Page 232 of In Love with a Cruel Billionaire

Chapter 5

“What. The. Fuck.Tell me that didn’t happen,” Velvet exclaimed over Skype, sheer disbelief causing Mairi’s curvy redhead friend to sit up from the leather couch she had been lounging on. And then she started to laugh. “But it did, didn’t it?”

Mairi cried out, “You’re not helping!” The words came out louder than intended, causing the few teachers in the faculty room to turn her way. She ducked her head immediately in embarrassment. Dear God, why couldn’t these cubicle walls be a little taller?

Velvet, seeing her friend trying to turn herself into a tiny ball, laughed harder. “You are so hopeless.”

“I know.”

Velvet rolled her eyes when she caught a glimpse of Mairi’s miserable face on her iPad. “Oh, come on, Mairi. You have nothing to be guilty about. Tell me, did you want to kiss him?”

Mairi gasped. “Of course I didn’t want to ki—-” She caught herself in time. Grabbing her own iPad from the desk, she typed her answer instead.OF COURSE I DIDN’T WANT TO KISS HIM!

“Then there you go,” her friend answered promptly upon reading Mairi’s reply. “So there’s nothing to be guilty about, like I said.” She paused. “Have you told Damen?”

Mairi slowly shook her head.

Velvet blinked. “Oh.” She frowned. “That’s not like you.”

Mairi fiddled with the cord of her earphones. “I just think it’s really bad timing, you know? I mean, we came here so we’d be far away from trouble and then...this.” Thinking about it had her lips burning. Snatching a new sheet of tissue, she wiped her lips furiously, wishing it were just easy to erase what had happened.

Mairi wanted to knock her head against her desk repeatedly.Oh God, how could she have been so stupid?

“Just tell him and get it over with.”

“I don’t want to,” Mairi half-wailed, half-whispered.

Velvet did her best to suppress a smile at the answer. It was really cute, the way her friend hadn’t lost her childish ways even though she was now one of the most powerful women in the world. With the Greek tycoon wrapped around her little finger, there was precious little Mairi couldn’t have.

“Repeat after me,” Velvet said solemnly. “Damen...”

“Damen,” Mairi mumbled under her breath.

“Something happened.”

“Something happened.”

“I became a cougar.”

“I became a cou—-what?”

Velvet laughed. “Sorry, I couldn’t help it.”

Mairi sniffed. “You’re no help.” She glared at her iPhone screen so her friend would know she was serious. “If you and your own Greek billionaire have a fight, I swear to God I won’t be on your side—-” The rest of her words were cut off by a beep.

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