Page 57 of Selling Innocence

The night before remained fuzzy, but little bits flashed through my head. The interview, the liquor, dropping the bottle.

Right, she’d come to check on me, to bring me food.

Sweet girl.

Most of the night remained a mystery, and the idea of waking her up right now to continue hit me hard. If she was half asleep, could I convince her? Maybe she was a morning person, because my cock certainly was.

I shifted, ready to press my lips to her throat, to tease her until she woke panting and desperate, when I froze.

On the nightstand sat my gloves, the familiar black fabric resting there as if they were important.

They were.

I jerked my hand up, my right one, and to my horror, it was bare.

Exposed and mangled and ugly.

A soft groan came from the sleeping girl just before those dark eyes of hers opened. She looked at my face, then at my hand which still was there.

No shock registered in her expression, and that made my heart plummet.

It meant she’d already seen it the night before. Any chance I had to lie, to hide it, they were gone.

After how hard I’d worked to keep it to myself, I’d gone and gotten drunk and shown her the part of myself I’d wanted no one to see.

Just great…

Chapter Twelve

Kenz

I rubbed my lower back, the muscles sore and tight. As it turned out, trying to sleep in someone else’s bed wasn’t great for a good night’s rest. Worse, Vance was a horrible bedmate.

He might be talented when it came to pleasing women, but he tossed and turned and hogged the blankets like a selfish jerk.

And this morning hadn’t gone any better.

“You hurting?” Hayden asked from beside me, his sharp gaze locked on my back.

“Just a bad night of sleep.” No need for him to know what had happened. Vance had woken early enough that when he’d rushed into his bathroom, I’d snuck back to my own room with no one being the wiser.

“Well, you wouldn’t be the first person to lose some sleep in Vance’s bed.”

Or, maybe I hadn’t been as sneaky as I’d like to think.

“It wasn’t like that,” I rushed out.

Hayden shook his head, though his expression remained tight. “I’m not judging you. You’re an adult, you can do as you please.” Even as he said that, he sighed. “Though, I don’t want to see you get hurt. Vance isn’t the type to settle down, and you don’t strike me as a one-night-stand girl, either.”

I wrapped my arms around myself, trying so hard to look totally unaffected. Blushing would just prove I was a kid. “He drank too much, so I was just taking care of him.”

“All night?”

How to explain that? The truth was better than anything else. “He just looked so sad and lonely, I guess. Nothing happened, though. I’m not dumb enough to mistake what he’s like. I just couldn’t leave him there alone.”

“So you just slept there?” Hayden lifted his eyebrow as though my words didn’t make any sense. After a moment, he chuckled softly. “You’re probably the only girl who has ever spent the night in Vance’s bed without anything happening.”

No doubt he meant to make me laugh, but I wasn’t in a laughing mood.

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