Mastered (The Enforcers 1)

The three looked shocked but each nodded in turn, though Steph didn’t look at all happy at having to promise something before she even knew what Evangeline was going to reveal. Her lips twisted into a mutinous line, but Evangeline stared her down, never once averting her gaze, until finally Steph threw up her hands in surrender.

“Okay, okay,” she said in exasperation. “I promise.” She glanced at Lana and Nikki and then added, “We all promise. Now will you just get on with it? We’re dying of curiosity here!”

Satisfied that she had their consent, and knowing that they’d never go back on their word, Evangeline falteringly related everything that happened after Eddie had been tossed from the club. She left nothing out. No words that Drake had said to her. They were burned into her brain, so it wasn’t as though she would ever forget them.

By the time she finished, her cheeks were on fire and no doubt so red that she looked like she was sunburned. The room felt way too hot and she desperately needed a cold shower, or even better, a bathtub full of ice she could submerge herself in until her flushed and aroused, traitorous body rid itself of the lingering aftereffects of Drake’s mouth, lips, tongue. His touch. God, just his touch had sent her up in flames. She didn’t dare imagine if things had gone further and they’d had full-on sex complete with penetration of more than just his tongue. She could feel yet another wave of heat invade her body, and every single one of her girly parts tingling in wild anticipation. She had to stop this!

How on earth, hours later, could just remembering all the things he’d done turn her into a complete hormonal mess? She didn’t even have the courage to hold her friends’ gazes anymore and had long since fixed her stare at a distant point so she couldn’t see their reactions.

When she finally dared to sneak a glance at her friends’ expressions from underneath her eyelashes, their mouths were agape and their eyes wide with complete shock. And for once in their lives, particularly Steph’s, who never had a shortage of anything to say, they were utterly speechless.

Nikki’s mouth popped open and shut several times in a row while Steph just stared in stupefaction. Surprisingly, it was Lana, the quietest of the three, who finally managed to squeak out, “What? For real? Are you serious?”

And it was a squeak. Barely audible due to the obvious disbelief cracking her words.

Seemingly Lana’s breaking the stunned silence began a barrage of questions from all directions until Evangeline covered her ears and groaned, sinking back onto her pillow and closing her eyes. She reached for the second pillow and would have pulled it over her head to shut them all out, but it was promptly snatched from her grasp and Evangeline found herself staring up into Steph’s outraged features.

“Oh hell no,” Steph huffed, her eyes flashing as her head hovered directly over Evangeline’s face. “You are not getting out of this.” Then she stopped, clearly at a loss for words for a second time in mere moments—twice in a matter of seconds? Her hand flew above her shoulder, palm up and fingers splayed wide in a universal gesture that screamed what? Her expression said everything else her gesture didn’t cover . . . Like why? And how? And holy crap! Really?

If it weren’t for the fact that the events were all too real and they had happened to Evangeline, she would have found her friends’ reactions comical and would even now be holding her sides and laughing hysterically as if she’d managed to successfully pull off the mother of all pranks, something she wasn’t remotely capable of because her girlfriends informed her she was too guileless and wouldn’t even begin to know how to deceive someone.

They made it sound like a crime, or at the very least a cardinal sin. Did people pride themselves on being deceitful or worse, being convincing and successful at it?

Evangeline sighed because yes, she was indeed everything her friends accused her of, though accused was too strong a word. They despaired of her naïveté and her inability to be catty and bitchy to those who deserved a good setdown. They were forever telling her she was too sweet, too innocent, too forgiving and trusting for her own good.

They loved her dearly for the very things they considered shortcomings, but they worried that those characteristics would end up being her ultimate downfall. Maybe they were right, but Evangeline couldn’t change who she was any more than she could change who she wasn’t. Hadn’t last night solidly proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt?

And well, she didn’t want to change. She liked herself just fine the way she was, shortcomings and all. No one was perfect. It just so happened she had more imperfections than most. So what? There was nothing she could do about it, so why waste time and energy she didn’t have trying to be someone that not only could she never possibly be, but also that she had no desire to become?