Page 13 of Puck Prince

I nearly fall over as the contact is ripped away, my equilibrium spinning. All I can do is watch as she unlocks her cousin’s door and slips inside.

“Jesus fucking Chr—” The door closes. The deadbolt goesthunk.

And the hallway has never felt quieter.

I’m not usually one to get thrown off my game, but even I have to admit that Winnie the Pooh here has me zigging when she zags. It’s… disorienting, to say the least. Tantalizing, to say the most.

But fuck me, I need a cold shower. I need to shock the crazy thoughts I am having from my brain and fix the current problem in my pants. I walk back to my own apartment, but just as I am about to go inside, the door of the elevator opens.

And my heart plummets into my stomach.

“What are you doing here?” I blink as the woman stalks towards me.

“I need a place to stay.” She is practically begging. I look over at Kennedy’s door, both impressed by and nauseous over the perfect timing.

Thank God she didn’t see Callie. And thank fuck Callie didn’t see her.

Or who she’s got with her.

5

CALLIE

My body is pressed against the door as I squint one eye shut and peer through the peephole with the other. I’m not breathing, not moving, just mouth open as the hairs on the back of my neck prick up at what I’m seeing.

“You aren’t supposed to be here,” Owen tells a red-headed woman.

But it’s not just the pretty girl standing in front of him that’s making him sweat and panic.

It’s the fact that she’s holding a baby.

“You’re only allowed to come here in an emergency! What if someone sees you?” Owen is whisper-yelling. But despite his panic over whoever this is, he opens his door and she follows him inside, baby in tow.

I take a stumbling step back from the door, hyperventilating.

No. No, no, NO.

I continue to back away towards the living room as the situation takes nauseating shape in my head.

“He’s married,” I say to the empty room. “And they have a baby. Oh my fucking God. I just slept with a married man who has a family!”

I run a hand through my hair and hold it there. My head is a hornet’s nest of unwanted thoughts. Thoughts of my parents. The mistakes they made. Mistakes I looked at and thought,Why? Why would anyone ever do that?Turns out, the answer is because he’s handsome andthere.

Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, I guess.

“I am the other woman.” I press my hand to my stomach, praying the wine I drank several hours ago won’t resurface. Then I remember what I’m wearing. His jersey.A married man’sjersey.

She probably washes this jersey for him. And how does he repay her? By fucking another woman, that’s how!

I rip the jersey off and toss it aside like it’s poisonous. Then I march to the bathroom. I need a shower. I need to rinse this whole night off of me. I am raging. How could I be so stupid? How could he be such a dick?

“Fucking hell, Callie, don’t say ‘dick’ right now,” I hiss at myself as I turn the shower on as hot as it’ll go.

As much as I feel terrible—dirty, evil, shameful, the works—I am just as upset over the fact that the sex was some of the best of my life. Go figure. That’s just my luck. Iwouldfind a sexy stranger who is stellar in the sack only to find out he is someone else’s husband.

I need to forget it. Forget it ever happened. Forget him.

But just as I am about to undress the rest of the way, I hear the front door groan open.

---