his gaze back to me. “How’d you get him to propose anyway? Pretend to be pregnant?”
I sighed. “Seriously, if being an asshole burned calories, you’d be fucking anorexic. Now maybe we could talk about something other than me and Dane. Like how Hanna’s birthday went yesterday.”
“Or maybe we could get you to admit that you only want Davenport for his money,” said Jeff.
I drained the last of my drink. “You know, your parents should have tossed you over a cliff and just kept the stork.”
“Here, fucking here,” muttered Hanna.
Jeff flashed me an ugly smirk. “You haven’t once denied you want him for his money.”
“What would be the point?” I asked, idly twirling my glass. “You’ll believe whatever your itty, bitty ego—which, let’s face it, is the equivalent of a fragile, sensitive, hormonal teenager—needs you to believe. Who am I to mess with that?”
“Who indeed,” said Hanna, all haughty. “She just wasn’t into you, Jeff. Deal with it and stop being a dick.”
“Women are such bitches,” he sniped.
Every female at the table bristled at the generalization. Jeff did not realize it, but he’d united us all that easily.
Hanna lifted her hand. “Hang on a sec. You’re the one acting like an ass, but women are in the wrong purely because they called you on it?”
I sighed. “Ever notice how women always get the blame for men being dicks? Their mom didn’t hug them enough, the girls at school made fun of them, their adult ex-girlfriends jilted them, their ex-wives used to nag at them. And if you reject a guy, it can’t possibly mean you simply don’t like him—no, it means you’re stuck up or a frigid bitch or something.”
“I know,” agreed Hanna. “You fear turning a guy down because it’s possible he’ll get ugly and make a scene.”
“I get that it’s hard for men to make a move,” began Lianne, “they have to suck in their insecurities and put themselves out there; that can’t be easy. But it doesn’t make us bitches if we politely say no.”
“Yup,” I agreed. “Don’t get me wrong, not all men do it. Some will take it with grace. But those that don’t? They ruin the dating scene for everyone else.”
Jeff thumped his bottle of beer down on the table. “How did we go from discussing Vienna whoring herself to men being assholes?”
I clenched my fists. “Jeff, stop.”
“Stop what? Speaking the truth?”
“Seriously, Jeff, just shut the fuck up.”
“Why? You can’t handle being called out for what you are?”
“You really need to stop talking.”
“And you need to stop being a gold-digger, sweetheart. But life doesn’t always work out the way it should.”
Everyone in our group fell quiet. Which should have been a dead giveaway that something was wrong. But Jeff just kept smirking at me, either too drunk or too stupid to pick up on anything else.
I’d warned him to shut up for a very good reason—I’d noticed a certain someone heading to our table. And now that certain someone stood behind Jeff.
Totally done with this evening, I smiled at the newcomer. “Hey, Dane.”
Jeff froze. I thought he’d laugh and accuse me of trying to call his bluff, but as his gaze swept over the people sitting either side of me—all of whom were no doubt staring at their boss—the color drained from his face.
He twisted in his seat and blinked up at Dane. That easily, the idiot’s level of machoism bottomed out in a rush. Understandable. Dane stood unnaturally still, tension coiled in every muscle … making me think of a viper poised to strike. His bold, unblinking stare was wholly focused on Jeff, who was hopefully coming to the self-realization that he was one seriously stupid prick.
“Dane. I, um …” Jeff rose and offered him the chair. “Sit down. I didn’t know you were coming. Can I buy you a drink?”
Taller by at least a foot and a half, Dane stared him down. There was a lethal glint in the depths of those dark eyes that made my scalp prickle. “I couldn’t help but hear you brand my wife a gold-digger,” he said, his voice steady and dripping with caution. “Why would you go and do a thing like that, Jeff?”
Jeff’s mouth bopped open and closed. “It was just banter. I was … you know … just joking.”
“Yeah? I didn’t find it funny. More importantly, neither did she.”
Jeff forced an easy smile. “I was fooling around, Dane. Really. It was just supposed to be a bit of