Page 162 of The Villain We Tempt

He groans. “Yeah, you’re feeling like this because you’re ondrugs, little villain.”

I frown when he lifts me into his arms and starts to carry me across the room as it spins around me.

How did I get here?

How ishehere?

What party?

Absinthe?

“He totally likes you, Ari,” I giggle as I’m placed horizontally on something wonderfully soft. “Ari and Adrik sitting in a tree….K-I-S-S…”

My words trail off as I start to close my eyes. Someone is tucking a blanket around me as I gently shake my head.

“I’m not on…”

Another brief moment of clarity hits me.

Fuck.

I think I’m on drugs.

It’s the last thought that flickers through my chemically altered mind before consciousness snuffs away and the shadows overtake me.

25

GALINA

My face scrunchesup in protest against the daylight.

Rude.

At first, I try to squeeze my eyes shut even tighter shut, like that will get me back to sleep. But it just wakes up my brain a little more.

Great.

My head hurts. Not like a hangover, more like a fuzzy, foggy, dull ache. And my feet arekillingme.

Right. The party. Dancing. Absinthe…

My face sours again at the memory of the taste. With a groan, I try to burrow deeper into the blankets and the strong, muscled arms wrapped tight around?—

What.

The.

Fuck.

Very quickly, I amwideawake.

I stifle a scream when my gaze drops to the masculine, tattooed arms wrapped around me from behind. I’m suddenly also aware of a shirtless, muscled chest pressed against myverynaked back…

Butjustas sheer panic threatens to explode out of me in a bloodcurdling scream, the final events of the night begin to slide out of the fog in my head.

The Ghost Prince.

The sight of him materializing out of the shadows. The realization that he wasn’t watching me through cameras. He washere, in my room.