Page 135 of Never Let You Go

I feel myself blushing. “Um… good. Great, I guess.”

“Great?” the red head gushes. “Tell us everything.”

I’m pretty sure I’m scarlet by now. Kiara is watching with sadistic fun. Grace comes to my rescue. “Guys, seriously. Leave her alone.”

“I want to know if you broke his armor,” the girl insists. She’s two drinks ahead of us.

What is she even talking about? “Broke what?”

The girl sighs. “He swore off women after Skye’s mother—”

“She’s not Skye’s mother,” Grace cuts in.

“Birth mother,” Autumn corrects.

Grace shakes her head.

“That’s beside the point,” the girl says. “What we want to know is, are you breaking him? Autumn says he commissioned a whole bedroom makeover for you. I don’t wanna sound crude, but that’s kind of… So, did ya? Break him.”

Autumn giggles.

Kiara still has her sadistic grin on.

“What?” I’m totally confused.

The girl sighs. “Like I said, he swore off women after… whatever. Bottom line, she ruined him for the rest of us. He needs fixing. Breaking in.”

“He’s just protecting Skye,” Grace cuts in.

The girl ignores Grace. “We were thinking—hoping—that you would break the spell. Make him see that women aren’t all bad.”

“We?”

“Us girls. We talk. You’re perfect for him, by the way—” she says, looking me over from top to bottom.

My heart flutters.

“—because you’ll be leaving.”

“Oh,” I say stupidly.

“No risk of attachment,” she explains. “He’ll be more inclined to, you know, test the waters again.”

I force a chuckle. “Oh. You’re funny.”

“I’m serious,” the red head says.

Kiara hands me my first drink of the evening, an amber liquid on the rocks. “Bambi,” she says quietly, “put your big girl pants on. Drink.”

The liquid burns my mouth, hits my upset stomach, and gives me an internal pat. My eyes narrow on Kiara. “What’s my new best friends’ name?” I ask her.

The redhead opens her mouth, but Kiara interrupts her. “Whistle Pig,” she tells me, then turns to the girl. “She means the whiskey, honey.”

“Come on, guys,” Grace says once we all have a drink in hand. “Let’s have fun.”

As we elbow our way through the dense crowd, I try to shake away the uneasy feeling taking root in my stomach from what the girl said.

It’s not too long until a group of guys who know the redhead from her work introduce themselves. I promptly forget their names, but most of them are eye candy, so I mingle in the conversation.

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