Page 48 of Party Favors
“Ill-advised kissing?” Wren said, her heart shooting to her throat. That shouldn’t have hurt, but it did.
Amanda spun her around. “Not you.” She frowned. “I literally kissed your best friend’s boyfriend two hours ago.”
“Oh.” She’d forgotten about that. “You’re my best friend too.”
Amanda laughed, her perfect teeth gleaming in the muted light. “Well, if you had a boyfriend, maybe I’d kiss him as well. But only if you were there and watching me.”
Wren bit her lip on a smile. “You liked me watching you? Or being watched?”
“Maybe both?” Amanda leaned in to whisper in Wren’s ear. “I’ve learned a lot about myself on this trip. Thank you for …” She shook her head.
Wren wrapped a tendril of Amanda’s hair around her finger. “For what?”
Amanda leaned back against the wall and regarded her seriously. “I’ve never trusted a partner the way I trust you. It has … I don’t know … let me be open to new experiences. To discover that I’m maybe not quite the boring, shallow heiress everyone thinks I am.”
“I never thought you were boring or shallow. I’ve been obsessed with you since you sent me that retro pattern. You’re amazing.”
A flicker of emotion passed through Amanda’s gaze, or maybe it was the changing colors of the party light.
“I trust you,” Amanda repeated. “I believe you when you say you think I’m amazing. Do you know how different that is for me? To believe that the person I’m sleeping with values me.Seesme. It’s … I don’t know how to—” Amanda shook her head. “At first I thought this was so freeing because it’s a fling, and I’m on vacation, and I was able to separate what was going on between us from the rest of my life.”
“It was an escape.I was.” Wren yearned to be more than that to Amanda, and maybe that was where this conversation was leading. But she didn’t want to get her hopes up. “What do you think now?”
Amanda opened her mouth, but a large presence at Wren’s back made her snap it shut.
Wren whipped around to see that idiot who’d been hitting on Amanda in the bar a few days ago. What was his name? Hayden something? William hated him, and he hadn’t endeared himself to Amanda either.
He was sweaty and red-faced. His gaze trailed over Wren’s body, up and down. Then he dismissed her, his gaze latching onto Amanda like she was a prize he deserved to win.
“You made it after all,” he said.
Wren planted her body in front of Amanda. She didn’t have any right to, but she wasn’t going to let some alpha asshole come at her date. Or, well, her friend. She felt especially murderous considering the conversation he’d interrupted.
“I said I had a ticket,” Amanda said.
“I would have given you a VIP ticket,” he said. He glanced at Amanda’s headband. She hadn’t taken it off, and every move she made sent the glitterball antennas dancing. “You would have gotten substantially better party favors andthreedrink tickets.”
Amanda laughed. “Is that all?” Her voice was scathing. “I’m good, thanks.”
He gritted his teeth. “You’d have had substantially better company as well.” He sneered at Wren.
Wren was nothing but amused by this guy’s bluster and far, far from intimidated.
Amanda wasn’t amused. She was sonotamused, she feinted at the guy. Wren was so surprised by the sudden movement that she caught Amanda around the waist, expecting her to make contact, and Hayden stumbled back, spilling his drink over the front of his fancy suit.
“You bitch!”
“What?” Amanda asked, suddenly calm as a kitten. “I didn’t even touch you.”
He stared at her, his eyes wide and confused like he was second-guessing his own memory. Wren laughed again. Amanda’s little disco balls were still quivering, but she appeared so placid.
Hayden frowned, spun on his heels, and stomped off.
“What was that, Rambo?” Wren asked once they were alone.
Amanda looked at her shyly. “I didn’t like him smirking at you.”
Wren pressed her body against Amanda’s, pinning her to the wall. “That was nuts, and I loved it way more than I should have. For once, I wasn’t the impulsive one.”
