Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 87996 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87996 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
“No, I am destroying him. I am going to prove that he doesn’t have control over his little sister. And if he can’t control one little girl, how the fuck is he going to control an empire?”
She wrapped her small hands around my wrist as she desperately captured my gaze. “Marksen, look at what you are doing to me. Yeah, maybe Luc will lose some face, and so will my father, but they are not stupid. They will claim these photos are faked, a combination of AI and a skilled deep fake artist, or they will have me committed. Yes, it might cause a scandal for a week, maybe a month. They will recover. I won’t.”
I broke her gaze as I turned to stare at the screen, watching as Luc tore apart my bedroom in his anger. “You will be just fine. You have your trust fund. I doubt your daddy will take that away.”
She was never in any real danger, I tried to convince myself. The most she would lose was her little hobby. “If he does take it away, you can always come crawling back to me on your knees. I am sure I can think of a few positions where you can earn your keep.”
“I don’t see how any of this is going to get the results you want. This won’t hurt Luc. It only hurts me.”
It was a ploy.
Olivia was trying to manipulate me again by making me feel guilty.
I released her throat. “You are only one tiny part of my plan, princess.” I spit the word out like an insult. “You are the crack in your brother’s otherwise impenetrable armor. Don’t worry. You are just a tool to get to him. He will pay a far dearer price later. I’m afraid you are just very pretty collateral damage.”
She sniffed as she lifted her chin. “I still don’t see how I help you get to him.”
My lip curled as my stomach twisted with bile at the horrible words I was forcing myself to say to her. “You don’t need to. You are playing your part beautifully.”
Needing to stop this conversation, I wrapped my hand in her hair and pulled, forcing her sweet lips down to mine. I kissed her hard, reminding myself what her role here was. When the kiss broke, she wiped her arm over her lips. Whatever she needed to tell herself was of no concern to me.
“I hate you,” she whispered and rose off my lap.
“Be that as it may, my offer stands.”
Her brow crinkled, and the most adorable line appeared in the very center of her forehead.
“When this is all over, if your daddy cuts you off, I will happily keep you in the lifestyle you have become accustomed to in exchange for an … arrangement,” I said, needing her anger.
If she was mad at me, then she wasn’t playing at being a good girl to make me feel something for her.
Olivia Manwarring was not the only one who knew how to manipulate her enemy.
“I won’t be your whore.” She wrapped her arms around her middle, unaware the move only tightened the fabric over her breasts, showing the tight buds of her nipples from the chilled air.
“Aren’t you, though?” I jeered as I leaned back in my chair and raised my wineglass in a mock toast.
“Fuck you,” she said before turning her back and walking into the bedroom, slamming the sliding door closed behind her.
The wine had turned sour in my stomach.
Olivia was getting to me, and I was battling guilt over the way I was treating her. I had to let it go, she was clearly trying to get a reaction from me, and I couldn’t let that happen. If she knew my resolve with her was starting to fray, she would exploit it in a second and everything would fall apart.
She did have a point, though.
I could leak those photos now, but without irrefutable proof, a talented PR rep, of which the Manwarring Corporation had several, would be able to spin them as fakes or make her out to be the victim.
Her magazine would never recover, but it would barely be a blip for Luc, or his father.
I was going to need something bigger, with witnesses, to make it impossible to spin into anything other than Olivia’s fall from grace.
I needed to come up with something now, before Olivia managed to wiggle her way even deeper under my skin.
Despite knowing how manipulative and underhanded her family was, and by extension she as well, I was starting to feel for her.
This needed to escalate quickly so I could get rid of her.
CHAPTER 27
OLIVIA
Istared at my reflection, taking it all in.
The gold Grecian-style gown Marksen gave me was simple and elegant.
The top was made of two long pieces of fabric that layered on top of each other to perfectly cup my breasts before giving me a wide shoulder and then flowing down my back to attach to the gold cord waistband. The long skirt flowed beautifully when I walked and just barely brushed the tips of my toes in my four-inch stiletto gladiator sandals.