One Night Mistake

Six years later…Watching Andrea Colton emerge from the backseat of the black Mercedes was like watching a movie star step out onto the red carpet. She moved with an effortlessness that came from a lifetime of ballet, and she carried herself like a woman who could handle anything life threw at her, which—so far—had been quite a lot. Her vintage shift dress and oversized sunglasses accentuated her classic beauty and remarkable bone structure, something Taliana was grateful to have inherited. Her mother may have been a few years past forty, but she still had men half her age on their knees.“Circle around,” Andrea instructed the driver as she stepped onto the curb. “This could take a while.”She pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head as she turned to Taliana, revealing those all-knowing gray eyes. For once, the smile that always seemed to play around her mouth was nowhere to be found.“You don’t have to do this, honey.”Taliana ignored her, choosing instead to untie and retie her

Breakfast in the Avilla household was a little more hectic than Taliana remembered. By the time she was up and dressed back in the day, Katherine would have had breakfast made, Charles would be happily sipping his morning coffee, and the twins would either be sitting at the table playing a game or still at a friend’s house from the sleepover they'd gone to the night before.This summer morning, however, was much different.“Come on, Vanessa! You drank all the orange juice!”“Charles! Go upstairs and change your pants, they’ve got syrup on them!”“Ugh! Mom, this milk went bad days ago!”“Katherine! You’re burning the eggs!”The sheer volume of the back-and-forth banter coming from the kitchen was what had woken Taliana in the first place, but now that she was standing right outside the doorway, she was convinced her eardrums would burst if she got any closer.Deciding to risk life and limb, she stepped into the kitchen and took a seat at the kitchen table. In the background she heard K

How he hadn’t noticed the girl before was a mystery, but now he couldn’t seem to tear his eyes away. She was leaning against the far wall of the club, a drink in her hand and pure boredom plastered across her face, the only other person besides him who seemed to hate being there. She practically towered over the other guests in her almost-too-high heels, and her dress looked like it might as well have been painted on her. Something about her was vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t quite figure out why.It wasn’t until she met his gaze that Sebastian realized how long he’d been staring, still attempting to place her. Part of him was tempted to look away and pretend he’d never seen her, but she glanced away before he could try. He watched as she rolled her eyes and passed her empty drink off to a nearby partygoer, and he wondered if it was him she’d even been looking at. But those doubts faded when she began moving in his direction.He took a step forward, determined to meet her halfway,

Chapter 7: Lost and Unfound The interior of Jude’s car was all black leather, dark wood, and reeked of that new car smell. If Taliana had the choice, she would’ve stayed in the air-conditioned cabin for the rest of her life, especially if it meant she didn’t have to face what was waiting for her at home.“This isn’t going to end well.”Currently, said car was idling in front of Taliana’s home in the heart of Georgetown, and she was silently debating whether or not she wanted to enter the place. Her father was probably throwing a fit inside, prepared to ground her the instant she set foot in the foyer. Had she still been living with her mother, Taliana could have slipped in unnoticed since Andrea was rarely home anyway. But this was Charles Avilla, the man who’d blown a gasket the day Taliana had been expelled from Georgetown Trinity Day School and sent her packing to live with mommy dearest as punishment. Taliana wasn’t sure what she would do if this situation had the same outcome.“

Six o’clock on Tuesday morning came a little too soon for Taliana’s taste.After two and a half months of freedom, it was finally time to return to the hell better known as school. In exactly two hours, she would be sitting amongst all the other trust fund babies that filled Georgetown Trinity to the brim, and she certainly wasn’t looking forward to it.With a groan, she slapped at her bedside table to silence her alarm and stumbled out of bed to face the day. It took a good half-hour-long shower for her to wake up enough to realize she needed to get her ass in gear if she didn’t want to be late for homeroom, so after quickly toweling off, she scurried out of the bathroom to search for something to throw on. It was then Taliana spotted what looked to be a uniform on her bed, a souvenir someone must have deposited there while she was in the shower.In the six years she’d been away from Trinity, she’d completely forgotten there was a uniform involved. Back in LA, she’d been free to wear