Page 96 of Burning Deceptions
“Oh, we are,” they said together, then laughed while Mother and Father gave us scathing glares from across the room.
“They like me,” Asher teased as I pulled him into an empty corner of the room.
IdeservedafuckingOscar for this shit.
All those times I’d wondered how Luke could be rich and down-to-earth were blown to smithereens with this new question. How the fuck was he sane, given who raised him?
Elizabeth and James Dorset were criminal level when it came to being snobs. I didn’t know a word bad enough that would adequately describe all they were. Racists, classists, bigots, prejudiced, closed-minded and small-minded, elitists and fascists. Their arrogance was at such a level my patience was tested, and I had five younger siblings. Every word out of their mouths had been tinged with one overtone of asshole or another.
My cheek was sore from biting it instead of snapping their heads off. I’d never been so angry, not only for me and 99 percent of the world’s population, but also for Luke. God, I just wanted to hold my hands over his ears and make him face me until it was over. Like someone would a child or a frightened horse. And he was neither of those things, but this huge urge to protect him swelled inside until it brought tears to my eyes.
I had excused myself to a bathroom to calm down but couldn’ttake the time to do so because leaving their presence left Luke alone with them. Maybe he had tougher skin than mine, but I couldn’t stand the thought of him spending one more second with them.
I couldn’t even splash water on my face because of the stupid makeup, so I just stared at the sink, counted to ten, and then stormed right back out.
Pretty. I’d thought this house pretty when we first arrived. Now the gilded walls and polished marbled floors were rank with—ugly. Fuck these people. They were flat outugly. I hated sharing the termSouthernerwith them. They disgusted me.
“Darling, I’m not sure what this dalliance is, but get it out of your system quickly.” Mrs. Dorset’s voice carried from a room ahead of me in the hall. I slowed my steps, not bothering to tiptoe. She wasn’t speaking softly and probably didn’t care if I could hear them or not.
“This isn’t a dalliance, Mother,” Luke said.
“Son, you don’t marry women like that,” his daddy said.
“Maybe you both have forgotten I’m thirty-four. While I appreciate your concern and advice, I can make my own decisions.”
Luke said that way nicer than I would’ve. During the terminally long torture session—aka dinner, which I’d had the pleasure of sitting too near his parents for—his daddy had asked about my net worth and that of my parents, my portfolio, and my five-year plan. His momma asked how many men were in my family, if I had any hereditary diseases, and my stance on women working after they got married. What the actual fuck? Color me surprised when she hadn’t demanded a physical exam to test my fertility right there at the obnoxiously long table.
These people were ridiculous, and not in a fun way.
“Indeed, Luke,” his daddy replied. “You’re in your thirties. Start acting like it. You need to let your mother find the rightwife for you and stop with this, this, whatever that woman is to you.”
“Both of you should get used to the idea.” The clip of shoes got louder but stopped. “I’ve made my choice.”
Me? His choice was me?
Luke stepped into the hallway and snapped his head around to face me. I didn’t hide the fact that I’d been there and heard all of it. He didn’t seem to mind. Luke held out his hand, I took it, and we turned for the front door.
We hadn’t even made it to midnight, and I really didn’t fucking care.
Marcus waited with our coats in that creepy butler way of knowing what was needed before it happened.
“It was very nice to meet you,” I said to him, accepting my coat with a smile and trying like crazy not to let Luke’s parents make me forget my manners. The shitty attitude of his employers wasn’t his doing.
Luke’s pace increased once we were outside, and his burst of energy was infectious. He handed me into the Range Rover, then jogged around to the driver’s side. I slid out of my coat and tossed it to the back seat while I waited for him.
He didn’t take a breath and didn’t drop his shoulders into place until we were on the other side of his parents’ gate.
“Are you okay?” he asked quietly, as if maybe he thought I was about to yell at him too.
“Areyou?” I countered.
Luke sighed slowly. “Yes. Yes, I’m used to them. Tonight, they were in rare form, though, worse than normal.”
“Because of me.”
“Possibly.”
“It wasn’t a question.” I kicked off my heels, suddenly hating that I was dressed as Ashley. I needed to be all me, to beauthentic, and scrub my soul of their contamination. I pulled my feet into the seat with me and hugged my legs.
