Page 85 of Tease Me
“Family friends. My mother and Coop’s are close, so occasionally I’ll dine with them.” Leighton smooths the bumps I’m trying to form. She can’t let Drew go without the guarantee of someone else. The guarantee of me.
“Of course.” I take a bite.
“You don’t know our history, Drew.” Seth leans back with his wineglass. “Coop and Leighton dated in college and I dated Elizabeth.”
At the mention of Elizabeth, Drew’s gaze falls on her. I’m not sure what the two have planned, but there’s got to be a reason for them to bump uglies.
“Leighton mentioned that you two were once engaged,” Drew says to me.
“Never engaged. Just promised to each other by our parents.” I give him a knowing look. “See, families like ours—and by ours, I mean Leighton’s and mine—with money going back generations, want to combine our power to make our families even more pretentious in the future. So it makes sense that she and my mother cling to this hope that maybe I’ll still be available to marry her. But I already know who I want to marry.”
My eyes meet Madison’s and I lift her hand to kiss her knuckle. She blushes softly.
Drew smiles like nothing about this is new to him. I’m not surprised. Leighton is strategic if nothing else. She would have laid out everything for him. It’s the one reason she and I worked well together. She wasn’t emotional about what we were doing. We weren’t in love. We were a business decision.
“Sometimes new blood can be good for a family.” Drew runs his finger down the stem of his wineglass. His words are calculated, but there’s no heat beneath them. “Like Elizabeth and Seth. He’s a nobody with a fortune like me. I’m surprised her mother allows it.”
Elizabeth stiffens. “Mother prizes intellect above all else. Seth has proven that he’s brilliant.”
“But that’s not what you need, is it?” Drew arches his eyebrow with a knowing smile.
The tension between the two is palpable. I need to figure out how to draw that out more.
“Of course, Coop’s mother would prefer someone with good breeding.” Leighton disrupts the almost beautiful blowup to bring it back to me. She never did like to play with her food. “Money isn’t important to the Grahams, but a family that ticks all the right boxes is.”
“Good thing I don’t give a fuck what’s important to my family and prefer to make decisions based on what I want and need.”
Her blue eyes lock with mine, and I finally see the hate in them. Good. I’ve fucking hated her for years. She kept trying to get back with me, even when I’d pick the woman next to her to take home to fuck.
When I was young and naive enough to think my family might know what’s best for me, I thought we could have something. I tried. But then Elizabeth happened and Leighton got worried, so she pressed me to decide.
Her or them.
Seth, Blake, and Noah. The only people who ever stood up for me because they fucking like me and not because of what I could do for them. There’s a reason I’m not CEO or vice president. I didn’t want it.
I didn’t want people to think Morrigan Technology Group rose because of my family name.
We did it together. My name had nothing to do with it.
Seth is the reason we are as large and profitable as we are now. Noah’s financial planning made us all wealthy men in our own rights. Blake kept us together and made the tough decisions when we couldn’t. Together, we’re indestructible.
Madison holds us together instead of trying to tear us apart.
And it’s time these women finally realized that.
The door opens and the staff comes in to take the salads, refresh the wineglasses, and serve the fish course. The air is tense, but Madison holds up beautifully. Because she’s confident in our love. These women are nothing to us and she knows that now.
I dip my head beside hers. “How are you doing, sweetheart?”
“Good.” Her blue eyes lift to mine. “Do what you have to do.”
I press my forehead against hers and close my eyes, thanking whatever power led her to me. To us. I breathe in her soft floral scent and let it settle in my lungs. This woman is my everything.
I rub my thumb over her jaw as I lift my head from hers. The staff finish and exit the room, leaving the eight of us to eat.
Everyone settles into eating their fish, talking about the flavor profile of the meal.
“When are you two going to get engaged?” I ask Drew.