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CHAPTER1
Jillian
I’m going to kill Paige and Fiona.
Within that first second of consciousness, I knew that it was going to be bad. Extremely bad. Tiny drummers had taken up residence in my head and were pounding away maniacally. The minuscule amount of light that was able to pass through my eyelids felt like the surface of the sun being beamed directly onto my sensitive eyeballs. The taste in my mouth was reminiscent of the floor in Wolfie’s, a particularly disgusting dive bar that I had frequented back in my college days.
And despite the hundreds of nights that I had spent at that bar, as well as numerous others during my junior and senior year, I rarely got drunk enough to feel this awful. In fact, I hadneverbeen this hungover in my entire life. I felt like death, and most concerningly, I didn’t have the first clue how I’d gotten back to our room.
Welcome to Las Vegas, JillianThomas!
Apparently, the city’s reputation was well deserved.
To be fair, my two best friends had dragged me out to Sin City at the last minute with the sole intention of getting me drunk enough to forget all about ‘Eric the asshole.’ It had worked. A bit too well, I’d say.
It seemed I had forgotten far more than my cheating ex. I was having a hard time remembering much of anything after our fourth round of Vegas Bombs at Marquee. Or maybe it was the fifth round? Regardless, sometime in the early evening things got extremely hazy. And then faded into a gaping black void shortly after.
I appreciated my friends trying to make sure that I had a good time, but I couldn’t believe they had let me get so drunk. They knew perfectly well that I was a lightweight these days. Getting to the point of tipsy and carefree would have more than done the trick. At this rate, I’d be lucky to be walking upright by tonight. If I was too sick to go out with them again, they had no one to blame but themselves.
I debated trying to fall back into the painless oblivion of sleep, but between the headache and unnecessary amount of light I didn’t see that happening. Besides, I could have slept the entire day away for all I knew.
“What time is it?” I attempted to say.
What came out was a weak, strangled croak. I cleared my throat and tried it again. It was slightly more audible the second time around.
When neither of the girls answered my question, I risked opening a single eye. Maybe they had gotten as obliterated as I had and were equally as out of it right now? I wouldn’t have been surprised if that was the case for Paige, but that did seem highly out of character for Fiona. The room was awfully quiet though. If they had gone to breakfast without me, I really would kill them.
I hoped to get some answers, but as my vision slowly cleared it showed me a dark gray wall and floor-to-ceiling gold curtains.
“Umm.” My other eye shot open, and I made frantic but ultimately failed attempt to sit up against the headboard.
After checking in yesterday we had only spent an hour or so in our hotel room before leaving for the club, so I hadn’t memorized the décor or anything, but I was ninety percent sure that our room had yellow walls. And plain, white curtains. I had stood between those curtains for a solid ten minutes of that time, staring out at the Strip and restraining myself from texting obscenities at Eric.
With a growing sense of alarm, I fully turned my head, wincing at the stabbing pains against my skull that followed the motion. More gray walls. And then some unfamiliar glossy dark wood furniture. And a creepy modern art painting on the opposite wall that I had definitely never seen before.
But there was no second bed in sight. No desk covered in enough makeup to outfit a Sephora. No worn, red duffel bag that I had been using as luggage since I was nineteen.
Most importantly, no Paige or Fiona.
This was decidedly not my room. Even in my state that much was obvious.
So…where in the hell was I?
Heart pounding, I finally managed to scramble into a sitting position. In the process, I accidentally yanked the fluffy white comforter off to one side. At which point I discovered two terrifying things.
One, I was quite naked. Not like I had shed my dress while getting ready for bed and was too drunk or lazy to find my pajamas naked, but as in, completely, totally, birthday suit naked. Not a stitch of clothing to be found.
And two, there was a strange man in the bed with me. Without the blanket in my way I could see the large expanse of a broad, masculine back at the other edge of the mattress. Along with some unruly, short, dark hair. That was it, but it was enough.
“Oh my god. What the hell did I do?” I said out loud, not bothering to keep my voice quiet. I was beyond caring.
Frozen in shock, I stared at the mysterious body. It was admittedly pretty damned sexy if I was being honest. Smooth lightly tanned skin, nice firm muscles. A fairly large tattoo I couldn’t quite make out along one shoulder. At least drunk Jillian had good taste in partners.
Not that it made this situation better in the least. I was not a one-night stand type of girl, even when in Vegas. I was a serial monogamist. The ‘girlfriend’ type. Eric and I had met, dated for a couple of months, and then had gotten serious. Or, I had gotten serious anyway, him not so much. We had been just about to celebrate our one-year anniversary whenithad happened. But setting aside the disastrous ending, our traditional relationship had been more my speed.
Unlike getting blackout drunk and falling into bed with the first attractive stranger I had come across. I had zero recollection of this guy. His name, his face, it was all a giant blank. For all I knew he was a serial killer, or a puppy murderer. Or, God forbid, a street magician. Anything was possible, and it was a sensation I had never experienced before.
Good job Jillian. Way to rebound.
