Stolen Soulmate (Crowne Point 2)

I ascended the stairs, taking all the winding lefts and rights, heading back for the exit.

It wasn’t like he can die here. He would like that, though. This was his home.

All he knows.

Like me.

“Story?”

I stopped short. Grayson stood before me, dressed to kill in a dark tux that fit every sinful muscle. I looked around me in a daze. The world glittered and gleamed—piano music rushed into my ears.

I was crashing a party. Oh shit. I’d taken a wrong turn.

“You weren’t there when I got back.” He scratched the back of his neck. “I realize, I don’t even have your number or anything. I guess…I guess I never needed it.”

I’d always been at his beck and call. I’d barely even used my phone the past few months.

Like a good little mistress.

“Wait—what’s going on? Are you leaving?” His voice lowered a dangerous octave.

I stared bemused at the lump of clothes in my arms.

“What’s this party about?”

“Some bullshit foundation we’re using to launder our reputation after Abigail. Story, what’s wrong?” He gripped my chin, dragging my gaze to his earnest blue ones.

“Was I invited?” I wondered aloud, and like that, he dropped me.

He scratched the back of his neck harder, and that was when I spotted Lottie.

“I wasn’t invited,” I said.

We were gaining an audience. It looked like everyone had come to this party. Lottie and her friends, Aundi and Pipa. Grayson’s friends Geoff and Alaric. People I didn’t know were watching. All wondering why Grayson Crowne was talking to the servant with a pile of clothes in her hands.

“They probably don’t invite mistresses to these things, right?” I stared into his blue eyes, numbness creeping into my veins, slowing my heart.

His brow furrowed. “What are you talking about?”

“I’ll go,” I whispered.

I sprinted away from him, on the verge of tears, and really not wanting him to see.

“Story—” Grayson called to my back.

I’d just made it around the corner of the ballroom.

“Oh look.” Aundi stepped in my path. “It’s the social-climbing whore.”

“I was just leaving,” I said.

Aundi knocked the clothes out of my hand. I scrambled to pick them up as others grabbed them faster than I could.

“Please just give them back.”

“Isn’t this a little manly, even for you?” Pipa asked, tossing an item to Geoff, who tossed it to Alaric.

“Just give them back.”