“Your dress is very pretty, Rose,” said Alicia, the compliment dripping with honey. Perhaps she thought that if she buttered me up, I wouldn’t reveal her excursion in Julian’s bedroom to Damon.
“Thanks. Yours is, too.” I peered up at Damon, who wore a vaguely uncomfortable look. He clearly didn’t know what to do about Alicia, and she was very obviously determined to stick to him like glue for the evening. I actually felt a little bad for him. Well, that and obscenely jealous.
Julian interrupted all conversations as he re-entered the room and loudly made an announcement. “Okay, everybody who wants to take part in a game of Spin the Bottle, gather round and take a seat on the living room floor. The rest of you dirty voyeurs can hang about and watch, or completely ignore us. Whatever wets your whistle.”
I almost groaned, preparing to make a speedy exit, when all of a sudden Iggy grabbed my hand and pulled me down to sit on the floor.
“Let go!” I hissed, but he only smiled at me blandly.
“Rose dear, I spent the entire day slaving away for you. The least you can do to repay me is take part in a little game of Spin the Bottle.” There was a sparkle in his eye that told me he was up to something, and I knew from past experience there was no end to the mischief my boss could create with when fuelled by several glasses of white wine.
In the end about fifteen of us had made a circle on the floor, the twenty or so other party guests happy to chat amongst themselves and ignore Julian’s childish games. You’d swear we were attending a sweet sixteen. I caught Damon’s eye directly across from me on the other side of the circle, and thought Alicia must have roped him into taking part. He looked like he’d rather be anywhere else right then – like say, dancing the Macarena naked in front of five thousand people. Still, I wished he wasn’t playing. The idea of Damon kissing any of the women currently present made my stomach twist with discomfort.
Julian, who still had yet to sit down, came and placed a glass of champagne in my hand before sitting next to me. He put an empty wine bottle in the middle of the floor and spun it. It landed on a woman, one of the backing dancers from the show who I’d invited. When he spun it again, it landed on a man I didn’t know, but who must’ve been an acquaintance of Julian’s. The two crawled across to each other and kissed awkwardly at first, but then they seemed to get into it and I noticed a definite hint of tongue action.
“Get a room!” Iggy jeered loudly and they pulled apart, both looking slightly breathless.
Julian laughed with devilish glee, and a few more kisses followed. Iggy ended up kissing Farrah, and he hammed it up by licking her face first before mussing up her hair like a couple in an ’80s music video. I chuckled and tucked my legs under my bottom, sipping my champagne and sort of getting into the game. It was fun, so long as that bottle never landed on me. I wholeheartedly made an effort to ignore the fact that Blake was standing just outside the circle, not taking part but watching. It struck me as odd, though, because he was usually the type to relish this sort of thing.
Sitting on the floor was giving me pins and needles in my feet, so I slipped off my heels and rubbed at the base of my foot. Feeling someone’s attention, I looked up and saw Damon watching the movement of my fingers. For some reason it made me flush, so I pulled my hand back into my lap. Iggy took a turn spinning the bottle, and I was too busy wondering about the way Damon had been looking at me that I didn’t immediately realise it was pointing at me.
Shit.
Iggy rubbed his hands together, preparing to spin it a second time. “Okay, Rose, let’s find you a kissing partner, shall we?”
I closed my eyes, tension coiling in the pit of my stomach, and when I opened them, the first thing I noticed was the unhappy slant to Alicia’s mouth. The bottle was pointing at Damon, and there was some kind of annoyance in his expression.
“Better pucker up, Christian,” Iggy crooned in delight, teasing Damon as he