Gold Digger (Daydreamer, #2)

by Susie Tate

It was as if my very soul was looking straight at hers through her eyes and simply saying, “Oh, it’s you. There you are.”

“You’re not fine. Stop saying you’re fine when you’re not. It’s infuriating.”

His shirt was off.

“I might not be able to ‘upend the pecking order of this country’, Miss Forest,” the duke said in a carefully controlled voice, “but I sure as fuck can tell my manager how to run my bar considering I bloody well own it.”

“I have a small towel issue.” “W-w-what do you mean?” “As in, I no longer have a towel.”

Now, I’m a good girl.

“I looked at your ding dong.”

“Well, it doesn’t work that way, you numpty.”

“Oh, you know, it’s always been my dream to serve overpriced drinks to rich people. I feel like I’m fulfilling my life’s calling. It’s where I’m meant to be.”

“I need the money, dufus. Why do you think I’m working there?”

“You know that I eat your custard creams,” I whispered, mortified. He chuckled. “Lottie, you eat about three packets a week. Who do you think makes sure there’s a steady supply?”

“Whatever, I’m not that much of a whore.”

“So, I asked Mrs H to come back and do the actual cleaning. By the time Lottie gets to my house, there’s literally nothing for her to do. No washing up, bathrooms are spotless. And she doesn’t eat enough, so I might have started leaving food for her.”

You’ve got all these threads between you in families, weaving in and out, strengthening you all as a whole, giving everyone a safety net, a sense of belonging. Don’t risk cutting any of the threads. Not when your sister could be the one to fall through the hole it creates.”

Telling you off for standing on a ladder when – and baby, I mean no shade when I say this – you have a fair bit of trouble staying upright when you’re on solid ground? I think my concern was warranted.”

I surged out of my seat, my free hand diving into that glorious hair that I’d been dreaming about for months and my lips crashing onto his still-smiling mouth.

“Hey, hey, hey,” he said in a soft voice; his smile had dropped now, and his expression was clouded with concern. “Don’t shut down on me, baby. Not after that. There’s no going back after that.”

“I’m going to start by saying that I really, really like you.”

Very strong feelings that I’ve had for a very long time. I know it’s not ideal with you working for me, which is why I haven’t made a move before now, but I can’t stay away from you any longer.”

“So it’s gentlemanly to be the first to get hit by a car?”

“I just don’t think he’s serious enough about you. I’m worried he’ll let you down, and with your little sister relying on you… I wouldn’t want you to be put in a difficult position. I really do like you and your sister, you see.”

Lies

Now it was about a little girl and the fact she simply couldn’t speak to anyone but me.

“You don’t have to greet me if you don’t want to. I know how annoying it is when people expect you to speak when you’d rather not. I didn’t used to speak much either.”

Lottie has the uncanny ability to sense exactly what people need in a conversation. She can adapt to any circumstance. She has such strong emotional intelligence, it’s almost as though she can read people’s minds.”

and I couldn’t come up with any quality I admired about him other than the fact his tie coordinates well with his shirt.”

Everyone in my family knows what a grasping, scheming gold digger you are, so don’t mess with us again.”

“Nobody likes a stale Jaffa Cake.”

“I’m

“Lottie’s very qualified for what she does, Ollie,”

This man who’d never struggled a day in his life chose to judge me?

Hayley’s smile got bigger, and my chest tightened. I decided then and there that making this little girl smile was going to be my new favourite pastime.

“Because there’s no one else. There’s nobody to catch me when I fall. No family that gives one single shit about me. No safety net. And I can’t do it all. I’m not strong enough.”

“You’re much more reasonable when you’re in my arms.”

I knew that any normal person would have broken way before she had.

I’d already started to make a few moves to ruin Buchanon’s business after I’d uncovered the fact that they fired Lottie two weeks after her mother died.

“She did not. And don’t be a tattletale. Now what on earth were you trying to make the child?”

So, I’m sorry if I scared you, but I’m not sorry that you had an extra couple of hours in bed. And I’m not sorry about giving you a laptop or kissing you.”

“You nearly drowned. You don’t have a drink you can drink on a boiling day, and you’re not even being called by your actual name. And people think I’m rude.”

“You’ve been let down so many times, and I’m just another fuckwit in a long line of fuckwits to do it to you again.”

“I’m in love with you, Lottie,” I told her. “And I’ll spend forever making it up to you. I’ll spend forever proving that you can trust me. I let you down again today, but that’s just because I was being an oblivious arsehole, not a vindictive one like I was before. So, you’ll just have to forgive me for that too.”

“I promise you’re safe with me, baby. You can let go.”

“I want to renegotiate the terms of our deal.”

“Sometimes I think that the whole world is weird and I’m the only normal one.”

Blake made a big mistake then – he held on.

“If I ever see a bruise on your wife again, I will fuck you up way worse than this, motherfucker,”

“You’ve dropped this ball, Harding. It was me she wanted to go to in there. Me that she burrowed herself into, and it’ll be me that makes sure she’s okay.”

“My family are none of your fucking business.”

“Just check on Claire, Ollie.”

Oh well, if it’s imperative, then of course I’ll help guv’nor.”

“Well, you’re my numpty. Because I love you too.”