Give Me You (22 page)

Jesus.

I shake my head at Skylar. No way in hell can I ask him to pay twenty thousand freaking dollars just to hang out with me tonight. He widens his eyes at me, silently conveying that I should keep going, but I can’t.

No night with me would be worth that.

I’m in danger of having PTSD-style flashbacks.

Men paying for me, feeling obligated to do things I don’t want to because money changed hands.

I can’t. I won’t.

Never again. The circumstances are different but the scenario is basically the same.

I shouldn’t be here.

Skylar and Fallon look like a couple. They look like wealth and privilege and manicured lawns and mansions. I can practically see their future playing out behind my eyes. Wedding on some huge estate looking like a two-page spread in Vogue, perfect prep school children, and an overpriced dog. At a dinner party Fallon will flash her huge diamond ring and say something like “remember that trashy slut from New York you brought to the auction that one time? What was that about?” And Skylar will roll his eyes and say, “I slummed it a little college, sweetheart. Forgive me.”

My dinner is threatening to come back up so I wash it down with another glass of champagne. During my wide-awake nightmare, the bidding on Skylar has ended and the next bachelor is on the block.

Fallon won.

Fallon can have him.

I stand and excuse myself to the ladies room.

I dodge waiters through the courtyard and nearly knock over a seventy-year-old woman in a pink dress and pearls on my way back into the house. It’s a maze of doors and hallways until I finally find a bathroom.

The girl in the mirror taunts me.

Coward.

She’s wide-eyed and gaunt-looking, swallowed whole by the grand marble fixtures surrounding her.

I glare at her. She should pull it together. Hold her head high. None of these people matter to me. I’ll probably never see any of them again and that should be a good thing.

So Skylar’s going to spend the evening with his ex.

He’s not mine. I don’t own him.

I use the facilities then wash my hands and freshen up the lipgloss Katie gave me. This isn’t that big of a deal, I tell my reflection. I’m only like an hour from campus. I can go back to my dorm any time I want. My lonely, empty dorm room. Or I can stay here and hang out with Katie if she didn’t bid on anyone after I left. I doubt she’s going to want to go out tonight after the day she’s had so maybe we can just sit up and drink and have a girl’s night.

Deep breaths.

I’m tougher than this. I’ve survived a hell of a lot worse than some drama queen bidding on a guy I have a slight crush on.

I’m also really good at lying to myself. Which is a good thing, because I have a feeling I’ll be doing it for the rest of the night.

“Want to dance?” The attractive blond future corporate accountant-looking guy with glasses who pulled my chair out before dinner asks me as soon as I step outside. “Looks like your date is going to be occupied.” He nods at where Fallon is thoroughly enjoying being in Skylar’s arms on the dance floor. She looks like a cat in heat. To Skylar’s credit, he’s at least looking over her head as if trying to find someone.

Over here, buddy.

“Sure,” I say, taking his arm and allowing him to lead me to an unoccupied section of the wooden dance floor. “Um…”

“Brent,” he tells me.

“Brent.” I smile. “I’m Corin. From the wrong side of New York,” I say with a wink.

“What a coincidence. That’s my favorite area,” he teases good-naturedly.

The band is lively and the songs are mostly upbeat so we dance until my feet ache.

“How come you weren’t in the auction?” I ask when we take a break to grab more drinks. My head is swimming a little from all the alcohol, but it’s a nice distraction from Skylar and Fallon.

“Promise not to tell?” he asks before taking a drink of his bourbon.

I nod, leaning in for the secret.

“My grandma bids on me every year. So I begged Katie to let me sit out if I just donated the amount she usually bids.”

I laugh until my side hurts. Brent makes a crack about me taking pleasure in his pain and I giggle harder.

“Best five thousand I’ve ever spent,” he says straight-faced.

“Aww, but one day you’ll miss her and wish you’d spent the evening with her,” I inform him as I get my laughter under control. “There are worse things than a grandmother who wants to spend the evening with her grandson and is willing to pay for it.”

He nods. “You ever cleaned out eight litter boxes? Eight litter boxes that haven’t been cleaned out in months, possibly a year since the last auction?”

“Um, no. Can’t say I have.”

He smirks at me. “Exactly. So don’t judge me, lady.”

I laugh and polish off another glass of champagne before he leads me back to the dance floor. The music has slowed and Skylar and Fallon are nowhere to be seen. Not that I care.

The more intoxicated I get, the easier the lies come.

“How come you didn’t bid on anyone else?”

I shrug. “I don’t know anyone else.”

“So you and Skylar aren’t like…a thing?”

My drunk brain doesn’t want to answer anymore questions. “Oh, no. Not really. I mean, we hang out at school sometimes. But no. We’re nothing.”

Thank God for alcohol.

“Nothing, huh?”

Skylar’s voice is angry and wounded from behind me. I suck in a breath and turn to face him.

He doesn’t even look at me. “Burgess, what’d you have for breakfast?”

My hands begin to tremble at my sides.

“Uh, egg white omelet. Why?”

Skylar’s face contorts into a mask of ugliness. “Well I had Corin for breakfast. And I’ve decided I want seconds, so if you’ll excuse us.”

Bastard.

He takes my elbow but I am on fire from the shame caused by his words.

Why humiliate me like that?

I so get it now, why Julia Roberts was pissed when Richard Gere told the guy from Seinfeld she was a hooker.

