LOGINEVAHer hand came up out of nowhere, and before I could blink, it caught me square across the face.The heavy, solid impact jarred my jaw and jerked my head hard to the right, and the force of it knocked me off balance, making me stumble back a step.My left cheek instantly started to burn, pulsing with this deep ache that radiated down into my neck. I stood there frozen, staring at the floor, waiting for the dizziness to clear. The room was completely silent except for the sound of her heavy breathing.I slowly forced my head back up to look at her and touched my cheek, my fingers trembling. "What—""How dare you!" She half-yelled. Sounding more disappointed that she was angry. Did she really, really believe that?"How dare you do this in my house! In front of my guests!"How dare– I scoffed. How dare I do what?I stared at her, my mind struggling to catch up with whatever she was actually implying. "I don't—what did I do wrong?"Blair coughed, her voice weak and pitiful as someone
EVAThe event was in full swing after hours of working my ass off and giving myself a migraine.Guests milled around the ballroom in their expensive gowns and tailored suits, glasses of champagne in their hands, conversing in whisper and tryoming to keep the culture behind the era they were styled.It was almost ridiculous to watch, beautiful but ridiculous since the planner has been reduced to a waitress.I caught a sight of a woman in a silver dress gesturing at her empty glass without saying a word. I rushed to her and took it and went to get her another, weaving through clusters of guests who didn't bother to move out of my way. When I brought it back, she took it without looking at me, already turned to someone else. The flowers were in place, the fabric draped perfectly, and the centerpieces arranged exactly how Marianne wanted them. Everything looked the way it was supposed to look even though half of them looked off to me. Well, a client's satisfaction equals a good pay.Mari
EVA"How is the preparation going?" Marianne asked, her gaze fixed on the floral arrangements near the windows.“Good. I'm almost done.”Before I could answer, the older man stepped forward and kissed her cheek, his hand resting on her arm. "The girl is good."Marianne shook her head, dismissive of his words. She pulled away from him and started circling the ballroom like a hawk surveying its prey, her eyes picking apart everything I spent hours putting together. She touched a petal here, adjusted a vase there, undoing half of what I did. Her lips were pressed into a thin line of disapproval and the idea of what she might be thinking made my stomach twist. Her heels clicked against the marble floor, each loud step startling me.Her fingers reached out and brushed against a white peony, pulling back like the flower offended her.She moved to the next table, and tugged at the fabric draping over the edge. "This arrangement is too tall and the stems are visible.” She turned around. “Tak
EVAI walked in beside Dante, my heels clicking against the marble floor. Around the dining were some in expensive clothes, holding glasses of champagne as they conversed in low tone as if someone was going to tell the word what they were talking about.Elena was at the head of the table, smiling so widely. Her cream Tweed two piece contrasting with her bold red lipstick.You can never get a bunch of heartless humans together unless someone died —the thought died down in my head as she slowly turned to me.Her smile dropped at the sight. Her eyes narrowed, even from so far I could still see the pure hate in her eyes. Her jaw tightened. She said something to the woman beside her, then turned her full attention to me."What are you doing here?" She asked in a condescending cold and dismissive tone.I forced a smile. "I'm here to work."What less was I supposed to be here for? Beside her say the one and only, Jace. He was sitting in an armchair, not the regular dining chair as everyone
EVAChloe sprang up so fast she almost knocked the coffee cup off the table. Her eyes went wide like saucers, as she opened and closed her mouth like a fish gasping for air. She was wearing an oversized men's shirt and I was dead sure there was nothing else underneath with how quick she was to drag the shit down. Her hair was a mess, tangled and sticking up in all directions.I tried not to think about the reason it got to that point."Eva? What—how—what are you doing here?"I gave her a once-over, my eyes traveling from her bare legs to the shirt that was clearly not hers to her panicked face. My brain was struggling to come up with a sensible reason as to why she's in Nico's house.Dante's Employee. Someone I barely knew personally and she doesn't even know!Barely clothed!Am I dreaming?Chloe. Here. In Nico's house. Wearing his shirt. Looking like she'd just rolled out of bed. That suddenly explains why Nico didn't want us stopping at his place.I opened my mouth, but nothing came
EVA“Please Ms Claire, give Patricia the phone. I have less than twenty minutes to get on and off this call, and you've taken about, let's see,” I glanced at my watch that wasn't on my wrist, I got frustrated half way and slapped the thing off my wrist. “Fifteen.” I took a very deep breath. Fifteen minutes listing all the reasons why I shouldn't be mad that they're suddenly bailing on me. “Where is Lexi?”“It's Clara not Clair and Ms Lexi…” she trailed off, going quiet for a moment, there was a shuffle at the other end. “Just came in.”"Ms. Bishop, this is Lexi.” Patricia's voice came on. “We have a problem."I massaged my forehead. "Yeah! I figured. Like three hours ago when I didn't get a call about our agreement or see a stem at the estate.""We're so sorry. Our lead florist called in sick this morning from food poisoning, she says. We don't have anyone else available to handle the DeLuca estate order. I'm so sorry, but we're going to have to cancel."I closed my eyes and took a sl
Three hours later, I stood outside the wedding venue in a dress I'd borrowed from Chloe's closet. It was sleek, black, and entirely inappropriate for a wedding guest or even the bride who was exceptionally late. Fortunately Dan was sweet enough to send us the footage from the hallway to the room J
I woke to a harsh string of sunlight on my face. Streaming through a window I didn't recognize, falling across a bed that wasn't mine, and I lay there for one horrible, suspended moment with my brain struggling to catch up to my body.What happened…?I shut my eyes and pinched my nose bridge as I w
“What are you doing?”“What does it look like?”I turned and walked out slamming the door with enough force behind me that everyone walking the hallway stopped to see what was going on.I made it to the sidewalk outside the hotel before my legs began to shake again. I stumbled into the first alley
“Suite 1204. He’s been there for an hour.”The text from the unknown number glowed on my screen. Below it was a grainy photo from a hotel lobby. Jace’s back, in his favorite suit with a blonde woman’s hand in his.I looked away from the picture and took a deep breath before dialing his number.He p







