Her face contorted into an ‘oh crap’ expression. “Oh, you, uh, didn’t get the alert? I thought that was why you were in mourning over here in the corner.”
No, no alert. My destroyed phone was still in the pocket of the crown prince of Bashkiria, which was almost enough to make me laugh, but then I just had to remember him being pulled away from me while I was still naked on a pool table under a sweatshirt, and the urge to laugh died pretty thoroughly.
I hadn’t even been home. I meant to, but I just sat in the Wolves’ Den, in shock. For hours, I guess, because as the sun rose, I just dragged myself next door to the Moon Bean for coffee and to lick my wounds.
“What alert?”
“Okay, maybe I shouldn’t tell you. I mean, if you’re already having a bad day and all.”
I glared, not in the mood. “Charlize. Just tell me.”
She winced and pulled out her phone.
I read the campus alerts that there was a good chance that the queen of Bashkiria’s assembly might have to be canceled due to increased crime and violence in the area. Her security team didn’t think it was safe for the royals to come to Bay State University.
Well, on one hand, it sucked that the talk was canceled and that my tickets were useless. But, on the up side, it wasn’t like Iwas going to be able to go to the talk anymore. There was no way I could ever be in the same room with someone after they saw me naked on a pool table, huddled under a sweatshirt. I wasn’t sure I could be on the same continent, so it was probably for the best that Bash was going back to Europe.
My heart twinged.
I’d thought we were giving each other something, something important. But he’d been lying to me about everything. I guess I couldn’t blame him for that. But it still hurt that the last time I was probably going to see him was being ushered out the door and away from me.
Charlize stepped away and took off her apron before sitting across from me. “So if it wasn’t the talk, then what’s got you so…” She waved a hand, taking in all of me in my moping glory.
“I’m not really up on talking about it right now.” I didn’t want to think about it. I just needed a little distraction, something to get me out of my funk, so that Bash could move into being a delicious memory.
The bell above the door clanged when Hunter sashayed through the door. She smiled, spotting Charlize, and came right over to crash my little pity party table.
“Hey, are you ready? Hi, Stacia. Are you coming too?”
“Coming where?” It might be the distraction I was looking for, but I wasn’t sure my bruised heart was up to hanging out around Hunter and Charlize, both deliriously happy with their gorgeous boyfriends. Hunter was with Ty from work, and Charlize was stupidly in love with her quarterback boyfriend, Eli.
Hunter adjusted her book bag on her shoulder, her curls bouncing around her face. “We’re going to the library to study for the political science exam.”
“Actually, that’s a good point. You should come, Stacia. It would really help. I suck at that class.”
It was one of my better subjects. And at least helping Hunter and Charlize would get my mind off things. It was better than haunting the Moon Bean like I was waiting for Bash to show back up.
“Alright.” I tried not to sigh. “Let’s go.”
As I bent down to grab my bag, I heard Charlize suck in a shocked breath.
I straightened up, looking around. “What? What’s wrong?”
Both Hunter and Charlize were staring at me. Well, at my shoulder. I tried to take a look, craning my head, worried I was having some kind of wardrobe malfunction on top of everything else, because wouldn’t that just be my luck.
They exchanged a look, doing something complicated with their expressions like they were having a conversation that I couldn’t understand.
Hunter’s eyebrows shot up, and she bobbed her head in my direction. Charlize cleared her throat and smoothed her shirt down as she turned back to me.
“So, um, Stacia. Did you get a tattoo?”
“What? No.” Why would they even ask me that? Who had money for tattoos?
Hunter bounced up onto her toes, a wide grin stretching across her face. “Did you meet anyone… special, lately?”
Thoughts of Bash ran through my head. His accent. His beautiful golden eyes. His adorkable glasses, which, come to think of it, were probably part of his ‘not a prince’ disguise. And then my thoughts took a hard right turn into the way he’d touched me last night, the strength in his hands when he’d laid me back over the pool table. The way he’d felt moving inside me. Heat rushed into my cheeks.
Hunter squealed. “I knew it!”
