Cocktails and a Kiss (Saints and Sinners #2)

Chapter 1

“IT’S JUST ONE DINNER, NOT a commitment, and it’s for a good cause.

” Alex gave me the side eye, clearly intent on getting her way.

She’d been angling to set me up on a blind date.

Some event she and Erik had to attend, and she planned to drag me along.

Now that she’d found true love, she seemed even more determined that I did too. It wasn’t going to happen.

“It doesn’t matter. I’m not going to do it.

I’m going to invest my considerable discretionary income in what is sure to become an extensive vibrator collection and move on.

” I was done. Alex might have found her happily ever after in an unlikely place, but that didn’t mean I had any intention of following her. Regardless of her too-smug expression.

“A vibrator can’t pull your hair and smack you on the ass while he...” She made a crude gesture, and I manage to stifle a laugh. Encouraging her wasn’t going to get me anywhere I wanted to go.

“Maybe not, but it can’t break your heart either. The potential risk-benefit makes it an easy decision.”

“If you say so,” my friend said, skepticism clear in her voice.

Of the five of us, Meredith, the wedding cake baker, was the romantic.

Kindra was clear and reasoned. Elena was pragmatic, almost to a fault.

I could usually count on Alex to feed my cynical soul.

Just one more thing that had changed since her fiancé Erik entered our world.

Not that I’d begrudge her a moment of her happiness.

I loved her. I didn’t have to understand what she wanted to get behind it.

“I’m just saying, a real live human man might be nice...”

“I’ve got several guys...”

“...for more than one night,” she said, interrupting me and finishing her thought.

And that was the core of the matter. I had men I could call when I needed a date to a function, men I could call when I needed to scratch an itch, but none of them stuck around for more than one night at a time.

It was a mutually beneficial relationship.

One that kept pesky things like emotions from getting in the way.

I had friends for those. The woman standing next to me and the three women waiting for me at the table in front of us were my family. My heart.

“Park it, bridezilla. We’re here to talk about your wedding, not my love life.” I motioned to an empty chair and bent to press my cheek to first Kindra’s and then Meredith’s and Elena’s before taking a seat myself.

“As you know, I’m getting married,” Alex said, an evil twinkle in her eye.

“It’s been mentioned once or twice,” said Kindra, her honeyed voice carrying the smile that curved her lips.

“It has.” Alex nodded, beaming. “And while there are many details to work out, none of them matter if you guys aren’t standing beside me. Would you be my bridesmaids?”

Meredith’s squeal cut the air before the words were out of Alex’s mouth.

A part of me wished I could be that unabashedly excited.

The other part of me—the divorce lawyer part—had too many questions and concerns to walk wide-eyed into anything, especially love and marriage.

I fought to hide the shudder that was my almost-Pavlovian response to thoughts of wedded bliss.

Alex deserved to be happy and despite my better judgment, Erik made her happy.

“That’s a yes?” said Alex a second before Meredith lunged across the table and hugged her.

“Absolutely, yes!”

Meredith and Alex turned toward Kindra.

Her brown eyes lit up as she smiled. She actually liked Erik. She’d been charmed by what she called his character growth, and I called not being a dick. She’d be no help.

“It would be a blessing to stand beside you as you and Erik take this next step in your journey,” said Kindra, sounding every bit the therapist she was.

“I’m in, and I’ll help with as much of the planning as you want.” Elena leaned forward, a glint in her hazel eyes. She looked like the kind of woman who could plan an invasion. “You’re marrying one of New Orleans most eligible bachelors. Your wedding needs to be an event.”

“All of it,” said Alex, her expression the slightest bit uncertain. I wondered if she was reconsidering the whole big white wedding thing. “I’d love your help planning all of it. Thank you.” She reached across the table to squeeze Elena’s hand.

And then four pairs of eyes belonging to women who were more sisters than friends turned toward me. There was no way I was getting out of this.

“Fine. On one condition,” I added, as the squealing started anew.

“Name it.” Alex tipped her head to the side, considering me. She looked so happy. I didn’t want to be the one to bring her crashing back to earth, but I also didn’t want her to go rushing unprotected into a marriage that—let’s face it—had a better than fifty percent chance of failing.

