Total pages in book: 192
Estimated words: 192810 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 964(@200wpm)___ 771(@250wpm)___ 643(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 192810 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 964(@200wpm)___ 771(@250wpm)___ 643(@300wpm)
“I spy a couple of stools, let’s hit it,” Cat said, and forged along the plush soot carpeting under our feet, her trajectory: the bar.
I tried not to look to the booths as we moved, which probably cost more to reserve, which meant there were likely very rich, very famous, very aristocratic or (maybe!) very royal people sitting in them.
I was an avid people watcher and had a job where I was frequently around celebrities, so I’d honed my skills to such a point I’d take it as a personal fail if it came off as gawking.
Mostly, the sensation I felt when entering the club, more precisely from seeing that male at the back of it, had unnerved me, and I didn’t think it was a good idea to revisit that feeling.
Therefore, I focused on the fact that there were really no other shoes I could wear with this dress, but I still lamented wearing them. I’d barely been standing for fifteen minutes, and I wanted to unstrap them and donate them to the nearest resale pane.
Thus, when we hit the two open barstools, I eyed there being only two with a very unsisterlike intensity, because neither Cat nor Gayle were wearing footwear that was comfortable, and at that point, I might engage in physical combat to claim one.
“Take mine,” a deep voice said as a male slid off the stool next to one of the empty ones.
I looked up at an exceptionally handsome black-haired, black-eyed demon.
He smiled at me, and that was exceptionally handsome too.
On this thought, my stomach twisted so brutally, I nearly bent double with the pain.
“Lord of hellfire, you okay?” the male demon asked me, bending from his tall height to look into my face and reaching out, possibly to guide me to the stool he vacated, but before his hand even touched me, he murmured, “Shit, the heat coming off you is mately.”
The pain had subsided, so I looked at him, bemused at his words. “Sorry?”
“Is your mate here?” he asked while glancing around.
My attention immediately went to the booth, now directly across from where I was standing. I vaguely noticed the people in it were sliding out, all but that one male who was sitting dead center at the back.
I still couldn’t see his face in the shadows, but I could see the breadth of his shoulders, which were astonishingly wide, and considering my vocation, I noted again the cut of his suit, which was superb.
I could also feel his pull.
Whoever he was, he was somebody. Somebody important. Somebody magnetic.
Gods, maybe he was even the prince.
The prince was tall. He had very wide shoulders. He’d have reason, even in an exclusive club, to hide himself in the shadows.
And he always wore impeccably tailored suits.
“She doesn’t have a mate,” Gayle said, helping me hike my rear on the stool.
Once settled, I gazed up at the demon, who’d had a fae friend, with thick, leonine hair and lilac eyes, join him to stand in front of us. “Just to make you being kind enough to give me your seat even more awkward, I haven’t been out in a while because of some…life stuff. And I’m not really a going-out type of person anyway. So I think my body’s just having some difficulty getting into the swing of things again. That’s some TMI when I don’t even know your name, but I’d rather TMI than you thinking I’m weird.”
Okay, so, maybe I’d rather him think I was weird than blurting semi-personal stuff two minutes into not quite meeting the guy.
Ugly side effect of being shy number one: you often blathered stupid things that made you seem weird.
Side effect of blathering stupid things that made you seem weird: in order not to put yourself in this excruciating position, you became a homebody.
He grinned again, my stomach reacted with a pinch again, but fortunately not as strong this time, and he said, “Honesty is never too much. And we’ll rectify part of that. I’m Bash.” He gestured to his friend. “This is Tay.”
Cat inserted herself into the conversation, thank the gods.
“That’s Laura, this is Gayle, and I’m Cat.”
“Ladies,” Tay’s deep voice rumbled over us.
“Drinks?” a bartender asked.
We all twisted to order, and of course I asked for my one of my usuals, a pink fizz.
“On my line,” Bash said to the bartender, putting our drinks on his credit line.
“That was kind, but not necessary,” I said softly.
“I disagree,” Bash replied, matching my tone.
Right, this male seemed kinda lovely.
“So what do you all do?” Tay asked.
I wasn’t in the zone for a hookup, and Bash seemed nice, and he was very easy to look at, so I announced, “Cat manages the Tempera Gallery downtown.”
Both Bash and Tay turned right to her.
“Seriously?” Tay asked.
Cat executed a move that was something else in her repertoire I envied, preening without looking like she was preening.