American Queen by Sierra Simone

Author:Sierra Simone [Simone, Sierra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-10-24T07:00:00+00:00

18

“Step-sister,” Morgan corrects icily.

“Step-sister,” Embry concedes cheerfully. “But we both have the same winning personality, don’t we?”

“There’s no need for sarcasm,” Morgan says, glancing away from us as if bored. “We all know you’re here to rescue the princess from the evil witch.”

Embry’s smile grows wider. “Your words, Sissy, not mine.”

Morgan actually looks mortified. “Don’t call me that here.”

“Did you know,” Embry says, as if he didn’t hear her, “that Sissy here actually requested to sit next to you once she heard you were attending the dinner? A fun fact I just learned from Belvedere, who learned it from the social secretary. Now, why would that be, Morgan? You weren’t planning on causing any trouble, were you?”

“I simply wanted to meet the soon-to-be-famous Greer Galloway for myself.” Morgan’s eyes sweep back to me, appraisingly. “See the girl that has the President so preoccupied.”

Embry’s hand curls protectively around my shoulder.

Morgan doesn’t miss that, and she raises an eyebrow. “She has you preoccupied too, then? How interesting.”

There’s a blink of something on Embry’s face—worry, maybe—and then it’s gone. “They’re starting up the dancing, Morgan, so as delightful as this little reunion is, I’m afraid Greer and I must abandon you.”

Embry helps me stand, but before we can make our escape, I feel Morgan’s cool hand on my wrist. “Don’t forget what I said to you,” she says quietly, and there’s no malice in her voice, only a kind of urgency. “You’re in over your head.”

“That’s enough, Morgan,” Embry tells her. “You’ve done your worst. Now leave us alone.”

Morgan sits back with a pretty frown, and I withdraw my wrist and let Embry lead me away, my stomach churning.

“Don’t let her upset you,” Embry says as we weave through the tables to the far corner of the dining room, where Ash stands with a circle of dignitaries talking and sipping premium vodka. “She’s jealous. She and Ash…well, there’s a history there. And it’s not a pretty one.”

“I gathered that much.” I take a deep breath. “They used to fuck?”

Embry winces at the word. “I hate such a wonderful word being applied to such a short-lived, stupid thing. They met the first year Ash was deployed, three or four years before Caledonia.”

Three or four years before he met me, I think, doing the math.

“And it wasn’t anything more than an R and R fling. Over in a week. Fourteen years ago.”

I’m not often struck by the age difference between Ash and me, but for a moment, I’m stunned by it. Stunned by the fact that he was fucking Morgan Leffey while I was an eleven-year-old skipping around my grandfather’s penthouse.

“So there hasn’t been anything between them since then?” I ask. “Because that’s not the impression I got.”

Embry’s face has a purposefully open expression, and his voice is so carefully honest and casual. “That’s the last time they fucked, I’m certain of it.”

He’s lying. Or he’s not telling the whole truth, but before I can press him further, he tucks my hand in the crook of his elbow and squeezes it.

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