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“What kind of drink?” I asked.
“Whatever you want,” Damian answered from behind me. “I have a fully stocked bar if you want alcohol. I have juice, soda, and water if you don’t.”
I thought about it for a few moments. I wasn’t an expert with drinks. Hell, I hadn’t even gotten drunk often enough to know what I liked. I knew the names of popular drinks like Fuzzy Navel, Sex on the Beach, margaritas, daiquiris, and a few others, but hell if I knew what they tasted like—or how to make them.
When my friends and I got together and hosted parties, we’d always made Jungle Juice. That was one I’d become near expert in making since the few times Ididget drunk with my friends, that’s what they always asked me to make.
If you looked it up online, you quickly realize it was a drink where you literally just throw whatever you want in and adjust the measurements to taste. But I came up with my own recipe that my friends and I loved.
“You guys ever have Jungle Juice?” I asked.
They both looked at each other. “What the fuck is that?” Damian asked. “Is that some poor man’s cocktail or something?”
I laughed and stood. “You’re not entirely wrong,” I said, dusting wet sand from my backside. I was a mess. “I’m from southern Indiana. While we aren’t that far south, most of the people where I’m from embody the hillbilly stereotype. Jungle Juice was always at all the parties I went to, and when my friends and I had parties, that’s what I made. So, yeah. We always jokingly called it a hillbilly cocktail. It could have originated in some hoity toity Malibu penthouse for all I know. But where I come from, it’s the drink of choice for all the big parties.”
“Never had it, but if it’ll make you feel at home, I’m more than willing to try it. Sounds interesting,” Asher said. “What’s it taste like?”
I smiled. “WhenImake it? Fruit juice. But it’ll knock you flat on your ass, so don’t drink it super fast.”
Damian smiled, and it wasn’t one of his dangerous ones. It was… beautiful. When he wasn’t focused on bringing hell down upon me, he was almost too beautiful to look at. He and Asher were a dangerous pair.
“That sounds interesting,” Damian said. He extended a hand, gesturing toward the house. “Well, let’s see what you got.”
For some reason, I found myself overly excited about making drinks for them. It was so incredibly…normal.So normal it was strange. I let out a surprising little squeal of excitement and started running toward the house. I didn’t make it far before reaching the small bluff. There were steps that lead up a hundred or so feet away, but I didn’t bother. It didn’t take much effort to walk up the steep hill.
When we got up to the house, I stopped before walking inside, and they both turned to look at me as they passed.
“What’s wrong?” Asher asked.
I pointed to my jeans. “I’m soaked and covered in sand.” I looked at Damian. “I doubt you want me tracking sand all through the house. Do you have a towel I can use?”
He shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. I have someone who cleans once a week when I’m not here. I’ll just have her come an extra day.” I opened my mouth to say something, and he stepped toward me, lowering just enough so his nose was a breath away from mine. “And before you get all uppity and tell me how privileged I am… Esther worked for my father, too. She cleaned his business offices. She’s nice, and she’s putting her kid through college. I told her she can come work for me, I’d pay her better,andshe didn’t have to worry about his creepy ass harassing her.” He stood at full height again, a dark smirk crossing his lips. “She hates my old man as much as I do, and she was his best. I’d gladly pay her extra just to piss him off.”
I was equal parts surprised and not surprised at all. It was a strange contradiction. Damian himself truly seemed to be a walking contradiction. It was rather shocking he’d pay someone extra for less work just to help her get her kid through college and away from his father’s lecherous harassment, but it was right on brand for him to do it in order to piss his dad off.
Still, I couldn’t argue with a woman getting paid more than what was standard and being treated fairly, no matter what the underlying reason was.
“That’s very nice of you,” I said.
He nodded once before leaning down and putting his mouth by my ear. “While there are mostly thorns along this vine, you’ll find a few flowers, too.” He placed a soft kiss on my cheek before stepping away and gesturing inside. “Now, let’s go in and see what weird ass concoction you’re going to kill us with.”
I laughed and stepped forward. When I looked at Asher, I expected him to be pissed or annoyed with Damian’s actions a moment ago, but instead, he looked amused.
When I walked inside, I was standing inside the single biggest kitchen I’d ever been in. The walls with white cabinets on them were painted a candy apple red, while the other walls were a light cool-toned grey. The countertops were white marble, and the floor a beautiful white tile. The built-in refrigerator was the size of two large side-by-side refrigerators, and there was a pantry as well, marked with a beautiful frosted glass door with the wordPantryin loopy letters.
There were two exterior doors in the kitchen. One leading to the beach where we just came in, and the other led out back to what looked like a gargantuan infinity pool.
“Wow,” was all I could manage.
“Like it? I decorated it myself,” Damian said, leading us away from the kitchen and into what I assumed used to be a large dining room. Now it served as a bar room.
There were several small pub tables set up all over with three chairs at each, and a large bar in the corner. Behind the bar was a large wall of liquor that rivaled Lucifer Morningstar’s from the Netflix show. It was awesome. Next to that was a massive TV visible from all the pub tables sitting around the room.
Connected to this room was a massive living room that I could fit my dad’s house inside, and the front door. He had charcoal grey furniture with white tables, light hardwood floors, light grey walls, and a stone blue accent wall. It was gorgeous.
“You decorated this yourself?” I asked. “Meaning you picked the colors and hired someone? Or…?”
He shook his head and pointed at Asher. “Nope. I picked out the colors, and we busted our asses to get it all painted and stuff before the pre-start-of-school party I held this year. The very one Harper approached me at to bury you. We installed that flooring in there and everything. I hated what was in there before. It was scratched all to hell and back. There’s still a lot of stuff I want to do, but we got the main part of the bottom floor looking pretty good.”
