Chapter Four
Esme
“Thanks for inviting me out. I haven’t had a girls’ night since…well, a very long time,” I told the three women that were sitting around a table with me at Club V. The music was pumping, and the drinks were flowing.
“Sometimes we just need to get away from all the testosterone in headquarters,” Rose said with a grin, and I smiled back. She and I were kindred spirits, sweet, but underneath lay a warrior’s heart. I’d yet to find mine, but I could feel the beast inside me rumbling. Lilith and Echo nodded, and I held out my shot for a toast. They raised their lemon drops, and I looked into their eyes.
“Here’s to bringing some more tits into the Hero Society!” I laughed and downed my drink. Gross. Drinking was not my thing, but I was taking one for the team tonight.
They all cheered and drank their shots in unison.
I was tired from working the past few days without too much sleep, but I was ready to enjoy my night with the girls. It made my day when Rose suggested we all go out.
Echo looked different tonight—a positive change I’d seen in her since she caught Dr. Nathan. The guy had always creeped me out, I tried to stay away from that section of the hospital if I could. She seemed freer, like she could be happy for once, and I was glad.
Lilith was the woman I always wished I could be. Brazen, smart, and totally confident. Whatever she wanted, she went for. She didn’t hold back. She also had a gift for making any woman around her feel beautiful, which I completely appreciated.
Everyone looked beautiful tonight. Rose was wearing a pretty sweater dress and knee-high boots. Echo wore her signature look of black jeans, boots, and a shirt with the leather jacket, but it still looked hot on her. Always did. Lilith was wearing boots as well, joined with high-waisted shorts and a crop top. It was snowing outside, and seemed impervious to the cold.
I was wearing my only pair of skinny jeans, with black boots and a skintight sweater that came up to my collarbone but then dipped around my neck and plunged to my lower back. I bought it years ago, thinking I’d be brave and wear it out on a date, but I hadn’t been on a date since before that purchase. That was a depressing thought.
“I miss sex.” I voiced my thoughts, and the girls looked at me, puzzled expressions on their faces.
“When was the last time you got some?” Lilith asked, and the others waited for my answer.
My head dropped to the table in shame as I told them.
“One year, eight months, and sixteen days.”
All three of them groaned, and Rose reached over to rub my back in comfort.
“I was a virgin until Draco,” she said, and I looked up in surprise. I wouldn’t have guessed that. She kept going with her story, explaining that with her powers, she just didn’t trust anyone until him. He was the only one she wanted, and he didn’t let her down. Every time they were around each other it was like seeing two halves of a soul. They were magnetic.
Lilith gave me her story next, then Echo. I felt bad having brought up that I hadn’t had sex in a while, when each of these ladies until recently had never had sex or had horrible experiences beforehand.
“I always wanted that kind of love you read in old legends, the kind of love that never dies. So, I kissed a bunch of frogs, and all I got was lots of heartache and disappointment. I’ve just been working too much to even attempt something now.” I ordered another shot and quickly swallowed it down once it hit the table.
“You should get drunk and have wild sex tonight,” Echo commented, and Lilith looked at her like she just solved the mystery of life. Her squeal was loud, and she clapped her hands together in excitement.
“Yes! Tonight’s mission: get Esme drunk so she lets that cute-girl layer melt off and the sexy siren come out to play!” Her excitement was making me smile, and I wished I could do as she said, but I still had reservations. I wasn’t a one-night type of girl.
“Honestly, with everything going on in the world, you might as well do what you want and live it up. Who knows when it will be our last day?” Rose shrugged and ordered another drink for herself. I studied her, soaking in her words because they were the words I tried to live by since my brother died. I had been living my life to a point, but I was still hiding. I had wished moments before that I could be like Lilith, because she just did what she wanted that made her happy—but now was my time.
“Screw it. Live hard, love strong. Let’s do this!”
We drank, we laughed, and let whatever worries we had go for one short night.
Lilith convinced me to go into her favorite bird cage and dance my heart out. I did it, and I felt the opposite of caged—I felt free.
Rose was all giggly as she made Echo dance with her to a famous pop song about being twenty-two. Echo smiled and let go, which was hard for her, though alcohol probably helped. It was sure as shit helping me let my good girl go, and allow whatever hot mess I was inside out to have some fun. I wasn’t even thinking about men as I danced to the beat, purely enjoying myself.
I left the cage for a bathroom break, and when I came back, the girls were dancing together. I watched them and felt the bonds of sisterhood grow between us. I was glad I decided to join them, not just because of their cause to help people, but because they were a family, and one I wanted to be a part of.
My hips started swaying to the beat as I moved toward them, but then hands loosely wrapped themselves around my hips and pulled me back against a hard torso. I closed my eyes, feeling myself relax, letting my hands reach up to touch the person behind me. I didn’t care who I was with, but I knew for certain that I was indeed dancing with a man. And if my hands were feeling things correctly, a man with a fantastic body.
His hips moved with mine, grinding in unison as if there were no clothes between us. I hadn’t really considered getting laid, even though the girls had decided it was going to be my goal for the night, but I was thinking about it now.
Whoever I was dancing with was sexy as hell, and the way he moved against me, his hand keeping me flush to his body was turning me on like nothing else. A memory flashed in my head of the last time I was turned on this much, and I knew if I hadn’t been completely drunk I would have realized who this was much sooner. There was only one person who made me feel like this.
