Love In Secrets (Love Distilled #3) - Scarlett Cole Page 0,99

renovation, and that Liv had asked them all to dress up because she intended to use some of the images on the distillery’s social media pages.

As a result, the girls had gone to town on getting hair and makeup and clothes ready.

The absence of the guys was explained by them needing to help Jake set everything up and move furniture around.

“Do you think I should go and check on the food?” Jake asked.

Anders shook his head. “I checked on the way in. You forget that Doria and Anne and I go way back.”

“Oh, right. The night you helped Liv make sliders.” Connor put the words “helped Liv make sliders” in air quotes.

“Fine. Right. So, I slept with her. But I’m fucking marrying her in ten weeks. It’s not like I had my wicked way and then bailed,” Anders said gruffly, although from his grin, Jake could tell he didn’t really care.

“Well, technically, you did. For two months, at least,” Jake reminded him.

“And you weren’t planning on coming back until you were traded.” Connor grinned.

“Fuck you both. I’ll still be married before either one of you.”

Emerson was the first to walk through the glass doors, and Connor headed straight for her. Her hair was piled on her head in a way that always baffled Jake. It was so perfectly messy and tousled that it looked like it was about to fall down, but he’d seen her dance with reckless abandon and the thing had never moved.

Liv came through next and headed straight to the table, walking around it once, her eyes scanning as she checked for details before looking up to see Anders right in front of her. “Oh, hi,” she said, laughing as he tugged her into his arms.

Cassie came through last, and his breath caught in his chest at the sight of her. She wore a dress which, to be honest, he couldn’t quite understand. It was cut in a super deep V in the front, which showed off her cleavage to perfection, but as she turned to look for him, he could see it had a really low-cut back too. And unless the dress existed in its own gravitational force, he couldn’t quite understand how it was staying on her body. It draped in soft, champagne-colored folds that skimmed her curves and landed at her knees.

Her hair was up off her face in an elaborate series of braids that wouldn’t have been lost on an extra in his favorite movie, Gladiator.

“You’re perfect,” he mouthed when she looked in his direction, and she bobbed a little curtsey.

He walked over to her and took her hand. “Let me get you a drink.”

Cassie looped her hand around his arm and ran her fingers along the sleeve. “I love this suit. You look particularly handsome in it.”

“I love your dress. You look particularly pretty and, if I may say, fuckable in it.”

“You may say.”

“What would you like?” He pulled out one of the new leather stools in a soft orangey-tan color and helped her climb on before he wandered to the other side of the bar.

“Oh, a fizzy gin cocktail, please.”

Jake pulled a bottle of Dyer’s Vintage from the shelf. His father’s recipe seemed appropriate tonight. “How about a gin spritz? I know it’s only early June, but this is like summer in a glass.”

He filled a large Copa de Balon glass with ice and then chopped a grapefruit in half. One half he squeezed over the ice, the other, he chopped for a garnish. The cork popped as he pulled it out of the bottle of champagne. Before he poured it, he added a splash of sugar syrup to the glass and then topped it up with the champagne. He used a metal straw to give it a little stir and then placed it in front of her on the little Dyer’s Gin Distillery coasters Liv had made.

“This looks delicious. I want to say cheers, but you don’t have a drink.”

“And neither do we,” Anders said, stepping up to the bar.

“Fine, I’ll be barman. What can I get you?”

Once everyone was served, he went back to Cassie, who had patiently waited for him to pour himself a beer.

“Cheers.” He tapped his glass to hers.

“Cheers,” she replied, her eyes on his.

He took a sip of his beer, while she sipped on her cocktail, but his gaze never left hers. Sometimes, the way they looked at each other was almost as arousing as being naked in the shower with her. One look and