Blackmailed Into His Arms: Blackmailed into Bed / The Billionaire's Blackmail Bargain / Blackmailed For Her Baby. Margaret Mayo

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ only, “It better be.”

      She smiled at his attempt to pout and patted his knee.

      For the next hour, they picked at their meals, sipped champagne and chatted with the people around them. Chase couldn’t have cared less about what anyone was saying, but he was well-schooled in the art of schmoozing.

      After the food and drink and requisite speeches, everyone got up from their seats and once again began to mingle. This was when he could lean in and say, We’re out of here, and drag her off the way he’d been dying to all night.

      He put his hand on her elbow, prepared to do exactly that, when a small gaggle of tall, willowy, attractive women sidled up to them, their gazes sweeping over him before settling on Elena.

      “Elena?” one in a low-cut lavender gown queried. “Elena Sanchez?”

      “Yes?” Elena returned, her eyes warm and welcoming, as they’d been all night. Chase was beginning to think of it as her “polite public demeanor,” the way she interacted with everyone from his business associates, to the chairwoman of tonight’s fund-raiser, to the servers who milled around clearing tables and making sure no one’s glass ever became truly empty.

      “I thought it was you,” the other woman practically squealed, taking Elena’s hands in both of her own and giving them a squeeze. “I haven’t seen you in years. Since high school.”

      The other three women in the little clique nodded and smiled just as widely. But when Elena didn’t seem to recognize them, the one in lavender clucked her tongue and gave her an admonishing eye roll.

      “Tisha Ferguson. We went to school together. Of course, I’m Mrs. Ferguson-McDonald now.” She waved her left hand, making sure everyone in a six-foot radius got a glimpse of the huge diamond weighing down her ring finger. “I married very, very well.”

      To keep from scoffing Chase tightened his jaw until the bones nearly cracked. She’d married well. Well, bully for her. So had every other woman present. A person couldn’t spit in this room without hitting a woman who had married very, very well.

      “Tisha!” Elena said. “Of course. You look wonderful, I barely recognized you.”

      Leaning in, the two women kissed—that double cheek thing Chase had never understood. Then Elena’s glance slid to the other women standing just behind Tisha.

      “Leslie. Stephanie. Candy. It’s nice to see you again. How have you been?”

      The five of them chatted for a few minutes, with Tisha—the obvious spokesperson for the group—monopolizing most of the conversation. Finally, when there was an opening, Elena turned to him and attempted introductions.

      “Do you remember Chase Ramsey?” she asked the four of them. “He went to school with us, too, though he was a year or two ahead of us.”

      The three standing back a bit smiled and nodded, but Tisha tipped her head and studied him more closely through narrowed, heavily painted eyes.

      “Chase Ramsey. You’re not …” Her glossy pink lips, previously pursed in thought, widened a split second before she broke into a high-pitched, cackling laugh. “Oh, my God! Chase Ramsey. I remember you now. You’re that pathetic farmer’s son who asked Elena to dance at that Christmas party at her parents’ house. You should have seen your face when she turned you down. Oh, it was priceless!”

      Eleven

      Tisha threw back her head and chortled loudly, the other three joining in on a slightly less obnoxious scale.

      Elena felt her heartbeat accelerate and a cold skittering of foreboding snake down her spine. The fingers of both hands curled instinctively as she fought the urge to plow her fist into the stuck-up witch’s face.

      Horrified, she glanced at Chase and saw the fury spark in his eyes before a mask of indifference dropped into place, hiding his true feelings from the world.

      “Chase,” she began, desperate to hold on to him. But before she’d even finished breathing his name, he turned on his heel and stalked away.

      As she stared at his back, Tisha’s laughter grew in both volume and venom.

      And suddenly, Elena couldn’t take it anymore. She spun on her former friend, just keeping from reaching out to slap the smug grin off her face.

      “How dare you,” Elena charged.

      Leslie, Stephanie and Candy quieted immediately, their mouths rolling into tiny Os of surprise that anyone would dare speak to their queen in such a tone. It took a moment longer for Tisha to settle, but finally the gleeful expression washed from her face and her eyes narrowed in annoyance.

      “Excuse me?” she responded haughtily.

      “What gives you the right to talk to people like that? To treat them like they’re beneath you?”

      Tisha’s nose began to tip up, but Elena plowed ahead, not caring a whit that their confrontation was starting to draw a crowd.

      “Do you know what you are, Tisha? You’re a bitch. An arrogant, selfish, snobbish bitch. I’m sorry I ever met you, let alone was a part of your vicious little pack of hyenas back in high school.”

      Her blood was boiling, her lungs burning with the effort to suck in enough air for all she had to say to this woman.

      “You’re the one who’s pathetic, Tisha Ferguson-McDonald.” She sneered the hyphenated last name, making it as much of an insult as she could manage. “You’re the one who should be embarrassed by your upbringing, your appearance, your very existence, because you aren’t half the human being Chase Ramsey is. He’s the one who should be looking down his nose at you, not the other way around.”

      There was so much more she was feeling, so much more she wanted to say, but none of it was worth the time she was losing in following Chase.

      Leaving Tisha and her cohorts with their mouths hanging open in shock, she spun around and pushed her way through the crowd, following the path Chase had taken only moments ago. The closer she got to the doors of the ballroom, the faster she moved until she was all but running.

      Through the crowd, through the open double doors. In the spacious hallway, she stopped, looked around, but didn’t see him.

      Racing to the elevator, she elbowed people aside and pushed the down button, punching it over and over again until the doors closed and the compartment began to move.

      “Come on, come on,” she muttered, wishing belatedly that she had taken the stairs. Even in heels, she was convinced she could have made it to the lobby faster than the elevator was doing the job.

      When the doors opened, she burst out, hurrying across the marble floor, glancing right and left for any sign of him. Outside, she scanned the cars coming and going, being both brought up and taken away by the crew of valets. Rushing up to the nearest green-vested worker, she described Chase and his car, and asked if the man had seen him.

      “Oh, yeah,” the man said, pointing toward the end of the hotel’s long, curved driveway. “He just took off.”

      Elena’s gaze followed the СКАЧАТЬ