Page 8 of Settling the Score (The Karma Club #4)

Astrid

Where are you, S?

Paige

Are you here?

Sienna

No.

Paige

Is everything okay?

Okay? Okay? Was everything okay? No, she wanted to shout.

She was about to descend the stairs of this impossibly posh mansion to spend the next however many hours it took in close proximity to Aiden ‘Heart Destroying Bastard’ Carter, and she’d promised her best friends in the whole world that she was going to have fun flirting with him.

Flirting with him!

Him, who she’d prefer to douse in water from one of the elaborate floral arrangements rather than ever have to look at again.

Him, who she wanted to push into the koi-filled lake on the edge of the courtyard.

Him, who she’d just seen for the first time in ten years and promptly thrown up at the feet of.

While her shirt was stained and her hair was a mess, and he just looked all perfect and sports-god like. Him, who…

A knock sounded at her door and she crossed the floor and yanked it open, cheeks flushed with warmth at the irate direction of her thoughts.

Bella stood there, pristine and beautiful, sympathy in her silver eyes.

‘Feeling better?’

Sienna pulled a face.

‘Okay. I’ll take that as a “no”. Need a hand?’

She shook her head.

Bella grinned. ‘Or a drink?’

She pulled two flutes of champagne from behind her back and passed one to Sienna as she entered the suite.

‘Nice view.’ She nodded towards the sunset, visible through the balcony doors. ‘I got the other side.’

‘The garden?’

‘It’s fine.’ She waved a hand in the air, her bangles making a pretty tinkling sound. ‘I’m not much interested in looking outside,’ she added with a flush, leaving Sienna in no doubt as to how Bella and Chase were planning to spend their wedding-week downtime.

Sienna gulped back a slosh of champagne.

‘What’s wrong?’ Bella asked, perching on the edge of the vanity.

‘You mean besides the fact I’m about to spend several hours in a tiny room with a guy I loathe from the very depths of my heart?

Or the fact that it’s our best friend’s wedding and I can’t punch him like I’d truly, really love to?

Orrrr the fact I’m planning to somehow flirt with him, even when I want to bounce a vase off his stupid, perfect face?

Or shall we talk about the whole throwing up right in front of him incident?

That is not the first impression I was hoping to make, believe me. ’

‘All excellent points,’ Bella cooed, standing straight and ticking one finger off with the other.

‘The room is not tiny, it’s the whole entrance foyer of this palatial mansion.

And you’ll be spending the next few hours with us; we’re not going to let anything happen that isn’t amazing for you.

You would never punch anyone, and we both know it.

Nor throw a vase, for that matter. Revenge by seduction really is your only option.

As for flirting with him, believe me when I tell you that your dress does all the flirting necessary.

No way will he remember vomit-gate when he sees you in this. ’

Sienna glanced first at Bella and then let her eyes shift sidelong to the full-length mirror, which she’d been avoiding looking at ever since pulling the stunning silk slip over her head.

Her breath hitched in her throat a little, because whomever had chosen the dress had chosen very, very well.

A shade of shimmering champagne with spaghetti straps, it was cut on the bias and hugged Sienna’s curves in all the right places.

She’d teamed it with a pair of espadrilles and styled her blonde hair into a voluminous bun, high on her head.

‘You look amazing,’ Bella reinforced, coming to stand beside Sienna and put an arm around her shoulders. ‘And Astrid has something in store, by the way, to get things started.’

‘Oh?’

Bella grinned.

‘Care to give me a hint?’

‘I don’t know. Wouldn’t it be more fun to have a surprise?’

Sienna held Bella’s gaze in the mirror. ‘Nope.’

Bella shook her head. ‘Let’s just say absence is going to make Aiden’s heart – or other parts of him – grow a lot, erm, stronger.’

Sienna frowned.

‘Okay, so, he might be thinking that you guys are going to get paired up together, right? I mean, he’s a groomsman, you’re a bridesmaid, you have the whole history thing.’

‘Right…’ Sienna’s skin paled; she hadn’t even thought of that.

‘But instead, Astrid’s partnered you with Chuck Daly.’

Sienna’s expression was blank for about the four seconds it took for her to realise who Bella was talking about. ‘ The Chuck Daly?’

Bella looked like the cat who’d got the cream. ‘The very same.’

‘The Chuck Daly who left his record-breaking career in the NHL to develop that social media site that went gangbusters and now he’s worth like a billion trillion dollars?’

Bella nodded sagely.

‘The one who looks like Chris Hemsworth, Zac Efron and George Clooney swirled their DNA together and created one edibly, perfect human?’

