Free Desire by Ember Chase Page A

We’ll figure it out.”
    “How?” I squeal, fighting back tears. “He thinks I’ve been doing what he wants this whole time. He’s going to be so mad at me.”
    “I don’t think so, he’ll probably be disappointed instead.”
    “Disappointed? ”
    “Like he was with Megan and Holly. He didn’t want them anymore. That’s the idea. Since you can’t break up with him, we have to manipulate him into breaking up with you.”
    “How are we going to do that?”
    “Play up everything about you that he doesn’t like, play down everything he does. It will take a while. You’ll be upset with him about the humiliation thing, but you won’t want to break up. You’ll just want some space from him. I mean, you are pretty shocked and pissed off about that, right?”
    “Very .”
    “So it won’t be much of an act and he won’t be that surprised. He’ll give you some time, he’ll expect you to come crawling back after a while. And while he’s waiting, you’ll become… less appealing.”
    “So fat and ugly. Great.”
    “A little extra weight won’t hurt and since you certainly won’t be starving yourself anymore, it won’t be hard. But that won’t do much in the long run.”
    “Well, what will?”
    “You have to tell me. I don’t understand why you’re together, I don’t see how you two are even the slightest bit compatible. So if you can explain it, I promise… well, I’ll try extremely hard to keep a level head, okay?” Leaning forward, he plants a kiss on my forehead and takes my hands in his. “Let’s sit back down.”
    “In the living room. And I want a blanket.”
    “Anything you want, Rookie,” he chuckles. “You know I can’t refuse you.” I scamper down the hallway to the bedroom and come back waddling in a cocoon. “You are so fucking cute it’s ridiculous.” We sit on opposite ends of the couch, facing each other. “And that reminds me. Luke hates brats. I assume he doesn’t tolerate your little outbursts that well.”
    “He doesn’t see them. Actually, I didn’t know I could be this whiny until I met you.”
    Isaac squirms, a hint of lust creeping into his eyes before he shakes his head wildly and casts it away. We haven’t had sex for nearly three days and he isn’t soft when we cuddle now “I don’t know how we’ll use that, but if you get a chance to work it into a conversation, take it. Any other ideas?”
    “Well, there is the Southern accent,” I mumble, doing my best not to seduce him. His eyelids flicker sh ut and he rolls his lips in on themselves, but he keeps it together. “But I don’t know if that will work, either because the fact that I come from a poorer background than he does is a turn on for him. A source of superiority.”
    “Luke c omes from a poor family?”
    “Working class, they weren’t in poverty or anything. His father used to be a forklift operator, his mom is a cashier.”
    “I didn’t know that.”
    “He’s a wonder kid, like me. That’s the main thing we have in common. We’ll never truly be accepted in the circles we run in now. I had it a little better because I was officially adopted by a rich man, but Luke will always be from the other side of the tracks. Those nice, pretty girls from wealthy families that his friends date never threatened me because they’ll never give him a chance. They can do better. I can’t. I suppose that’s part of my appeal.”
    “And another thing we can’t do much to change and can’t really use. But this is where I get confused. You were adopted by a rich guy, but Luke, that fucking asshole, still considers you ‘poor white trash’ and you went back to Georgia for a while. What am I missing, Maya?”
    “It ’s a little complicated. My father killed himself when he got arrested for embezzlement. He lost everything and obviously, so did we. There was a trust set up for me and Garrett, but that disappeared too after some kind of investigation. My dad’s parents, and you’ll notice that