Should I be offended?
“Uh, sure, okay.” I pick up the menu, and after a few minutes, a waiter comes by and takes our food and drink orders. “So?—”
“I want to be very transparent, Marcus. I’m not interested in any sort of outdated, misogynistic, arranged-marriage bullshit.” Self-righteous anger flushes her cheeks, and if I weren’t fully obsessed with someone else, her tirade might actually turn me on. “I only agreed to all these ridiculous shenanigans to get my dad off my back.” I smirk, and she stops, eyeing me suspiciously. “What?”
I shrug. “Nothing.”
She shakes her head. “You have something to say. Spit it out, Roy Kent.”
“Roy Kent?”
“FromTed Lasso,” she clarifies.
“Yeah, I know who he is. That’s a new one for me, but I’ll take it.”
“You’re changing the subject.”
I lean back in my chair just as our wine arrives. “Let’s just say we seem to have similar motives.” I pour some wine for her and then move on to my glass before taking a sip.
“You’re trying to convince your father that you’re straight so that you can become the CEO of your family business but also marry your lesbian lover?”
I almost spit my wine across the table. “What?”
Sabrina giggles, and it’s the first time she’s come off as somewhat friendly.
I clear my throat. “Okay, the part about our fathers is the same, though we may have different reasons for doing it.”
“Yeah, you didn’t strike me as a lesbian.”
I grin because this woman is growing on me. “Tell me about your girlfriend. Is she worth it?”
“Worth losing my inheritance? Absolutely. Laura is . . .” When she looks at me, her eyes may as well have hearts in them. “Everything. She’s beautiful and kind and so fucking hot.” She frowns in frustration. “But I have lofty business goals, and myfather would never let me take over for him if he knew.” I cock my head, and she raises an eyebrow. “What? You thought I was on board with all this arranged marriage nonsense?”
I clear my throat. “Well . . .”
“Spit it out, sweetheart.”
“Okay, fine. I figured you were probably on par with Regina—just another stuck-up socialite businesswoman with the personality of a wet paper bag.”
She gives me an amused look. “You nailed it. I’m good at masking.” Sabrina snorts a laugh. “But you’re not wrong about the business part. I’m destined to be the first queer female CEO in company history. It’s in my cards.”
I raise an eyebrow. “You sound like my friend Norah. She’s into that tarot card stuff.”
“She must be lovely.”
I smile. “She is lovely. She taught me to read palms.”
Sabrina sits forward. “Really? I thought that was a scam.”
I laugh. “So tarot cards are legit, but palm reading is a scam?”
She sips her wine, then puts her palm face-up on the table. “Okay, read my palm, Roy.”
“Really?”
When she gives me an enthusiastic nod, I lean forward and run my finger over the creases on her skin.
She laughs and her hand twitches. “That tickles.”
