Chapter 162

My head pounded, and my stomach churned. These unpleasant sensations pushed a groan from my lips.

“What on the goddess’ green earth had just happened?” I groaned.

I felt like I’d been bashed in the head. That thought made me jerk upright so fast that my stomach rolled. I patted around the back of my head, running my fingers through my hair, looking for a place where maybe I had been hit over the head. I had enough enemies out there that an attack wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.

A blurry room came into focus as I checked myself over. There was something oddly familiar about the place. But honestly, the more I tried to grasp where I was, the faster it slipped away.

I was lying on a sofa in a small, private room without any windows. When I put my hands down to push myself all the way up, they squished into something that groaned.

“What in the world?” the squashed individual asked.

I yanked my hands back, toppling and falling face-first into Theo’s chest. My eyes widened as I took in the expanse of naked skin under my nose.

“What the hell?” I yelped. “Theo! What are you doing?”

Theo’s body moved underneath me, and he gripped his head. “Elena?” he asked, his voice groggy and thick.

He started to move again, and the heat of embarrassment flooded my body because against the bare skin of my stomach, pressed the hair and soft fleshy lumps of his naked manhood.

I scrambled off of him. “What the fuck, Theo?” I snarled.

Then I realized that his penis hadn’t been pressed against the gap between my shirt and bottoms, but I was completely naked, too. I looked around frantically and grabbed a pillow that was lying on the floor, holding it in front of me to cover myself as best I could.

Theo’s eyes were wide. He started to speak but turned swiftly, throwing up over the back of the sofa. “Why do I feel like I have the worst hangover ever?” he asked.

“That’s your important question right now?” I shrieked. “Not why the fuck are you naked and underneath me? What did you do to me?”

He gripped his head as if I’d hit him. “Stop yelling,” he grumbled. “I think it’s pretty obvious—”

“I did not sleep with you!” I screamed.

“Shut up, Elena,” he snapped back. “That’s not what I meant by pretty obvious. I mean, it’s obvious that we’ve been drugged and set up.”

I sat back on my heels, holding the pillow to my chest and letting its corner poke down between my legs. “Ohh…” My brain sluggishly gripped that information. “That makes a lot more sense,” I mumbled.

He nodded and then threw up over the back of the sofa again. “You know I wouldn’t take advantage of you like that. I fully admit that if you and Charles were ever apart for real, I would definitely try to convince you to take a chance on me. But I would never want to be the other man. I wouldn’t want to be the homewrecker.”

I rubbed my face, my own stomach boiling worse than ever now that the room smelled like Theo’s vomit. “You’re right. I know that. So… Where are we? And who would want to do such a thing?” I asked.

Theo turned back away from the back of the sofa. Pulling the other pillow across his lap, he tipped his head back and closed his eyes. “I don’t know,” he murmured. “Everything is such a blur. The last thing I remember clearly was going out to meet that interview of yours, the alpha, Anthony Bellweather.”

I gasped. “Do you suppose Anthony did this?”

I let my face drop forward and bury itself in the pillow covering me. I could remember leaving the house to go do the interview, and then after that, everything was furry, as if my brain had been invaded by fluff.

“If it was Anthony, I’m confused why he’d want to drug us. And what would he gain by leaving us together naked?” I shook my head. “It can’t have been Anthony. It must have been somebody else.”

Theo said nothing, but I swear I sensed skepticism.

“There are plenty of people who have grudges against me,” I pointed out. “This is the second time that I’ve landed powerful people in trouble with the law.”

Theo crossed his arms across the pillow and pressed his lips together, deep in thought, slowing his breathing. “Actually, you might not be entirely wrong. What if you put the two together?”

He gasped and started fumbling all over the couch with one hand, keeping the other over his pillow. “Where in the name of the goddess is my phone?” he snarled.

“What are you thinking? I asked.

My heart slammed against the inside of my ribs, threatening to push through and pop open the pillow I was using to cover my breasts.

“I’m thinking, what if somebody hired him to report a smear campaign?”

I snorted with a laugh. “Right. Like the most well-respected reporter in all of Orlune would stoop to printing straight-up fiction, just for some disgruntled politician.”

Theo cocked his head, arching an eyebrow at me. “Would that really be so strange?”

My brain groaned as I tried to use it to actually think, and my mouth opened in a silent “Oh.”

He nodded at me. “See, you know exactly what I’m talking about. If you wanted to ruin someone, what better way than to pay off the most well-respected reporter in the nation and have them set up some sort of lie?”

Now, I was the one fumbling around. “My phone and my clothes are gone, too.” I groaned. “I don’t even know where we’re at. How are we supposed to get out of here and back to anywhere respectable without our clothes? Do you have yours?”

He shook his head. “Whoever did this cleaned out the room before they left.”

A sob broke free, and I ducked my head, pressing it to the corner of the pillow that pointed up in my face. “Why would anyone do this?”

Theo huffed. “I can think of a dozen reasons off the top of my head. But none of them are because you’re worthy of being punished. Now, all we have to do is get out there and stop whatever’s happening.”

“What if it is a full news story?” I moaned. “What am I going to do about that? My reputation will be ruined. Charles’s reputation will be ruined.”

Theo moved, keeping the pillow in front of his crotch while he crouched next to me and put a hand on top of my head, looking at me sincerely.

“Then they attacked the wrong woman,” he assured me. “Because the second-best reporter in the whole of our country is not someone to be tangled with. Just think of everything you’ve uncovered and exposed in your career. If picking a battle with you is really the route they’ve taken, then it won’t take you long to bring them down, too.”

I nodded, heartened by his words. “What about Charles?” I whispered, pointing between our naked bodies.

Theo pulled his hand away and rocked back so his weight rested on his heels. “Charles trusted you, right?”

I nodded.

“And you trust me?”

I nodded again.

“Then that should be enough for him. If he really loves you, he’ll believe we’re victims of a smear campaign.”

My lower lip. “But… What if it’s something else? What if it’s something more dangerous?”