Page 205 of The Villain We Tempt

“Wren—”

“And you’re obviously not fucking Achilles…so it’s either Ronan or?—”

“Wren, you aresooff-base?—”

“Oh my God, you’re sleeping with Lochlan.”

“I—” My words fumble over my tongue as my throat tightens. “No, not at all. You’rewayoff?—”

“Oh. My.God!!”

Dammit.

I start to muster up one more attempt at denying it. But why bother.

“When thefuckdid you become a detective,” I mutter.

Wren chuckles. “I think you all forget that I’mrealgood at this stuff. I’ve just been too busy with my own shit recently to work my usual magic.”

I laugh before burying my face in my hands.

“It just?—”

“Happened?” she interjects, snickering. “Like,oops, I tripped and fell on your dick! Whoopsiedaisie! I did it again!”

I groan and shrivel into my chair.

Wren’s brows knit. “Wait. Who’s the one who doesn’t want this to be public? Because if it’shim, I?—”

“Not him,” I sigh. “Me.”

Wren’s brows pinch. “Oh?”

I nod, my gaze dropping to the bluestone under our feet. Wren’s hand instantly wraps around mine.

“Hey,” she says gently. “You wanna talk about it?”

“I just…” I groan, lifting my head. “It’s so stupid.”

She sighs. “Galina,nothingabout you is stupid. Trust me.”

I force a twisting, wry smile as I squeeze her hand back.

“It’s part jealousy, part…I dunno…it’s hard to explain, but I just don’t?—”

“I get it,” she says softly, giving me a sympathetic look. “I don’t do well with that sort of stuff either.” She makes a face. “I mean, who wants to be with someone and thinking about who they were with before?”

“I guess it’s partly that.” I frown. “Actually, I guess that’s a lot of it. But it’s notjustthat? Like, if it was just that he’d been with other girls before, I think I could get over it. I don’t own his past, you know?”

Wren shrugs. “Yeah…but fuck those other bitches.”

“It’s more that I don’t…ugh,” I groan. “This really does sound ridiculous.”

“You don’t want people to see you together and think you’re justanother of his groupies.”

“Exactly!” I exclaim. “I don’t want people to think I’m some stupid fucking Lochlan Kildare fangirl.”

Wren sighs. “I totally get it. It’s a classic catch-22. A guy who’s been with girls before is going to know what he’s doing,butit means there’ve been girls before you. That said…” She lifts her shoulders. “I mean,everyonehas a past of some kind, right? So you might as well pick the person with a past that taught them to rock your fucking world in bed? If I hadn’t sworn off men, I’d?—”