Chapter 4 Everlee – Pink Drinks Are Dangerous
EVERLEE – PINK DRINKS ARE DANGEROUS
My heart feels like it’s about to pound a hole through my chest. Those last few seconds with that man on the balcony were… my stomach clenches at the thought of what his hands could do to me.
Damn it, I’m horny.
“What are you looking at?” Lizzy asks, pressing her cheek to mine. “Oh, that’s one of the owner’s and the future VIP suite.”
“Owner?” Makes sense that the guy in the suit would be an owner. His aura screamed power, and the way he dared me to look away.
“Yeah. Do you want to meet them?”
Shocked, I stumble on my words. “No. Why? Do you know them?”
She laughs. “No, but Tony and Derek do. They helped design this place. I could talk to Tony.”
“No, that’s okay.”
“Good. Tony said they’re kind of weird.”
“Weird?” Is it bad that I’m intrigued? I glance back up at the balcony, but he’s gone.
“Yeah. He said there are four of them, but only one really talked to him. The others were…” She twists her lips trying to think of a word, then bobbles her head from side to side. “Not standoffish, but I don’t know.”
“Maybe they were under a tight deadline to get the club open and they each had their own roles,” I defend, garnering an odd look from her.
“Anyway…” she chuckles, turning us back around to the group. “We have this entire area.” She waves her arms around to several seats and tables. “We are VIPs tonight, baby.”
“Wooo!” I yell, feeling the spirits of St. Valentine—rather St. Rum and St. Vodka—flowing through me.
“Want to dance?” Lizzy asks our little group of four.
Both of the boys politely decline with a look of panic on their faces. “Let’s go.” I grab Lizzy’s hand and drag her to the packed dance floor. It’s been a while since she and I went to a club and danced the night away. I snatch us another shot off the passing tray and knock it back.
“You should probably slow down,” Lizzy warns softly.
“You’ve had at least as many as I have.” With my eyes closed, I surrender to the music, my body moving on instinct as the bass rolls through me in heavy, pulsing waves like a second heartbeat.
“Yes, but we all know I handle my liquor way better than you. I don’t need you ending up in one of those swings tonight.”
My eyes pop open, and I stop dancing. “Do you think they’d let me?” I ask, way more excited than I should be.
“No, and don’t even think about it.” Her words carry the weight of parental disapproval, the scolding tone leaving no room for argument.
“Well, you’re no fun.” I frown.
“You’re serious?” She stops dancing for a second, then laughs. “You’re one wild bitch and I love it.”
“Thanks.”
“Anytime, hooker.”
Betty. “I won’t snort coke off Tony’s penis.
Or anyone’s penis. I draw the line there.
” The music continues to flow through me as I shimmy my hips down and pop back up.
“I guess technically that would be past the line, so the line would be somewhere behind that. Or before that? And not the line of coke, obviously, because I’m not doing that. ”
“What are you talking about?” She grabs my arm, stopping me mid-shimmy, her brows drawn into a tight V on her forehead.
“Betty.” My eyes blink slow and heavy, like they forgot how to work as I struggle to focus on Lizzy’s face. Shouldn’t have had that last shot.
“Who’s Betty?”
I grab onto Lizzy’s arms for both balance and …
well, balance. That’s it, because I’m trying not to sway too much.
“She was my driver here. She’s found Jesus now, but apparently, she was not hookering for a friend and ended up doing blow off her BFF’s boyfriend’s dick.
” I laugh out loud as a thought hits me.
“Do you think if she gave him head while there was coke on it, she could say she was blowing blow?”
Lizzy looks at me with a concerned smile on her face. “Let’s go to the bar and get you some water.”
“I’m fine.”
I’m not fine.
The room is spinning, but I don’t need her babying me.
I’ll admit I probably had too many shots too close together, but I want to have fun tonight.
I may not have wanted to be here at first, but once I commit, I’m all the way in.
Which is why Rich hurt me so much. I was fucking committed.
Planning out our future and babies, and everything else. “Asshole.”
“What?” Lizzy asks, glancing over her shoulder quickly as she pulls me across the club.
“Sorry. Inside thought slipped out.” I lean in and whisper, “Hey if my boob slipped out, would you tell me?”
“Where did that—” She shakes her head. “Nevermind. Yes. Yes, I would tell you.” Lizzy pushes her way through the crowd to an open spot at the bar and flags down a bartender.
He’s attractive with dark hair, dark eyes and a short-trimmed beard that’s perfectly etched along his jawbone, wearing black pants and a nipple piercing. That’s it.
“Can I get a glass of water and a menu?”
“We don’t have food here.”
“Nothing?”
The man’s lips flatten as his gaze falls on me. I toss a flirtatious wave, wiggling my fingers.
“She going to be okay?” He nods in my direction.
“Yes. She—” I shake my head. “I’m going to be fine. Just keep those vixens—” I laugh out loud, realizing I didn’t even mean to say that. “Sorry. I didn’t mean. Nevermind. Just keep those delicious pink drinks away from me.”
“That’s my creation.” He smiles pridefully.
“Well, you’re going to hell, sir, because those are delightful.” I point my finger in the air for added emphasis.
He chuckles. “You’re probably right, but not for that.” He pumps his eyebrows and a heat races through my body, making my nipples harden under my bra.
He continues, “They also pack a punch. How many?”
“Three.”
“Four,” Lizzy corrects.
“No,” I count back on my fingers. “Fuck. Yeah. Four.”
“I’ll send someone out to get you some food.”
“No, you don’t have to.” I bat my hand in the air and try to hide the astonishment on my face when the colors from the laser lights above cause ripples behind my hands.
The quiet, rational part of my brain knows I hit the sauce a bit too heavy, too fast, and is yelling at me to sober up.
I can’t puke here tonight. I promised myself after the last time I threw up in a bar that I would never do it again.
It was disgusting, and yet I find myself back in this situation again because of my ex.
I should take responsibility for my actions and again, the rational side of me knows that it’s my fault I’m here, but the other side, the irrational, hurt, and angry side, would rather blame him because it’s easier to feel anger than the other feelings.
“I think I do. If Callum found out my drink fucked up a lot of people, he’d kill me. So really, I’m doing it for myself, not you.”
“Well, as long as you’re being selfish.” I wink.
He waves someone over and whispers something in their ear before pulling his card out of his pocket.
“You’re over there?” He points across the club to where Tony and Derek are standing and watching us.
“Yes. How did you know?”
“I make it a point to keep an eye out on all the pretty ladies that could cause me trouble.” He smiles, then grabs a bottle of liquor for someone else’s drink.
A smile curls on my lips. I was hesitant to come out tonight, but suddenly, I’m feeling a lot better about this decision. A fine ass guy is flirting with me. Me!
Emmett’s eyes travel from me to something above me, and the smile drops from his face.
Following his gaze, I find the blue-eyed man from earlier looking down at us—at me—again.
In all my alcohol-induced stupidity, I wink at him.
His head tilts to the side as he studies me before he huffs and walks off.
My pulse hammers in my chest. That man. I need to know more about him. “Who was that?”
“Who?”
“That man up there looking at us.”
His face falls. “That was Callum.”
“Callum didn’t look too happy.” My stomach clenches when I say his name. Callum, I repeat to myself. Unique name. Not one I’ve heard before, but it seems like it fits him. He’s definitely not a Bill, or John, or even some weird name like Thaddeus.
The bartender looks down at the bar. “He’s…
an acquired taste. I have to go help some other guests,” he says before darting off, but then calls back, “I’ll bring that food over though, Trouble.
” He tosses a quick wink at me, and the butterflies in my stomach explode into motion, wild and impossible to ignore.