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Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 79
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 79: .“I think we just need to accept that this is naturally going to be a little awkward,” Isabella says with a nervous laugh. “I mean, all of it. Sharing a room, sharing a bed, pretending that we’re together for the next four days. It’s a much bigger commitment than what we did at the bar, or at the party. It’s normal for it to be weird. What we’re doing is weird.”“I guess so. And I can see how the fucking swans could make it feel, um, weirder.”“Is that a sentence you ever anticipated you would speak during the course of your lifetime?” She asks as she walks back towards the door to grab her suitcase.“I’m afraid not.”“Don’t worry about me,” She tells him, sitting down on the edge of the bed. “I just want you to have a good time. You deserve to, after how much you’ve helped me. And considering we have endless amounts of free alcohol at our disposal and don’t even have to leave our room to go to the pool, having a good time should be
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 80
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 80:.“I’ve gotta say, I’m glad you convinced me to keep the room,” Isabella says.“Me too. Imagine if we had to fight with all the other people—I mean, peasants—over the shared hot tubs instead? That would have been unimaginable.”She swirls the water in front of her with her hand. “Imagine not having our own pool? Imagine having to wake up early every day to scavenge for a lounge chair that isn’t taken yet? I’m not built to withstand that kind of struggle. I wouldn’t have survived.”“Maybe the receptionist could sense it,” Archibald says, his brow furrowing in realization. “She gave us the complimentary upgrade because she knew it would save our lives.”“I forgot to text Dara and brag about it,” She suddenly remembers. “I love making her mad. It’s one of my favorite pastimes. I need to send her a picture tomorrow.”“It sounded like she really wanted to go on this trip. If it wasn’t for me, I bet she would have talked you into taking her
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 81:
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire . Chapter 81:.When Isabella wakes up the next morning, bright rays of sunshine are streaming through the glass wall, reflecting and shining directly into her eyes. She winces, barely awake, shifting her body slightly, trying to orient herself in the unfamiliar bed.As she moves, she realizes there’s something unfamiliar touching her cheek. Warm, soft... skin? She opens her eyes, squinting. She’s greeted by the sight of a tattooed arm so close to her face that it takes a moment for her eyes to focus on it.Isabella wakes up the rest of the way with a jolt, her eyes flying open in panic.She quickly assesses the situation. Archibald still seems to be asleep, and Isabella quickly thanks every single deity she’s ever heard of for that, because the situation they’re in is—well, it’s compromising, to say the least.They must have gravitated towards each other in their sleep. Isabella is much closer to the center of the bed than she remembers, and Arch
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 82:
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire . Chapter 82: .Isabella raises an eyebrow, lowering her voice. “Wait. Are you the one who got us upgraded?”“I can neither confirm nor deny that,” Warren says in a dramatic whisper.Isabella’s eyes widen. “No way. Warren, you didn’t have to—”“I know,” Warren says, cutting her off. “But you deserve it. So enjoy it. Is your boyfriend enjoying himself?”“Boyfriend? My—oh. Right. My boyfriend. Yeah, he is. He’s just gonna have a lazy day today while I’m occupied. Well, his version of a lazy day, which means he’s going to the gym.”“Going to the gym on vacation,” Warren says, shaking his head. “He’s my friend and I’m sure he’s a nice person, no, but that’s a red flag.”Isabella bursts into laughter. “I’m with you on that one. But no, he is a nice person. He might be coming tonight, hopefully.”“I’ll look forward to it.” Warren slaps Isabella on the shoulder again. “Enjoy yourself this week, okay? I’ll try not to drag out the festivities too long tod
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 83:
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire . Chapter 83: .Isabella takes a deep breath, turning around in the chair and swinging her legs over to the other side so that her back is facing Archibald. Archibald leans over, picking up the bottle of sunscreen off the ground and squirting some into his hands. He rubs it between his palms to warm it up first—very considerate, Isabella thinks—and then two broad palms are rubbing over Isabella’s shoulder blades, working the sunscreen into her skin.A tiny strangled noise tries to work its way out of Isabella’s throat, but she manages to keep it in.“How was your work stuff?” Archibald asks, thumbs rubbing over Isabella’s shoulders. Isabella is not entirely sure if that particular motion is necessary for effective sunscreen application.“It was fine,” Isabella says. “Oh, actually, I forgot to tell you. I won a prize for us.”“Yeah?” Archibald asks, squeezing more sunscreen into his hands and rubbing it into Isabella’s lower back with firm strokes
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 84:
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire . Chapter 84: .“Do you feel that way about your job? Like it has meaning?”Isabella nods. “Yeah. For me, I think my primary motivation has always been to help people. Not only in my career, but, like—in life, in general. And I know Hector is only one person, but my job pretty much consists of helping him in one million different ways, so it is fulfilling for me. Especially because I think he’s a really good human. It feels meaningful to help him. He helps a lot of other people in return.”“I noticed that about you,” Archibald murmurs. His gaze is fixed on the ocean in front of them, hair blowing softly in the warm breeze. “The night we met, you were so hellbent on repaying me for helping you. Like you couldn’t accept the help without feeling like you needed to offer help in return.”“I guess I’m…” Isabella trails off. “I guess I’m not used to being the one who’s helped. Usually it’s me who’s doing the helping.”Archibald hums. “That sounds like
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 85:
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire . Chapter 85: .“Are you ready to get started?” the woman asks. “Our massage therapists are professionals, and they’ve seen it all before. Besides, I’m sure she has too, right?” She looks over at Archibald, winking.Archibald looks like he’s two seconds away from dissolving into laughter. The corners of his mouth twitch.Isabella laughs weakly. “He sure has! Yes. Many times. Ha-ha.”“Enjoy your massage,” the woman says, smiling. She leaves the room, the heavy door closing behind her with a solid thunk. Isabella feels like she’s just been locked inside a death chamber.“Did you know we were going to have to get naked?” Isabella hisses at Archibald in a loud whisper, eyes rapidly scanning the room, looking for something—a robe, a towel, anything at all to cover herself. There’s nothing.“I mean, I kind of assumed,” Archibald admits. “It’s normal for a massage. But I thought you knew that! You didn’t tell me you had never had one before! So I assum
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 86
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire . Chapter 86: .---“You did what?” Isabella asks, bursting into laughter so violently she almost topples over onto the brick path underfoot. She grabs at Archibald’s arm to steady herself. “You’re kidding me.”“Nope,” Archibald says, tongue poking at the inside of his cheek. “And it worked, too. I never heard them again.”She’s just been told another Warren story—there seem to be an endless number of them. Apparently when Warren first started dating his private girlfriend, Haley, they were getting it on so loudly that it was keeping Archibald awake at night. When Archibald decided he had had enough, he plugged in his keyboard at full volume and started playing the theme song to every cartoon he could think of. As well as his five-year-old-equivalent skill level would allow, anyway—which is to say, not very well.Warren eventually burst in, yelling over the music, demanding to know why Archibald was ruining the ambiance. Archibald told him tha
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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
