Seduced to Ruin an Alliance

Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

Jade

“I’m not going,” I don’t even bother lifting my eyes from the series playing on the flat screen TV in my room.

My cousin Julia has been trying to convince me to join the party my Papà decided to throw at our estate, for the last thirty minutes.

Even though I’ve made it clear that I find eating sand more appealing than hanging around all the people that came to witness the freak show that’s about to go down.

Julia just won’t leave me alone and the temptation to just push her out the window is getting more real by the minute.

“It’ll be fun!” She sits across from me on the coffee table, blocking the TV screen. “Besides, Nolan is hot!”

“Then you marry him,” I get up and walk past her watching her face light up as I approach the door. “Get out.”

“But—”

I open the door for her, but my cousin doesn’t move. Instead, she remains put, not even trying to pretend how much she dislikes me. Or how much she wishes to be the one whom Papà wants to marry off to Nolan Devlin.

“What’s with this circus?” Mamma walks in carrying the same frown I saw on Julia just minutes earlier. “Why aren’t you dressed yet?”

“I am dressed,” I respond dryly.

“A pair of skinny jeans and a top that is a size too small small is not appropriate for this type of party,” Mamma closes the door behind her with a loud click and walks up to my walk-in closet.

“You’re both wasting your time,” I make myself comfortable in the sofa again. “I said I’m not going and I’m not going to change my mind.”

“Yes, you are,” Mamma responds from inside the closet. “And if you don’t get downstairs yourself, your Papà will come here himself. We both know that’s not something you want to happen.”

I sigh. She’s right, even though I hate admitting it and would never do so out loud. Mamma doesn’t need a verbal confirmation that she’s right, she’s already too full of herself as it is.

“Told ya…” Julia mouths and I roll my eyes.

“This is perfect!” Mamma walks out of the closet carrying a puffy white dress a porcelain doll would wear. “Put this on with the silver shoes and come greet your guests.”

Your guest.

The reason why this whole freak show exists in the first place.

Even though Papà didn’t explicitly tell me what he’s planning, I’m aware that he’s throwing this party so I can spend time with Nolan Devlin.

Or my future fiancé. And I’m not the only one who knows it, I’m willing to bet, even the service staff is aware of the potential engagement between me and Nolan.

“Hurry!” Mamma helps me get up from the sofa, rushing me. “It’s rude to make people wait when you’re the host.”

I sigh, starting to undress myself. “I’m not the host, Papà is.”

“Maybe be more careful with the things you say around Nolan,” Mamma continues. “Men don’t like when a woman is too stubborn and speaks a lot.”

“Oh,” I raise an eyebrow. “You’re both those things and you’re married.”

I see Julia chuckle behind her, but Mamma doesn’t seem very amused with my comeback. Instead, she turns around on her heel, her short hair bouncing as she walks to the door and slams it shut behind her.

Someone else would consider this a win, but I know better. It’s always been like this with my parents and I’ve gotten used to it. But if they think I’m going to willingly walk from one prison into another, they clearly don’t know me enough.

“Your Mamma said to put on the white dress,” Julia’s eyes widen as I walk back into the room wearing a red dress that highlights every curve on my body and might be a little too short for a family party.

“Do you like that white dress?”

Julia nods.

“It’s yours,” I give her a small smile as I lift my long black hair into a high ponytail.

“Are you kidding me?” Her eyes go wide, but there’s an undeniable sparkle behind them. “It’s designer!”

“Everything in this house is,” I proceed to apply my makeup and finish it with perfume on my wrists and behind my ears.

“Thank you, Jade!” She squeals, grabbing the dress from the bed. “It’s gorgeous! I’m going to put it on right away. Thank you!”

“You’re welcome,” I smile, knowing Mamma will be pissed when she sees Julia wearing the dress she picked for me.

The thing about Mamma’s taste is that she likes pretending I’m a literal princess and ever since I can remember, she’s dressed me up in that type of hideous outfits. But that’s not me. It never was.

I might be known as the Moretti Princess, but I’m far from being one.

By the time Julia and I join the crowd downstairs, everyone is a little buzzed and laughing too loudly. The party is outside by the pool with a DJ and an open bar. My Papà is not even bothering to hide how hard he tried to make this an appealing setting for younger people.

I spot Mamma at the far end of the pool, with a drink in one hand.

She’s talking to some of our cousins, smiling from ear to ear.

