and I’m fucking her. There’s clearly something special about her.”
Katherine narrowed her eyes. And I knew that look. It was a possessive, dangerous look that said I’d said the wrong thing. Maybe I’d kicked a hornet’s nest, but I just couldn’t bring myself to care.
“I’m going to head back. Are you coming with?” I asked.
She downed the rest of her martini, dropped two hundred-dollar bills on the bar, and then swept out of the private lounge in front of me. I chuckled under my breath and followed behind her.
The opener had just finished by the time we made it back to our seats. Lewis and Natalie were grinning like fools and laughing at whatever the other had said. It almost looked like they hadn’t missed the two of us. I would have much preferred to be out here than dealing with Katherine’s scheming. She was one of my closest friends, but she never knew when enough was enough.
“Hey!” Natalie said, whirling around. She had a half-finished beer in her hand, and her blue eyes were wide and excited. “You made it back!”
“Sorry about that,” I said. “We ended up in the lounge.”
“Lewis warned me. It’s no big. We just had the most amazing time. The opener was hilarious. I only knew one of her songs, but we’re downloading the rest and listening to it the entire way back to the beach house.”
“Oh god, what fresh level of hell have I entered?”
She and Lewis both burst into laughter.
“You were right,” Natalie said, clutching her stomach. “Look at his face.”
“Classic,” Lewis said.
“What?” I asked in confusion.
“Lewis said that you’d go crazy if I suggested us listening to this music in your car.”
“Hopefully, this is a joke because this music does not belong in the Audi.”
Natalie giggled. A flush heated her cheeks from the beer and the show. She looked so unbelievably beautiful in that moment. I didn’t know if it was just because she was so relaxed and so jovial or if it was the aftereffect of dealing with Katherine who was so uptight. But I wanted her right here. I wanted more of that carefree joy in my life. I wanted her for all the reasons that Katherine thought Natalie wasn’t special. For all the reasons Katherine was wrong.
I wrapped an arm around her waist and tugged her tight against my chest. Her beer sloshed and nearly spilled over, but she’d forgotten it as she looked up at me. She seemed surprised and happy. As if she had been wondering where exactly we were around my friends. And truthfully, I hadn’t figured it out until that moment.
I didn’t give a flying fuck what anyone else thought. Or that she wanted this to be casual. Or that we were just supposed to be fucking.
Those red lips were calling my name.
I tilted her backward and planted my lips on hers. She wrapped one arm around my neck and kissed me back just as hard. I faintly heard whistles and catcalls at the show we were putting on, but I didn’t care.
This was where we were meant to be.
She pulled away breathlessly and giggled as she tried to smudge the red lipstick off of my lips. “I seemed to have gotten some…”
“There’s no point. I’m just going to kiss you again.”
Her smile brightened the room. “That so?”
“Definitely.”
“Can you two get a room?” Lewis called teasingly.
“Not a bad idea,” I suggested.
Natalie disentangled herself from my arms. “Never a bad idea,” she agreed. “But I do really want to see Chloe. And Lewis knows every word. So, we have to stay for his benefit.”
“Don’t go telling him my secrets,” Lewis muttered.
It was only Katherine who looked put out by the whole thing. Natalie sank into a seat next to her and thanked her a million times over again for the tickets. I was pretty sure that Katherine was regretting this entire evening. I took the seat by Lewis and shook his hand.
“Thanks for hanging with Natalie while I dealt with Katherine,” I told him.
“Hey, no problem. She’s great. You got that all worked out with Katherine?”
“Honestly, I think I made it worse,” I told him.
“You think? That kiss probably made her go nuclear,” Lewis said. “Not your smartest move.”
“Can’t help myself around Natalie.”
“Well, watch out for Katherine. When she gets mad, she fights dirty.”
“I know,” I said, glancing over.
Natalie and Katherine were talking as if they were old friends. All those nasty things Katherine had said about Natalie came to the surface, and anger coursed through