I can’t believe how stupid I am. I never should have let him talk me into going on a date with him. My instincts were screaming no at me and I ignored them. That’s the kind of person I am.

I’m always willing to give people the benefit of the doubt, regardless of how many bad things I’ve heard about them. It’s always been my biggest weakness and always seems to get me hurt. If anyone ever wonders why I choose to remain single, it’s because I seem to have no common sense when it comes to judging the character of others.

The sad thing about what had just happened was that I really wanted to believe everything he was telling me. Every word that came out of his mouth was so convincing that I thought there was no way he could making any of it up. He literally had me hanging on to his every word, thinking that I was getting a rare glimpse of a side of Christian Wilde that he never allows anyone to see.

Instead, all I was doing was falling for the tricks of a playboy. I wondered how many other women he had tried this exact same method on. When his original pickup line failed to work on me, all he did was move to plan B. I should have known better.

As all of these thoughts entered my mind, I started to cry and that made me even angrier. This guy is nothing but a creep and here I am crying over him, balling my eyes out. I was crying so hard that I was having trouble seeing where I was going. I wiped the tears out of my eyes as fast as I could but I never stopped moving.

I felt like I couldn’t get away from Christian or his house quickly enough. The problem was that I had no clue where I was and since we had used his limo for the evening, I had no way to get back home.

I planned on calling my sister or Liam to come get me but I wanted to be far enough away that Christian wouldn’t know where I was if he came looking for me.

While his attention was on the half-naked woman who emerged from what I could only assume was his bedroom, I decided to make my escape. I wasn’t going to put up with someone who would disrespect me so much that he would still have one of his sluts at his home when he brought me over.

I don’t know if he was hoping for a threesome or what but he should have known better. I moved quietly through his kitchen and den and was probably out his front door before he even knew I was gone. I ran down so many stairs and wished I wasn’t wearing heels.

When I finally got to the bottom of the steps, I looked around and made my way towards the massive gate that the car had to drive through to enter the property. The gate was closed but fortunately, there was a way out just to the side.

Outside the gate, I had no idea where I should be going. There weren’t any houses around and he lived far from any type of businesses. His entire estate was surrounded by park-like areas.

They may have actually still been a part of his property but I had no way to know for sure. Still crying, I made my way into the park that was straight ahead of me. On an average night, I would have thought that it was beautiful with the way the moonlight shone through the trees. Rather than taking in the sights, I suddenly realized that I had left my coat in his house and was freezing.

I can’t believe I forgot it but was glad I had enough sense to grab my purse on the way out.

When I thought I was far enough away from his house, I found a bench and sat down. It was so cold that I could see my breath in front of me every time I exhaled.

I wrapped my arms around myself as I shivered to try to retain as much of my body heat as I could. The fact that I was so cold pissed me off. My sister convinced me to dress in the tiny dress and I was paying the price for it. Shaking, I opened my purse and started searching through it to find my cell phone so I could call for a ride home.

I let out an audible scream when I looked up and Christian seemed to appear out of nowhere. As I jumped, my phone went flying into the air, saved from destruction when he reached out and grabbed it before it could hit the ground.

“Christian, just leave me alone. I don’t have anything to say to you and I sure as hell don’t want to hear anything you have to say to me.”

“Please Sarabelle, just listen to me for a minute. It’s not what you think.”

“It’s not what I think? How did I know you were going to say that? Of course you would say that. What else could you possibly say to try to save some kind of face? Look, I realize I was an idiot for falling for your tricks but I’m done. There’s no way you’re going to be able to con your way into my pants no matter what you do so save whatever bullshit excuse you’re going to try to throw my way. Besides, it looked to me like there was a half-naked woman inside your house. I don’t think that could look like anything else. How are you going to tell me it wasn’t what it looked like?”

“Okay, so there was a half-naked woman in my house. I guess that part was exactly what it looked like.”

“See? What kind of stupid bimbo do you take me for? I can’t believe you would bring me to your house when you already have a woman there. What were you hoping to accomplish? What kind of sick, twisted fantasies were you expecting to play out?”

“Oh boy,” I ran my hand through my hair. “Calm down. You really need to listen to me for a minute. Yes, there was a half-naked woman in my house. The thing is, that half-naked woman is my sister and I had no clue she was going to be here. Had I known, I would never have brought you back here.”

“Your sister? So you’re telling me that was one of your sweet sisters that you’ve been going on and on about all night? Why would your sister be in your house dressed like that? She was wearing what looked like one of your shirts.”

“Yeah, well apparently she decided to get into my wine and my closet before I got home and helped herself a little too much. I’m not sure what to do with her.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, she is only sixteen years old. I only got to hear a little bit of what was going on before I noticed you were gone. From what I could understand through her slurred speech, she got into a fight with my older sister over something stupid and decided to run away and come to my place. I’m not sure what I should do. I know my mom is going to be worried about her soon when she doesn’t come home but I also know my sister will be in a lot of trouble if my mom finds out she’s been drinking. Hell, I’ll be in a lot of trouble if she finds out my sister was drinking at my house. It won’t matter that I wasn’t home. I’ll get lectured about keeping my alcohol locked away so things like this don’t happen.”

Suddenly, I was feeling very self-conscious and completely embarrassed by the way I had just acted. Maybe I should have given him the chance to explain himself but I am pretty sure there isn’t a woman in the world who wouldn’t have come to the same conclusion I did if they were to see a woman dressed like that coming out of a guy’s bedroom. Even though I felt guilty for jumping to conclusions, I wanted to help him and help his sister.

“Why don’t you call your mom and let her know that your sister is here. Tell her about the fight they had, if she doesn’t already know, and leave out the part about her drinking. Tell her that she’s going to spend the night with you and will be home tomorrow after she calms down. That will give your sister the chance to sober up and give her some time to chill out. It will also prevent your mom from finding out that she was drinking your booze.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea. When I get inside, I’ll tell my sister to keep quiet and I’ll give my mom a call. Maybe I’ll even talk to my older sister and find out exactly what happened. Hopefully, I can smooth things over a bit so they can hash things out tomorrow.”

I stood up off the bench and started walking over to Christian. Even though I had every right to feel the way I did, I was embarrassed about the way I had reacted and wanted to apologize.

“Listen, I’m really sorry for running off like that,” I began. “I’ve been hurt so many times in the past and you don’t exactly have the best reputation when it comes to women. I hope you can forgive me.”

“Forgive you? You don’t even have to apologize to me. I know exactly what it looked like and I can’t think of another woman in the world who wouldn’t have reacted the exact same way you did. There is nothing to forgive you for. How about you give me a hug and we’ll call it even?”

That sounded good as cold as I was. He opened his arms and I pressed my body against his. With his arms wrapped around me, I could feel his warmth, which was a welcome contrast to how cold I was.

His embrace was sweet and had a comforting feel to it. He didn’t let go and I didn’t want him to. I was going to let him hold me for as long as he wanted. I felt butterflies in my stomach as I felt him kiss the top of my head. I don’t know what came over me but I raised my head towards his and leaned in for a kiss.

Before I knew it, he was bending down to kiss my plump, willing lips. I wasn’t sure what I was feeling as we shared our first kiss but it was unexpected and not at all bad.

What am I getting myself into?