Page 73 of Moonlit Temptation

“Who are you looking for?”

“Archer.” My lie was smooth, like bourbon over ice.

“Why?”

“Why not?” I gave her a hard stare. “Know anyone else here?”

Saint. Saint. Saint.

“Since when do you care about knowing anyone at a party?”

Typically not usually, but being at this party felt wrong.

Never had I felt more my age than I did now.

Everyone here, aside from Jessa, ranged from their upper twenties, like Archer and Saint, to their early thirties.

I was the youngest person here by a long shot.

“Maybe we should go back outside.”

Jessa looked dubious. “Why? We were just out there.”

I was acting weird. I knew it.

Usually, I wasn’t one to let an unfamiliar situation throw me, but I entered a new territory tonight and I’d like to find the man who placed me on this map. So he could help guide me back on course instead of leading me astray for a moment longer.

No more games.

I needed Saint to give it to me straight. Either we did this or we didn’t. Don’t leave me dangling over this edge alone.

“I’d just rather be outside.” I needed fresh air to get an attack plan assembled. It was too crowded, too loud in here. “You know how I love the stars.”

She tried to hide it, but I saw the smile. Stars reminded us of Mom, who used to say we thrived in the night. Under the stars, we came alive.

Dad might’ve hidden all her belongings, but he could never hide her from us in the stars.

My gaze moved toward the kitchen window, only to immediately jump back to my sister. “On second thought, let’s just stay inside.”

Inside was better at the moment.

It wasn’t that crowded. I could easily think of a plan in here.

“You’re acting weird.” Jessa narrowed her eyes at me. “Why?”

With pleading eyes, I begged her not to make me say it aloud.

Her eyes narrowed farther.

Our staring contest was held until my patience shorted out and I broke our eye contact on a sigh.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” I shot her a ‘you asked for it’ look. “Dad’s flirting with the cocktail waitress. Very blatantly. Very grotesquely.”

A waitress who was between Jessa’s and my age. Young twenties. If that.

This wasn’t the first time he hit on a girl who could be his daughter. Wasn’t the first time, if he succeeded, he’d take one of them to bed.

It was that charm that people swore he had. They ate it up like free candy.

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