I slid past Zion, erasing the distance between us. “I’m afraid I don’t have the pleasure of knowing your name.”
“Ivy Thompson.”
“Well, Ivy, if speaking my mind is making an ass of myself, get ready to see just how shameless I am.”
She rolled her eyes. “Can’t stand girls like you.”
“You don’t know me. Let alone the girls I’m like.”
“Oh, please. You think you’re the first self-righteous, condescending know-it-all to bang on about us being controlled and treated like property. Did you ever think for a minute that we’re here because we want to be?”
“Want to be? You want to get engaged at nineteen?”
“Unlike some...” She raked me up and down. “My parents love me. They’d never cut me off or abandon me for marrying someone they didn’t like.”
My jaw clenched. That strike hit its target dead center.
“What about this summer is different from online dating, dating shows, The Bachelor, or the rest? People with the same interests are matched up and given a chance to find that spark. My parents want that for me, and if it doesn’t work out, no one is forcing anyone to get married.”
Speak for yourself.
“There’s no harm in spending the summer being wined and dined by a dozen or so hot guys. So, ease up, Adler. We don’t need you to save us.”
Ivy rammed my shoulder, shoving past. I moved quick, sticking my leg out and hooking her ankle. She dropped with a scream, hitting the floor before Zion could catch her. The furious look she flashed me would’ve turned a lesser woman to stone.
“Don’t touch me, Thompson,” I said mildly. “Never do that. But I thank you for sharing your point of view. If everyone just sees this as a summer of dating and hooking up, it makes things much easier for me.”
“What’s the holdup?” Hendrix called into the bus. “Is everything all right?”
“Fine.” I stepped over Ivy, hooking my arm through a gaping Zion. “Most of you are from the academy, right?”
“Uhh. Pretty much all of us,” he said slowly.
“Good. Then you can tell me everything the information packet left out. Who is just looking for fun and who’s out here for a wife?” I plopped us both down on a row in the back, ignoring the glares from Ivy and the two girls who helped her up. “Ready when you are.”
“What do you plan to do to us, Adler?”
I chuckled. “Don’t worry. Most of you are safe.”
I don’t think Zion found that particularly reassuring, but he launched into it anyway. Grabbing my folder, he pulled out the list of names we received and began at the top of the list.
“Preston Desai.”
My legs crossed just thinking of the night he made me his jungle gym.
“Among those honestly looking for marriage, he’s the top prize,” Zion began. “His father’s family, the Du Ponts, is an old wealthy family stretching back to France. They’ve made their name in the art world, amassing the largest private collection of famous artwork and antiquities, and then Preston’s grandfather branched out, buying up galleries and building studios to teach the next generation.
“The Du Ponts married into the Desais’ second-largest commercial real estate company in the country, popped out Preston, and bam, you have the richest guy here,” he said. “Everyone wants him, but the only one who is going to get him is—”
“Delilah Winthrop.”
“Yeah. How did you know?”
I fixed my gaze out of the window, feeling the rattle and hum as we set off for the cove. “We’ve met.”
“Do you know about Carter Knight and Nathan Prince too?”
I know plenty about them, but not why they’re here.
“Enlighten me.”
Sighing, Zion leaned back in his seat. “Nathan’s a cool guy, but he got everything the hard way. He lost his dad in a sailing accident when he was ten and then his grandmother a few years later to cancer. Both left him sizable inheritances that will set him, his children, his grandchildren, and his great-grandchildren’s grandchildren up for the rest of their lives. But not yet.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s years before he sees a cent of that money,” Zion explained. “But Nathan is still... Nathan. He can drop a girl’s panties with a wink, and more than a few of them are happy to take him on as an investment that will pay off tenfold in the future.”
“Lovely.” I shook my head. “Next name on the list. Carter. Does he want a wife?”
“No one knows what that guy wants. He blew through hookups at the academy, refusing to get serious with anyone. He’s got three older brothers who work with their dad and he’ll take his place after college. But he doesn’t have to. No one is hanging their hopes or the future of the company on him. He can do whatever he wants. If anyone is here by choice, it’s Carter, but again, I don’t believe he’s looking to get engaged. Plenty of girls want to marry him, though.”
I held the question in for as long as I could, but with her as name number four, I might as well ask. “What’s the deal with Delilah? Why are she and Preston a sure thing?”
“I said the Desais had the second-largest real estate company,” he replied. “The Winthrops have the largest. Between the two of them, they’ll own the entire country. It’s a massive merger that is sealed with their I dos.”
“So Preston was never going to be with anyone but her.” The knowledge didn’t sting. On the contrary, it killed the niggling doubt and confirmed nothing about the other night was real. “Thank you, Zion. You’re a wealth of information.”
Bending over, I dug into my pack and pulled out a pen. “This will be quicker if you mark a star next to the guys on the hunt for an heiress.” I eyed him. “Please tell me you’re not one of them.”
He snorted. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against meeting someone and flinging it up in one of the chillest places I’ve ever been to.”
The man didn’t lie. The world unfolding outside of my window was gorgeous. Dancing coconut trees, miles of untouched beach, and more sunshine than a Bracknell girl could stand. Under normal circumstances, I’d love to spend my summer here.
I nudged his shoulder. “Why do I feel a but coming on?”
“But you’re not my type.”
“What? Opinionated?”
“Violent.”
A laugh ripped out, startling and amusing me. “Because of that little scuffle with Ivy? Afraid you’d be in for a lifetime of being dropped on your ass whenever I’m pissed off?”
“Yes.”
“You’re perceptive as well as informative, Zion Mitchell.”
We cracked up.
“Friends?” he asked, sticking out his hand.
“Friends.”
I would not for any reason use the word enjoyable, but I would say the rest of our scenic route to the villa wasn’t complete misery.
Zion marked off all the guys on the hunt for an heiress—any heiress. Dad was clear that I had to choose a husband among those who proposed to me, and I’ll make sure Charlie, Dillon, Jax, Andres, and the rest of them didn’t get that idea into their heads for a second.