Page 127 of Tantalizing Kings

For the next two hours, I forget about everything and just enjoy the moment with my friends. We laugh so hard our cheeks hurt, sing from the top of our lungs until our throats are sore, and dance until our legs become like jelly.

“I need to pee,” I yell at Emma over the music.

“Okay! We’ll meet you out back.” I’m kind of surprised we’ve been inside as long as we have. Normally, at parties our friend group is always out back, relaxing by a fire or the pool side while drinking. But tonight has been nice.

I nod and head off into the direction of a bathroom. There are too many people downstairs, so I head back to the top floor in hopes that it’s less crowded.

I roam around the halls for a few minutes before I just start opening doors in search of the bathroom so I don’t piss my pants. I really should have paid more attention to the brief house tour Grayson ended up giving me after supper. Although it’s kind of hard to focus when you find out the man you just had mind blowing sex with is your step brother. Something I’m still having trouble believing is my reality.

A cry of relief sounds under my breath when I find the right room. I waste no time locking the door and doing my business. When I’m done, I wash up, fix my hair, and leave.

“How did you do it?” Tina’s voice makes a cold shiver run down my spine.

“What do you want?” I ask as she blocks my path to head back downstairs.

“I asked you a question. How did you get the most popular, richest guys in the school to be friends with you?”

I sigh and indulge in her petty interrogation. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m just a good person, and they would rather be around someone who’s real than someone who’s fake and only cares about money.”

She sneers. “Bullshit. There’s nothing good about you, Sadie. You have nothing to offer them in return, other than your body. Is that it? Are you whoring yourself out for money?”

“No, I’m not, not that it’s any of your business.” I move to step around her but she steps with me.

“Yeah, you’re right. There’s no way they would pay you for sex, you would probably have to pay them.” She laughs like she told a funny joke. “But there’s no amount of money in the world that would have them lowering themselves for someone like you. Some poor, fat, sad little girl.” She gives me a pitying look, and I want to punch her in her stupid fucking face.

I want to scream at her that she’s wrong, that I’ve fucked Grayson and Declan, and next weekend I’ll be fucking her fiance like she fucked my boyfriend.

But I don’t because I’m better than that. She doesn’t need to know anything about me, especially if I can help it. The guys already agreed not to tell anyone about our deal that doesn’t need to know, and my friends would never betray me. If Tina found out that I’ve ruined years of her trying to get the guys away from me in just a few weeks, she will turn into more of a monster than she already is.

Her words hurt, though. I try to tell myself not to listen to her, that she’s wrong and a petty jealous person who’s just trying to hurt me to make herself feel better.

But there’s a voice in the back of my mind, one I’ve worked so hard to bury that’s whispering to me that she’s right. I’m not tall and skinny like her. I have bigger breasts, my ass is rounder than a lot of girls we go to school with, and my thighs have cellulite.

I’ve never felt bad about my looks, not until she started to point out everything wrong with me, then added on her own nasty things to make her insults pack a real punch.

“Can I just go, please? My friends are waiting for me.”

“Friends?” she snorts. “They’re only with you because they pity you.”

That doesn’t hurt. She can get me with the name-calling, tell me the guys would never want me and I’d believe her, as much as I hate to admit it. But when it comes to my friends? No, nothing can make me doubt their love and loyalty to me.

“Yeah, okay. Sure. Bye, Tina.”

She hates that I’m brushing her off and proceeds to follow me down the hall. Instead of going down the main set of stairs, I keep going to the end of the hall and take the set there.

I’m jogging down two steps at a time, needing to get away from that horrible bitch. Her words float around in my head, seeping into my mind like a toxic poison.

Don’t let her win. You’ve come so far.

But still my heart is racing. I feel gross and weird and my whole night is ruined. I just want to go home, curl up in a blanket, eat some junk food, and watch TV.

That would only prove her right, though, wouldn’t it? Suddenly the idea of chips and candy make my stomach turn.

“Shit, sorry,” I curse when I bump into someone as I step off the bottom step; I was going too fast to notice if anyone was there.

“Sadie?”

Raymond’s voice has my eyes snapping up. Fuck. No. This isn’t what I need right now.

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