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CH 116:
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Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 117:
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 117: .“Good luck,” Isabella says, charmed and just a bit breathless. “Knock ‘em dead.”“That’s the plan,” Archibald replies. “Thank you.”And then he’s walking back towards the ring like he hadn’t just grabbed Isabella’s heart by the throat and slammed it up against a wall. A metaphorical wall. A very metaphorical and definitely not literal wall, and Isabella definitely (metaphorically and not literally) doesn’t have to press the flat of her palm to her chest to take in a breath after. The headgear goes back on and the two men in the ring, the other in sky blue, bow to one another.Archibald’s preferred weapon is a jian. It’s one that Isabella can appreciate, even if she wasn’t ever that skilled with it, but it particularly suits Archibald in the way that it requires precision. It’s a gentleman’s weapon, after all, and Archibald wields it like it’s merely an extension of his arm.He’s fast and his movements are so liquid smooth that Isa
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 118:
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 118:.“Father wants to talk to you about coming back.”Isabella’s mug is halfway to her mouth when Chantelle drops that sentence like a bomb. It slips out of her fingers and orange juice spills across the table; Chantelle rolls her eyes and does nothing, as if daring that puddle to creep closer to the edge.“What?”“Are you deaf now, too? Father wants to talk to you about coming back. He misses you, Izzy.”“Pull the other one,” Isabella snaps.“Always so dramatic. Fine. Father has admitted at long last that your quality of work was never in question and that your firing was a result of temper and duress. He says that he’ll take you back, no questions asked, if you’ll agree to stop kissing our family's competition in the newspapers.”There are always questions asked. Nothing in this world has ever come from her father that didn’t have strings attached. It’s taken a long time, but Isabella always learns her lessons. She also picks out what
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 119
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 119:.“Oh my god.”Isabella waves at Dara where she’s standing next to her car. She’s dropped her eggs and doesn’t seem to care that yolk is getting all over her boots. Gross.“Sup.”“Isabella Huo, don’t you dare say ‘sup’ to me when you look like that. You look like you got hit by a truck and lost.”Isabella winces and gingerly wipes at her face. It’s not sticky anymore, and dried blood comes off in flakes. Double gross.The struggle is real.(Isabella thinks she might have a concussion.)“Can you yell at me later? I think I’m concussed.”Between one breath and the next, Dara yanks open the car door, and then she’s really, really close to Isabella’s face. She tries not to, but she can’t help the reflexive flinch after everything today that has her plastering her whole back against the seat, even though Dara’s hands aren’t anything but gentle when she reaches out for her.Her face drops when she pushes Isabella’s bangs aside and sees what
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 120
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 120: .“Sweetheart,” He says, “of course you’re not fine. No one in the world would expect you to be fine.”Isabella wants to go out into the woods and bury herself facedown in the ground. Not just because of how incredibly not fine she actually is, but because having that not-fine validated so easily makes her want to die. This isn’t her first rodeo with her father that had her coming out of it with a head injury, but it’s the first time she’s actually stood up for herself.She keeps waiting for it to feel better, but all she feels is sad.Archibald’s uncomplicated affection is too much for her to be expected to handle.“How did you…?” Isabella trails off.“Your roommate called me,” Archibald explains. “She had to leave and thought it best if you weren’t alone when you woke up.”“How much did she tell you?”Archibald’s face goes cloudy like a thunderhead, even though his hands on Isabella’s body aren’t anything but gentle.“Enough to be
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 121:
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 121: .The silence is deafening.Isabella can hear every single beat of her heart and her breaths are quick and shallow.“Can you say something, please? I’m kind of freaking out here.”Isabella’s question, more of a plea than anything else, is what brings Archibald back to life. The arm draped over Isabella’s waist squeezes tight but not too tight, dragging her close enough that a bug would have trouble finding space to crawl between them.“I’m going to be entirely honest with you,” Archibald says, voice tight and sounding like he’s holding his shit together through sheer force of will and might actually be failing at it, “There aren’t enough words in existence to describe how upset I am right now. For someone to treat anyone like that is horrific. To know that someone has treated you like that is unbearable.”Archibald sounds wrecked, actually, and Isabella’s doubly glad she can’t see him. She doesn’t want to see what the man’s face look
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 122:
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 122:.Please wear this today.That’s all the card says when Isabella opens the envelope after staring at it and the box on her kitchen table with wary trepidation.It’s obvious, of course, who it’s from.Who else would have a good enough idea of Isabella’s schedule and also be meticulous enough to have a package hand-delivered to her front step just in time for her to find it? She snorts a little.Archibald is a little ridiculous like that, but it seems to make him happy, and being able to make him happy is a tempting enough reward that Isabella doesn’t call him out on his specific brand of insanity. God, the man is extra—completely out of his tree—and Isabella likes him so much.You gonna open it sometime this year or just wait for it to explode? is what the voice that sounds suspiciously like Dara demands in the back of her head. Even her mental Dara is usually right, Isabella decides with a shrug, and reaches out to pull off the black
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 123:
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 123:.Archibald’s answer comes in a quietly murmured, “Hold still,” and a repositioning that puts Isabella between his thighs and her back against Archibald’s chest. It’s easy, then, to tip her head back to look at the stars, equally easy in turn to press warm, mouthy kisses to Archibald’s lips and jawline, the column of her neck. Archibald makes a pleased, indulgent noise from the back of his throat and adjusts his hold to accommodate her better.“That’s lovely,” he says, “Always such a sweetheart.”Isabella shivers a little, even in the warm night air, and tries hard not to think about what might happen if she spread her thighs right here and asked if he’d like to indulge her in something else. She doesn’t, mostly because the idea of getting sand in sensitive places is enough to put her off the idea entirely.“When you, uh. When you say private, how private are we talking?”Archibald goes very still, and Isabella can’t resist a glance
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 124
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire . Chapter 124: .The drink is good, rum-based and fruity sweet-tart from the pineapple juice. It goes down smooth with no burn from the alcohol, and when Archibald’s glass is empty, he wordlessly trades it out for his own half-full one as if that had been his plan all along.“But this one’s—”“Also yours. Two might be a bit much for right now, but you’ll be alright with one and a bit. I can tell that you’re still a bit nervous.” Archibald’s voice is calm and patient, and he doesn’t seem to mind that every move Isabella makes manages to splash water onto the fabric of his pants. He not only doesn’t mind but does, in fact, seem to be actively encouraging it by way of his fingertips idly painting patterns onto Isabella’s wet shoulders.Isabella feels her heart rate kick up at how this all feels and how it feels to be looked at the way that Archibald’s looking at her right now, like she’s something lovely and charming and special. Isabella’s not any
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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
