Chapter 21
Aspen
“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” I glance up at Reid as we enter the booming club. Music and overwhelming cologne slam into me. I stick close to his side as he leads me and my friends through.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t have offered if I wasn’t,” he says.
A few days ago, I mentioned that one of my friends, Nicole, has a birthday tonight. She wanted to go out to a club, but they’re all always so crowded on Friday nights.
That’s when Reid swooped in and offered to pull some strings and get us a private section at Inferno, one of SoHo’s most popular clubs. With a single glance from the bouncer, Reid’s shaking his hand and the rope is dropped for us to walk up to the next level.
Sara and Marley, holding hands behind us, murmur something I can’t catch while Nicole beams and bounces on her high heels. She brought a few of her work friends with her as well that I’m not as familiar with, who all seem equally excited.
We’re shown to a circular booth that overlooks the dancefloor below. Golden buckets with champagne bottles cover the table, as well as glasses and lines of tequila shots already poured.
“This is amazing!” Marley claps her hands excitedly, then makes quick work of passing around the shots. Reid accepts one with a mild look of disgust.
I stand on my tiptoes, speaking into his ear, “Not a tequila guy?”
He wraps a strong arm around me as I teeter. The contact sends my skin ablaze. “No,” he grumbles. “Not particularly. Too old for it.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re twenty-eight, not eighty.”
He pinches my hip in response.
“To the birthday girl!” Marley calls out, and everyone raises their shots in the air, toasting to Nicole, before shooting them back. The liquor burns a path down my throat and settles warm and heavy at the top of my stomach, causing me to shiver in Reid’s hold.
He doesn’t react to the shot, but a drop clings to his bottom lip. Without a thought to the curious eyes around us, I once again stand on my tiptoes, bringing our chests together, and lick the drop away.
Reid’s grip tightens around me and his eyes flame in the low lighting. I seal my lips over his in a quick kiss before turning back to my friends.
Sara and Marley are staring at us, a mix of glee and trepidation. I know they’re just worried about me getting my heart broken. Hell, I am too.
But I’m already in too deep. I have to just embrace the free fall at this point.
“You didn’t have any friends you wanted to invite out tonight? Maybe any of those fellow musicians?” Nicole gives Reid a sly smile.
He’s unamused as he answers flatly, “They’re all taken.” I squeeze his thigh in warning and his face softens faintly. “One of them is engaged and the other two might as well be, so sorry, can’t help you out there.”
Nicole pouts but quickly recovers as she scans the upper level that’s loaded with men. In her sparkly, short dress and red lips, she’s not going to have a single issue finding someone to keep her company tonight.
Reid and I sit down at one end of the curved leather couch. My bare thigh, exposed from the high cut of my dress, brushes against his dark jean-covered thigh. The fabric is rough, just like him.
A cocktail waitress comes over and pours champagne for everyone. I accept a glass, but Reid waves it away.
“Can I get you something else to drink?” she asks.
“I’m good, thanks.”
She continues to pass around glasses as I ask him, “You’re done drinking for the night?”
He shrugs and scans the club. “I’m good for right now. Might have something more in a little bit.”
“It might help take the edge off for you,” I tease, fully aware that a night out with a group of girls is probably not his ideal kind of night.
“That’s exactly why I don’t want to have anymore,” he says. It takes a minute, but then it clicks for me.
“I’m sorry, I—”
He palms my thigh. “Don’t worry about it. You don’t need to apologize.”
I wasn’t thinking when I said it, that while he can enjoy a drink out with friends, that he never wants to turn to it as a buffer or a crutch. Doesn’t want to give it the chance to take power over him like it did with his mother.
“You know, last time I was at this club, I got into a fight and was hauled out of here by Nikolai and Walker.” A devilish glint gleams in his eyes, and I’m thankful for his attempt to turn the conversation.
“I’m surprised they let you back in after that!”
“The guy had it coming.”
Marley and Sara join us, and the four of us make small talk as best as we can with the music blaring. Nicole and some of the others head down the dance floor with a group of guys from one of the booths near ours.
