Page 30 of Stay Toxic

Once he’s out of the way, I see that Ari’s there, seated behind her desk, and so is Sebastian, leaning on the wall, right between my side of the room and my roommate. They’re both watching us curiously, and no wonder. I never mentioned afiancéto them.

Because I don’t have one.

Great. Now I have a damn audience for this mess.

“Clearly,” Rob says, shutting the door behind me. “Did you buy anything nice? I thought you weren’t fond of shopping.”

I freeze. Shit, shit,shit.

He’s tight with Mother, and there’s very little doubt that she’s behind his surprise visit. He’s here to watch me and report back. Fuck, I should have expected impromptu visits.Planned better for them. But as usual, they’re a step ahead of me.How stupid I was to believe that just using cash would be enough to gain a degree of freedom.

I stand here like a deer caught in headlights. I can’t show him my shopping. And when I refuse to, Mother will call, demanding to see it. To know why she hasn’t seen any transactions. Crap. I’m so screwed.

I’m shocked into speechlessness when for the first time in my life, I’m rescued.

“Nah, that’s my stuff,” Ari says. “Thanks for picking it up, Tia. I really didn’t have time to pop into town today.”

My absolute panic must have been obvious for her to blatantly lie to cover for me, but thankfully I was facing away from Robert, so I doubt he saw it.

Ari crosses the room to grab the bags, and start to put them away in her wardrobe, as if it’s the most natural thing to do.

I clear my throat. “Err—you’ve met Ari and her boyfriend…”

I’m about to say Sebastian, but he beats me to it. “Keller.”

That gets a raised eyebrow from Robert. “As in, Keller-Goltz?”

He shrugs. “Just Keller. My aunt’s the Goltz.”

“I see.” He nods, his entire demeanor changing, switching tolook, I’m important tooas he offers his hand. “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. My father’s handled some of the mergers from your family’s fashion brand.”

Sebastian couldn’t give less of a fuck if he tried, I can see it.Still, he deigns to shake Rob’s hand once, before turning back to Ari. “Shall we get back to the dress dilemma, sweet?”

“Please. The red one’s a bit on the nose, don’t you think?”

“Red suits you, though.”

“The blue’s classier.”

“Since when were you into classy?” he challenges with a chuckle.

I try not to throw up at their syrupy sweetness. I should be used to it by now, really, but I’m just not. Not when he can turn to me and smirk in a way that makes me shiver all the way to my core the next moment, while she’s looking.

Ugh, I really, really don’t want to be the other girl, or part of a throuple, but if he offered, would I actually resist?

An image crosses my mind then. A threesome, like that first night, except Ari’s sitting on his face while I ride his cock and?—

No. I don’t want that. And I definitely don’t want my panties to be soaking while Robert is in the room. That’s just yuck.

“Dresses?” I prompt, and Ari lifts two gorgeous gowns from her bed.

The red one’s a plunge neckline with sequins all along the hem, and a long, curve hugging mermaid cut. I could never even think of wearing something like that. On Ari, it’ll likely look hot. On me, it would be freaking obscene.

The blue one’s indeed a lot more sober; while short and backless, it has a boat neckline and a puffy skirt.

“What do you think?” Ari asks me.

I’m about to tell her either would look great, when Robert snorts. “That’s obvious, isn’t it? Only one doesn’t look like it belongs to a tramp.”