Page 92 of Beg Me

“The three of them took a little field trip,” I say, grinning. “They may or may not be back. But she’s definitely on her back.”

“Nettie!” Gianna holds her glass in the air. “Get it, girl!”

Drake’s arms come around Gianna’s waist, and he pulls her close, nestling his lips into her neck. “I’ll tell you what you’re gonna get when we get home.”

“I hear we have a karaoke request!” The DJ’s voice bursts through the speakers as the song ends. “Will Hartley Adler please come to the mic?”

“Shoop!” we all yell, laughing so hard that we sound like a herd of cows mooing. “Shoop!”

He stumbles to the DJ booth, glassy-eyed, thanks to Drake, and takes the microphone. Squinting, he searches the crowd until he finds Mira standing beside me. “I’m only doing this because my wife asked.”

“Love you, Hart!” she shouts.

“I love you.” He turns to the DJ. “Let’s do this. I want to shoop, baby.”

The notes of the song begin to play, Hartley starts moving his hips, and I die. I’ve seen him do this once before at a bonfire at the ranch, which was apparently his second performance, and my sides ached from laughing for two days afterward.

The crowd cheers him on as I slip out of the throng of people.

My gaze immediately finds Jory. As he reaches for a bottle of water from an ice bucket next to the cake table, I can’t help but notice how he’s so unruffled by the chaos, so calm and controlled. So handsome. The eye of the storm in so many ways for me.

He looks over his shoulder and catches me staring.

He lifts a brow and makes his way to me with a smirk that makes me weak.

“Hey,” I say, touching the side of his face, unable to go any longer without physical contact.

“You need water, babe.” He presses the bottle of water into my hand and takes the mostly empty champagne glass from me, placing it on a table. “Drink.”

“I’m fine.”

“Drink.” His lips press together. “You’re gonna get dehydrated if you don’t get some water in you.” His gaze drops to my chest. “Fuck, I want to get you out of that dress so damn bad.”

I lift and press a sweet but firm kiss to his mouth. “I can make that happen.”

“Want to climb in the back seat of my car for a quickie?”

“No.” I smack his chest, laughing. “I mean, yeah, but …”

“Drink.” He takes the cap off the bottle and waits until I swallow a mouthful of water. “Are you having fun?”

I take another drink of the cool liquid. I didn’t realize how thirsty I was. “I am. What about you?”

“I’ve had a good time, actually. You have some pretty great friends.”

“They are pretty great.” I’m glad he likes them. It would be so weird and disastrous if he didn’t.

“I just heard from Gus. He’s staying with Josh at their friend Brandon’s house, and apparently, Brandon’s dad has a pinball machine. Gus has the highest score on the board.”

Why am I not surprised a bit that he’s competitive? “That’s so not surprising.”

“Not even a little,” he says, chuckling.

Hartley winds up his performance with a bow and a declaration that his karaoke career is finished.

“Can we get all couples on the dance floor?” the DJ asks.

I look up at Jory. He grins.