Page 170 of My Dark Prince
Ollie vB:Why wouldn’t I be?
Zach Sun:Farrow and Dallas said you decided to crash Briar’s business trip in New York. The rest of the scenario is self-explanatory.
Ollie vB:I am alive and well.
Romeo Costa:Kind of disappointing, but okay.
Zach Sun:Are you any closer to using that yacht Romeo and I bet on?
Ollie vB:I am, in fact. And you can take that piece of junk. I’m going to build a new one and call her Briar.
Romeo Costa:That’s the most expensive call for help I’ve ever heard.
Zach Sun:Don’t be so sure. Farrow said he bought her a house in New York for their first date.
Romeo Costa:You are shitting me.
Ollie vB:Relax, it’s in Brooklyn.
Ollie vB:Side note: do women talk to each other about EVERYTHING?
Romeo Costa:YES.
Zach Sun:YES.
Ollie vB:How do you survive this thing called marriage?
Romeo Costa:Alcohol.
Zach Sun:And the comforting knowledge they are worth it.
Zach Sun:Well, maybe not Dallas. She runs a $500k bill every month for shopping.
Romeo Costa:LEAVE MY WIFE ALONE.
Zach Sun:Gladly.
Chapter Seventy-Three
Oliver
The next eight weeks blurred together in a haze of orgasms, lakeside strolls, movie nights, and dates at vegetarian restaurants (hey, not everything is perfect all the time). Didn’t matter. We’d folded into goddamn bliss.
Briar and I did not speak about the future. On unspoken agreement, we’d categorized it as radioactive. A volatile prospect neither of us wanted to consider. She wouldn’t – and shouldn’t – give up her Hollywood career for me, and I couldn’t – and wouldn’t – leave Sebastian here on his own.
“You’re an idiot,” Eli announced before my meeting with two board members. For a glorified assistant, he sure had a mouth on him. “They’re going to hate you the second you take them out to the pond, only for them to realize you drained it because that chick fell into it.”
“That chickis my fiancée.”
“ThatNew York Timesannouncement was real? I thought someone was pulling an elaborate prank on you.”
“The only prank here is the one my dad pulled on me when he hired you.” I patted his cheek on my way out.
The sun warmed up my neck as I strode to where John and Edward waited for me. I whistled, nodding to them as I approached. They’d gotten tanner during their two-month station in Dubai. Well, Edward got tan. John just got red.
John clapped his hand on my shoulder. “You look good.”
“Do I?” I raised a brow, starting down the path of the,indeed, empty pond. Tufts of ugly dirt and weeds sprouted out of the gaping hole.
