Page 63 of My Irresistible Enemy

I shook my head. There was no way I’d make it. The inn was so far away.

“Sleeve me. M’goot,” I said, struggling to pull my arm free. Why wouldn’t he let me sleep?

“You are the opposite of good,” Aiden said, shaking his head. “You’re very not good right now, in fact.”

The look he gave me then was so worried. Who had given him permission to have such a pretty face? I tried to touch it again, but he caught my hand a second time and stood up, pulling me to my feet.

“Come on, upsy-daisies.”

He tugged me up, but my balance was so shot that I immediately stumbled, pushing him backwards. He staggered, his arms going around me, and I had just enough time to register how nice that felt before he was pushing me away.

“You’resureyou didn’t have anything to drink?” he asked.

My head was spinning, so he was just a streak of blond hair, a blur of blue eyes, and a set of kissable lips. Well, more like fourteen sets of lips. But I could still see well enough to know he was giving me a skeptical look.

I closed my eyes, trying to steady myself. I really didn’t feel great, but I also hadn’t had anything to drink.

“Sick,” I said. It took incredible effort to enunciate the word clearly. “Thinmskc.”

That had to be it. A twenty-four-hour bug, or food poisoning. I’d either gotten it from lunch today, or the punch at this party had gone off. Rotten peaches or something. Though as far as I could tell, no one else looked like they were about to faceplant into the harbor.

I turned away from the crowd. It hurt to look at them. All the movement and bright lights were stabbing my eyes. But as I turned, I caught sight of a camera twenty feet away. I lurched. Whatever was wrong with me, I didn’t want it recorded for posterity.

Aiden moved in front of me and wrapped an arm around my waist. “Careful. I’m not sure you could swim well enough right now not to drown if you fell in the water.”

“Hum. Need—get—hum,” I mumbled. It was so hard to string together a sentence. Hard to string together a thought. But I knew that much. I needed to get somewhere private and dark and away from cameras. I summoned up every ounce of willpower I had to pronounce a single word. “Bed.”

“Yeah,” Aiden said softly. “Yeah, I think that’s a good idea.”

I tried to turn around, bracing myself to make it through the pulsing crowd of bodies and noise, each lightbulb dangling above the dance floor a tiny, electric sword slicing right into my brain, but Aiden shook his head and pulled me to the left.

“Not that way. Not unless you want the cameras to see you like this.”

Bless him for thinking of that. He really was thoughtful. More so than I’d ever given him credit for. Why had I been so mean to him, all these weeks? I regretted it.

I tried to tell him as he guided my feet along the cobblestones, but all that came out was a dribble of syllable-porridge. Maybe it was for the best. I’d probably just embarrass myself further if I could speak clearly.

“Head,” I gritted out. “Too. Spin.” I tried to point to my brain, to emphasize what the problem was, but all I managed to do was poke myself in the eye. “Fuck.”

“Let’s just get you back,” Aiden said, staggering as I stumbled over my feet, “and leave the fine motor skills for the morning.”

I couldn’t tell you how we got back to the Wisteria. It was a blur of night air and rustling leaves and Aiden’s arm wrapped around my waist. His touch was strangely comforting, and not just because he kept me from face-planting into countless bushes.

He felt warm and solid. Like he was tethering me to the earth. The stars above us whirled and danced in ways I was pretty sure they didn’t do normally, but I was too out of it to think that they looked anything but beautiful. Just like him.

“Alright, we’ve got steps coming up. You ready?” Aiden asked, which was when I realized that we’d made it back to the inn.

I couldn’t even be mad at him for how condescending he sounded, since whether I was ready for stairs or not was a legitimate question. The Wisteria’s porch bucked and lurched in my vision, and I had to clutch his arm just to make it to the front door. A little bell tinkled as we pushed inside, and I blinked against the sudden brightness.

“You guys are back early,” said a voice that I knew. “Is it over, or are you just—”

I forced myself to look at the figure rising from the desk in the foyer, and eventually, it resolved into Mal. He hurried towards us, worry painting his features.

“Shit, are you okay?” He put his hand on my shoulder.

I tried to marshal my thoughts into words, but just opened and closed my mouth like a frog, emitting a low sort of croak. Domino, Mal’s black-and-white cat, had come over to inspect me along with Mal, but now he backed away, looking frightened.

“What the hell happened?” Mal asked, transferring his gaze to Aiden.

---