Landon hated leaving Cecilia before she woke up but he had a meeting he couldn’t miss. He hoped she saw the note he’d left by the coffee pot so she didn’t think he’d abandoned her. As soon as his meeting was over, he made his way back up to his penthouse.
Shock quickly followed by anger filled him when he saw his sister sitting at his table, drinking coffee, and reading the morning paper. “Shouldn’t you be in school?” he demanded, walking right past her in search of his woman.
Not finding her in the bedroom, he came back out pissed off more now than ever. “Where is she?”
“Where is who?” Ashley asked. She wouldn’t meet his eyes. She’d done something.
“Ashley!” he yelled.
Looking up finally, he saw a calculating gleam in her eyes, “Yes?” The sweetness made him want to puke.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” He’d try a different tactic.
“Daddy wanted to have a family dinner this weekend and asked if I would let you know.” Smooth.
“Why are you here?”
“Well, I went to your office but your assistant— lovely woman, you should bring her to dinner— said you were in a meeting and would be going back home afterwards so I came up here to wait.”
“Are you fucking demented?” he growled.
“Well, that was rude.”
“No, Ashley, what’s rude is you barging into my home without my permission. Now where the fuck IS SHE?!”
“Again, I ask, who?”
“Cecilia, you airhead. Where the fuck is my woman?” He was losing his cool now, and if she didn’t tell him soon, he wasn’t going to be responsible for what he did to her. Like throwing her out the fucking window.
“You
can’t be serious about her. I mean have you seen her? All those horrible scars. She’s not good for your image, Landon.” She dismissed the woman he was falling in love with like some dirty rag.
“Get the fuck out and don’t ever come back, Ashley.”
Shock marred her features. “What?” she whispered.
“I mean it. You have no idea who she really is. Why she has those scars. Did you ever think that just because she’s not some perfect little Barbie airhead that maybe, just fucking maybe, she’s a person and has feelings too?”
“Well, I…” she stuttered, not able to get anything out before he started again.
“What did you say to her?”
Guilt had flashed in her eyes before she looked down.
“You fucking bitch!” he screamed. Walking up to her, he grabbed her arm dragging her to his elevator. Tossing her in, he told her, “Until you can apologize to Cecilia and fucking mean it, don’t ever contact me again, Ashley. This was fucking low, even for your spoiled ass.” He slammed the gate down in her face as tears welled in her eyes.
Now he had to figure out how to undo the mess his sister had put him in.
Cecilia’s tears were a constant stream as she made her way to school after going home to get her books and clean clothes. Never in her wildest dreams had she thought she’d find the perfect man only for him to be a complete fraud.
She shouldn’t be shocked, not really. Not after the way her joke of a life was going. She should have expected it, should have stuck to her guns and not gone out with him. Now she was walking heartbreak.
Entering the economics building, she lowered her head so no one would see her torment and the stares wouldn’t hurt as much. But, of course, she would run into the biggest dick in the school.
“Hey, Mark me crazy! Does this mean you’ll put out for anyone that sticks up for you now?” She froze in shock.
They couldn’t know. How? Her dreams of Landon might be dashed, but she didn’t think he’d tell her bully that they’d had sex? Would he?