Sophia’s POV
Hours later, when I opened my eyes, I felt like I had been through a meat grinder.
My head was pounding, my vision was an indecipherable blur and I was being slowly suffocated by the heavy duvet.
I rolled out of bed but I miscalculated landing on my behind buck naked on the hard tiled ground.
I sat up with a pained groan. Why was the floor so hard? I looked down at myself, the realization that I was naked somehow just hitting me.
Why was I naked?
I stood up horror washing over me as I saw a very naked man on the bed that I had just rolled out of.
His back was turned to me so I didn’t see his face but that long ink black hair was unmistakable. It was Handsome Guy. From the bar.
I gasped covering my mouth as disjointed memories from last night came back to me.
When I could no longer safely locate where my mouth was to take another sip of alcohol, I stood up to leave the bar only to trip and fall into Handsome Guy’s lap.
He blinked down at me. “Are… are you alright?”
His voice was slurred and he looked even more drunk than I felt.
But that didn’t stop me from breaking into a violent sob, thoughts of Jerry somehow intruding in my drunken haze.
“No, I’m not fine.” I sobbed.
Handsome Guy held me awkwardly as I cried.
My memory skipped from the bar to this room.
Handsome Guy was placing me on the bed before pulling away so he could let me sleep alone.
I held on to him though, my mind still warped by the heartbreak, the alcohol and the spiked drink.
“Help me forget even if it’s just for a night.” I begged a complete stranger.
Before Handsome Guy could refuse, I pressed my lips to his and then we-
Oh Lord, what on earth had I done?
I raced into the bathroom and threw up into the sink. As I washed my face, I knew one thing, I had to get out of here before the stranger woke up.
I didn’t do one night stands. Hell, before this I had only been with one man, my ex husband. And now barely a day later, I had pushed myself onto the first man who acted nice to me.
Oh, Lord. I wanted to find a hole and bury myself to hide from the intense embarrassment and shame I felt.
From the look of this hotel room, I knew the stranger was loaded. Los Angeles was a small place for the rich. Everyone important knew everyone important.
If the stranger found out who I was and sold this information to the press, I was finished.
I washed my face and rushed out in a hurry. I pulled on my dress in a hurry and wore the slides I saw to the side of the room.
Grabbing my purse, I paused at the door hesitating before I left the room.
I could barely recall the face of the stranger. I didn’t know if it was the drugs in the spiked drink, the poor lighting of the club or the hangover dulling my memory.
And now this morning, his face was buried in his pillow so all I could see was his broad back with an ouroboros tattoo, his tapered waist and-
Focus Sophia.
I wouldn’t check the face of the stranger. In fact, It was good I didn’t remember his face. All the better to forget about this terrible mistake.
With that thought, I ran away from that hotel room.
“Sorry Ma’am. Do you have another card?”
I blinked at the flushed server handing my card back to me.
After leaving the hotel, I’d decided to get some coffee. Anything to wake me up and make me feel less like a zombie with a cramping belly who was currently torn between feeling stupid for having feelings for a man who had treated me like shit for five years and feeling ashamed for my actions with that stranger last night.
Yes. I needed coffee. Badly.
I handed the server another card. And another until we had tried out every card the Baxters had given me.
They all declined.
The Baxters had blocked my access to the money in my accounts they had funded.
I was penniless.
Good Lord. I should have expected this.
After all, what was one more betrayal on top of everything else they had done to me?
With my accounts frozen, there was only one way I could get some cash to find a place to stay or even food to eat, I had to get to my savings.
My savings in cash from before I became a Baxter that I’d sewn into the lining of my box.
My box in my bedroom at the Baxters.
I swallowed hard. I had to return back to that house.