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“It’s not a risk! We’re going to Times Square. I dare Arjun to spot Tia in the crowd that gathers there on New Year’s Eve. You have to hold hands with your friends because you can’t find each other again if you get separated, for fuck’s sake. Tia and I will be safer in that crowd than anywhere else in New York City.”
“But why can’t you have your girl’s night at our house?” I argued because it just didn’t make sense.
“Because Tia is tired of hiding! Is this her life now? She can’t go out in public at all because Leo is so paranoid. She only takes Maddie for indoor activities and has to travel in a car with blacked-out windows. Can you imagine how depressing that is? She and Leo are together now. There’s nothing her brother can do about it. And if he tries anything, she’s prepared to call the cops.”
“Fine, but you’re not going alone. I’m sending our best bodyguards to escort you both. They will stick to you like glue.”
“Eww, no! That won’t be any fun,” she protested.
“That’s your only option, Celine. Don’t make me lock you up in my bedroom.”
She smiled slowly - a naughty, seductive smile that made me want to pick her up and lock her in my bedroom right now.
“Is that a threat or a promise?” she asked.
“Fuck about and you’ll find out,” I growled, bending to take her lips again in one last kiss before I took my niece home.
Leo collared me as soon as I got home.
“We need bodyguards for Tia and Celine tomorrow,” he began.
“Way ahead of you,” I replied. “I just got off the phone with our chief of security. He’s putting his best men on the job.”
But as it turned out, Tia chose to stay home because Maddie was sick, and I jumped at the opportunity to spend some time with Celine. Tia laughed when I told her I could go in her place.
“Oh, sweetie, have you ever partied with Celine? That woman is wild,” she replied, shaking her head.
“I’m no slouch at partying, honey. I can keep up with her,” I said firmly.
She just shook her head and laughed again.
When I arrived at Celine’s house, she was giving instructions to the babysitter, and I took a long moment to study her. She looked like a goddess in her short and sparkly black dress that set off her curves and long legs. All I wanted to do was take her to bed and make sweet love to her until neither of us could move. But she deserved a night out. She deserved to have fun, and I was going to make sure she had fun tonight.
As it turned out, my idea of fun was way different from hers.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“We’re going to Bollinger’s,” she said brightly.
I had never heard of it.
“Is it a restaurant?”
“No! It’s a honky-tonk bar on West 48thStreet, and it’s the best!”
I wanted to barf at the very idea. But I didn’t want to be a party pooper.
“Aren’t you overdressed for a honky-tonk?” I asked drily.
She shrugged in reply.
“Eh, it’ll be fine. I know the owner. He won’t turn me away. Although, I can’t make any promises about you,” she said, looking me up and down doubtfully.
I tried not to wonder how she knew him, because tonight was about getting to know each other better. And I couldn’t get jealous of every man who had ever spoken to Celine before I came along.
With a loud and put-upon sigh, I ditched my dinner jacket, undid the first two buttons of my shirt, and rolled up my sleeves.
“Better now?”
