Page 86 of Burning Daylight

Alex laughs again in disbelief, his feet dropping to the ground as he leans in, eyes alight. “Holy shit, you’re serious?”

Dad cuts him a glare, and I don’t even know what the hell is going on.

“Dad,” I say, taking a step toward him.

His gaze softens. “I’m sorry, honey, welcome home. This isn’t how I wanted today to go.” He opens his arms to offer a hug, and my chest warms, but before I take a step, my mother walks in, and right behind her is that dickhead Preston.

My father’s eyes break away from mine, going to them instead, his arms dropping.

“There you are,” my mother chirps.

Her eyes betray the playful lilt of her voice as they cut from my father to me, a hint of disapproval blazing in their depths.

I learned to play the game from watching how well she does it, actually, so it isn’t difficult to wipe any look off my face and plaster on the practiced Calloway grin.

“We’ve been looking all over for you,” she continues.

My father smooths out his features and walks to my mother, pressing a chaste kiss to her cheek and then reaching out to shake the man’s hand. “Preston, glad you could make it.”

I blink at them as they walk toward me.

To my side, Alex stiffens, a scowl marring his features.

Preston is conventionally attractive, and as much as I hate to admit it, that’s only gotten better with his age. He’s tall, although with my frame, when I wear high heels, we’re close. He’s lean but muscular, and he’s in a perfectly fitted suit with sandy blond hair that’s meticulously styled off his face. His smile is blinding and white, and his blue eyes sparkle when he takes my hand in his.

It’s familiar, and just like it used to when he beamed at me in high school, my heart speeds, just a little.

But his palms are soft.

A memory of calloused fingers tangling with mine and a rough hand wrapped around my throat flashes in my mind.

I push it down, annoyed with myself, because honestly, fuck Roman Montgomery. Anything I thought I had with him can’t exist.

Itdoesn’texist.

So, when my father tells Preston to take me back out to the party, I don’t argue, and when Preston asks me on a date an hour later, I say yes, purely out of spite.

21

JULIETTE

The rest of the fundraiser was…fine.

As much as I wasn’t into the idea of seeing Preston again, I’d be lying if I said he wasn’t still as charming as he was the first time around. More so, now. But I’ve been disillusioned, because the charm doesn’t negate how much he hurt me when he moved away and left me here with a single text.

All seeing him again showed me is that I’m no longer angry about the past. I can let go and move on, but my parents are out of their minds if they think I’m going to be with him. They’re lucky I even agreed to date him at all,and I’m damn sure not going to let him take me to the VU Founders’ Gala in a few weeks.

Part of me—the vindictive part—hopes Roman sees the tabloid headline that will inevitably run.

Stupid, really.

He obviously doesn’t care.

Now that I’m back in my bedroom and the world around me is quiet, sleep is hard to come by. I throw the covers off and make my way to my balcony doors.

Whycan’t I just turn my brain off?

I debate calling Felicity to fill her in on the current state of my life but decide against it. She’s either asleep or in Keagan’s bed, and I don’t have any desire to interrupt either way. Besides, once she hears Preston is being shoved into my orbit again, she might fly back just to be the go-between. I settle with sending her a text instead.