Page 25 of Merciless Prince

I groaned and rubbed my forehead.Shit.I had a rod in my arm, so I wouldn’t get pregnant, but failing to use protection was still a stupid move. Especially with a stranger. I’d have to go back to my doctor on Monday to get a series of tests. No doubt she’d give me a well-deserved lecture too.

“There you are!”

I looked up. Cori and Leah were hurrying toward me from the left end of the hall.

“What are you doing up here?” Leah asked, eyes wide with surprise.

I cleared my throat. “I, uh… I just needed some space.”

“We’ve been looking for you everywhere,” Cori said. “I saw you dancing with some guy a while ago, and then I turned around a minute later and you weren’t there.”

“We thought he might’ve dragged you off somewhere and attacked you,” Leah added.

“Oh.” Another rush of guilt burned through my veins. I shouldn’t have ditched my friends and gone off with a strange man. Like they said, he could’ve attacked me, and it was a shitty move to leave them without saying a word anyway. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine. We were just worried,” Cori said. “Anyway, we were thinking of heading home.”

“Really? What’s the time?”

She glanced at the rose gold watch on her wrist. “It’s a quarter to one. Also, Faye is downstairs looking like she’s about to puke, so we need to get out of here before she actually does it.”

My brows shot up. I had no idea it was already so late. I must’ve zoned out on this hallway floor for over an hour.

“What happened to that blond guy you were dancing with?” I asked, pushing myself to my feet.

Cori rolled her eyes and pursed her lips. “Turns out he has a girlfriend.”

“What a jerk.”

“No shit.” She let out a derisive sniff. Then she extended an arm to keep me steady as I walked. My legs still felt like jelly from getting fucked six ways to Sunday, so it only took a few seconds for me to stumble and fall against her side like a drunken fool.

“Looks like someone’s had too much champagne,” Leah remarked as she grabbed my other arm to stop me from falling right on my ass.

I smiled weakly. “Yeah, way too much,” I said, not wanting to tell her or Cori the real reason my legs were so wobbly.

We met the other girls in the grand foyer downstairs. Faye’s face was scrunched up, and she had one hand on her stomach. Ashleigh looked a little green too.

“I’m never drinking again,” Faye gritted out as we headed through the door.

“Hey, at least you can still walk. We almost had to carry this one out,” Leah said with a grin, gesturing to me.

We called two cars to drive us home. Ashleigh, Dionne, and Rumer had booked a hotel room in Bellingham township for the night, so they took one car while the rest of us headed back to the university in the other.

As we trudged up a campus path ten minutes later, Faye suddenly slapped a hand over her mouth. “Oh god,” she mumbled. “I’m not gonna make it back to my dorm.”

“It’s just five more minutes,” Cori said soothingly. “Try to hold it in.”

“No. Can’t.” Faye dashed over to a nearby garden, dropped to her knees, and vomited onto the soil.

“Shit.” Leah dashed over to hold Faye’s hair back. Then she turned her head over her shoulder and looked at me and Cori. “Can you guys get some water?”

“Sure.” Cori and I turned and hurried back down the path. There was a covered area lined with vending machines about thirty yards away. A couple of stoned-looking guys were already in there when we arrived, trying to decide between candy and tortilla chips.

Cori wrinkled her nose and stepped past them to the drinks machine. I sifted through my purse for loose change and passed her a couple of dollars.

While she pressed buttons on the machine, I waited behind her, rubbing my arms to get rid of the goosebumps peppering my skin. A distinctive fragrance suddenly hit my nostrils—woodsmoke, bergamot, and leather.

I reflexively turned my head to the right to follow the trail of the scent, and my gut clenched as I caught sight of Killian. He looked as handsome as ever, and unsurprisingly, he completely ignored me as he walked past with a dark-haired friend. Presumably, someone like me wasn’t worth acknowledging because I wasn’t mega-rich or mega-famous.