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“Hell yes,” Carina said, pushing past me and grabbing the bottle the woman offered. Olivia and Oaklyn came out to perch on the couch, back in their jeans, at the sound of more alcohol.
Once the attendant walked away and more champagne was poured, I tried to calm the hoard. “Seriously, it’s nothing. The first time I went to a back room, I kind of panicked and bolted. I ran into Daniel and he took me to his office to calm down. We talked and he offered to help. I’m just comfortable around him, and I don’t have any men in my life I’m comfortable enough with to…to…try things.”
“Things?” Carina asked dryly.
Ignoring her, I continued. “We get along. We’re friends and we both understand what we want in our futures. Which isn’t a relationship.”
“Then why learn how to flirt and be okay with sex if you don’t want it,” Carina asked.
“I do want it. And I want to be able to have it. I want to be okay with my body. I just don’t want to commit to anyone.”
“Why?”
Carina’s pushing and narrowed eyes pricked at my irritation and had me standing taller, crossing my arms, and cocking my hip like an attitude would block her intrusive questions.
“Do you ask Daniel why he wants to be alone, or just me—a young woman who society thinks should be planning a husband and kids by now?”
Carina’s brows tried to merge with her hairline, and I knew I was in for it. She didn’t deserve for me to snap at her, but I’d felt cornered.
“First of all, calm down. I’m the queen of women empowerment. Two, yes I ask him, and he’s just as big of a pain in the ass about answering as you are.” She rolled her eyes. “He says he likes being alone. I think he’s full of shit.”
“Yeah,” Oaklyn chimed in. “I think he holds back. He’s not like Kent, who was the wilder one of them. Daniel’s a homebody.”
“So, why?” Carina asked, turning back to me.
The fight leaked out of me with a heavy sigh, my shoulders slouching in defeat. “I don’t want to find a future without Sofia. It’s not right that I get to go on and find my happily ever after, and she doesn’t. And I just don’t want to fall in love to lose someone.” Tears burned up my throat, and I dropped my gaze to the ground. “I can’t feel that loss again.”
My confession brought silence to the circle for the first time all night, and I could feel their stares—their judgment.
“Well, shit,” Carina finally said, shocking me. “Now I feel like an asshole.”
“Asth-ol,” Audrey imitated.
It was enough to break the tension, and we all laughed at the bad word and Carina’s resulting shock.
“No, baby. Don’t say that.”
“Asth-ol.”
“Ian’s not going to let me live this down.”
Conversation broke off into small groups, and Carina passed Audrey off before heading my way. “Just so you know, I think your reasoning is shit—just like his—but I won’t talk you out of it.”
“Thank you,” I said sincerely. I’d had enough pushing and confessing for the rest of the year. I appreciated her calling a truce.
Her full lips tipped into a smile that promised nothing good. “Now, let’s pick out a dress that makes your friend think you’re hot.”
I rolled my eyes but couldn’t hold back the smile once I closed the curtain.
With no one else around, I had to admit, I liked the sound of that.
16
Daniel
“Wow, you look…stunning.” Hanna knocked me stupid, in her emerald dress, making words hard to think of. Not that stunning did her justice. I’d been waiting in the lobby of her apartment, wondering if going as her date tonight crossed boundaries of our friendship.
Watching her face light up at my compliment, I didn’t really care about boundaries.
She shoved her hands into the folds of her dress. “Thank you. It has pockets.”
“Well, shit. Best dress ever then.”
“You clean up pretty nice, too.”
My face didn’t light up like hers, but I may have beamed a little when she looked me up and down.
“Stop staring at my sister,” Erik growled, walking past me.
I laughed at Hanna’s eye roll but did stop staring. Hanna was my friend, and while I may know what her pussy tasted like—how rosy her nipples got when she came—I didn’t want to leer at her.
“Oh, my god, Erik. Shut up. People are allowed to say I’m pretty. It’s polite.”
Alex snickered, following behind Erik, her hand firmly planted in his. Erik glared at me like I was the reason the women were ganging up on him. I held my hands up in surrender, acting like an innocent man I knew I wasn’t.
If Erik knew what I’d done to his sister, he’d probably beat me to a pulp. It wouldn’t matter I was doing it to help her.
