Hell, the world could be coming to an end and there would still be time for coffee and cake, right?
With the arrivalof her mother, El would admit to beinga lottense.Hell, more than that.It was like all of her limbs had been overtaken by someone wielding a voodoo doll, someone who felt no compunction about poking the fetish of El in the eye or poking her in the kidney.
Once upon a time, she’d often wondered where the love her parents felt for their sons had gone missing when it came to her, but now, those thoughts had ceased.She no longer cared, wished she could cut them from her life, but there were too many legal obligations that tied them together so there was little to no point in such wishful thinking.
Maybe one day, but not yet.
With a slight grunt, she got to her feet when her mother walked toward them in a cloud of No.5.Her signature scent, the stench never failed to remind El of home and hearth… or the lack thereof, as well as her complete and utter desire to be anywhere else but here.
Skeletally thin, her mouth forming into a duck pout thanks to too many surgeries, and so much damn Botox on her forehead that she could barely form a frown, Annabel was no longer the beauty she’d once been.El often thought that if she’d let nature take its course, age would have ‘withered’ her beauty a tad, but it wouldn’t have decimated it the way plastic surgery had.
In a white linen pantsuit, Annabel did, however, look chic and rich.She wore more rings on her fingers than a Roma gypsy dressed up for carnival, and a few gold chains around her neck.
One of El’s earliest memories was of all her gold clicking together as she moved—when she’d been a child, Annabel had worn thin gold bangles too.Thankfully, that had died a death when her father, sick of the clatter, had had them melted down and repurposed into other gifts for his spoiled wife.
“El, what on Earth are you doing here?Anita told me you’d arrived but I couldn’t believe my ears.Weren’t you here on Friday?”
“Yes, Mother,” El told her briskly as she stepped toward her mom for the perfunctory air kisses on the cheek.“I thought it was time I introduce my partner to you.”
Annabel’s eyes widened as they danced over Ryan.It was evident to all that she was astonished.Not only at Ryan’s handsomeness, but from the way her gaze kept darting back and forth between him and El, she knew she was, yet again, found wanting in the eyes of her mother.
“I was about to ask who this handsome young devil was,” Annabel said coquettishly, reaching over to slip her hand through Ryan’s arm to tug him into a too-familiar hug.“I never imagined you’d be dating one another.”
“We’re more than simply dating, Mrs.Forsythe-Drew…”
“Call me Annabel,” she interrupted.
Ryan’s smile was so fake and forced, El had to hide one of her own—although hers would have been a lot more genuine in its nature.“Annabel,” he corrected himself.“I’m here to ask your husband for El’s hand.”
Annabel choked a little.“Why, how old fashioned,” she mumbled.She darted a stern look at El.“Why have you kept this charming young man from us, El?”
There was a definite reprimand to her tone, but El shrugged it off.“You never approve of the men I date.”
“That’s because you haven’t been dating men like Ryan, darling,” Annabel said snidely.“Anyway, where are my manners?Please, take a seat and I’ll call for coffee.”
“Anita’s already bringing some, Mother,” El told her as she took a seat in the armchair she’d vacated moments before.“Is Father coming?”
“He should be.He was playing golf with Michael, but he finished twenty minutes ago.I’ll ask Anita to buzz him on the intercom though.”Before El could do more than nod, Annabel had crossed her legs and aimed herself totally at Ryan—like he was the only point of interest in the room.
Quite accustomed to the treatment, El sank back into the armchair and actually felt little guilt about throwing Ryan to the lions.
Her lips twitched at the thought.
If anyone could handle her harridan of a mother, it was Ryan.
And he did.She watched with wonder as he dealt with Annabel politely, and with an ingrained charm that worked its magic on both women in the room.
“What is it you do, Ryan?”Annabel asked after a few moments of chatting about how they’d met.El had asked Ryan not to mention Pride in Love because her family would denigrate the site and it would just piss her the hell off.
“The restaurant where we met was actually one of my own.”
Annabel cocked a brow, her surprise evident.“You own restaurants?”
He nodded, reached over to grab a hold of El’s hand.He tightened his fingers about her, and murmured, “Do you know Feral?”
This time, the fact Annabel was beyond impressed shone through.“Feral belongs to you?”
“Yes,” Ryan said with a smile.