Anyone who saw her would assume she adored her cousins, but she’s been talking crap about them the whole day.

Her eyes meet mine briefly and I smile. Then she looks over at Julia, her face turning red as she says something to the cousins before walking over to where we’re standing.

“I need to join Papà,” I tell Julia, leaving her to face my mother alone.

“Sure,” Julia responds cheerfully, unaware that she’s about to get the lecture of her life from Mamma.

I know my mother won’t bother me while I’m with Papà and Nolan, so I rush towards their table. As I approach them, I hear Nolan complain about something to the waiter and the young waiter apologizing as if he’s run over Nolan’s whole family with a car.

“Principessa,” Papà’s face lights up as I join them. The party is actually pretty cool, except there are still too many old guests, so the party planner suggested we have a less noisy seated area far from the DJ.

“Papà,” I nod politely, then I turn to Nolan, who’s now on his feet with an extended hand. “Nolan.”

I don’t take his hand. Instead, I walk past him and make myself comfortable on the free chair. Papà side-eyes me, but I put on my most polite face and decide to ignore him.

“You look nice tonight,” Nolan smiles, checking me out from head to toe, his eyes staring a little longer than necessary on my bare legs. I instantly feel like I want to cover myself.

“You’re late,” Papà tries to joke. “The guests were already starting to wonder if you’d come to your own party.”

“I was delayed, my apologies,” I respond, my voice cold and put together.

“Right,” Papà nods but I know he’s only being polite because of Nolan’s, and that he’s more than aware I wasn’t really busy. “Well, Nolan here was just telling me about the Devlin club expansion.”

“Fascinating.” I’m not surprised in the slightest that Nolan took advantage of his time alone with my Papà to convince him that the Devlin family would be an amazing ally. I might not know the guy that well, but he has a self-centered prick written all over him.

“That’s right,” Nolan jumps in quickly. “We’re working on opening two more clubs in New Orleans, and then expanding to different cities. The business is going incredibly well, it would be a shame not to.”

Before I can say anything else, we’re interrupted by the waiter carrying Nolan’s drink. Nolan turns in his seat, almost knocking over the tray from the waiter’s hand, making the poor guy almost jump out of his skin.

“It took you long enough!” Nolan snaps, grabbing his drink. He takes a sip, making a disgusted face before adding. “It’s too warm, bring another.”

“Thank you.” The three men turn to me when I speak. I get up and walk over to the waiter, helping him clean the spill on the tray caused by Nolan. “You’re doing great tonight.”

“Why don’t you two move to the dance floor?” Papà cuts in, and when I turn around I see Nolan’s face has turned red. He is fuming. It takes all of the willpower I have in me to not burst into laughter.

“I’m not in the mood for dancing,” I respond, but Nolan is already on his feet, his hand on my waist as he’s pulling me towards the dance floor.

“Come on,” Once we’re far enough from my Papà, he stops turning to face me. “You’ll have fun with me.”

“Pass,” I grab one of the drinks from the tray as another waiter passes us by. I thank the waiter and take a sip before even realizing what it is and regret it immediately once the strong vodka burns my throat.

“Your Dad wants us to spend time together,” Nolan continues. “Don’t you want to make him happy? And me?”

“We are spending time together right now,” I take another sip of my drink.

“So you don’t want to dance,” His jaw tightens and I’m almost entertained at how clueless he is. “Fine.”

With that, Nolan turns around and calls out the waiter closest to us. My heart drops when I realize it’s the same poor guy he was yelling at just a few minutes earlier.

“Whiskey on the rocks,” he instructs the waiter as his hand finds my lower back, discretely pulling my body closer to him.

We’re surrounded by other guests chatting and having fun, some of them probably gossiping about us, but I feel lonelier than ever.

A part of me wants to scream and ask for help, and another part of me wants to just run through that gate and never look back.

But where could I even go. There is no place on earth where Papà wouldn’t be able to find me, and now I’d have to hide from the Devlin’s as well.

I try to squirm away from him, but his grip on me tightens, so I take another sip.

“Your drink, sir.” The waiter returns just in time, making me wonder what would happen if I signaled him I’m in danger.

You know what would happen.

I sigh. I don’t want to drag any innocent people into my drama. But I also don’t have any idea how am I going to get away from all of this.

“At least it’s cold this time,” Nolan grabs the drink, his grip around me loosening as he takes a sip.