She tastes just like the feeling I’ve been chasing my whole life.
21
Aspen
“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” I glance up at Reid as we enter the booming club. Music and overwhelming cologne slam into me. I stick close to his side as he leads me and my friends through.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t have offered if I wasn’t,” he says.
A few days ago, I mentioned that one of my friends, Nicole, has a birthday tonight. She wanted to go out to a club, but they’re all always so crowded on Friday nights.
That’s when Reid swooped in and offered to pull some strings and get us a private section at Inferno, one of SoHo’s most popular clubs. With a single glance from the bouncer, Reid’s shaking his hand and the rope is dropped for us to walk up to the next level.
Sara and Marley, holding hands behind us, murmur something I can’t catch while Nicole beams and bounces on her high heels. She brought a few of her work friends with her as well that I’m not as familiar with, who all seem equally excited.
We’re shown to a circular booth that overlooks the dancefloor below. Golden buckets with champagne bottles cover the table, as well as glasses and lines of tequila shots already poured.
“This is amazing!” Marley claps her hands excitedly, then makes quick work of passing around the shots. Reid accepts one with a mild look of disgust.
I stand on my tiptoes, speaking into his ear, “Not a tequila guy?”
He wraps a strong arm around me as I teeter. The contact sends my skin ablaze. “No,” he grumbles. “Not particularly. Too old for it.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re twenty-eight, not eighty.”
He pinches my hip in response.
“To the birthday girl!” Marley calls out, and everyone raises their shots in the air, toasting to Nicole, before shooting them back. The liquor burns a path down my throat and settles warm and heavy at the top of my stomach, causing me to shiver in Reid’s hold.
He doesn’t react to the shot, but a drop clings to his bottom lip. Without a thought to the curious eyes around us, I once again stand on my tiptoes, bringing our chests together, and lick the drop away.
Reid’s grip tightens around me and his eyes flame in the low lighting. I seal my lips over his in a quick kiss before turning back to my friends.
Sara and Marley are staring at us, a mix of glee and trepidation. I know they’re just worried about me getting my heart broken. Hell, I am too.
But I’m already in too deep. I have to just embrace the free fall at this point.
“You didn’t have any friends you wanted to invite outtonight? Maybe any of those fellow musicians?” Nicole gives Reid a sly smile.
He’s unamused as he answers flatly, “They’re all taken.” I squeeze his thigh in warning and his face softens faintly. “One of them is engaged and the other two might as well be, so sorry, can’t help you out there.”
Nicole pouts but quickly recovers as she scans the upper level that’s loaded with men. In her sparkly, short dress and red lips, she’s not going to have a single issue finding someone to keep her company tonight.
Reid and I sit down at one end of the curved leather couch. My bare thigh, exposed from the high cut of my dress, brushes against his dark jean-covered thigh. The fabric is rough, just like him.
A cocktail waitress comes over and pours champagne for everyone. I accept a glass, but Reid waves it away.
“Can I get you something else to drink?” she asks.
“I’m good, thanks.”
She continues to pass around glasses as I ask him, “You’re done drinking for the night?”
He shrugs and scans the club. “I’m good for right now. Might have something more in a little bit.”
“It might help take the edge off for you,” I tease, fully aware that a night out with a group of girls is probably not his ideal kind of night.
“That’s exactly why I don’t want to have anymore,” he says. It takes a minute, but then it clicks for me.
