The Promise (Book 1, The Coven Series)

Chapter Ten

I ran straight past my dad and up the stairs to the bathroom. I jerked off the dress and the shoes – well, I was a bit more careful with the shoes. After scrubbing my face and pulling on my pjs, I crawled into bed. So I'd been just a way for him to prove himself? How could he do that to me? Why would he do it? I thought he'd felt the same way I did, but I'd been wrong. All he'd managed to do was rip another hole into my already tattered heart. Those beautiful gray eyes rose up to taunt me when I closed mine and I cursed. Why did it hurt so much? I barely knew him.

But I did know him. My heart knew him. It loved him, traitorous fool that it was. All I had been to Ethan was a means to an end – he'd managed the one thing no one else had ever been able to do. So what if he was a great kisser and told me things that made me feel special and even understood the depth of the pain I felt for Emily. So what? Who's to say it wasn't all an act?

Tears blurred my vision. Please, please don't have been an act.

"Here, move over." Kay pulled back the covers and piled junk food on the bed. She grabbed the remote and handed me a spoon. "I think I covered all the basics – chips, pop, ice cream, and chocolate."

I blinked at the mountain of junk food she'd brought up. I also saw that she had pulled on one of my longer nightshirts. It barely covered her. I smiled at how idiotic she looked.

"Do you want butter pecan or cookies and cream?" she asked, diving into the bed.

"Butter pecan," I told her through a hiccup.

"Good, cause you would have to fight me to the death for the cookies and cream," she smiled and flipped on the TV. "O-h-h, look it's John Carpenter's Halloween." She knew I was a sucker for horror movies.

"What did you tell Dad?" He'd seen us come in together. He must have put two and two together.

"That your date was an ass and you called me to come get you."

"He believed you?" I asked. "I didn't leave the house in a dress, MJ."

"Don't worry," she soothed. "We'll come up with something. Let's not worry about that right now, okay? Let's just eat ourselves to death on ice cream and chocolate."

"I can't believe I was so stupid." I shoveled a large spoonful of ice cream into my mouth.

"You weren't stupid," she said quietly. "I know you're pretty mad and you're hurt, but I honestly think Ethan cares about you. No matter what happened, I believe that."

"WHAT?" I exclaimed. "How can you say that, Makayla Joyce? Did you not hear the same thing I did? It was all about getting me to a stupid Coven meeting! He lied to me and he tricked me and..."

"Okay," she held up a hand to stop my tirade. "I agree, what he did was beyond sleazy, but still, CJ, you're all he ever talks about. That first meeting he came to, he didn't even ask a single question about the Coven. All he wanted to know about you."

"Only because he wanted to find out how to get me to go to a meeting and who knows me better than you?"

"Maybe," Kay agreed grudgingly, "but that doesn't explain the way he looks at you."

I groaned. She had to remind me of that didn't she? Ethan looked at me like I was the center of his world. His eyes saw only my face and then they would darken to molten steel that blazed with a heat and intensity that set my entire body flaming scarlet. He could make my toes curl with just a glance.

"Look, I'm not saying forgive him or anything, at least not right now," she sighed. "Just hear him out when you're ready to talk, okay?"

Talk? I wanted to hit him until he hurt as much as I did right now. It felt like my insides had been put through a meat grinder. My skin felt raw and bloody, like I'd been dragged over asphalt. Talking was out of the question for a good long while.