Provocation SAMPLE (Book 3 of The Conquest Series)

Chapter Five

"Jared, I'm fine," Leila argued, trying to hold back a sniffle.

"Are you sure? It's not too late for me to go back and kick some elitist ass for you," Jared ground out, his gaze hard. No one messed with his friend, especially not some holier-than-thou little prick who thought he farted eau de cologne and pissed rosewater. Probably thought he shat Grey Poupon as well.

"I just want to take a bath and read a book or something," Leila explained to Jared as they walked into the top apartment of the duplex she owned.

"Okay, but if you see that prick again, do me a favor and knock him square in the nuts for me." Jared nodded his head as if confirming it was a fantastic idea. "He may be a dish, but his shit attitude makes him ugly as sin in my eyes."

Leila had to agree, and gave Jared a small peck on the cheek before he left the apartment to head home. He was on-again with Mickey, and they were heading out to go dancing that night, trying to add some spark to their flailing and predictable relationship. Mickey was a normally homebody, and Jare liked to go out and do things. Trying to balance that out was challenging for the both of them.

Though Mickey sometimes annoyed the crap out of Leila, she thought of him as a decent friend, and it pained her to see that they were having relationship issues. It placed her right in the middle of their courtship, and she hated to play both referee and sympathetic ear to both of them. Since she had known Jared longer, she would always feel the need to side with him. Besides, he was like a little puppy dog at times. That was until his friend got her feelings hurt. He was a full-grown rottweiler then.

Leila started her bath water and added some essential oils and matching bubble bath in a new fragrance she was trying out. It smelled like honeysuckle. Light. Sweet. Nothing like Leila's personality at all. At least not on the surface.

As she relaxed in the bath, she tried to lose herself in a fantasy novel. It was about a quest to save the world from utter destruction. Leila thought the "higher beings", as they called themselves, were probably time travelers from the future who were trying to take over the world to make it better for their future. She had a knack for foresight in literature. Plus, it would be just like the author to throw a wrench into the story like that.

As Leila read along, she thought of hierarchies. Caste societies. Every nation had them whether they be political or social boundaries, and hers was like any other.

Though she wasn't quite on par with the upper crust of the society she'd been born into. She didn't hold the same values her parents did. The values that kept her mother married to her father for the sake of their rank in the white-collar workforce.

Fuck the ridiculous pecking order.

Leila broke the mold, and she was happy about that. She didn't need to marry to become a productive member of her own exclusive clique. She just wanted her friends and family, not the extras that came with having money. She had gone into architecture to do what she loved, not just to make a pile of cash—though that certainly helped.

Sighing, she placed her novel on the ground next to the tub and closed her eyes, allowing the soft drip of water from the tub faucet to soothe her to a light doze right there in the bathtub.

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Violet ignored her brother for the most part at dinner with her parents the following weekend. She was still pissed at him and wasn't afraid to show it. Carl was feeding little Mason while Harry and Mathilde talked about Nate's future—as if the man didn't know precisely what he wanted.

"Early retirement," Mathilde was saying. "Then we can go see the world before being forced to wear dentures and adult diapers."

Violet had to laugh. Her mother still looked to be only in her late 30's thanks to Botox and the finest plastic surgeons in the Bay Area. Along with that, Mattie took good care of herself, though Harry was finally starting to show more wrinkles and was going slightly to seed. Violet thought it looked good on him and was sure that her mother didn't mind either.