Big Dick Energy - Cindi Madsen Page 0,59
at the blonde goddess who was about to whip me in drinking.
As much as I tried to tell myself this wasn’t an important contest to win, I had at least seventy to eighty pounds on her. I’d thrown down the gauntlet. This was also my attempt at extending an olive branch. The booze was supposed to soften us both, but Penelope wasn’t even slurring her words.
Once again, how?
“I… Another shot is what I—” I covered my mouth, afraid more than a burp would come out and then blew out a breath when it was just air. “Yeah. Pour more some.” That didn’t sound right. “Some pour me. For me? More.”
The neck of the bottle clinked against the heavy crystal glass, and Penelope leaned across the table and placed her palm over the rim. “No way. I’m cutting you off. You’re already drunk.”
“When I accused you of drunk bar night sang, you said no you weren’t.”
Penelope bit back her smile, and she was so damn beautiful, I didn’t even care that she was laughing at my expense. All I wanted to do was lunge across the table and kiss her. My heavy eyelids took too long to blink, and when I opened them, my gaze had lowered to her cleavage.
I ordered them to return to her face, but they refused to obey, and now I was cursing my slightly blurred vision all over again.
“That doesn’t mean you’re not wasted now,” she said.
“We in the biz call that white-girl wasted,” Luciana said with a snicker, and a giggle burst from Penelope as well.
“Nope.” Bracing two palms on the wood, I stood and aimed puckered lips at Penelope.
“Nope, what?”
“Later,” I said, and then my mouth was a breath from hers. Too late—or was it too soon—I remembered I didn’t have the right to kiss her anymore. Of the many things the alcohol softened and obscured, the sting of that still managed to send a sharp twinge through my chest.
Penelope lifted her hand, so slowly I thought she’d never reach me. But then her palm was against my cheek. The combined warmth of happiness and whiskey nearly overheated me. If she’d just keep holding on, it could go ahead and incinerate me for all I cared. “Archer. Just admit you lost.”
“I did,” I said. “I lost my chance with you. Wish I hadn’t.”
Was it wishful thinking, or did the mask she’d worn for days finally crack? Her tongue darted out to lick her lips, and my heart swam around in my overly liquid body.
The table wobbled beneath me, and then the world slipped sideways. I stumbled backward and landed hard on my chair. The rattling of my teeth echoed through my head for a noisy infinity.
Suddenly Penelope was at my side, so quickly teleportation was the only logical answer. “Okay, that’s enough, big guy. Time to take you home.”
“I like you calling me ‘big guy.’”
“Well, I’m going to regret how well it fits as I lug you out of here. Naturally I’d get to do it right as the evening crowd shows up for dinner.” Penelope slung one of my arms around her shoulder and stood, tugging me to my feet as she straightened. “Thanks for everything, Luciana.” She lifted her voice and waved, but I was too busy staring at her face and attempting to remain upright to follow her gaze. “Bye, Bianca. Have a good night.”
“Bye, ladies,” I hollered, not bothering to aim in a general vicinity since they were across the restaurant from one another. “Best whiskey ever!”
Penelope braced a hand on my chest and tapped her toe to the back of my foot. “Help me out here, dude.”
I did as she asked.
Cool air hit my face, and I sucked in a lungful.
Penelope lifted a hand in the air, and a familiar black car rolled up to the curb. Halfway through her helping me into the backseat, I flopped inside, letting gravity do the rest. She climbed in, sitting halfway on top of me before using her hip to bump me aside.
She reached over to secure my seatbelt, and I sniffed her hair. “You smell nice.”
“Thank you,” she said with a shake of her head. “Why didn’t you call it earlier, you stubborn ass?”
“I like to win.”
“I know. That’s why I was trying to teach you a lesson. Unfortunately, I’m afraid you didn’t learn anything, and all I learned is that I’m a sucker when it comes to you.”
A huge sense of achievement tingled through me, but by the time I