“Enough,” I bark. “This is all your fault.” Turning to her, I narrow my eyes in the hope it’ll shut her up.
“Me?” she asks, innocently pointing to herself.
“Yes. I should be on the sofa right now with my second tub of ice cream and watching others falling in love on some shitty reality TV show.”
“Oh yeah, that sounds like a winning way to spend your Friday night, H. I’ll call you a cab right now to return to your evening of fun.”
“Really?” I ask hopefully, missing her sarcasm.
“No. Harlow. No. You embarrassed yourself, so what? Colton doesn’t care, so neither should you.” She waves and the bartender comes right over—of course he fucking does. One look at her and he’s like putty in her hand. Me? He barely even saw me standing here. Rolling my eyes at myself, I listen as Bailey orders us four shots of tequila.
“Tequila?” My lip curls in disgust.
“Yes, hopefully it’ll give your confidence a boost and loosen you up a little.”
“Here’s hoping,” I mutter, more to myself than her as I pick up the first one and knock it back before immediately going for the second. The alcohol burns my throat, but it’s only seconds before it starts warming my belly. Maybe it will have the effect Bailey intended.
“Oh, the birthday boy’s here. Let’s go and wish him a happy birthday.” I look over to where Bailey’s focus is and see both Rylee and Colton standing before Austin.
“It’s okay, you go. I’ll order some more drinks.”
“He’s just a guy, H. You can talk to him like any other.”
“I know. And I will talk to him… them. I just… I need another drink first. I can only embarrass myself so much every hour.”
Shaking her head at me, she takes off across the room, her heels clicking against the black polished tiles and her mile-long, tanned legs eating up the space. I don’t need to look around to know she’s got the attention of at least a handful of men as she moves. Bailey has this aura surrounding her, one that turns all attention on her. Something that I most definitely don’t possess. I’m just the best friend who makes an idiot of herself as often as possible and only helps to make Bailey look so much more desirable.
Blowing out a long breath, I turn back to the bar, only to find that the bartender has once again vanished to serve someone else. Sitting myself up on a stool, I watch as he gets farther and farther away from me before turning to play on his cell.
Fantastic.
Thinking that I’ll just order a cab home, I turn to slide from the stool but come to a stop when I find a guy standing before me. One side of his mouth curls up in an unsure smile.
“Hey, how are you doing?”
His deep voice is immediately recognizable. My eyes drop to his hands that are tucked into the pockets of his pants, but as I do that, I feel the warmth of one of them against my waist from not so long ago.
“Oh yeah. I’m sorry about that. I’m a bit of an id…” My eyes run up exposed forearms that are covered in ink. I find the rolled fabric of his white shirt and my mouth waters when I discover his muscular biceps beneath. It’s open one button too many at the neck, showing even more art, but it’s when I find his light blue eyes that it feels like my world tilts slightly.
His lopsided grin turns into a megawatt smile, exposing perfectly straight white teeth beneath, and my entire body sighs.
“Can I buy you a drink?”
It takes me a few moments to register that he’s said anything, but once I do, I tilt my head to the side and look at him once more.
“Y-you’re the Brit?”
That lopsided smile returns, but this time a dimple pops up in his cheek.
“What gave me away?” I bite down on my bottom lip and his eyes drop to focus on it. “It’s Corey. And you are?”
“H-Harlow.”
“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Harlow. Shall we?” he asks, gesturing toward the bar before lifting his hand to call the bartender over.
Ignoring the vacant stool beside me, he chooses instead to stand next to me. Just close enough that his warmth heats my side and his scent fills my nose. This guy knows what he’s doing. It should be a turn off, but I can’t help but fall for his charm. Maybe Bailey was right. I bite down on my bottom lip as I attempt to remember what it feels like to be touched by a man.
Bailey’s going to kill you for talking to him first, I think as I look up at him once more, my cheeks burning with my previous thoughts. When I glance over my shoulder, I see she’s still preoccupied with Austin and a few of the other counselors from The House along with Rylee and Colton. That’s enough to tell me that I’m not heading over there anytime soon.
INKED
Chapter Two
Corey
Tonight is my first night out—night off, actually—since setting up the studio over here. But Austin gave me little choice about it. He first mentioned it a few weeks ago, and, assuming he’d forget about it, or at least forget about me, I pushed it aside. But when he called again at the beginning of the week and told me that I had to be here and reminded me that he’d given me prior warning, I didn’t stand a chance. Part of my moving here was so that I could spend time with this side of my family, something he used against me to ensure I attended. Turns out though, he didn’t need to try quite so hard; all he had to do was mention the quality of the women who would also be here, and I’d have followed orders in a heartbeat.
I realised just how right a decision that was when I
