Chapters (66)
- Cover
- Dedication
- Keep Reading
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Fifty-Seven
- Fifty-Eight
- Fifty-Nine
- Sneak Peek
- Find Me
- Books by Mary Catherine Gebhard
- Acknowledgments
“You don’t want this one,” he said. “She’s defective. She’ll fatten your drinks and think about stabbing you in your sleep.”
My mouth dropped open. My secret. He’d shared it without any hesitation.
“Then why is she here?”
Gray seemed to consider that, rubbing his bottom lip. “Who wants a night with a virgin?”
Ten
STORY
“Ugh, really, Gray?” Gemma threw her head back, then stood up, grabbing a bottle of tequila. “It’s going to be that kind of night? I’m out.”
She poured the golden liquor into three shots before taking them all herself. I stepped back, but I was like glitter trying to disappear into dust. An antelope hiding among lions.
Grayson Crowne, the lying playboy betting the virginity of a lying virgin. It might’ve been funny if I wasn’t the lying virgin about to lose her fake virginity.
I don’t know when the first tug came, when the first hand grabbed me, but soon I couldn’t differentiate between all the paws.
“She’s dressed like a fuckin’ nun,” someone said. A grab on my wrist, another on my hip, shoved from one person to the next, down the line. I tried to cover myself, but too many people were grabbing at me.
“And not a hot one,” another said, and I was shoved forward, then sucked back into the grabbing hands.
Through it all Gray watched, blue eyes hazy in his smoke, icy and unfeeling.
“I don’t know…” A new voice, another hand. “It’s kind of hot.”
Gray exhaled a musky, twirling tendril of smoke.
“We should get to see the merch first.”
Some distant part of my brain told me to stand up for myself, but I couldn’t remember the last time I’d done that. I wasn’t sure if I even remembered how.
I was drowning. My voice gone, my breath gone, sinking into hands and smoke…
Gray grabbed my wrist, pulling me from them, still with his joint in one hand. I twirled until I fell to his lap.
I immediately froze.
I’m on Grayson Crowne’s lap.
He reached for his cards, arms wrapped around me, keeping me pinned. The action jostled me, pressed me deeper into him. I sucked in nothing; I had no air left to swallow.
“Do they let you rip open the plastic and eat the steak before you buy it?” Gray maneuvered to hold his cards in one hand, his joint with the other. “Sit down, fuckheads.”
Everyone slowly did as he said, and I could see the calculations in their heads. I wasn’t a person, I was a thing, like a car or a house. How much was I worth betting?
Turns out, I was worth a company, a rare car, a house, and an island. I might’ve felt special if I wasn’t so terrified.