Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 75783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
“Thank you, I’ll make sure to give you the full tour while you’re here,” Ella says as she links her arm with mine and guides me to the front door. “But for now, I can imagine you guys must be starving. We have lunch set up in the garden if you’d care to join us?”
“That would be lovely. Thank you, Ella,” Dawson says as he and Xander walk ahead of us.
Now that we’re here, Dawson isn’t watching me like a hawk watches its prey. There’s something relaxed about the way he doesn’t need to know where I am at all times. It’s different, and it makes me look back at the past few days with fresh eyes. Why was he so intent on watching my every move? He didn’t even let me sleep in my own bed.
The inside of the house is as lavish and opulent as I imagined. There’s an open floor plan on the first floor, showing off a gorgeous kitchen with a long banquet table that I can perfectly imagine five-course dinners being served on. All of the furniture must cost more than all four years of my art school tuition combined. Paintings and decorative art pieces line the walls, drawing my eyes toward each of them as we pass. Ella points out a few of them and lets me linger beside them as she tells me about the artists who made them as gifts for her and Xander.
We eventually reach the garden, and I’m once again amazed at the beauty around us. Flower bushes and hedges are perfectly trimmed, with benches and fountains along grass-led paths that must make for such a peaceful area. It looks like an old English garden from some sort of Regency novel.
The table is set and filled with finger food and tall pitchers of iced tea and lemonade. Dawson and I both take a seat as we help ourselves to plates of delicate sandwiches and flaky pastries. I don’t take much at first. It’s something my mom has instilled in my brain whenever I’m eating around people. If I put too much on my plate, they’re automatically going to assume that I overeat and judge me for it.
But Ella sees that I only put one wedge of a finger sandwich and danish on my plate and promptly shakes her head, loading it up with a few other things to try.
“Our chef is unbelievable. I insist you sample everything,” Ella says with a genuine smile.
“How long have you all been doing business together?” I ask as everyone serves themselves around the table.
Xander shakes his head and wags a finger at me with a playful wrinkle in his eyes. “I have a rule never to discuss business while having a meal.”
I laugh and nod, giving him a nervous thumbs-up. Normally, I’m more than okay not talking about business, but I have to know what he does.
“Is Quinton going to be joining us?” Dawson asks before taking a big bite of an open-faced sandwich with smoked salmon and cream cheese.
“Ever since he graduated from Corium, he and his wife Aspen are traveling,” Xander explains.
“Quinton is our son,” Ella says as she leans in to whisper it to me, cluing me in on what’s going on. I nod to thank her for the information as I return my attention to my plate. I appreciate that she’s trying to keep me in the loop, but I’m so in over my head.
The three of them continue talking like old friends over lunch, and I try to keep up with the conversation. I have to remind myself that I’m just an assistant. Ella and Xander make everything feel so inviting I can almost imagine myself coming here as Dawson’s girlfriend. That’s what Ella’s treating this like, anyway.
I have to stop myself from getting too used to this world. Soon enough I’ll be gone, and all this will be for nothing. That feeling is made even worse by the fact that I know Dawson is hiding something from me.
But whatever that is, I’m bound to find out. He brought me here for a reason, and I’ll know what that is in time.
Chapter 19
Dawson
Being here with Xander and Ella is refreshing. My phone is turned off and email accounts are logged out of. I don’t have to hear my father complaining about how I left before he was going to take Harper to her doctor’s appointment.
I had to get out of there. If I would have stayed even a moment longer, he would have come and swept her away. Then after that, he would have promptly taken her to Malik, where she would have been handed over like cattle.
Well, that’s what would have happened if she was a virgin. She would have been brought to that doctor’s appointment, and they would have seen clear signs that she’s been getting fucked, and she would have been disposed of like garbage—likely after Malik and his cronies had their fun with her.