Beautiful Burn (The Maddox Brothers #4) Read Online Free PDF Page B

Finley was dividing her time between her Kir Royale and the surrounding tables, relishing in the curious attention she was getting simply for being beautiful.
    “I’ve always liked the men here. They’re a different kind of sexy than what we’re used to. Gruff. I’m liking the beards.”
    “Most of them aren’t actually from here.”
    She shrugged. “Neither are we.” Her phone buzzed, and she tapped a quick reply, annoyed with whoever had sent the message.
    “Mother?”
    Finley shook her head. “Marco’s just checking in.”
    I leaned in, my nearly exposed breasts pressing against the table. Finley noticed, but only allowed them to distract her for a moment.
    “Is he in love with you?” I asked.
    “I don’t know. Probably. Where did you get that top? It makes your tiny tits look freakishly perky.”
    “My tits are not tiny.”
    “Please,” Finley said as the waiter dropped off our edamame. “You’re barely a B-cup.”
    “Not everyone wants to surgically insert double-Ds, Fin.”
    She looked up at the waiter. He began to speak, but she cut him off. “Yes, I want another. No, there is nothing else you can get for us right now. Yes, the edamame is superb. Thank you.”
    He nodded and left for the kitchen.
    “He’s going to spit in our food,” I said, watching him disappear behind a swinging door.
    She breathed out a laugh. “I wasn’t rude. I just made his drive-by efficient.” Her eyes lit up, and she stood, embracing Sterling. “Hello, my love!”
    Sterling kissed her cheek, and then again square on the mouth. She didn’t flinch.
    He looked into her eyes, shaking his head and smiling. “Fin. You’re beautiful.”
    She smiled. “You’re right.”
    Sterling held the back of Finley’s chair until she sat, and then he helped push her forward. I turned my face as he leaned down, allowing him to peck my cheek.
    “Disclaimer … I kissed your sister,” Sterling said, sitting down next to Finley.
    She glanced at him, and then at me. “What’s he babbling about?”
    “I kind of forced him to kiss me yesterday,” I said, already feeling Finley’s silent wrath. She didn’t want Sterling this second, but he belonged to her. “To get rid of the firefighter.”
    Finley’s eyebrows rose, and she looked to Sterling for confirmation. They were an odd pair, between them wearing clothes and accessories that cost more than the average home, but both emotionally and morally bankrupt. Finley might have been able to talk me out of a spiral, but she had a pocket full of people and a closet full of things: all expendable. Sterling loved Finley, but would never beg for her, and preferred to wallow in infinite misery than admit defeat and try to love someone else. We were friends because less than one percent of the world’s population could identify with the sorrow of having too much money and too many opportunities—with the boredom of total freedom of monetary limitations.
    We could depend on each other to neither expect anything but time, nor hope that we’d be invited on the next paid vacation. Our friendships would never be more about connections than inside jokes or late night talks. We knew if we were to ever bitch about the throes of money, it was not because we were hinting at needing any. We had nothing in common but the fact that we had one more thing in common than we did with everyone else.
    “You really kissed her?” Finley asked Sterling.
    He nodded, realizing too late his mistake. He was hoping for jealousy. Finley’s anger had always been a slow boil, and she was just beginning to simmer.
    “Fin,” I began.
    “Shush. You don’t get to talk.”
    I sat back in my seat, hoping the night didn’t get any more awkward.
    We ate our seabass and veal, buffalo ricotta, and chicory. We drank far too many Kir Royales that somehow turned into rounds of Irish whiskey, and then after giving the waiter the largest tip he’d ever seen, we headed out into the cold to light cigarettes and breathe