I jerk out of his grasp and slap his face as hard as I can. My hand stings but I don’t care. “Don’t dress me up and try to make me look like something I’m not if you’re just going to tell everyone I’m your piece of ass.”

Lifting my dress so I don’t trip over it, I all but sprint through the crowd and to Katie’s room the best I can manage.

Katie is on her way out of it, looking ready to collapse. “Corin? Everything okay?”

“Your brother is an asshole,” I say through gritted teeth. “I’m sorry. He just—”

“No, I know. He can be sometimes.” She shakes her head. “And Fallon…I suspected when I saw her here that she’d cause trouble. I’m sorry about that.”

I catch my breath and do my best to calm down. “It’s not even that. It’s…” I couldn’t even put it into words. “I shouldn’t have come.”

“Well I’m glad you came but I understand. Stay in my room tonight. I’m going to be up late finishing up with the party and then I’m probably going to head to my apartment since it’s closer to work. Don’t let Fallon or my brother get to you. Trust me, you have nothing to worry about.”

With that she leaves me alone at her door to contemplate my options.

Skylar tops the stairs just as I’ve decided to head back downstairs to drink enough to numb the pain.

“Corin, I—”

“Don’t. Just don’t.” I put my hand up to keep him from coming any closer. “I don’t need an explanation because I know what happened. You danced with your ex, the ex you’ll be leaving here and spending the night with while I’m alone wondering what you’re doing. The ex I wouldn’t even know about if I hadn’t come here. But you saw me dancing with someone who was being kind to me, so you got your testosterone all in a bunch and decided to come piss a circle around me to let him know who was boss, right? That about cover it?”

Skylar’s jaw ripples with tension. “I shouldn’t have said what I did and I came up here to apologize.”

“You do a lot of that. Maybe you should have a business card made that you can just hand out every time you act like a dick.” I snort out a harsh laugh. “‘I’m Skylar Martin and I’m sorry for whatever asshole thing I did to you today.’ I’d buy in bulk if I were you.”

“Maybe I will. I’ll order you some too. ‘I’m Corin Connelly and I’m fucking scared of everything and I hide behind sarcasm so no one thinks I have any feelings.’”

My entire body flares in anger. “You’re a son of bitch, Skylar Martin. And right now, I honest to God wish I had never met you.”

“Well you’ve met my mother, so I guess you’re entitled to your opinion.”

I shake my head. Enough. “Just tell me why? Why humiliate me like that?”

Skylar’s eyes fill with genuine remorse so I look away. He steps closer and touches my chin softly. “I was coming to cut in, to talk to you about tonight and see if you were okay. Hearing you say we were nothing…it hurt. I reacted badly and I am truly sorry for what I said.”

And now I know why Julia Roberts stayed.

The tension in my chest eases. It’s been a long damn day. “I’m sorry I said we were nothing.” I wrap my arms around myself. “It’s just, I don’t really know what we are or how to define it and the past few days have been crazy and seeing you and Fallon made me think that maybe we really aren’t anything. Maybe I’m just some girl you met a college and that’s all I’ll ever be.”

Skylar looks at me like I’m speaking Greek. “You will never be just some girl, Corin. Never. Not now and not five or ten years from now.”

“You think we’ll still know each other five or ten years from now?”

Skylar sighs. “No way to know for sure, but I’d like to think so. I hope so at least.”

“I hope so too,” I admit for the first time. He’s right in a way. I don’t like feeling vulnerable at all. It’s scary and I’d rather avoid it. But when Skylar leans in and kisses me firmly on the lips, I decide it’s not so bad.

“Come down downstairs and dance with me? Pretty please? I promise to behave.”

I laugh as we make our way down the lush staircase. “When do you ever behave?”

“Good point.”

Just as we re-enter the party, Fallon steps in front of us. “I’ve been looking for you, Skylar,” she pouts. “I’m ready to go.”

I feel Skylar tense beside me. “I brought Corin here and I’m going to dance with her before we go.”

With that, he moves us past her. “Sky…” I whisper. “She paid a lot of money to spend time with you. Maybe we should—”

“We’re going to dance, Corin. She’ll live.”

We dance through two songs before I can’t hold it in anymore. “So, um, what are you and her going to do tonight?”

Skylar’s expression tightens. “Argue about why she pulled that stunt. I’ll take her to this club she likes and I’ll wait for her to finish proving her point that she can do what she wants with whatever victims she choses. Then hopefully I can take her home and come back here to you. Will you sleep in my room?”

“Um…no offense, Sky, but being in your bed when you get home from a date with another girl doesn’t sound particularly appealing.”

He nods. “I get that but I swear to you, it’s not a date. If you weren’t here, I can just about guarantee she wouldn’t have bid on me. She’d probably be blowing Burgess in a corner somewhere. Trust me.”

“You don’t have a very high opinion of her.”

Skylar swallows hard and pulls me closer. “No, I don’t. We have a long sordid history. But mostly I feel sorry for her. She lives in a world of pain she refuses to walk away from and there’s nothing I can do to help her. I tried. For a long time.”

I want to know more about this and I tell him so.

“I’ll explain everything when I get home if you still want to hear about it. I hope I get to come home and hold you all night then we can get up and grab breakfast and head back to campus. Would that be okay?”

I nod against his chest. “Yeah. Better than.”

“Skylar,” Katie’s exhausted voice breaks in. “We need to talk.”

We break apart and I see Fallon glowering at me from behind her.