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CH 107
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Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 108
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 and Date The Billionaire CH 109
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 and Date The Billionaire CH 110
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 and Date The Billionaire CH 111
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 and Date The Billionaire CH 112:
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 and Date The Billionaire CH 113
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 and Date The Billionaire CH 114
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
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 115:
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 115: . “Did he touch you?”“What?” Isabella jerks her hand away from her nape, worrying her lower lip between her teeth.“Did he touch you?” Archibald repeats. “Did he put any part of his person onto your person without your express permission, desire, or request?”“I don’t think, uh, it doesn’t—““Please don’t tell me what should or shouldn’t matter to me. Did that man put his hands on you?”“Just, um. He grabbed me by the back of the neck, but I made him let go,” Isabella finally admits. Almost instantly, a strong hand that feels absolutely nothing like Nathaniel’s presses gently against the back of her neck and holds. Isabella relaxes into it with a soft exhale and feels the tension in her body begin to uncoil. “He made a shitty comment about my— our arrangement and, uh. He made an offer.”Archibald’s hands, which have been continuously moving, go very still.“It was an offer that I—er. That I didn’t appreciate. And then he asked if y
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Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 143
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 143: .It happens by accident.Archibald’s out of town again for work but tries to call in the evenings when he can and Isabella, consequently, does her best to be available despite the three-hour time difference. Dara can roll her eyes all she wants — and does — but keeps her smart remarks, if not to a minimum, then to an average.(“It’s part of our arrangement!” Isabella protests noisily as if the forty-five minutes she spends holed up in her bedroom have anything at all to do with those initial terms of their relationship and aren’t simply because she misses the man like a limb when he’s gone.Dara makes an unflattering snort and digs her elbow into Isabella’s side, stealing a pretzel out of her bag while she’s distracted.“Uh-huh,” she says, “Is that what we’re calling it now, Ms. Codependent?”“I don’t think I like you anymore.”Isabella, among other things, is a liar. A bad one.)It happens by accident because Isabella’s bundled up
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 142:
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 142: .See, if Isabella’s life was a movie, this is where it would end.A great romantic conclusion tied up with a neat little bow, roll credits, and scene.But this isn’t a movie, and this isn’t where it ends.“I’m thinking about going back to school,” Isabella says one afternoon during a lunch date. She doesn’t stop stirring anxiously at her gelato until Archibald reaches out to physically stop her before it turns to soup, and she won’t like it as much.“I think that’s a good idea,” he replies.Isabella is still basically unhireable, further blacklisted professionally by the drama that came out of her father’s quick but messy trial that put him in jail for years and ruined any good reputation any of them might have had.(The man left a single furious, frothing voicemail on Isabella’s phone that could be summed up as three straight minutes of death threats that included everyone from Isabella herself to the cat to the goldfish that had o
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 141:
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 142: .“You know, I almost broke up with you last night.”Archibald’s steady calm, the largest holdover from last night, holds up even as he nods in agreement. “I know.”Isabella scowls at him.“How’d you know? I barely knew until I’d decided not to.”“Because I know you. You’ve been given precious few people in life who haven’t broken your trust, and I did that by going behind your back. It would have been an understandable reaction, and I wouldn’t have begrudged you—“Isabella slams that ocean blue tumbler down on the table with a clatter. Her eyes are bright with emotion, and her lips are turned down in an irritated scowl.“Maybe you wouldn’t,” she snaps, “but I’d sure as shit begrudge you if you just, what, let me break up with you without so much as asking me not to? What the fuck, man.”“You are an adult who can make your own decisions—““Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I want you to just let me go when I’m about to do something stupid!
