Page 93 of The Defender

“I’m fine,” she reassured me. “I just needed to sit for a while. Besides, I have to stay and bid on Asher or he’ll never forgive me.” She lowered her voice. “See that woman over there? She’s been trying to ‘win’ him for the past three years. She freaks him out.”

I followed Scarlett’s gaze to where a woman with jet black hair and a tight leopard print dress had cornered a pained-looking Jones.

“He’s probably right. I know a cougar when I see one, and I’m not talking about her dress,” I joked.

Scarlett laughed. “This event is filled with cougars. Honestly, good for them, as long as they stay away from my boyfriend. I’d love it if they bid on Vincent though. He would die.” She said this with the kind of glee that only a little sister could feel at her brother’s expense.

“Yeah.” I forced a matching laugh.

Tell her now. It was the perfect segue.

But when I opened my mouth, nothing came out.

Carina kept reassuring me that Scarlett wouldn’t be upset. She was probably right (again), but that didn’t stop the littlevoice of doubt in my head. The one telling me I was only a mistake away from losing the people I loved because they were only tolerating me anyway.

“Speaking of Vincent, do you think he’s been acting weird lately?” Scarlett asked. “It feels like he’s been avoiding me since Budapest.”

I gulped. Thank God my dress was sleeveless, or it’d be marred with pit stains by now. “Um, no. He’s always been weird.”

What are you saying?Tellher!

“Maybe.” She sounded dubious. “I feel like something happened. I’m not sure if I did anything wrong? He’s usually more…” She waved a hand in the air. “You know.There.”

I was tempted to lie, but staring at her wide, worried eyes, I couldn’t. Nor could I let her think he was keeping his distance because she did something wrong.

“Actually, I do know why he’s been acting weird.” I took a deep breath and willed my nerves to steady. “Before I tell you this—this next thing, I want you to know that it wascompletelyunplanned and that I didn’t mean to wait this long to tell you. I just didn’t know how to bring it up, and I was scared you’d hate me for it. You still might.”

Scarlett’s brow creased. She set her drink down and focused on me, her eyes filled with equal parts curiosity and wariness.

“I kissed Vincent last weekend. In Budapest. After the club.” The words tumbled out in an avalanche. “We really did just leave to get food, but then we were walking through the city and it started raining and I…it just happened.”

I wasn’t sure whether my run-on sentence made sense. It was hard to tell from Scarlett’s reaction since her expression was unreadable.

“I’m really, really sorry I kept this from you.” My pulse was racing a mile a minute. “Vincent and I haven’t discussed whatthe kiss means for us yet, so if you’re wondering whether we’re dating, I have no idea. But I wanted to tell you because I couldn’t keep it a secret anymore.”

There was a long silence before Scarlett released a sharp breath. “You kissed Vincent,” she said, the words slow and measured.

I nodded, my stomach cramping.

“On his birthday.”

I nodded again.

“And it wasn’t a one-night stand type of situation?”

“No. We didn’t, um, sleep together.”

“Oh.” She slumped against her seat and closed her eyes. “Thank fucking God.”

I blinked. “Uh, thank fucking God that we didn’t have sex or…”

“No, thank fucking God that you kissed!” Scarlett popped up in her chair again. “It’s about time. You two were killing me with all your flirting disguised as arguments. I thought I’d have toParent Trapyou boneheads before you realized you liked each other.”

My jaw dropped. “Wait. Youwantedus to kiss?”

“Well, ‘want’ is a strong word. In an ideal world, Vincent is a monk and I never, ever have to think about his love life. But you two have had…vibesfor a while, so I’m glad you finally acted on it.”

That was almost exactly what Carina said when I told her.