‘Oh, for fuck’s sake,’ I said, considering my options and the state of my updo. Even I knew it was no good getting into a scrap with your hair down. ‘I haven’t been in a fight since year seven, but I sent Donna Maria Bowers home with a black eye that day and I’m fairly certain I can do it again if I have to.’

‘Francesca, there you are!’

Evan stepped between me and the five men, their menacing expressions suddenly turning sheepish.

‘Making friends?’ he asked, quirking one eyebrow upwards.

‘You know me,’ I replied with just the tiniest tremor in my voice. ‘Just such a people person.’

‘I’m calling security!’ Andrew threatened, as Evan offered me his arm and I slid my hand through it, relief flooding through me. ‘She threw my phone off the terrace!’

‘I know, I saw that,’ Evan said with a huge grin. ‘And I thought it was kind of amazing.’

‘I could have taken them, you know,’ I said as we hustled away as fast as my trainers would carry me. ‘I didn’t need you to save me.’

‘Oh, I wasn’t saving you from them,’ he replied. ‘I was saving them from you. You, Francesca, are a badass.’

I was a badass, I thought happily as we crossed the terrace back into the ballroom. I could live with that.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

‘You don’t really think they were going to push me off the balcony, do you?’ I asked as we walked briskly down a narrow corridor, lit with a ceiling of stars, arms still linked and my heart keeping double time. Whether it was from Evan’s body next to mine or the fact I’d come within seconds of being chucked over the edge of a cliff, I wasn’t sure, but I didn’t care. Maybe it was both. Two things could be true at the same time.

‘I definitely get the feeling all those guys tortured more than one class hamster back in the day, but no, I don’t think they were going to hurt you. I think they were trying to scare you, which is still a dick move,’ he replied. ‘And I’m sorry if I overstepped, but I saw what was happening and I couldn’t stand by and watch. I really hate those guys.’

‘You didn’t overstep,’ I assured him, my fingers resting lightly on what felt like a nicely developed bicep under his tux. ‘Who are they anyway?’

Evan made a distasteful noise in the back of his throat. ‘Assholes?’

A loud laugh rattled out of me and it felt so good.

‘A bunch of tragic cases who used Daddy’s money to buy into successful companies because they wouldn’t know an original idea if it bit them on the ass,’ he clarified. ‘But assholes is more concise.’