“I will be your bridesmaid and wear whatever godawful cupcake dress your heart desires as long as you get a prenup before you say I do.”

“Deal,” she said, not looking the least bit disturbed by the idea.

Even my most romantic clients sobered up at the idea of planning for the end of a relationship. Alex was lit up like an excited bride, which was what she was, but it was still confusing as hell.

“You should see your face,” said Elena, pressing a reassuring hand to my arm. Beside her, Kindra nodded, and I could feel the crease in my forehead deepen.

“It’s okay, Charlotte. I’m perfectly happy to have a prenup. Erik insisted on it.”

Of course he did. He was a lawyer. He’d look out for his interests and leave Alex to fend for herself. I opened my mouth to tell her, but her next words stopped me.

“He also insisted that you be the one to draw it up. He said there’s no way you’d trust it to anyone else.”

Damn. He was good. I’d give him that. Even I couldn’t figure out how to argue with his plan, and I got paid an obscene—or justified, depending on how you looked at it—amount of money to argue. I opened my mouth and closed it again, unable to form a response.

“Oh God, your face,” said Alex, making a half-assed attempt at smothering a giggle. “I should have recorded this. Erik begged me to. He said it might be the only chance anyone ever got to see you tongue-tied.”

“Funny,” I said, regaining my capacity for speech.

“He also said it was a hard limit.” Her face took on that doe-eyed goofy expression she got whenever she talked about the man she’d fallen in love with.

“We’re not children. We both know the odds.

We’re going in with our eyes wide open. Besides, rules can be sexy.

Limits make the pleasure that much sweeter. ”

“Tell me you did not just turn your prenup into some kind of BDSM thing.”

Alex met her intended at a deposition that turned into a dare.

My friend had cashed in on the popularity of tie me up/tie me down fuckery and started the Gentleman’s Submissive, helping ordinary men learn to dominate their partners.

Erik was an intellectual property attorney and a self-proclaimed Dominant determined to shut down her business.

It had all the makings of a legal disaster, not a great love story, but even my cynical heart couldn’t deny Alex was blissfully happy.

Erik was too. Watching the two of them together would have been nauseating if it hadn’t been for the fact that he so clearly adored her.

It’s the only reason I could even consider standing beside her as she legally tied her life to his.

“Okay.” I reached across the table to squeeze her hand. “I’m in.”

At least I’d be able to draft a contract that would keep her life from getting ripped to shreds in the likely event they split. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t do anything to protect her heart.

––––––––

WE SPENT THE next hour talking about dresses and venues and food.

I might not have even the remnants of a bride gene left, but I could get behind a good party.

If I thought of it that way, it wasn’t hard to stay interested in the details.

Especially watching the way my friend’s face glowed.

We’d been friends since I moved to the city and ran into her at a hot yoga class.

She introduced herself afterward, said she did yoga so she could eat bread, and invited me to grab an oyster po’ boy.

The bread was outstanding. The friendship was everything to me.

I’d always thought she was amazing, starting her business from scratch and then navigating the obviously complicated situations with clients, but the past few months while she’d been working on her book, she’d leveled up.

It wasn’t that she’d grown because of Erik—or worse, in spite of him—it was more that loving him helped her clear away some of the obstacles she’d put in her own path.

There was a rockstar career, a book tour, and a thousand other good things in her future. And she was clearly enjoying herself.

If I felt even a twinge of jealousy, it was over that.

I was more than satisfied with my career.

I’d worked my ass off to become one of the most sought-after divorce attorneys in New Orleans.

Other people saw my Alice in Wonderland looks, assumed I was a “good girl,” and underestimated me at their peril.

I ate the poor unfortunate souls for breakfast and picked my teeth with their bones.

And I got my clients the settlements they deserved and a chance, if they were willing to take it, to rebuild after the destruction of divorce.

I had a great deal of professional satisfaction in my life.

If I didn’t have much of a social life outside my few friends, it was because there hadn’t been time.

Adults prioritized. Work was my priority.

“Want to share a cab?” Meredith asked, dragging me back to the present.