The champagne is bitter so I only have a few sips before swapping to a vodka lemonade.
“Don’t have expensive taste buds, huh?” Reid teases.
My face twists at the half-drank glass sitting on the table. “I don’t care how expensive that bottle is, it tastes horrible.”
He barks out a laugh and Sara stares at him as if it’s the first time she’s seeing him. He notices and raises a brow at her. “Can I help you with something?”
I cringe at the sarcasm in his tone but Sara isn’t bothered by it. “I just think that’s the first time I’ve seen you smile, or laugh, since I’ve met you.”
“You’ve only met me twice.”
“Exactly. Normally people would’ve smiled at the first introduction.”
Marley hides her amusement behind her glass of champagne, and I tuck my face into Reid’s shoulder, doing the same.
Done with the inquisition, Reid rises to his feet and extends a hand toward me. “Want to go dance?”
I place my hand in his, mine so much smaller and softer than his, and let him lead me downstairs into the throng of people.
I don’t know if it’s his height, his aura, or maybe his recognizable face, but I can feel every eye turn in our direction the minute we’re in the crowd.
He doesn’t seem to notice. Maybe he’s used to it by now.
But my skin feels like it’s crawling. A flash goes off to my left, different from the strobe lights pulsing through the club.
“People are taking pictures,” I shout over the music. My face grows hot with my proximity to him and all those cameras. “If those get posted of you with me, they’re going to be all over online tomorrow.”
He shrugs and grips my waist, bringing our bodies flush.
“They’re going to talk,” I say. “They’re going to wonder about the girl you’re out with this time.” Trust me, I’ve seen more than enough about Reid out with various women at clubs and bars. Never the same one, often multiple times a week during the height of Whisper Me Nothings’ fame.
And now I’m going to be one of those girls.
“I don’t care if they do,” he says simply, leaning down so I can hear him. “Let them talk. Let them take their pictures.”
“But…people will see us together.” My protest is weak and Reid’s sly smirk proves it.
“Yeah, that’s kinda what happens when you’re together with someone, Penny. Like I said”—his lips trace the shell of my ear, sending a shiver down my spine—“let them see us.”
Us.
Two letters, one word, and it sounds like the greatest thing in the world. I’ve always felt alone, needed to be independent, watch out for myself because there wasn’t anyone else to. I never had an us.
There’s still a part of me that’s scared to trust him, trust that this is real and I’m not going to wake up and find him gone again. But it’s getting quieter and quieter each time we’re together.
With every car ride, every night watching the sunset at the beach, every dinner date at my apartment, my stupid, weak heart gives more and more pieces to him.
“This dress,” he says, voice guttural. “I like this. I like it a lot.” His fingers brush the thin strap of it. One small movement, one flick of his fingers, and they’d be off my shoulders and the entire dress would pool at my ankles. It’s a cobalt-blue shift with a low neck and even lower back.
“I thought of you when I put it on tonight,” I admit.
A light dances over his face, highlighting his chiseled jaw and sharp cheekbones. Music thumps, matching the pulse in my throat and between my legs. I slip my hands into the back pockets of Reid’s pants. The movement brings his hips flush to my stomach, and I can feel it.
Hard and pulsing. Pushing against the fabric and straining at the confinement. I smile and look up at him through my lashes. “I don’t really feel like dancing.”
Reid’s eyes heat as he arches a brow. “Oh you don’t, now?”
I bite my lip, drawing his attention to it, and shake my head. There’s too many eyes on us. I don’t think I can allow myself to let loose with them all staring.
And plus, all the thoughts currently running through my head do not need an audience.
His body practically vibrates beneath my palms, telling me he likes this idea just as much as I do. “Are you sure your friends won’t mind if you leave early?”
Marley and Sara are in their own world still up at our table, and when I catch Nicole’s eye as she’s caught up in the swell of bodies moving to the music, she simply looks between myself and Reid and winks at me. “Doubt it,” I chuckle.
Before I can barely finish talking, Reid is already whisking me by the hand away from the crowd and out to his car.