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I shook my head. “It wasn’t like that.”
His mouth twitched. “It sounded like that.”
“It was sex.”
“That isn’t a no.”
“It is a no. I’m not with him.”
“Then you don’t give a shit about what I’m telling you.”
I placed the drinks going to the Blue Room on my tray, then flicked my eyes to Amir. “It feels good to have the moral high ground for once.”
Amir’s chuckle sent shivers down my spine, then he moved fast, shoving my hair aside, his lips on my ear. “I understand that more than you can know, Hells Belles.”
Then, he walked me back to the Blue Room, reclaimed his seat, and placed Carina back on his dick, like he hadn’t just whispered that he’d always liked me and regretted not moving on me back in the day. I wasn’t surprised. Amir was a bad guy, and when he did bad-guy things, he was just being himself. It was the truth about Theo, thegood guydoing really bad things, that threw me for a loop.
And strangely, I was disappointed in him. I didn’t know what to do with that, so I shoved it aside and got back to work, avoiding grabby hands and plastering on my brightest, red-lipped smile.
My life was a study in contrasts, but none more so than tonight.
Saturday night, I’d been in fishnets and booty shorts. Now, only two days later, I was wearing one of Madeline’s elegant dresses. It made sense for me to wear it, since I was attending a banquet in honor of her, but I felt more like I was wearing a costume now than I had been slinging drinks at Savage Beauties.
“You look stunning,” Zadie said softly.
I spun to face her, smoothing my hands down the front of my fitted dress. “Are you sure I don’t look like I’m playing dress-up?”
She shook her head. “I know that was Madeline’s dress, but it looks like it was made for you.”
Madeline McGarvey was a classic. Her clothes had been simple and expensive. Even when she got too weak to leave the house, she was always dressed to the nines. Her pajamas had been made of silk and always had to be matching sets. And when she changed her will to include me, she bequeathed me her entire wardrobe.
Most of it wasn’t me, but I saved all of it, because one day, it might be. This dress was my favorite out of everything. Floor length and long sleeved, with structured shoulders, it wrapped around my middle, cinching in my waist, and flowed loose around my hips. The emerald green wasn’t a color I would have chosen, but I liked it so very much.
“I wish I could tuck you in my pocket and take you with me tonight,” I said.
Zadie’s eyes brightened. “Does that dress have pockets?”
“Yeah, it does.” Jutting a hip out, I slipped my hands in my pockets and posed for her. This was areallygood dress.
I slathered on another layer of lipstick, smoothed my hair, then fluffed it, and Zadie and I walked out to the living room, where I grabbed my phone and tucked it into the tiny evening bag I was carrying.
The door swung open, and Elena came marching in. She threw her backpack on the ground and kicked off her shoes before noticing Zadie and I in the room.
“Hey.” Her eyes landed on me. “Oh shit.”
Since my breakdown a week and a half ago, Elena hadn’t magically become an entirely different person. She was still a caustic, catty bitch, it was just most of that energy was aimed at those outside this suite. Not that we spent time braiding each other’s hair, and we definitely hadn’t done any more snuggling, but we’d maintained a fragile peace that seemed to become less fragile as the days ticked by.
“Doesn’t Helen look beautiful?” Zadie waved her arms up and down like she was a model onThe Price is Rightshowing off the fully loaded Winnebago a lucky contestant might have a chance to win.
Elena stalked across the room and got in my face. “You look hot as hell. Now, please tell me you’re not going to some arts fundraiser banquet.Pleasetell me.”
I took a step back from her. I was not ready for Elena Sanderson, up close and personal like that. “I’m definitely going to an arts fundraiser banquet. Why?”
Her hand went to her mouth at the same time her shoulders slumped. “Shit.” She raked her gaze over me. “Well, you look amazing, so you don’t have to worry about that.”
“I wasn’t,” I said dryly.
Zadie snapped her fingers. “Spit it out, El.”
