said the word.

“It’s her life, her choice,” I say with a shrug, “but if he steps out of line, I’m challenging him. No one hurts Ives.” I level a serious look at both of them, so they know how I serious I am right now. I will not allow anyone to harm her, and that isn’t contingent on whatever happens between us going forward. At the very least, she’s my stepsister so it’s my job to protect her.

“Understood,” Griff says while sliding into his Tesla. “What are you going to do with Ferguson and Kent tonight?”

“Beat their punk asses with their lacrosse sticks. Ferguson drugged a few of the cheerleaders last weekend. I’m fucking done with his shit.” The thought of him getting his slimy hands on Ives make me want to vomit. At least I know Oliver hates him as much as I do. They’ve had bad blood since winter formal last year. I don’t know or care what happened, but I know he’ll keep her away from him.

“Want me to do anything?” Griff asks pulling out of our gated community.

“Not yet. Let’s see if he gets the message after this weekend,” Connor says from the backseat.

The drive to Miller’s house is only about twenty minutes. We live outside of Founder’s Ridge, a small enclave of the uber wealthy who want to hide away in the hills of western Massachusetts. It’s close enough to Boston and New York City that commuting via helicopter is possible. My dad takes a town car most weeks though. He’s never been a huge fan of flying. In fact, we’re one of the only families in town who don’t have their own chopper on standby. If Dad needs to use one, he borrows it from Griff or Con’s families.

Our dads are all golfing buddies, so we’ve grown up together. They each run billion-dollar companies. My family has owned a bank and financial firm since right after the Great Depression. My father plans on passing it down to me, as has been the tradition for the previous four generations of the Marsh family.

Connor is one of the heirs to Volkov Industries, one of the largest energy and engineering conglomerates in the world. If that wasn’t enough, his family is sitting on land in Siberia on top of a large oil reserve. There’s tension within family on what to do with that land, but Connor and his dad are surprisingly on the same page with not wanting to drill.

Griffin’s family owns National News Corporation, and he and his older sisters will be taking over when they graduate from college. He also developed and launched an application for journalists to communicate with their anonymous sources securely. There’s a reason he’s our tech and investigative guy; he is hands down the smartest person I know.

“What was up with the stepmonster earlier this week?” Griff asks. “Is she always that awful to Ivy?”

“She never spoke of Ivy to me until the day before Ivy moved in. Ivy used to talk about her mom in general as someone completely unsupportive, and they’ve never been close. I talked to Babs earlier this week about not restricting Ivy’s carbs. Jennifer didn’t tell her that Ivy is an upper-level athlete.” Babs felt terrible when I filled her in, and we discussed coming up with a plan for the days when Jennifer is home. I’m hoping that she’ll start going into the city with Dad now that Ives is settled in.

Griff parks right on Miller’s lawn because the driveway is already full. We exit the car together and immediately the noise of girls squealing, music blasting, and splashes of water can be heard. Con stops for a second and glares up at the sky.

“I fucking hate these parties,” he scowls at us and starts walking again, “and these fucking people.”

I get it. Everyone either wants something from us, be it connections, popularity, sex, or they’re afraid of us. I don’t mind the fear or the sex, but everything else, the gold digging and social ladder climbing, sucks.

We round the house and climb the steps of the terrace. Miller’s pool is off to the left, and I do a quick scan for Ives. She’s not in the pool or on the terrace. Con hands me a red solo cup of beer while I continue to scan the yard.

“She just went in the pool house with Oliver and a few of his friends,” Griff says from beside me. How he knew what I was doing when I have mirrored aviators on, I’ll never know, he’s just that good. “Don’t go looking for her, I’m sure she’s fine.”

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