Free Even Villains Fall in Love by Liana Brooks

but she’d told him to be here, so the
answer to everything was here. Give me a hint,
Tabby-cat.
    “Oh.” She tucked a loose strand of hair behind
her ear. “I’m just here with my roommate, Hilary. There’s...” She
giggled again and looked at the floor. “There’s no one.” Blue eyes
looked up at him. “Are you seeing anyone?”
    Evan took a breath. Deep cover was not a
comfortable place to be. Swirling the punch around his cup, he
shrugged. “It’s complicated.”
    “How can it be complicated? You’re either with
someone or you aren’t.” Her hands went to her hips, the flirt was
gone. “So, status?”
    “It depends.”
    “On what?”
    “Do you love me?”
    She blinked, caught off guard.
    “Zinnia! Zinnia, there you are.” A blond man
built like a rugby player cut between them. He looked vaguely
familiar. “There you are, Z-girl. Sorry I’m late.” He gave Evan a
passing glance. “Who’s your friend?”
    “Evan Fascino, the new ethics professor I told
you about.”
    “Ethics professor?” Rugby laughed. “You ever get
laid, or are you, like, the fifty-year-old virgin?” He grabbed
Tabitha’s arm and she winced.
    “Are you all right?” Evan asked Tabitha,
blocking Rugby with an upheld arm.
    Tabitha looked confused. “I’m fine. I hurt my
arm falling down some stairs.”
    “Stairs?” The fight. He hadn’t even asked her
about the fight. “Let me see.”
    “Dude, I got it.” Rugby pushed him back. “I do
sports medicine.”
    More likely he did anything too drunk to
object.
    Rugby pulled out an alcohol wipe, rolled
Tabitha’s sleeve up, and peeled back the bandage. An angry red gash
ran parallel to the scar he’d given her.
    Evan felt his heart skip a beat. This was his
fault. All his fault. And now some chump was pawing his wife. “Can
I help?”
    “No, I got it,” Rugby said, waving the wipe past
Evan’s nose. A sharp, super sweet smell assailed him.
    Evan sneezed. “What is that?”
    “This? Just a homeopathic recipe my grandma used
to use, mostly lotus blossom. Way better than alcohol. Doesn’t
smell bad either. Right, Z?” He shoved the wipe toward Tabitha’s
face.
    She grimaced and turned her head. “Better than
alcohol, I guess.”
    “Thane!” someone shouted from the other side of
the room.
    Rugby frowned. “Be right back. Z, you wait for
me.”
    “I’ll wait for you,” Tabitha said as her smile
faded. When she turned back to Evan her expression was vague,
uninterested.
    “So, that’s your boyfriend?” Evan felt himself
losing his grip on reality as the storm of emotions swept him away.
His wife. His. Wife! And she let some strange man patch her up. “Is
he why you’re here?”
    “What? I’m here because he asked me to wait.”
Her face filled with honest confusion. Tabitha rubbed her temples.
“I’m...I’m sorry. Sometimes I get these headaches. What were you
asking?”
    Evan unclenched his jaw to say, “I was asking if
you and Rugby were an item.”
    “Thane and I?” She shook her head. “He’s like
that with everyone. He’s a super...a super protective person.” Her
eyes lost their focus again. “He always wants what’s best for
everyone.”
    “And that means bossing you around?” The
temperature of the conversation continued to plummet.
    “I’m here alone. My parents live in Wisconsin.
I’m not a city girl. I feel out of place here. Thane’s a real
friend.”
    Evan stared at her. “Wisconsin?” Tabitha’s
parents owned a condo in Miami. She’d grown up in West Palm. So why
did Wisconsin sound so familiar? He stepped back, not sure what was
happening anymore.
    “Evan?” Tabitha touched his arm lightly.
    He raised an eyebrow, not sure how to go on.
    “Have you ever met someone that you trust
implicitly from the first time you see them?” She sounded so
hesitant. Fearful.
    “A few,” he admitted grudgingly, letting her
soft touch reel him back in.
    A warm smile brought life back to her green
eyes. “I feel like that with