The Arrangement(32)

“It’s wonderful that your family does this. My mom was the last of her line and my dad isn’t close to his family.”

“As you know, my mom was artificially inseminated so these reunion  s mean a lot to me. I don’t have any other family.”

It occurred to him then how much Janice’s betrayal must have hurt her. “Were you and Janice close?”

She shook her head. “Thankfully, no.” Her eyes flicked to the couple. They were dancing on the other side of the room. “Still…if he’d left me for someone else, I wouldn’t have to see him ever again.”

Asher followed her gaze. Janice rested her head on Daniel’s shoulder with her eyes closed. Daniel stared at Ariadne. “He wants you back,” Asher stated with certainty. As long as the other man’s overtures didn’t extend beyond staring, he didn’t care. But if he made a play for Ari, Daniel would soon become acquainted with the rarely seen less friendly aspect of his personality.#p#分页标题#e#

Ariadne mumbled something and appeared to become overly fixated on a spot over his shoulder. Beneath her light application of makeup and her naturally cinnamon skin, he could swear he saw her cheeks redden.

He frowned. “What was that?”

She bit her lip. “He’s only interested because of last night.”

“Last night?”

She made a sound of disgust. “Yes. Our little show, remember? Now, he thinks I’m some sort of sexually uninhibited woman. But I’m no different. The difference is you.”

Asher groaned. She may as well have stroked his cock. The woman had sealed her fate. There was no going back for him. He was never letting her go. Fortunately, he had two years to convince her that she couldn’t live without him either.



    ***



Ariadne washed her hands. Staring at her reflection in the restroom’s line of mirrors, she studied her makeup. Her lip gloss had probably been gone since dinner. That hadn’t seemed to matter to Asher. He’d watched her like she was the only woman in the world.

He was a good actor, she thought. He was supposed to pretend to love her and that’s what he was doing. And that was the end of it. There was no reason for her to think that she was anything special to him. He’d already admitted that he wanted to sleep with her again. Of course, he’d do whatever it took to facilitate that.

She opened her purse, a tiny gold clutch that matched her dress, and pulled out a tube of lip gloss. She slicked it across her lips. Her mother ducked her head through the swinging door of the restroom. She’d been waiting in the hall for her. Her mother refused to use public restrooms and only entered them in dire emergencies. “They’re about to do the drawing for the next reunion   committee.”

Ariadne waved her on. “You go ahead. I’m exempt.”

“Okay. I’m leaving right after. See you on the yacht.” Aurora disappeared as quickly as she’d appeared in a swirl of silver chiffon.

Ariadne pressed her lips together and rolled her shoulders. It had been a long day. These get-togethers were fun but tiring. She was definitely ready to go home and sleep in her own bed.

The restroom door swung open again. Janice came to a halt when she saw her. Ariadne dropped her gloss back into her purse and closed it. “Just leaving,” she said.

“Whatever you want,” Janice said with a twist of her lips. “Eager to get back to your rich stud? Wherever did you find him? I didn’t think you had it in you to corral a man like that one.”

Though she didn’t owe Janice any answers, she thought it might behoove her to try to be civil for the sake of their future relationship. They would never be friends, but she didn’t relish the idea of facing outright hostility at every year. “Ash and I have known each other since high school.”

Janice studied herself in the mirror. She smoothed her brows and made adjustments to her hair. “You always come out a winner, don’t you? You know why I’ve never liked you?”

“No.” Ariadne sighed. “And I guess at this point in our lives, I don’t really care anymore. I’m done trying to befriend you.”

The other woman’s mouth twisted. “You’re such a snob. You think you’re too good for everyone. I didn’t even really want Daniel, but he was a doctor and I thought it’d be nice to teach you a lesson.” She made a sound of disgust. “But what do you do? You go out and replace him with someone better looking and more money.”

“If you didn’t want him, why are you marrying him?”#p#分页标题#e#