chapter fifteen
Ryan
Today’s Learning Objective:
Students will take old relationships to new heights.
Derby Day was at oncethe best and worst day of my life.
Best: I woke up wrapped around Emme again.
Worst: I was so hard that when I pried myself away from her and out of the bed, I had to grab onto a chair because I was dizzy.
Best: I knew she preferred to start each day with an orgasm.
Worst: I wasn’t involved in any part of that and thinking about it had me on edge, every muscle in my body drawn painfully tight.
Best: I talked to just about everyone on the long, long list of people Jakobi and I prioritized for this trip, and Emme was charming them into pleasant submission. I’d sign up for all this glad-handing and backslapping and boozing bullshit every day of the year if I could do it with her.
Worst: There were multiple occasions when I should’ve been following a conversation but was instead staring at Emme like I couldn’t decide if I was dreaming or awake. She had this ability to ask people questions about themselves and make it sound likeshe truly cared—an ability I did not share—and it made everyone eat out of her palm while she did it.
Including me.
My mind wasn’t built for an event that started and ended within two minutes. I understood the development of a defense in response to the other team and the mechanisms of offensive plays within a game. The race was impressive as hell, though as someone who played a sixty-minute game over the course of three hours, I had a hard time withblink and you’ll miss itsporting events.
We made the rounds at a handful of parties after the race, and while I could’ve quit the whole thing hours ago, there was one last elusive name on my list. One person whohadto meet Emme this weekend if this plan was going to work for me.
We hadn’t technically been invited to the final party we stopped at though I didn’t see that as a roadblock. It was late enough that no one would be guarding the doors too aggressively and—while this was arrogant as fuck to admit—I didn’tneedan invitation.
As expected, we strolled right in. Less than five minutes later, Wally Wallace—that was his real, legal name—sauntered across the covered patio toward us, a hungry little smile on his face. The guy never failed to come across as a complete creep.
I gripped Emme’s waist a little tighter than necessary when his gaze shifted toward her. “I’m going to apologize in advance for what’s about to happen,” I said under my breath.
She glanced up at me, eyes wide. “For—what?”
“My dear Mr. Ralston,” Wally drawled, wagging his jeweled walking stick at me. “I had no idea I’d bump into you at this soiree.” He leaned on the stick, leering at me with his small, watery eyes and a smile that was all teeth, no warmth. Jakobi had once referred to him as a groundhog and I couldn’t unsee that. “How fortuitous.”
I nodded. As a rule, I hated pretending to like people for the bullshit reason of it being good for business. If I had to gargle someone’s balls just to close a deal, I didn’t want the deal that much. And it wasn’t just pretending tolikepeople that killed me but also associating with known creeps and passively approving of that creepy behavior.
Case in point: Here I was, throwing Emme to that fucking groundhog.
“Good to see you, Wally,” I said. “How about that race?”
He made a puttering noise, like an old VW Bug trying to get up a hill, but then patted the breast pocket of his linen jacket. Probably full of cash from his winnings. “Oh, it was all right, Mr. Ralston. It was all right indeed.” His attention turned to Emme then and he rapped his stick on the slate floor like a judge bringing court into session. “And who is this lovely lily?”
Again, I squeezed her waist. “Wally Wallace, this is my fiancée, Emmeline.”
“Well, my dear, allow me to extend my warmest felicitations on your impending nuptials.” Wally held out a hand to Emme while baldly eye-fucking her tits. Instead of shaking her hand like a non-deranged human being, he kissed his way across her knuckles. I gave him until the count of three in my head and it was a damn good thing he put his tongue back in his mouth before I reached three.
“Thank you,” she said while he licked his lips. Such a fucking creep.
“Aren’t you just a dove?” he purred, ghosting a hand over her cheek. He was lucky I let him keep that hand. “I’m sure I’ve seen this face before. You’re on that television program, the one with the lady doctors, isn’t it?”
Emme laughed. “Oh, no, I’m a teacher.”
“A schoolteacher,” he gasped. “What do you teach, Miss Emmeline?”
“Second grade.” She paused, waiting for his next question, but he was busy staring at her cleavage again. “It’s a really fun age,” she added.