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 140
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 140:.There is coffee, kept hot in the kind of insulated tumbler that costs too much and coordinates with the beachy colors of the house. Isabella has a suspicion that it was bought specifically for her, because Archibald is a crazy person who thinks about that kind of stuff. It doesn’t stop her from drinking it.“Tell me what you did,” Isabella orders before she can talk herself out of it and in spite of the very large part of her that doesn’t actually want to know. “Something something something about buying out the board?” she elaborates with a pointed stare. Because Chantelle, of all people, wouldn’t be bailing unless the ship is sinking. The ship might already be sunk if she’s that willing to abandon what she sees as her birthright. A birthright that she’s always seen as a competition, even though she’d won right out the gate and Isabella’s so stupid that it took literally being disowned to see that she never stood a chance.“Oh, th
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 139
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 139: .Isabella and Alan had settled many a disagreement with an angry tussle in bed that was worth the drop afterward for being able to get a little of her own back, to feel seen and heard. Except that Archibald already makes her feel seen and heard, and right now Isabella just sort of wants one of them to hurt, and she’s not sure who.“Stop, stop, enough,” Archibald orders, kinder than Isabella deserves, and wipes the beginnings of tears out of the corners of Isabella’s eyes before she even realizes that she’s about to cry. “I know, baby. I know.”“You don’t know anything.” It comes out way less cool and way more pathetic when Isabella’s voice cracks on what is definitely an overtired, strung-out sob. “You don’t know anything.”“I know that you’re exhausted and running on fumes and that you’d rather have the kind of sex that’s not good for you and that you don’t even want than get what you need,” Archibald tells her. “I’d say I know pl
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 138
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 138: .The only tears Chantelle’s ever shed have been of the crocodilian variety, as purposeful a tactic as any insult. Even after she’d forced herself to learn how to stop, she’d never managed to wield emotion like a weapon. At times like this, Isabella sort of wishes that she had.Isabella trembles and wraps her arms around herself, chilled even underneath the blanket. The edges are getting wet with saltwater and crusted with sand, and she would bite anyone who might try to take it from her.Archibald doesn’t touch her, but Isabella can feel him practically vibrating with the way he wants to. Right now, Isabella would be happy to bite him, too.“I don’t think you’re stupid.”“Well, it sure feels like it.”Archibald literally wrings his hands in open distress, and even now, it doesn’t feel remotely like a win. Isabella’s gotten exactly what she’s asked for—space and someone else being the one to hurt, but it doesn’t lessen her own, not e
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 137
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 137:.It's still pitch black outside, but Isabella finds herself at the edge of the water anyway. The ocean doesn’t give a damn about Isabella’s battered foundation and rolls happily up the night-cooled sand, leaving only foam and bits of seashell behind.Isabella sits at the shoreline and tucks her knees up under her chin.She wonders, miserably, where Chantelle plans to go.God, she hopes her sister gets as far away as she can.Isabella's spent her whole life loyal, but Chantelle? She’s fanatical to a degree that Isabella could never quite manage, and she wonders if putting her loyalty into a cage match with her relentless drive to protect herself finally did what nothing else could—crack that fanaticism. She’ll never know; it’s not her place now, and even if it was, Chantelle would never let her.God, she hopes Chantelle got as far away as she possibly can.Mai, with much derision, refers to it as Isabella's "better place theory." Mom
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 136
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 136: .“Oh, please. Because your boytoy just woke up and bought half our board and their corresponding shares out from under us for some weekend summer fun? I didn’t think you had it in you, but I guess you had to grow a spine sometime.”Isabella’s brain goes blank. Chantelle’s words land with all the delicacy and grace of anvils, pinning her down under their weight like a butterfly in a box.“I didn’t—you’re wrong,” she protests.“Sure, okay. Keep telling yourself that. Anyway, don’t bother saving this number; I’m ditching the phone once my plane boards. Congratulations on your win, Izzy. We always knew you’d ruin the family, but I didn’t think it’d be like this. Have a good rest of your life, I guess.”There’s a click and then a dial tone. Isabella tries to call back, but it goes straight to a generic voicemail that she knows won’t ever be checked. At best it’s a burner phone; at worst it’s Chantelle’s regular phone that she’s willing t
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 135
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 135: .There’s the temptation after breakfast to go back to bed and find another way to entertain themselves, but Archibald shuffles her to go shower instead.“It’s about ten miles to get into town,” he says when Isabella protests in an appropriately dignified manner, definitely not pouting at having to put pants on. “You’ll like it.” Isabella does pout, then, and is rewarded for her bad behavior by being hoisted up onto the bathroom counter and thoroughly kissed until she’ll say yes to just about anything. And she does say yes, eventually, and delays the inevitable by about ten minutes by sticking her hands down the back of Archibald’s pajamas.Isabella’s never had this kind of domesticity in a relationship before, and it should feel strange but it doesn’t, just scaffolds its way up the norms built in by months of getting to know each other. It doesn’t feel weird at all for Isabella to snag Archibald by the wrist and tug him into the sho
