Page 7 of Undeniably Enemies

“Jesus, Wren. Don’t you get it? I’m the ultimate piece of shit. I wanted you and I took you, and it was wrong. I’d kill Owen if he ever did that to Eddie.”

Bile mixed with that stupid mocking drink climbs up the back of my throat. I need to get out of here. My heart is cracking,breaking, shattering, and that’s not something I want him to see.

“It wasn’t me. It was Cinderella.”

Self-preservation has me pushing away from the wall and away from him.

“Wren,” he calls after me, but he’s not chasing. He’s standing exactly where I left him.

“Don’t worry about it, Jack. We’ll pretend like it never happened.”

I head away from him and back out into the party. I can’t tell if I’m being petulant or not. I talked him into it. I know that. And I shouldn’t be shocked that he’s regretting it, but when the guy you fancied yourself in love with for a big chunk of your life regrets being inside you, that hurts in the most devastating way. Honestly, I’m not sure what I was expecting from him. Of course his loyalty is to Owen. He wasn’t going to whisk me out of here and hold me all night and make love to me.

That’s a childish fairy-tale notion. I’m not his Cinderella, and as he said before, he’s the villain, not the prince.

It happened. V-card eliminated. Check.

Now, I can move on, put the past behind me, and start a new page of a new chapter.

I weave my way back toward the pool until I pass it, edging near the steps that lead up to the entrance.

“Hey!” a familiar and very welcome voice comes from behind me. Her hand catches my arm, and she spins me around, concern etched on my best friend’s features. “Are you okay? Your hair is a mess, and your mask and gloves are gone.”

That’s when I break down. Stupidly. Childishly. Big, huge, racking sobs that consume me. My vagina hurts, and my heart feels like someone is using it as a trampoline. I didn’t know Jack could still affect me this way, but here it is.

Tinsley wraps her arms around me and hugs me close. “What happened, Wren? You’re scaring me. Did someone hurt you?”

“Can we just go home? Back to your place?”

“Not until you tell me what happened. Do I need to take you to a hospital? The police?”

“No.” I laugh, but it’s shaky. I take a step back and wipe my face, hating that I got this emotional here at the party. Anyone, including Jack, could see us, and I’m not wearing a mask. “I met a hot vampire, and we shared the ‘Til Death Do Us Part drink.”

Tinsley gasps, her hand covering her mouth, but I press on.

“We, he, well, it was Jack.”

Her forehead scrunches, and she tilts her head. “Jack?”

“Kincaid.”

Her jaw drops. Tinsley’s also known him her entire life, and she knows how I feel—felt—about him. “Jack Kincaid?! How did he get in here?”

I shrug. “No clue. But we started to have our torrid affair, and with our masks still on, he discovered rather brutally that I was a virgin.”

“Oh hell, Wren.”

“Anyway, he knows who I am, it happened, and now he regrets it. I might regret it, too, but it’s done and over, and now I just want to get out of here.”

“The son of a bitch took your virginity and then regretted it? He told you that?”

I nod as more insipid tears come, unable to be stopped.

“Oh, honey.” She hugs me tighter. “I’m so sorry. What a bastard. God, why do men have to suck so much?”

I sniffle. “No clue. So can we go now?”

“We’re not going back to my place,” she tells me. “After what you just went through, I’m not having you sleep on a couch or deal with Forest, who went out with his frat boys tonight and will come home drunk after.” Forest is her longtime boyfriend and is also my cousin, so I wouldn’t mind notseeing him right now. “We’re going to grab our stuff and get a hotel room, drink and eat our way through the minibar, and celebrate the fact that we’re fucking fierce, and we make the rules, not them.”

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