Gold, стр. 84

“Should I remember?”

And he didn’t. He didn’t even know if he had bothered asking for her name. It hadn’t mattered at the time. Had she been blonde or brunette? Everything about her was a mystery except the feel of her ass in his hands, the sight of her scrunched up green dress, the way the material stretched tight across her rack, and the red imprint on her throat. Everything else was a blur.

“Your standards are slipping.”

“I’m still with you. Can’t be that low.” Clay smirked.

“I’m out of your league, honey.”

“Always have been,” he agreed easily.

“Why do I put up with you anyway?” Andrea sounded bored, not irritated. She was never irritated with him. Not really. She didn’t give a shit what he did. Just like he didn’t care what she did in her spare time.

Clay had met Andrea on Hilton Head beach when he was almost thirteen years old. They had spent every summer together on that beach until her parents finally split up after their sophomore year of high school. Six long years of endless arguments and limitless pampering to make up for the fights jaded Andrea’s soft heart. By the time they met up again at Yale their freshman year of college, they were both very different people.

Romance was wasted on them, and so they had entered into an arrangement of a lifetime. They could do whatever they wanted, but at the end of the day, they would be together. Guard their hearts. No feelings would get hurt. They wouldn’t turn out like her parents, and he wouldn’t have anyone in his life to disappoint for his behavior. It was perfect.

“You don’t put up with me. You enjoy it. It’s all my charm.”

“Oh right,” she drawled. “That Maxwell charm. It does have a certain appeal.”

“Every appeal,” he said confidently. “So, are you home? I’ll grab another cab and drive out there.”

Andrea made a tinkling giggle. “Do you think you’re the only one who can have fun, Clay Maxwell?”

A smile spread across his face. “You’re bad, and it turns me on.”

“Well, you’ll have to do something about it by yourself. I won’t be home tonight. I have…other plans,” she said breathily, for his benefit, he was sure.

His body itched with the sudden challenge she was posing. Andrea always seemed to do this. He could fuck so many other girls, and then one little giggle from her made him want to claim her all over again. Not as his girlfriend or his wife. He shuddered at the very thought.

She was just a continual challenge. She was beautiful with long blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and a tall lean frame that he knew intimately. But every time he thought he had her figured out, every time he was sure she was going to do one thing, she would do something else. She liked to play games, and he liked her games.

Because at the end of the day, he knew exactly where her head was in all of this. It wasn’t seeking out a Harry Winston engagement ring. It wasn’t demanding an I love you before bed. It wasn’t a scowl for his philandering or the way he treated his brother or innumerable other reasons. It was just an arrangement for two people who cared about each other…in their own way.

“Pray tell me, love. Who is the lucky bastard?” Clay asked.

He was already throwing his coat back on and changing from his light blue tie into a purple striped bowtie. Andrea came from old Southern plantation money, and his family could stretch their lineage back to Thomas Jefferson himself. They had been in real estate in the Triangle area of North Carolina for just as long. He was a Southern boy through and through, and if there was one thing Andrea couldn’t resist, it was when he acted like it.

He pressed the phone into his ear, as he expertly tied the bowtie.

“He’s no one you know,” she told him.

“I know everyone.”

“Not this one.”

“Stop teasing me.”

She giggled. “Oh, but you don’t really want me to do that, Clay. You probably want me to describe him on the phone. Should I start with his suit or how big I think he is?”

“Always good to know your competition,” he said, adjusting the tie one more time.

“Well, I don’t have time. I have to get back to my game. I don’t want him to think I have a doting boyfriend at home waiting for me.”

Clay snorted. “Doting. Sounds just like me.”

Andrea was silent for a moment, and if he couldn’t hear the bar noise in the background he might have thought she had hung up on him. “Sometimes it’s not that far off,” she said quietly.

“Right,” he said with a laugh. “Doting, Andrea?”

“You’re an ass.”

“Yeah. You’ve always known that. Now, I’ll show you doting. Where are you?”

“Don’t ruin my game, Clay,” she said without conviction. He could hear the tell tale signs of excitement in her voice. He was sure she was pouting on the other line to look like she was upset. Poor schlup.

“I would never,” he lied.

“I don’t ruin yours.”

“You do if you can help it. Now tell me,” he demanded.

“Fine,” she said. “But you better bring you’re A-game. He’s a keeper.”

“Don’t I always?”

She told him the bar she was at. It wasn’t far from his place, which made him wonder if she had picked it hoping for this outcome. She was conniving, and he wouldn’t put it past her.

Clay felt emboldened. His melancholy from his apartment evaporating as he left to chase down his girl.

GOLD is a project that I have been working on for several years now. It wormed its way into my mind while I was working on another, but it wasn’t until I wrote Diamonds that I realized how different this book really needed to be to show Bryna for the woman that she becomes—from golden girl to gold digger to maybe even a little grown-up. Thank you for coming along this ride with me as Bryna finds her way through it all.

As always, there is a long list of people who helped make this book come to life. You all mean the world to me, and I wouldn’t have gotten to this point without you. Jessica Carnes, Bridget Peoples, Rebecca Kimmerling, Lori Francis, Katie Miller, Diana Peterfreund, Mariah Dietz, Christine Estevez, Christy Peckham, Katie Ross, Jessica Sotelo, Corinne Michaels, Lauren Blakely, Gail McHugh, Kendall Ryan, Emma Hart, Pepper Winters, Jenn Sterling, Mary Ruth Baloy, Daniela Padron, Sarah Hansen of Okay Creations (for the badass cover), Jovana Shirley of Unforeseen Editing (for the incredible editing and formatting), and all the bloggers and readers who gave up their time, which they could have been using any other way, to read this book!

I also have to thank my husband (ahhh!), Joel, for sitting through the madness of writing this book in the midst of wedding planning. I know that couldn’t have been the easiest thing in the world. Also my sister Shea who loved Diamonds and always encouraged me to keep going through the hard parts of Gold. Much love to my writing puppies, Riker and Lucy!

I hope you all enjoyed Bryna’s story and will stay tuned for the next book in the All That Glitters series, Platinum, which follows Trihn! ¦

USA Today bestselling author K.A. Linde has written the Avoiding series, the Record series, and the Take Me series as well as her new adult stand-alone Following Me. This is the second in her four-book All That Glitters series. Book one, Diamonds, debuted on the USA Today Bestsellers List.