Page 63 of Scandalous Park Avenue Prince

“Oh.” Right. I’d been so caught up in Archer’s note at the restaurant and meeting him after that I’d completely forgotten we’d all been invited to an exclusive party in Soho.

Oops.

“Sorry, dinner went long, and then Serena and I just wanted a chill night after,” I said. The lie came off my tongue easily—I was so used to having Serena as a buffer that I didn’t notice when all the guys stopped to stare at me.

“Really?” East perched on the end of the table, a curious expression in his eyes. “You and Serena?”

“Yes, me and Serena. Remember her? My girlfriend.”

“Oh, I remember Serena. Always a ball of fun, that one.”

“So you’re pissed we skipped a night out. Get over it.”

“You’re right. Who am I to interfere in a couple’s affairs?” East said, placating me. Behind him, Travis was shooting me a look I couldn’t decipher. Like he was trying to warn me about something—but Jesus, so I didn’t go to some party. Big deal.

West cleared his throat and, like he was picking up what East was laying down, said, “The thing is, though…” There was a curious twist to his lips. “Serena? She was withuslast night.”

The room descended into silence, but a rush of blood in my ears made them ring.

Shit, had I just fucked up, or were they trying to call my bluff? I ran back through my last conversation with Serena—her telling me that she and the girls were going out last night, but for the life of me, I couldn’t remember where. Was it possible she’d been at the same party the guys had been invited to? We had similar social circles together and apart, but…

Fuck.

Every one of the guys was looking at me like I’d just royally screwed up and was hiding a secret.

My gaze shot to Travis, who only closed his eyes and shook his head, and that was enough for me to know they weren’t lying.

It was me.Iwas the liar.

“Nooo,” Gavin said, his grey eyes unable to hide his surprise and disappointment. “Please tell me you’re not messing around on Serena.”

“Of course I’m not messing around on Serena.” That would require me actually dating Serena to begin with. But if I told this bunch of ingrates that, there’d be no stopping the barrage of nosy, wildly impersonal questions that would follow.

“Of course,” East said. “You’re too polite for a messy fuck. So, whose pearls were you polishing whilst having boring missionary sex behind your girl’s back last night?”

My heart began to hammer as an image of Archer cleaning up his front door after I’d come all over it sprang to mind.Yeah, I had no problem getting messy, and under any other circumstance—like my friends actually knowing that I was gay—I would have no problem telling them that. But suddenly the lies that had once been so easy were like an albatross around my neck.

“Well, I’ll be damned.” East took a martini from the bartender and took a sip. “Perfect Preston reallyislighting his wick in someone else.”

“I—”

“Yes…?” East drawled when everyone else merely stood there staring at me with looks of curiosity and shock.

Serena and I had been such a tight unit for so long that the idea that things between us were anything but solid had clearly stunned them all into silence. So before this conversation got completely out of hand, the one thing I needed to do was make sure Serena didn’t look the fool.

Donovan came around the end of the pool table and stopped in front of me, his eyes full of sympathy and understanding.

“If you need to talk, if things are over between you two, you know you can always come to me. You don’t have to keep it to yourself.”

“Wait.” Gavin’s voice was soft as he joined Donovan in front of me. The pity rolling off the two of them was almost worse than East’s smack talk. “Did Serena break up with you?”

Oh God.Now they thought I’d spent the night at home crying into a box of tissues. Did they really think I’d be standing here grinning like a fool if Serena had broken my heart? This was getting ridiculous.

“No. Serena did not break up with me.”

“Oh.” West grimaced. “So you really are sleeping around on her? Fuckin’ hell, man, I’d hate to be you when she finds out. That girl is ruthless when mad.”

She really was. That was one of the reasons she fit in so well with our group. She could hold her own. But that still didn’t help clear things up.

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