thigh-high boots. Her red hair was down past her shoulders in large curls, and she had on sexy, smoky makeup that only highlighted her bright green eyes and the pout of her red lips.
“Fuck,” I growled, stepping up and running my hands down her sides. “We might need more time.”
“Oh yeah?” She giggled.
“I might need to bend you over this bed before we go.”
“I might like that. Do we have time?”
“We can make time,” I told her.
She laughed as I herded her toward the bed. “I want to, but I want to meet your friends. You know all of my friends.”
I adjusted my erection and groaned. “Annie, love.”
“Come on,” she teased. “You can imagine fucking me all night and then come home and do it.”
“I don’t want to be hard all night.”
She leaned in and kissed my lips. “It’ll be sweeter when you come home and rip my dress off to get inside of me.”
“You’re speaking my language.”
“I thought I might be,” she said with a laugh, squeezing my ass. “Now, let’s go.”
She wiggled out from under me and headed toward the door. I let out a long, restrained sigh, adjusted myself again, and followed her. This was going to be a long night.
The trip to the club was a twenty-minute drive despite the fact that the Four Seasons was directly downtown. I sure didn’t miss the traffic.
“So, who are we meeting again?” Annie asked, staring out at the misting sky.
“Should just be a small thing. Cush, Georgia, and Tye.”
“And Cush is the one who’s a doctor?”
“Yeah. Cush, Tye, and I went to Washington together for undergrad. Then Cush went to medical school in Vancouver. He’s now a surgeon here in Seattle. Georgia is his fiancée. She’s a higher up for Nordstrom. Their headquarters are here. Tye and I were roommates. He was a music major and does equipment work with the stadiums, plays in a few local bands, helps at music festivals.” I shrugged. Hard to pin down Tye. “He does a bit of everything.”
“That’s cool,” she said as we rolled up to the front of the building.
She was back to bouncy Annie. I hadn’t thought she’d be this excited to meet a few of my friends, but leave it to Annie for her extroversion to take over.
The valet opened the door and helped Annie out of the car. I followed her, and we walked right past the line of people waiting to get inside. A red rope was swung open wide at our appearance.
Annie’s eyes were wide. “Is that normal?”
“For me,” I told her.
And it used to be. This used to be my life. Nightclubs and galas and models and lots of alcohol. We’d all been young and stupid. Invincible. Now, it would be fun for a night, but they couldn’t pay me to go back to this.
We entered the club, which was standard-issue Cush—over the top, girls dancing in cages, music blaring—and headed straight for the VIP section. I spotted Cush by the mop of shoulder-length blond hair, pale skin, and Neanderthal physique. He’d taken to wearing his hair in a man bun, as it had become fashion, and I still couldn’t get over it.
“Jordan!” Cush yelled. “My main man has arrived!”
Georgia was as stunning as ever with light-brown skin that practically glowed in this lighting. Her natural corkscrew curls had been left loose in a small Afro. She was tall, lithe, and had been inseparable from Cush for at least a decade.
As soon as she saw Annie, she elbowed Cush out of the way to get to us first. “You must be Annie!” she gushed, throwing her arms around Annie as if they were lifelong friends.
Annie laughed and went with it. “Georgia, I’m guessing.”
“The one and only. Come do a shot with me before the boys bombard you!”
Georgia pulled Annie to the bartender for our booth and gestured for shots. Annie’s eyes were wide, but I couldn’t keep the laugh from lighting in my eyes.
“Georgia,” Tye said in exasperation. He wore a band shirt that revealed both full-tattooed sleeves. His hair had been recently buzzed, and I could see the outline of a cigarette packet in the pocket of his loose jeans. Old habits died hard. “Don’t overwhelm the poor girl. It’s bad enough she’s dating Jordan.”
“You’re still an asshole, I see,” I said to Tye and stepped into their booth, holding my hand out to shake.
We were an odd trio if there ever was one, but we’d known each other too long for us to