In Bed with the Beast (Naughty Princess Club 2)

I don’t want what she’s saying to make sense. I don’t want to feel bad for him or second-guess my decision to leave, so I reach over the table and snatch my wineglass back.

“I don’t want to talk anymore. I just want to get drunk. Really, really drunk.”

Like a good friend, Ariel doesn’t say another word. She keeps my wineglass filled and even runs to the store when I drink it all and demand more.

When she helps me walk into her spare bedroom, removing thirteen antique wedding dresses from the bed and tossing them onto a chair in the corner, she doesn’t say anything stupid and cliché like everything will look better tomorrow.

I lost my belief in happily ever after and a new day won’t make that better.

Just like the library, my heart is officially closed indefinitely.

Chapter 32: We’re Storming the Castle

“Did you know it’s no easier to tell if a stranger is lying than if your partner is? Researchers from the University of California gathered statistics from 253 trials on lying and found we have only a fifty-fifty chance of distinguishing people who lied from those telling the truth,” I tell the man who’s lap I’m straddling as I swivel my hips to the music.

He nods his head and smiles up at me, not saying a word as he gently rests his hands on my hips.

I stop moving, quickly remove his hands, then resume my lap dance, resting my own hands on his shoulders.

“Every thirteen seconds a couple in the U.S. files for divorce. And did you know heartbreak can actually make you sick? Our brain releases stress hormones, which can weaken our immune system and leave our bodies more susceptible to illness,” I inform him as I slide off his lap to stand between his spread legs.

“That’s . . . interesting,” he mutters, watching me run my hands over my breasts and down my sides as I move sensually to the music.

“It’s also a true fact that your heart can literally break. Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, known as broken heart syndrome, is typically caused by emotional or physical stress. Hormones create a stunning effect on the heart muscles, which can cause temporary dysfunction, much like a heart attack.”

I hear a throat clear from the corner of the room and shake my head to stop all the depressing thoughts that won’t quit running through it, doing my best to put on a smile and finish the show. When the song comes to an end I look around the room, grateful that I’m now finished giving a lap dance to everyone who wanted one.

I say a quick thank you to the groom-to-be and apologize for my gloomy facts tonight, and the men all move into the kitchen to continue their drunken bachelor party. I head over to the far corner of the living room.

“You can turn around now.”

“Are you dressed yet?” PJ asks, his nose buried in the corner and his arms crossed in front of him.

I sigh heavily.

“I’m wearing a bra and underwear, I’m not naked.”

“You’re not dressed yet, and I’m not turning around until you are. Beast will cut off my limbs and eat them for dinner,” he mutters.

“I assure you, he would not,” I tell him with a roll of my eyes.

I grab my grey cotton dress from the bag by PJ’s feet and quickly pull it over my head.

“I’m decent. You can pull your face away from the wall now.”

PJ slowly turns his head, squinting his eyes. He studies me through the slits for a few seconds, and when he’s satisfied, he finally turns around to face me.

“Look, I get that you’re pissed at the guy, and you have every right to be. But it’s been a week, Belle. Are you ever going to talk to him again?” PJ asks, grabbing my bag from the floor and carrying it out of the room as I follow behind him.

Believe me, I know exactly how long it’s been since the last time I saw or spoke to Vincent. I feel it every day, every minute, and every second, like a knife to the heart. As much as I didn’t want to let what Ariel said get to me, it did. It’s all I’ve thought about every day since then, as I moped around her mess of a house and numbly danced at party after party each night.

PJ leads me out of the house and to his truck parked in the driveway. He doesn’t speak again until we’re halfway back to Ariel’s house.

“He should have told you the truth, and he knows that. He feels like absolute shit for lying to you, but you have to know, that’s the only thing he kept from you. Everything else he said to you was the truth.”

“Well, that’s a pretty big fucking thing to lie about, don’t you think?” I snap in annoyance.