Like hell it doesn’t. Did his parents not teach him basic fucking manners? No woman deserves to be spoken to like that, least of all Jade.
“So, you and the reporter, huh?” she asks with a tilt of her head toward Sunny.
Now it’s my turn to shrug. “My sisters asked me to show her around.”
Jade looks away and mutters under her breath, “Like you guys need more money.”
What does money have to do with anything? I’m about to ask what she meant by that little comment when she turns back to me and steps closer. With the way her eyes burn right into mine, Sunny and her article are the last things on my mind.
“Did they tell you to have drinks with her tonight, too?” Jade asks, lifting a brow as her perfect pink lips close around her straw, and she takes a deep drag of the cocktail in her hand.
Do I immediately fantasize about the way those lips would look wrapped around my dick? I’d love to say no, but that would be a lie. My voice comes out a little gruff when I respond. “What can I say? I like to go above and beyond for the ladies.”
“I bet you do,” she murmurs.
If my voice is gravel, Jade’s is all smoke.
And I don’t know what the fuck to do with it. What has Jade’s doppelganger done with the woman who’s been more reserved than not, and why is she standing so close to me that I can smell the cherries in her glass?
“Little Jade. Are you drunk?” Her eyes are clear, not bloodshot or glassy. And she doesn’t seem to be unsteady in those wedge heels that make her legs look long enough to grip my hips nicely. But there’s no way she’d say what she just did sober.
She holds up a finger. “Buzzed, yes. But not drunk.”
“Are you on your own?” Or is she on a date with one of the countless guys checking out her ass right now? Seriously, they want to get their eyes up where they belong before I introduce their faces to my boot.
“Yeah. Ruby and Flynn left a little bit ago,” Jade says.
“And you didn’t want to go with them?”
“Nah. I wanted to stay here and drown my sorrows.”
“What sorrows are those?”
She squints her eyes and shrugs.
The bartender finally comes over to me, and I order Sunny and her friend a drink. I then get myself a beer and hand over my credit card to open a tab, offering to pay for another drink for Jade. She protests, but not much, eventually ordering a cocktail I’ve never heard of before.
The thought of leaving Jade to go back to Sunny makes my chest feel lined with lead. It doesn’t help that the two guys in trucker hats over at the pool table are checking out Jade’s tits in that sweater. I have a feeling the moment I step aside, those two are going to swoop right in. So, instead, I lean an elbow on the bar and say, “You want to drown those sorrows with a shot?”
There’s defiance in her eyes when she smiles. “Only if you take one too.”
This is a terrible, awful idea, which, of course means I’m all for it. “Order two, and I’ll be right back.”
I drop Sunny’s drinks over to where she and her friend are sitting.
“Thank you, Dylan,” they say in unison.
Before I can head back to Jade, Sunny catches my arm. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I met a friend over at the bar.”
She glances over my shoulder, her brow furrowing as she lifts her drink to her lips. “Promise you’ll be right back?”
“Yeah. I want to hear all about what you’re up to these days,” Carrie adds.
I give Sunny’s hand a pat and make a promise I have no intention of keeping. Maybe that makes me a shitty guy, but I’m not too worried about it because that fucker in a backwards hat just nudged his friend and tipped his chin toward Jade. And now he’s sauntering toward where she’s waiting for me.
Not tonight, jackass.
