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“Gonna be one of those nights, huh?” With a gleam in his eye, he handed me another shot, which I swallowed down, the whiskey making my eyes water. When he turned around to grab yet another off the bar, Halo cut him off.
“If you’re not planning on holding his hair tonight, you need to slow your roll,” Halo said.
Viper licked his lips as he wrapped his finger around one of Halo’s curls. “You know I’ve got better plans tonight.”
“Then stop trying to get Levi shitfaced. Such a bad influence.” Halo grinned my way as Viper moved in close behind him, his mouth on Halo’s neck. When he whispered something I couldn’t hear into Halo’s ear and a flush creeped into his cheeks, I’d had enough.
Rolling my eyes, I reached for the shot Viper had left on the bar and threw it back before he could protest, and then made my way through the thick of the crowd.
The alcohol making its way through my veins was making me hot already, and I loosened the knot at my throat and unbuttoned the collar. It meant I wouldn’t look dressed to impress, but who was I here to impress, anyway?
Not Killian, that’s for sure.
Speaking of the birthday boy, he was holding court on the far side of the room by the floor-to-ceiling windows, surrounded on all sides by admirers, laughing and drinking. I wasn’t surprised in the least. Killian had an infectious smile that lit up the room and a charm that made others want to be around him. Hell, he’d been the one to convince me to take this job, though if I’d known how difficult that would be, maybe I would’ve thought twice about it.
Being attracted to Killian was easy; it was the staying-away part that was difficult.
Which brought me back to the reason I’d ventured this way in the first place: to look for a one-night distraction.
I grabbed a shooter from one of the waitresses working the floor and instantly regretted downing whatever that fruity purple concoction was. Shuddering as my head began to swim, I loosened my tie even more, and then a deep voice was in my ear.
“Care to dance?”
I whirled around, moving a little too fast for the amount of alcohol I’d taken in a handful of minutes, but luckily the man who’d propositioned me was there, his hand on my hip to steady me.
The man was several inches taller than me and built like a linebacker. He was handsome, with dark, smooth skin and bright eyes that weren’t swimming with alcohol the way mine were.
“Hi,” I managed, fully aware of his hand on my hip—as well as a pair of eyes boring holes into the side of my head. I glanced to my left, my eyes instantly meeting Killian’s from across the room. I inclined my head.
You don’t like this, huh? Too fucking bad.
I turned back to the man on the dance floor and smiled. “I’d love to dance with you.”
“Good,” he said, curling his fingers around my belt loops and pulling me forward so that our bodies were flush with one another. Damn, he was nothing but solid muscle, like grinding on a boulder, and I had to grab his arms to stay as close as I wanted to.
Closing my eyes, I tried to relax and let my body go along with what I’d come here to do, but my mind was swirling with images of Killian. Killian glaring at me, Killian blowing out the candles on his cake as we sang “Happy Birthday” in front of a crowd of tens of thousands, and, of course, Killian dropping his robe so his perfect, naked body was on full display and could be imprinted in my brain forever—ensuring that in moments like this, when I wanted to think of anything but him, it’d pop up to torture me.
What was that saying? Always wanting what you can’t have? That didn’t usually apply to me, but ever since meeting Killian, it’d been a struggle to think of much else. I could deal with my attraction so much better if I hadn’t known he felt the same way.
Why couldn’t he just keep his damn mouth shut? Why did he have to complicate everything and kiss me that night? Why did I have to kiss him back? Because now that I knew what I was missing, it was hard for anyone else to compare.
I opened my eyes, the images of Killian fading as I focused my attention back on my dance partner. His hips moved in time to the beat as I matched his pace, but even though he was an attractive, and seriously built, guy, something just didn’t feel quite right. But I could still feel Killian’s stare, so I ignored it and kept on dancing.
And maybe I’d have another one of those disgusting fruity shots when the waitress came back around.
