I roll my eyes and ignore their handsy, drunken PDA. “Kalindi is here too. Where can we get something to drink?”
Margot hiccups. “Can someone please give them some punch?”
Just like that, we are each handed a plastic cup filled with a dark red punch. Kalindi looks into her cup with a frown. But I’m not put off by the alcohol and fruit scents floating up off of the cup’s contents.
“To Stellan and Margot!” I cry, lifting my cup.
Everyone cheers. I take a sip, wincing a little bit. It tastes just like it smells, a ton of fruit flavors layered with a lot of aquavit.
Kalindi tries some and coughs a little, her free hand moving up to cover her mouth. “What is in this?!”
I grin at her. “Bottoms up?”
She wrinkles her nose. “Fine. But only because I’m just catching up…”
I’m already tipping the cup up and letting the alcohol pour down my throat. After a couple more drinks, I’m loose and warm and ready to dance. I lead the way to the dance floor, which was at some earlier point a dining room slash living room.
The hardwood table and matching chairs have been pushed against one wall; the other walls have the white plush couches and chairs seated by them. People are dancing and making out on the couches as I tug Kalindi into the dark space.
We start to dance, feeling the beat of the baseline. I shoot Kalindi a grin. “Keep your eyes peeled for hot guys, okay?”
She laughs. “Hot guys for you. I’m not kissing a stranger tonight.”
“Oh, we’ll see about that!” I yell.
She pulls a face. “I have to find the bathroom. Will you be okay here by yourself?”
I stick my tongue out at her. “I’m obviously completely fine.”
She heads off the dance floor, weaving around a group of particularly exuberant dancers. I watch her go, realizing only after she’s been gone for a minute that I don’t feel like dancing without a partner.
Swiveling my head around, I look for a replacement. What I find though…
A tall, broadly shaped man in the corner is looking right at me. I take a step closer and a grin spreads across my face.
Blond hair, green-brown eyes, tanned skin, and more muscles than he even knows what to do with. It’s none other than Erik, my brother’s stoic best friend. He is still wearing his tux, but he’s ditched the jacket and rolled up his sleeves to reveal his hot as fuck forearms. His gaze is fixed on me, his expression unreadable.
In the nine months that I have been back in Copenhagen, being able to torment Erik is really one of the only bright spots. I mean, I’m glad to have Kal, but she’s so busy with university stuff.
Erik is always around, perpetually insanely handsome, and always so freaking stiff when I talk to him. It’s impossible not to rib him a little.
Or a lot, as the case may be.
I sway my hips as I saunter right up to him. “I didn’t expect to see you here. How have you not turned into a pumpkin, Cinderella?”
His handsome face twitches for just a moment, then he sighs. “I was just about to ask you the same thing, little girl.”
My mouth makes a moue of displeasure. “Don’t hate me for my youth and beauty, you joy kill.”
He scans the room casually, shrugging. “One man’s joy kill is another man’s savior from the brink.”
I roll my eyes. He’s so starched and polished, even here in this room full of drunk idiots making out. “Do you tell yourself that when you go to bed alone every night?”
His greenish-brown eyes rake over me. “Don’t you have a boy your age to torture?”
A sharp laugh is pulled from my lips. “Why would I do that when you’re so much more fun? Taking the starch out of you is so much more… pleasurable.”
He shakes his head at me, turning to move away. It’s instinct to reach out and catch his wrist.
But when he rounds on me, his eyes snapping and crackling with an unexpectedly fierce energy, I gulp. He shakes off my touch like one would a burning brand, glaring at me.
I see his hand flex, tightening to a fist and then relaxing. How he had such an emotional reaction to something so simple as a touch astounds me.
He growls at me. “What are you doing, Annika?”
I pout. “I wasn’t done talking to you.”
He steps up to me, leaning down and getting in my face. “I