Page 13 of Seduced in Ink
“I am here because of what happened last night.”
“What? The fact that you sold nearly all of your art? Or that you are an amazing artist who is kicking ass and becoming so famous that I feel like I should bow or something because you’re in my house?” she asked glibly.
“Okay, you always were a brat, but you’re just getting brattier.” He paused, raising a single brow. “Must be what happens when you get engaged to a Montgomery.”
She coughed and shook her head. “It’s not what you think.”
“I thought that Aaron tried to make things better because your mom was a bitch like normal. Sorry for using the wordbitch, you know I hate it. But come on, she’s a bitch.”
“You’re welcome to use that word when it comes to my mother.” Madison shrugged, knowing that she hated the word too, but anyone who had met her mother knew what she was. And there was no changing that.
“As I was saying, I figured Aaron was trying to get your family off your back after they probably said things to you that were rude, crude, and something that I probably would have hit them for. Since I wasn’t there, Aaron stepped up to the plate. And, because he is Aaron, and a romantic at heart, he assumed that saying you were taken would get you off the hook.”
“Well, aren’t you just perfect in every single way? And a great guesser.” She knew she grumbled, but she couldn’t help it. She didn’t like that her family acted so terribly, or that her reactions to her parents were so rote at this point, he knew the routine.
“Who was that man near your mom? What happened?”
“My mother called me some horrible things, like usual, and said it was time I lived up to the family name and did something with my life.”
Madison didn’t mention anything about what her mother had said about Lincoln. He’d heard it all before, and there was no reason for her to repeat the cruel words and hurt the man Madison adored like a brother.
“And what does that mean?” Lincoln asked.
“She explained it was time for me to get married. Said she had found me the perfect man who could deal with my…let’s say, flaws.”
Lincoln’s gaze darkened. “I’m going to kill her.”
“She’s your aunt. You can’t kill her.”
“No, I think that gives me more of a right.”
“I don’t think the law would agree.”
“Fuck the law. That woman. I do not understand how she can be related to the rest of your family.”
“My dad isn’t much better. But that’s just...whatever.”
“He wants you to marry that man like your mom does? What is his name anyway?”
“Guy.”
“If you can’t remember his name, that’s fine. But you don’t need to call himguy. Though he doesn’t need a name, considering he went along with this whole thing with your mother.”
That made Madison laugh. “No, his name is Guy. He really isthat guy.”
Lincoln’s eyes went comically wide before he laughed. “Now it really is a farce. And you’re engaged to my brother-in-law.”
“Fake engaged. I think. It doesn’t matter because Aaron will be here shortly, and we’re going to go over exactly what he was thinking and whatIwas thinking, going along with it. It’ll all be over soon, and then Mother will go on another tirade and call me a liar or whatever she feels like. Maybe a charlatan. She does like that word.”
“Or a harlot. She hasn’t called you that in a bit.”
“You know, she just might. I don’t think she’s called me that in a while because I haven’t been out with anybody. Hence the whole Guy thing.”
“I hate her for you.”
“I don’t like her most days, either.”
“Then what are you going to do?” Lincoln asked, his voice soft.