Buttons and Lies: Beyond Buttons #10 by Sky Penelope

Author:Sky, Penelope
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hartwick Publishing
Published: 2018-08-14T00:00:00+00:00

13

CARTER

I sat across from my prisoner at the dinner table. We shared a bottle of wine while we ate, and I had my phone out most of the time. I was exchanging emails with my assistant and going over my schedule for the upcoming week. After all the stuff that happened with Conway, my business had been put on hold.

She looked at me as she ate, and then she launched a smartass comment my way. “You’re being awfully rude right now.”

I looked up from the screen, my left eyebrow raised in shock. “What did we just talk about?”

“You told me to behave. And you defined good behavior as me not trying to kill you.” She took a long drink of her wine, savoring it like it was the best thing that had ever touched her lips. “That’s what I’m doing right now—not killing you.” She took another bite of her food, eating quicker than me as if she was starving.

“I also told you not to be a pain in the ass.”

“Well, you’re being rude.”

I locked the screen of my phone and set it down. “I can be rude all I want.”

“And I can call you out for it.” She grabbed the bottle from the table and refilled her glass.

Despite her annoyance, I was impressed by her quick wit. She couldn’t fire off those comebacks without an impressive level of intelligence. That was the way my sister was. She was argumentative, but she was so clever that she usually won her arguments—even if she was wrong.

I placed my phone on the table. “There. You have my attention.”

“I didn’t ask for your attention. I just don’t want you to bring your phone to the table. Even an eight-year-old knows better.”

“Yes, but you aren’t my mother.”

“Good mothers raise good men. Maybe your mother didn’t do her job well enough.”

I could deal with her insults and her sassiness, but I drew the line when it came to my family—especially my mother. “Don’t talk about my mother like that ever again.” My heart pounded harder in my chest because her insult bothered me all the way down to my core. I was livid, to say the least.

She must have understood that because she didn’t rise to my words. She turned quiet, focusing on her dinner instead of me.

When she backed off, I picked up my fork again.

“This is really good. So much better than the sandwiches I was eating every day.”

“Thanks.” My sour mood still hadn’t recovered. My family was the most important thing to me, and I couldn’t handle anyone saying anything negative about them. I grew up watching my father defend his brother when he wasn’t around, but the second they were alone together in a room, my father insulted him left and right. But only he could insult him—no one else.

“You’re still angry.”

I locked my gaze on hers. “Yes.”

“Well, would it help if I apologized?”

“Is it possible for you to apologize?” I countered. “You don’t seem like the type.”

“You’re right, I’m not. And I definitely don’t apologize to men who kidnap me,” she said coldly.

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