Then there had been the partying, the drugs she’d been experimenting with. The fact that she’d been driving herself home under the influence...
She’d deserved the dressing down her father had given her. The threats of being cut off. And as she’d looked at the pictures of herself with Colin...it had been a full-color exhibit of her bad choices.
The wake-up call she’d badly needed. And after the photos and video had been managed, after Colin had been paid off, her mother had gotten sick. Rachel had thrown herself into caring for her mother, driving her to appointments, keeping her company, helping her plan her parties. Helping host them.
And then on the other side of that, after her mother’s death, had been Ajax.
Her father had expected her to marry him. Of course, her father also hoped she would love Ajax. Either way, she’d known what she was supposed to do.
Ajax treated her like she was fine china he was afraid to break. Unlike Alex, who seemed to think she could withstand all manner of rough treatment. Brute.
She sniffed. Loudly.
“What?” he asked.
“You aren’t very nice to me,” she said, walking ahead of him, following the cart that held their luggage. “Interesting you claim Ajax is such a villain but he treated me like a—”
“Nun.”
“—a princess.”
“You aren’t a damn princess. You’re just a regular woman.”
“Ajax thinks I’m a princess.”
“In about four hours Ajax will think of you as that traitor who left him at the altar.”
She clenched her teeth together tightly. She couldn’t argue with that. And she couldn’t blame all of this on him, not when she absolutely had a stake in the guilt. But she really, really wanted to.
The conversation stopped when they approached a sleek jet parked on the runway. The door opened—a carpeted staircase waited to ease their entrance.
“Swank,” she said, going up the stairs and into the plane, where her tart descriptor was proven to be an understatement.
Everything was beautiful beyond belief, polished and plush, from the cream-colored floor to the soft leather couches.
“There’s champagne chilling,” Alex said, coming in behind her. “Of course, you can’t have any. Bad for the baby.”
“Are you always this insufferable?”
“Are you?”
“No, I never am. I’m actually extremely pleasant, all the time. It’s just that you make me... There really isn’t a word strong enough to express the anger-slash-anxiety I feel when you’re around.”
“Attraction?”
She narrowed her eyes. “That’s not the word.”
“You’re sure?”
“I am so sure.”
“Then why did you kiss me earlier?”