Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 107:.Archibald makes sure she’s relaxed enough that when a second finger slides in next to the first, it doesn’t even hurt. It’s so far from hurting that Isabella finds herself muffling moans and contented little sighs into Archibald’s mouth, rocking her hips into the delicious pressure of those fingers fucking so carefully into her.“That’s lovely, sweetheart,” Archibald says, warm and pleased, “You take me so well; does it feel good?”“Yes,” Isabella breathes without a beat of hesitation and uncaring of how desperate or pathetic that sounds, “Fuck, it feels incredible.”“Good, good—I’m glad.” Archibald’s so infuriatingly composed that in any other situation, Isabella would want to fight her. As it is, fighting is the last thing on her mind, especially when her veins feel like they’re filled up with warm honey. Isabella can feel Archibald hardening underneath her and presses her weight down just a little bit extra for the friction and t
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 108: .“I’m dead,” Isabella complains to the nebulous heavens, even as she rolls out of Archibald’s lap and onto the neighboring cushion, accepting the offered underwear from off the floor and a plain t-shirt she doesn’t recognize. She tugs them up her thighs and stretches like a cat, butting up against Archibald’s side. Demanding physical contact feels so much easier after last night, even more so when she doesn’t actually have to ask for it. “You’ve killed me.”“Might I remind you that you asked for this?”“And I’m so hungry I could eat my own arm off.”“I literally had breakfast and coffee set out for you. You were the one who couldn’t survive another moment more without christening my couch.”Archibald’s affectionate exasperation combined with a lack of any real annoyance makes Isabella’s soft, squishy heart scream an alarm bell.And then Isabella registers his last sentence.“Wait, hold on, wait—am I the first person you’ve fucked on
Ditch the Ex. Ditch the Billionaire .Chapter 109:.Archibald is demonstrative and attentive and very different from anyone else Isabella’s gone out with, and all he wants in return is for Isabella’s attention and company to be genuine? As if dating a gorgeous mountain of a man is any sort of hardship???And then, after all that, being paid for it?What the fuck.“I've gotta agree with the guy,” Dara comments, expression focused on running an emery board over Isabella’s fingernails to smooth them before she paints them. She’s already done hers in velvety matte black lacquer. “You are a fucking weirdo.”Isabella sputters in indignation, and she slaps the back of her knuckles with the board to hold her hands still.“Hey!”“Oh, button it up, pookie,” she replies. “If the shoe fits.”The shoe does fit. The shoe fits so fucking well because apparently something about Isabella’s awkward, terrible personality really does it for Archibald, because he’s yet to stop returning Isabella’s text
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 110:.The charity gala is being held in what was once a restaurant that has since been converted into an event hall. It strikes the perfect happy medium between cheap and gauche. The restaurant facade does a good job of feigning accessibility and a down-to-earth atmosphere that doesn’t match the extended ballrooms and attached gardens. The whole thing screams look at me, look at how I’m both totally normal and also totally better than you I am and Isabella hates how well she knows that.She hates how easily that logic comes back to her.When Archibald touches the small of her back, Isabella recoils like she’s been burned, flinching away before her brain can catch up. Archibald stands there with his hand still outstretched, eyebrows creeping up to his hairline.“Sorry!” Isabella says, through the terror that’s making everything too sharp. She feels like an asshole even while she breathes through her teeth. “I’m sorry. You startled me.”Arc
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 111: .Archibald is across the room and talking to Nathaniel of all people, and it’s too late to back up because she’s already been spotted. Archibald makes a quick beckoning gesture with his hands, and Nathaniel? Nathaniel looks shocked and meanly delighted, like this is everything he could want. Isabella feels like she could very easily throw up again.She doesn’t throw up.Isabella, Professional Partygoer Who Doesn’t Puke On Floors in Public, forces her feet to move her forward. Forward, forward, step by step until she’s within the circle of appropriate distance, and then there’s an arm around her waist that pulls her straight out of acquaintances who know each other and firmly into people who have definitely seen each other naked territory.The way Archibald slots Isabella into his side doesn’t go unnoticed, not by a long shot, but it’s also the only thing that remotely helps quiet down a little of the internal screaming to keep it
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire . Chapter 112: . Nathaniel laughs like he thinks that Isabella’s very funny. “Spend the night with me and whatever he’s paying you, I’ll double it. Tell me to fuck off again, and everyone you’ve ever known will know exactly what you’ve been doing this whole time, slutting around places too good for you like a bitch in heat. Better yet—” Nathaniel leans in close; he’s wearing too much cologne, “Does Moneybags know about you? I bet he doesn’t. Maybe he should.” The rage, when it comes, is welcomed. Isabella whips around like a boomerang and shoves at Nathaniel hard with both hands, sending him crashing backwards into a waiter (and said waiter’s tray of full champagne flutes), and down to the ground in a shower of booze and glass. There’s no grace or dignity in the way the man goes down, and Isabella enjoys how it feels to be able to loom over him, breathing hard and absolutely furious. The room is very, very quiet. “Shut up,” Isabella grits o
Ditch the Ex. Ditch the Billionaire .Chapter 113:.Isabella starts crying again sometime in between Archibald reaching over to buckle her seatbelt for her and driving out of the parking lot. These tears are silent counterparts to the hurricane from earlier, but Isabella has just as little control now as she did then. They come without her say so, slipping down her cheeks and dropping onto the seat, her lap, her thighs. Once she starts she doesn’t know how to stop, and even Archibald curling his fingers around her own aren’t enough.The next few minutes are a flurry of activity; Archibald is as good as his word and informs one of the waitstaff that they’re leaving. No one so much as glances at Isabella, her red-rimmed eyes, or her shaky grip on Archibald’s hand. Someone cracks the seal on a water bottle and pours it into a to-go cup of ice, handing it to Archibald when Isabella doesn’t reach out to take it.By the time they reach the front door, a valet has brought the car around.
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 114: .“What was it specifically about tonight that was so upsetting to you?”Isabella winces. That’s a question that flies like an arrow and hits straight to the quick of the matter. She’s not sure how to talk about it without talking about everything else.Isabella wrings her hands in Archibald’s blankets.“I didn’t realize how—how much overlap there was going to be,” she says finally. “Until you said a name I recognized. You don’t get it— nobody liked me when I was working and it was—you don’t even know —it was bad, the whole thing was bad. The whole place was bad. The work culture was just, you know, eat or be eaten, everyone just waiting for the next person to fall? And when it was my turn, people just—they thought it was funny. That I was so bad at my job that I even got disowned too. Everybody knew about it and I—I didn’t want to be laughed at. In front of you. I didn’t want you to know what people thought about me.”Archibald make