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SEVEN YEARS LATER
I gritmy jaw as I watch her dancing, and forcibly loosen my grip on the glass of whiskey in my hand. The last thing I need is to fuck up my hands and ruin the career I’ve worked so hard to achieve. Yet my eyes can’t seem to leave her for more than a few seconds before I’m drawn to her again.
Amelia’s head tips back in laughter and I see the long column of her pale neck as Ryker spins her around in his arms. I imagine running my tongue along her delicate skin, my teeth nipping at her throat as she takes my cock, the whimpers and moans she’d emit.
I turn away from the temptation and see Norrie watching me as if she can see every secret I have. I hold my breath, wondering if she’ll comment but her attention is thankfully taken away by her new husband. Being in love with your best friend isn’t something to advertise, especially as she has no clue how I feel. Yet I find myself fighting the urge to tell her more and more.
Being here at Norrie and Harrison’s wedding is making me maudlin or perhaps that’s the whiskey I’ve drunk. I watch Harrison take Norrie in his arms and it’s clear to anyone with eyes how in love with her he is, but the stupid prick refuses to see it. I hope they can work it out for the gorgeous child they share, as much as for themselves. I’m a romantic at heart. I want to see all my friends find true love with that one special person who makes them better. My gaze slides over to Amelia again and I swallow hard, my jaw going rigid with jealousy as Ryker spins her out and whips her back into his arms, making her laugh again.
“Why are you looking so morose and grumpy?”
I cock my head to the side and look at Audrey. She’s a close friend and one of the four people who own Club Ruin with me. She’s a ball-busting force of nature with a heart of pure caramel, not that I’d ever say it to her face. Wearing her heart on her sleeve is not hermodusoperandiand I understand that. A woman as successful as she is in a man’s world has to perfect a persona of indestructibility that a man doesn’t. As a heart surgeon, I see it a lot. Female doctors work twice as hard to get the same perks as the ‘old boy’ brigade. It sickens me that it still happens when the truth is, women are ten times more capable than most men.
When we started Club Ruin it was just that, a night club. It was Audrey that made it what it is today. Her ideas, her force of nature, and her passion. Starting the club with my best friends from college is the best thing I ever did, after getting my medical license. It has given me an outlet, an escape from the job I love when it gets too hard. I glance again at the woman I’ve loved since I was a kid. She is my best friend, my person, the one I always turn to first, even above all my other friends, or she was. Now things feel off like I’m losing her, and I can’t figure out why.
“It’s just my face, Aud, and I think the words you’re looking for are brooding and sexy.”
I watch her wrinkle her nose and smirk. “So, it’s not about the gorgeous Amelia dancing with Ryker?”
My shoulders tense and I have to breathe through my gut reaction to deny it. That will only make Audrey more suspicious. That’s the problem with being so close to these assholes, they know me too well. If I’m not careful, she’ll have my every reaction picked apart in pieces at my feet in seconds.
“Why would that bother me?” Amelia is my oldest friend, my best friend since we were seven years old and there is nothing I wouldn’t do for her, even if it cuts me up inside to see her with anyone who isn’t me.
Audrey crosses her arms over her middle and leans into me, her head resting on my shoulder like she’s done a hundred times. There’s nothing remotely sexual between us. Even if I have seen her play at the club a few times, I don’t see her that way. She’s my friend but, as my eyes move once again to the auburn-haired beauty on the dance floor, I’m reminded that so is she. Yet, I want her with a passion I can barely contain.
“Be brave, Beck. Tell her how you feel.”
My heart feels like it stutters in my chest at her words. Nobody can know how I feel, especially Audrey. She’ll push and push and I won’t risk my friendship with Amelia on something as tenuous as love.
“She knows how I feel. She’s my best buddy.”
Audrey lifts her head with a shake and a look of pure disappointment and I hate it. Thank God Hudson picks that moment to interrupt.
“Audrey, can I speak to you?”
I smirk as I watch her face transform into an almost snarl. “Fuck off, prick.”
Hudson smiles wider. “You are a true delight, Audrey.”
She gives him the middle finger and walks away, and he follows as I chuckle. Those two need to fuck or fight or maybe both and get it out of their systems.
“Hey.”
Amelia is a sweaty, flushed mess from dancing her heart out with Lottie and Norrie earlier and then with Ryker, and she’s never looked more stunning. Every muscle in my body wants to lean toward her, to reach for her. “Hey, Tinkerbell.”
She frowns, a tiny line forming on her forehead. “Really, Beck, still calling me that?”
“What? I’ve always called you that.”
“When we were kids, but I’m a grown woman now.”
My eyes sweep over her from top to bottom as if they have a mind of their own and admire every single curve. Amelia is around five feet four, and petite in every way, except my girl has tits and an ass that would make a grown man weep for mercy. She’s a fucking siren, and I’d happily fall at her feet if I didn’t want to risk the thing I value most—her friendship.
I wrap an arm around her like I’ve done a thousand times and kiss her head, noting the familiar scent she wears is the one I buy her every Christmas. “I know, but to me, you’re my Tinkerbell.”
She sighs and pulls back to look up at me and I hate seeing the light go from her sky-blue eyes and don’t know what I can do to fix this. Since she came back from London, our friendship feels like it is slipping through my fingers and the more I fight for it, the further away she seems.
She forces a big smile, which is as fake as a politician’s promises. “You’re right.”