Another nod, this time with a quirk of her lips. ‘The Chuck Daly who’s recently single and ready to mingle.’

‘Oh, gosh.’ Sienna’s cheeks flushed. ‘So now I’m flirting with two guys?’

‘Well, the flirting with Aiden is by the by.’ Bella tilted her head. ‘You’re supposed to be making him regret walking away from you, and having Chuck Daly get a little handsy would definitely help do the trick. Am I right?’

‘You’re right.’ Sienna swallowed back the rest of her bubbles for a hit of Dutch courage, then looked at the empty glass. ‘I could never have dreamed that one fateful night in Chicago would have brought us here.’

Bella sighed contentedly – after all, she’d followed the path of revenge to her own sweet little happily ever after. ‘But it did, and now we’re going to make the most of it. Ready?’

If she was going to back out, this was her chance. She could pretend she had a headache and hide out in her room, reading the third book in the erotic romance Bella had got them all hooked on, courtesy of her random airport granny encounter.

‘Come onnnn, Sienna,’ Bella said on an impatient groan. ‘Let’s get this party started.’

‘Okay,’ she said, before she could three-million-guess herself. ‘I’m ready.’

* * *

He hadn’t been looking for her. Not really.

Okay, he’d half been looking for her, but that was natural.

It was coming up on eleven years since he’d left Ashbury Falls and Sienna behind, eleven years since he’d slammed the door to her place so he couldn’t hear her sob any more.

Eleven years, but when he’d climbed out of the golf cart and she’d been standing there, his gut had lurched with shock, because she was so, so familiar to him.

As familiar as Blake or his mom, or his own damned reflection.

Which wasn’t to say she hadn’t changed.

Of course she had. Sienna had been a week shy of her seventeenth birthday when he’d left town; he remembered, because he’d already bought and wrapped her gift, but he never gave it to her, because he hadn’t had a chance. He was pretty sure she would have thrown it in his face anyway.

Now, she was a woman.

As if that thought needed to be illustrated, a very grown-up-in-all-the-right-places Sienna appeared at the top of the sweeping staircase, with Astrid’s blonde friend by her side – Bella?

The blonde said something and Sienna leaned closer, laughed, tilting her head back a little.

He couldn’t hear her laugh, but it filled his veins anyway, because he’d heard it so many times when they were kids.

A squeal came from his left, and he ripped his attention away from Sienna long enough to see Astrid and her other friend – Paige?

– fast walking to the bottom of the stairs.

Sienna grinned at them and made her way down with so much grace that he couldn’t look away, even if the damned building caught fire.

The dress hugged her like a second skin, all rippling golden silk, cut just low enough to offer a hint of tanned cleavage.

At the bottom of the stairs, the four women gave each other a group hug and even from where he stood he could see they were talking a mile a minute, clearly so happy and in love that something else shifted in Aiden’s gut.

Relief.

Because he’d tortured himself for a long time, worrying about Sienna, hoping she was okay but worrying she wasn’t. When clearly, she was more than okay. She had tight friendships with – if Astrid was anything to go by – a group of incredible, supportive, kind women.

* * *

‘Oh my God, you look hot,’ Paige exclaimed on a whistle.

‘Seriously hot,’ Astrid agreed.

‘But you’re not happy?’ Paige guessed, when Sienna didn’t immediately respond.

Before Sienna could open her mouth, Bella replied, ‘She’s annoyed she doesn’t get to throw a vase at him.’

Astrid laughed. ‘Definitely not, thank you. That’s something Blake would consider to be a line-cross.’ She looked casually over her shoulder. ‘Now.’ Astrid expelled a quick breath. ‘Aiden’s on his own. Go talk to him a bit, before Blake and I make the welcome toast.’

‘Here.’ Bella swiped another glass of champagne from the tray of a passing waitress. ‘Think of it as a prop.’

Sienna took a sip. ‘Okay.’ Then a huge gulp of air. ‘Wish me luck.’

‘Honey,’ Paige cooed. ‘You don’t need it.’

Sucking in a deep breath and channelling her best impersonation of someone who had a wise inner goddess, Sienna began to stroll across the foyer of the home, to where Aiden was standing.

She’d contemplated playing it aloof, but for this to work, she needed to hook him first. Then she could think about torturing him, once he was on the line.

She pushed down all her anger. All her resentment. All her loyalty to the teenager who’d cried so many tears over his departure. She pushed everything aside except the fact she had a plan to get him back, and she was actually sort of looking forward to going through with it.