Page 5 of Break Me Beautifully
The memory of his fingers on the back of my ear makes me shiver. I hope I don't give anything away. I clutch his hand; it's hot to the touch. “Me too,” I whisper around my thick tongue.
His grip lingers on mine a beat longer than it should. No one notices but me. He lets go, facing my father with his clever eyes sparkling. “I'd best get going. I'll send a car for your daughter later tonight.” He casts a final look at me over his wide shoulder. The sunlight creates deep shadows along his cheekbones. There's a longing in his gaze, a hint of attraction, no more than that.
Lust.
He leads the way down the hall towards the front doors. Everyone trails him, deferring to him, acknowledging his power without words. My father shares his ear; I wonder what they're whispering about.
A hand grabs my wrist, yanking me backwards. “Mom?” I ask, baffled as the tall, spindly woman forces me past maids who avert their eyes. “Hey! Why are you pulling me, what's going on?”
She throws me into my bedroom. I'm free of her clutches, but when I spin, she's shut the door, closing us in. “There's very little time to prepare you,” she says, blocking the door like I might try to escape.
“Prepare me for what? The mentorship? Dad just told me. I'll pack as fast as I can.”
“I'm not talking aboutpacking.”She advances on me, studying my face. I wonder what she sees because her probing glare softens. She's never been a warm woman, not with any of her children. My hair stands on end. “Leona, do you know what's going to happen?”
“Yeah, something amazing. I'm going to finally practice my skills as an artist under the tutelage of someone who can take me where I want to go.”
“Do you know who Klintock is?”
“I do.”Now,I think, but I don't say it.
She hasn't blinked in far too long. “No. I don't believe you do. He's a man who is used to getting his way. People don't deny him what he wants.Womendon't tell him no.”
My eyebrows scrunch together. I think I get what she's implying. “Mom, come on. He's not going to try anything withme.”I motion at myself, half-smiling, while trying to forget the tension between the Devil and me in the roses earlier, and the hunger in his handsome features as he hovered over me in the hall.
“Leona,” she says seriously, advancing my way. “Promise me something.”
“Okay ...”
“Don't get pregnant.”
The laughter erupts from me before I can stop it. “Excuse me?” I manage to choke the question out through my giggles. My mother never, ever talks to me about sex. Not even when one of the boys at my old school asked me to prom. I went, begrudgingly, and spent the whole time hiding from the poor boy who'd been pressured to ask me out because of my family's last name. I was relieved he was too scared to ask me to dance. I read a book while everyone else danced their teenage lives away.
My mother pushes me against the wall and my head bounces lightly off the surface. “Listen to me,” she hisses, her face inches from mine, “This isn't a game. Don't laugh!”
I hold up my hands, wishing I could find the guts to shove her away. It's hard to shake the habits formed from your earliest memories. Fighting my parents was a fun dream, not reality. “I wasn't saying it's a game,” I mumble.
“You laughed. That tells me you think I'm joking.”
“I mean, you said not to get pregnant,” I counter, blushing to my ears. “How can I not laugh a little. I'm not ... why would he ... with me ...”
“Because putting a baby in your belly would give him access to our family's wealth in a way someone like him should never have.”
The new direction of the conversation left me off balance. I reach for my bed, sitting heavily on the green blankets. I look at my feet, the dirt staining my skin, and try to make sense of what my mother has just told me.He wants our family's money?Klintock looked like someone with plenty of cash. Even without Katy's reveal about his dangerous connections, he had influence and power among the rich. Who would want more?
My father would.
The realization sends shame trickling through my body. Is it so crazy to think Klintock could be as greedy as my own dad? No. It isn't.
“Is this just another high-society game?” I ask, my voice cracking.
"Life for our family is always a game. We play to win."
For a few precious moments I actually thought I was leaving this terrible, tragic, poisonous world my family relished. I was wrong. Where I'm going is just a different shade of the same shit. I want to gag. "If you're so freaked out about him getting me pregnant, maybe I should turn the offer down."
"That's not an option!" Her eyes dart to me, cold and hard as ice. “Raising your stature among the New York elites is something I refuse to miss out on. Whatever Klintock sees in you, it's your duty to convince him to get you every connection, every meeting, that he can. Use whatever ...toolsyou have to succeed. Just don't go too far. Once you do, there's no going back.”
"Use him," I mumble. "And don't get used in return."
