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“Did Irene Feist know your age?”

“Of course she did. She covered my ass everywhere we went.”

“Don’t go dragging other people into your desperate web.”

“Desperate? Where do you get off judging me like that? I’m sorry, did turning thirty make you magically smarter than everyone?”

“You’re going to get hurt.” Michelle jabbed a finger right in Helena’s chest. That’s assault, lady. Helena knew she wouldn’t last two seconds against a retired Marine, though. Especially if she were to believe the legends about Michelle, whose day job included being her girlfriend’s bodyguard. “This lifestyle isn’t for teenagers playing hooky from their classes. I know you think you’re mature for sleeping around with rich people and getting presents from those who like you, but eventually, someone’s going to ruin your life before it’s even begun. I’m sick of seeing you around in places that you simply do not belong.”

Helena brushed Michelle’s hand off her. “What the fuck do you know about me? Oh, do you hold the monopoly on attention because you earned it? So did I, bitch. You don’t know what I’ve been through. You don’t even know what gets me off. I left home because I had to get away from all that crap. So don’t go flinging more at me. It makes me wanna do it even more.”

She said that last part with the knowing chirp of a child who played those kinds of mind games. Fuck off and leave me alone. To think, Helena once wanted to be more like this nosy woman who ensnared everyone in a room the moment she allowed herself to be viewed! I’ve seen her perform enough times to know. Helena had been enraptured, too. Irene once pitched the idea to Vanessa that they swap girlfriends for a night, and the only reason it pissed Helena off was because she hated the idea that Michelle would spend the night in San Bernardino.

It hadn’t happened. Because Vanessa and Michelle knew better than to get involved.

“Fine,” Michelle said after a huff. “Look, I’m not going to ‘tell’ on you. It’s your problem if this blows up in your face a few years from now, and I don’t want innocent people around here getting in trouble because you found a loophole or whatever. The point I’m trying to make is that bad people frequent these parties, this lifestyle, and until you have enough experience in life sussing them out, you’re going to get hurt. Badly.”

Helena didn’t want to admit it, but she briefly thought back to Irene chasing after a taxicab as it careened down her Californian driveway.

“And if I were twenty-one? Would you think I was old enough to understand all of that?”

“Honestly? No. But you being barely out of high school makes it worse. I don’t want to see you in the news because you disappeared or were made into the fall guy for someone else’s crime. You remember Candace as well as I do. If she had taken the wrong interest in you, God only knows where you’d be right now.”

This is what proves you know shit about what you’re talking about. The whole reason Helena was never interviewed or subpoenaed in that case was because Irene and Josh protected her. If it weren’t to keep her name out of the news, it was to hide her age. Everything else blew up in Helena’s face, but she could be thankful that Irene didn’t want it coming out she and her husband were cavorting with a teenager.

Helena wouldn’t be a teenager much longer, though. She was so close to turning twenty that she could almost smell it. Hell, she already felt twenty-one. Why did that stupid number matter so much?

“I’ve got beads to get, by the way.” Helena turned the handle on the closet door. “Unlike you, I don’t have a million dollars in my bank account. I actually would like some of that prize money. Put it toward my college education everyone is so damn worried about.”

She left the door open but did not look back at Michelle. Helena marched down the hallway, plastic beads jangling against her chest, her whole body radiating the anger that now coursed with her blood.

Everyone has an opinion about my life. Was it any wonder she wanted people to think she was physically older than she was? They weren’t as quick to bitch about her life decisions if they thought she was already about to graduate college. Funny how that worked out.

When she made it back to Delia, she didn’t know if she had won the battle of the green beads. All Helena knew was that she was ready to blow off some steam.

“What’s this?” Delia was delighted when her date bent over in front of her. “I already gave you some beads!”

“This one’s on me.”

The spank landing on her ass almost made Helena see stars. Just the way she liked it.

Chapter 13

“You made quite the splash, huh?” Delia, only slightly tipsy on cocktails, tossed her things onto the hotel room credenza as she stepped in ahead of Helena. “ Everyone will be talking about the curly-haired cutie who won ten grand because she likes a good spanking!”

Helena deadbolted the hotel room door before slipping off her shoes. “I aim to please my date. Especially if it pleases me as well.”

“Hope your ass isn’t angry at the thought of getting more love tonight. It’s all I’ve been able to think about since you were paraded in front of all of those hobnobbers because yours was declared the best!”

Delia had barely made it past the credenza when Helena pressed her up against the wall, their lips close enough to touch. Yet that wasn’t Helena’s goal. No, I suppose not… Delia may have been off balance, but she knew a hand down her pants when she felt it.

“I assure you,” Helena began, that cataclysmic purr in her throat doing Delia in, “no part of me is angry. Only ready to keep the party going.”

Delia grabbed her by the wrist and slowly pulled out Helena’s hand. As their noses brushed together, Delia said, “Whatever did we cross off your adorable list tonight?”

“Guess we should consult it.”

They went to the couch by the window, where Helena unearthed her original bucket list of activities she wanted to accomplish before she died. While she flipped through the lined pages, Delia leaned in, pushing Helena’s voluminous hair behind her ears, and pinching the thin material of her club dress. The one she was wearing when we met. What had been garish even in The Dark Hour now made Delia sentimental. She was not on the path to falling in love with this girl, but she appreciated the hot memories they had made together so far. This might be one of my best flings yet.