Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 98643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
The cooling water had determined our fate, so we’d quickly dried off and raced each other back to his bed.
Showering had meant Jules needed to wash his makeup away. Strangely enough, after he’d been completely exposed, there’d been the subtlest shift in his behavior. He’d gone quiet and while he seemed content to use my body to warm his own, there was something just a tiny bit off.
I couldn’t see Jules’s face but it was easy to feel his tension when I asked the question because I was stroking my fingers up and down his back and Jules was, or had been, toying with the hair on my chest. His fingers had stopped moving, though.
“When Uncle Ray died, he left his piece of the company he’d inherited from my grandfather to me. My father owned the rest. He’d assumed that if Uncle Ray died, he’d get Ray’s part or, worst-case scenario, my cousin Miles would get it.”
“That must have made for some awkward family dinners,” I offered.
“The only family dinners I ever had were when I was seven or eight. I used to fill all the empty chairs around the dining room table with my stuffed animals. The staff were really sweet about it. They’d set places for them at the table. I don’t even know where I heard that families often got together on a regular basis for a meal.”
“Your parents weren’t around?”
Jules shook his head against my chest. “My father had an apartment closer to his work. He kept whatever mistress he was fucking at the time there.”
“And your mom?” I asked. Jules’s fingertips were pressing hard against my chest, proof that my line of questioning wasn’t a topic he favored.
“She spent most of her time in the Hamptons. She liked throwing parties to show off whatever part of the house she’d had redecorated even if the room had been fine the way it was. I only saw the house once, but it was beautiful. Right by the beach, crystal-clear swimming pools, one inside, one outside. I remember asking her one time why I couldn’t live there with her because the house was so big and there’d be plenty of room for me, but she said I needed to stay in the city so my father could teach me the family business.”
I wanted to say that the fucking bitch obviously didn’t have room for her own son because she was too focused on herself but instead, I asked, “How old were you?”
“Six, I think.” Jules let out an ugly laugh. “I actually believed her. I spent years waiting for the day my father would come get me. I even started reading books about real estate development and business in my early teens. I couldn’t wait to show him how much I already knew about the business my family was in.”
“He never showed, did he?”
“Sometimes he stopped by long enough to deal with issues related to the house or the staff, but every time I asked him when he’d start teaching me the business, he’d just say ‘soon’ and then he’d disappear again. He always sent me this weird smile when I followed him to the door to say goodbye. Like he knew something I didn’t. Something humorous.”
“Who took care of you?” I asked uneasily because I had a feeling I already knew what he was going to say.
“There wasn’t any one person in particular who watched out for me when I was younger. A few of the maids would take turns making sure I got off to school on time in the mornings and that I ate when I was supposed to. I kept thinking of them as my temporary mother until the day when my own mother would make that call telling me she was on her way to get me and I should pack my stuff.” Jules laughed again. “I kept a suitcase packed with extra clothes and hid it in my closet. I’d even picked out which stuffed animals I’d take if there wasn’t enough room in the car to take them all.”
“Jules, I’m so sor—”
“Don’t be,” Jules responded, his voice flat. If we’d been having this same conversation in a place where we hadn’t been able to touch each other, I probably would have bought his disinterest in the relationship he’d had with his parents.
“I had it better than most kids,” Jules continued. “It took me a while to figure that out, though. The older I got, the more entitled I behaved. I learned what having a lot of money meant, and based on where I lived and the fact that I was driven to school in a Bentley with my own chauffeur, I had way more freedom than any of the other kids at school did. They’d complain about their folks taking this or that away from them as punishment, or wanting but not being able to get the latest gadgets or shoes.”