Mastered(22)

If it weren’t for the fact that the events were all too real and they had happened to Evangeline, she would have found her friends’ reactions comical and would even now be holding her sides and laughing hysterically as if she’d managed to successfully pull off the mother of all pranks, something she wasn’t remotely capable of because her girlfriends informed her she was too guileless and wouldn’t even begin to know how to deceive someone.

They made it sound like a crime, or at the very least a cardinal sin. Did people pride themselves on being deceitful or worse, being convincing and successful at it?

Evangeline sighed because yes, she was indeed everything her friends accused her of, though accused was too strong a word. They despaired of her naïveté and her inability to be catty and bitchy to those who deserved a good setdown. They were forever telling her she was too sweet, too innocent, too forgiving and trusting for her own good.

They loved her dearly for the very things they considered shortcomings, but they worried that those characteristics would end up being her ultimate downfall. Maybe they were right, but Evangeline couldn’t change who she was any more than she could change who she wasn’t. Hadn’t last night solidly proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt?
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And well, she didn’t want to change. She liked herself just fine the way she was, shortcomings and all. No one was perfect. It just so happened she had more imperfections than most. So what? There was nothing she could do about it, so why waste time and energy she didn’t have trying to be someone that not only could she never possibly be, but also that she had no desire to become?

Put like that, last night hadn’t been the disaster Evangeline had immediately labeled it, and peace settled over her, pushing away some of the still-vivid and all-too-fresh humiliation cloaking her, even as her friends continued to stare her down looking like they were ready to rip her hair out by the roots if she didn’t further explain the shocking revelation she’d dropped on them as though it had been a live explosive.

“He actually went down on you in his office? On his desk?” Nikki asked in a hushed whisper, evidently having reached the breaking point of her patience and deciding Evangeline was going to have to be interrogated since she still wasn’t forthcoming with all the juicy details her friends craved.

“God, you make it sound so . . . sordid,” Evangeline said with a soft groan. “I feel like I should be in church right now, or at least at confession.”

“Hon, I think one has to be Catholic to go to confession,” Lana said dryly.

“Stop distracting her!” Steph said in a near shriek, her agitation making her even more agitated. “And Vangie, I hate to break it to you, but it was sordid. In a really delicious, oh-my-God, goose-bump-inducing kind of way. I need to sign up for that kind of sordid, because nothing I’ve ever done has even come close to that kind of hedonistic delight.”

Evangeline lifted one eyebrow in surprise. She’d expected . . . She frowned, giving her head a light shake to clear the confusion. She wasn’t entirely sure what she’d expected. Maybe condemnation? Disappointment? Judgment?

But that wasn’t at all what she saw reflected in her friends’ gazes. There was a myriad of responses, almost too many to sort through, but nowhere did she see anything that made her feel ashamed or even sorry for what she’d done. But then she hadn’t done anything. She’d just been a clueless—a completely clueless—participant, if she could actually call her response actual participation. She’d merely allowed him to happen. To take over and control every aspect of the shattering, life-altering sequence of events that had begun as simple, petty payback. There was no blaming shock, being overwhelmed, or even the fact that her senses had been so scattered that she wasn’t even cognizant of what was happening. She knew who was to blame, and it wasn’t Drake. It was her own damn fault for not having the fortitude and daring to put a stop to the entire farce. She didn’t have a brave bone in her body, and last night had only proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Worse, she’d known exactly what he was doing—what he was going to do—and she’d quivered to her bones, shaking violently with suppressed need and longing. He’d awakened a fire that had long lay dormant within her, and God help her, she’d wanted it, craved it and him—with every breath in her body. With wild desperation that still bewildered her, because the wanton woman she hadn’t even known existed had responded with complete abandon to a man she’d known for all of a few minutes. For once in her life she’d given in to spontaneity. Done something completely out of character. Grabbed onto the moment and reveled in every single second of unimaginable pleasure. Like in her most erotic fantasies she’d never shared with anyone. Not even her friends. Because they shamed her, and more than that, they frightened her, because in no way, in any of her wildest fantasies, was she in control of any aspect. She belonged to a man who cherished her, protected her, spoiled her endlessly, but in return he was demanding, ruthless even, with an edge of danger and mystery that clung to him like a second skin, one he wore with the comfort and ease of someone well acquainted with such a lifestyle.#p#分页标题#e#