Page 179 of Tormented Billionaire Romance Series

Could it be thatBrianfinds his wife at this party instead of me?

Maggie reached into her breast pocket, producing a notepad and a miniature pen. She scrawled a series of digits down on one of the pieces of paper, tore it out and then folded it, and tucked it inside the collar of Brian’s costume. “Since Spider-Man doesn’t have pockets,” she explained.

Brian put his hand over the folded note, its edges poking against the stretchy fabric. “I’ll call you.”

“You’d better.”

Brian turned to me. “Let’s go, bud. What’d she look like, again?”

I paced around the perimeter of the party with him at my side. “A princess. Think brunette Cinderella.”

“What’s her name?”

“I didn’t get it.”

“Damn, that sucks.”

“Yeah,” I growled, shoving past a couple to inspect the lines at the food tables. “I didn’t have nearly the luck you did.”

“In my defense,” he grunted, “you disguised yourself so crazy fan girls wouldn’t come running to see you. That’s exactly what happened with me and Maggie. Though it’s more like she accosted me.”

“Spare me the details for later.”

We performed nearly a full circuit around the party before I finally admitted it was a lost cause. Not only had we not seen the princess, we hadn’t even had any false alarms where we encountered someone in a blue dress.

Brian snagged a cup of bloody-red fruit punch and sipped at it. “If only she’d left a glass slipper.”

“What?”

“You said she was Cinderella. Cinderella lost one of her shoes and the prince used it to find her.” He shrugged and swigged down the rest of his punch. “Just saying that if she’d left some way for you to find her…”

“It’s a lost cause.” I sighed.

“Hey, did you say something about Cinderella?” My dueling partner from earlier approached, looking drunker than ever. At least he was a happy drunk. He had acquired quite the pack of followers, all of them shuffling up behind him. Much to my amusement, I saw they were nearly all princes or kings of some sort or other.

“Hey, bud,” I said, and held out my fist. We bumped knuckles, like we were old pals. “Have you seen a Cinderella wandering around?”

“Yeah.” He scratched his head. “Like… fifteen minutes ago.”

“Half an hour,” interjected one of his friends.

“Yeah, sure,” the drunk prince agreed. “She was headed for the exit. I think she’s gone.”

My heart plummeted to the bottom of my stomach. If she had gone, I truly had no way to get in touch with her. Whatever might have been between us, friendship or romance or enmity, would never even have a chance to form.

“That’s rough,” the drunk prince sympathized, somehow managing to pick up on what I felt. Then again, it wasn’t as if I was trying to hide my emotions. “Why don’t you come get drunk with us?”

“Just one drink.”

One turned into four, and then Brian stopped me. I spent the rest of the party in a sort of buzzed daze, alternating between making casual conversation and avoiding Suzie. That crazy girl clearly wasn’t going to give up on her pursuit of me. If she kept this up outside of the party, I’d need to get a restraining order. I had no interest in her.

And no interest in anyone else.

By the time party ended, long after dawn broke over the horizon, I had met no one else who stirred such longing in me as that Cinderella had.

CHAPTER8

MEGYN

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