Page 10 of Sunshine and the Vamp

“Ah, breaking up with someone, then.”

“Something like that.” He gnawed at his bottom lip for a minute as he scanned the crowd again.

“Well, why don’t I help take your mind off it for a bit?” God knows I could use the distraction.

“Sure,” he replied with a half-smile.

“Tell me about yourself.”

“Right. Um, I’m Charlie and I work in finance. I guess.”

“You guess?”

“Yeah,” he said, his brows drawn down and his lips pinched.

“Well, Charlie, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Benji and I’m a doctor.”

“A doctor?”

I snorted. “Don’t sound so surprised.”

“Sorry. You just look too young to be a doctor.”

“Well, Iwasfinishing my residency so I could become an emergency med specialist, but an asshole surgeon got me fired because I wouldn’t sleep with him.”

“I’m sorry, that sucks.”

“Yep. So now I’m here, drinking my troubles away.”

He smiled, and two little dimples appeared by the side of his mouth. He was kind of cute when he wasn’t fidgeting and frowning. “How’s that going for you?”

I shrugged. “I decided getting shitfaced probably wasn’t the best decision. I’m enjoying dancing, though. Do you like to dance?”

“Not really. I was born with two left feet. Besides—”

His face paled as he stared across the sea of dancers. Guess the moment he’d been waiting for had arrived. I had to admit, he seemed really nervous about this breakup. Jeez, maybe it was a divorce.

I stared out over the dance floor to track what he was looking at and spotted two guys walking towards us. Both of them were tall, standing a head above the rest of the crowd. One was dark-haired, with a grimace, and the other was blonde and all muscle. Damn, the guy wasbuilt. No wonder Charlie was nervous about breaking up with one of these guys.

A sense of recognition fluttered through me when my gaze connected with the eyes belonging to the dark-haired man. Déjà vu, maybe?

Ice-cold eyes.

A blood-stained shirt.

Hands grabbed my face, and Charlie was looking at me with fear lurking in his eyes.

“This isn’t a breakup, is it?”

“No,” he said with a shake of his head. “I’m sorry. I thought I had more time.”

“More time for what?”

“To come up with a plan. I didn’t think they’d find me so soon.”

“I don’t understand.” I was totally regretting letting the guy sit next to me.

“Have you ever regretted doing something? Something you wanted to fix but didn’t know how?” His fingers dug deeper into the side of my face, and I could sense those two men getting closer to us.

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