My Dark Romeo: An Enemies-to-Lovers Romance(39)
Ollie vB
Sorry, but the offer is exclusive to people I’d like to give a cum facial.
Zach Sun
The mental image is exquisite.
Thank you, @OllievB.
Ollie vB
What happened?
Show us on the sex doll where she touched you.
Romeo Costa
@ZachSun?
You have five spare bedrooms.
Zach Sun
Sorry, I’m expecting guests from Guangzhou.
Romeo Costa
Your family isn’t visiting until New Year.
Zach Sun
Nice memory.
In that case, you can’t crash at mine simply because you’re unbearable.
Ollie vB
I know a nice hotel chain if you’re looking for recommendations.
Romeo Costa
How charitable of you.
Ollie vB
Are you going to tell us what happened?
Romeo Costa
If I do, I’ll ruin whipped cream for you for eternity.
Zach Sun
I’m lactose intolerant.
Ollie vB
And I’m red-lines intolerant, so nothing can put me off.
Romeo Costa
All right. Here goes.
I would never make eye contact with Hettie again.
The silence that gripped Dallas’s bedroom when Hettie had found me at eight in the morning and untied me from the bed—sticky, melted whipped cream scarcely covering my morning wood—was deafening.
She tried to loosen the knot manually at first.
Then, after a three-minute struggle, she huffed. “Goddammit, out of all the women you could’ve gotten engaged to, you chose the one with James Bond’s combat skills?”
“Trust me, no one is less excited than me about the pending nuptials. Now go get some scissors, and while you’re at it, drape the blanket over my nether region.”
File under: a sentence I never thought I’d tell someone I hired to steam my broccolini.
“Nether region?”
“My cock, Hettie. By God, does anyone under thirty have a vocabulary not borrowed directly from TikTok?”
She’d seen my scars.
I was certain of it.
So had my fiancée. Both had the good sense not to probe, though.
Still, I didn’t like that people knew. I didn’t like that they could guess. I didn’t like the reminder that once upon a time, I was weak, too.
My first stop was the shower, where I scrubbed off any remains of sugar and cream and punched the tiles until at least two of my knuckles bled.
Afterwards, I wore my best suit, slipped three gums into my mouth, and grabbed my phone, informing the world I was, much to its disappointment, still alive.
I’d never gone MIA for over four consecutive hours to sleep. Work thought I’d accidentally driven myself off a cliff.
No doubt Costa Industries’ employees were saddened to discover I was still among the living.
My bedside manner didn’t win me many fans and admirers.
While Jared drove me to work, he also informed me that my cunning fiancée was lodged in The Grand Millennium Regent. One of von Bismarck’s high-end elite hotels.
In a fifteen-thousand-dollars-a-night suite, of course.
It took me less than five minutes to cancel all of her credit cards, relocate her Henry Plotkin books from her room to a locked safe in mine, and wipe the kitchen and pantry of anything savory.
Needless to say, whipped cream was permanently banned from the premises.
I also cut Netflix and the Xfinity package, then the Internet, for good measure. My tantalizing bride didn’t need entertainment. She needed to think about what she’d done.
Next time I saw her, she was going to promise me her forever.
And I was going to take it.
Just to fucking spite her.
“We can still make a run for it. I retrieved Madison’s ring. The one Romeo threw into the crowd.” Frankie paced the makeshift bridal room in von Bismarck’s mansion, face wrinkled in concentration, pinching said ring between her fingers. Her saffron cassette silk dress whooshed along the marble floors. “That must be worth something, right?”
My wedding day had arrived.
I hadn’t seen the groom for close to three weeks. During those weeks, Momma and Frankie had visited me twice, yet I’d never felt more alone in my life.
“Let it go.” I glared at the mirror while two makeup artists and a hairstylist fussed over me. “It’s a done deal.”
My sister would never know how tempted I was to take her advice and run. I’d almost done so the first week after the trick I’d pulled on Romeo.
But my friends and extended family began sending RSVPs, reminding me how far down the toilet Romeo had flushed my reputation.