“THANK HOTTIE MCTOTTIE!” Nikki grinned.
“Huh?” I grunted, confused.
“He knew you didn’t feel comfortable about going out tonight, and he thought it might cheer you up to see us here.”
I looked across the bar to find him ambling cockily toward me, leaving a trail of damp knickers in his wake.
“Look at your face,” he told me. “You’ve got the biggest grin I’ve ever seen.”
“How? I mean how did you even know who they were, and how to get a hold of them?” I asked, in stunned amazement.
“It wasn’t hard, Em. A couple of the guys from the party knew Nikki and gave me her number. I called her from the gym and invited her and a few of your friends out.”
I bit the inside of my cheek to stop myself from grinning any wider. Could this guy be any sweeter? He handed out drinks to everyone, and I looked around at my two very different groups of friends.
Albie and Mac seemed to have struck up a conversation, but Ben, Ryan, and Lauren stood around awkwardly, clearly out of their element. Well, at least now I wouldn’t be the only one.
“Are you sure you’re okay with them being here?” I asked warily. He smiled back then manoeuvred me so that I was standing in front of him. As we looked out over the club, he leaned down to speak to me, and I felt his breath warm against my ear.
“I wouldn’t have invited them if I wasn’t. Having them here helps you relax a bit, so it’s all good. As long as that kid keeps his hands off you tonight so I don’t need to fuck him up.” He nodded over toward Albie, and I couldn’t believe that he was still bothered about him looking after me at the party. I rolled my eyes and felt him chuckle behind me.
“I know you’re rolling your eyes at me, but I’m serious.”
Kieran ambled over without the slut. “Hey guys. Aren’t you going to introduce us to your friends, Em?”
At no point whilst saying this did he take his eyes off Nikki. If Ryan wasn’t careful, he’d have some competition. Most of the guys from the gym had wandered over to us, so I introduced them all.
“I’m thinking shots for the birthday boy. Anyone up for it?” Tommy piped up, rubbing his hands together mischievously. Tommy was determined to get poor Mac trashed, but he went along with everything in that laidback, mildly amused manner of his.
“I’m in,” Nikki volunteered. Ryan groaned, knowing what kind of night he was in for if Nikki was starting on the shots this early. Nearly all of the guys agreed to join in except for O’Connell, and nobody dared call him out over it. If O’Connell said that he wasn’t doing something, you didn’t argue. I have no doubt that all the boys at the gym respected what he was trying to do.
“Don’t worry, peaches. Tonight I PROMISE to look after you,” Nikki reassured me.
“Really!” I answered, with a raised eyebrow and more than a pinch of scepticism. Last time we partied, she hadn’t even managed to stay in the same room as me.
“Why does she need looking after?” Kieran asked.
“She’d never had an alcoholic drink until the last party we went to, and I’m pretty sure she’s never drunk anything other than beer before.”
Honestly! There really wasn’t any point in my being part of this conversation, when they talked about me as though I wasn’t there.
“Holy shit, Em! Is she fucking with me?”
“I’m serious. Tell him, Em!” Nikki retorted.
I rolled my eyes again at the pair of them. Was my abstinence really that much of a big deal? O’Connell chuckled as though he wasn’t surprised but found the floorshow amusing.
“Em, drink as much or as little as you like. Just let your hair down and have fun. I’ve got your back.”
“Hell, yeah, she’s having fun!” Tommy piped up, having returned from the bar. He passed the shot to me and handed the rest to everyone except O’Connell.
“If you’re gonna drink it, don’t smell it or sip it, just knock it back in one,” O’Connell advised.
Nodding, I watched as Tommy held up his shot glass in a toast.
“To Mac. May I never be as old as you look. Happy Birthday, brother.”
I lifted my shot glass to clink against everyone else’s, then put it to my lips, and as O’Connell recommended, knocked it back in one. I coughed fiercely as the sting hit the back of my throat, and my eyes watered.
“Holy shit! That’s like drinking lighter fluid,” I gasped between coughs. The whole group burst out laughing and even O’Connell struggled not to join them.
“Here. Drink a bit of this. It will take the burn away,” Nikki told me as she passed me her beer. I might not be the biggest fan of beer in the world, but the sour, foul smelling beverage was better than this horrible burn.
“Yuck. Why would anyone do that twice?”
“You’ll find out, baby girl,” assured Kieran.
“Ohh. I love this song. Let’s dance,” screamed Nikki as she grabbed my hand and dragged me to the dance floor.
“Wait for me,” shouted Tommy.
“Tommy, you’re worse than a fucking girl, I swear.” Kieran shook his head and laughed. I hadn’t danced since I was little, and one shot and a swig of beer wasn’t nearly enough Dutch courage. But watching Tommy shake his arse all the way to the dance floor was the funniest thing I think I’d ever seen. Nikki and I laughed so hard, we literally doubled over. He didn’t stop once he started dancing, either. Throwing shapes and moving around like some seventies disco diva, he did it all with a perfectly straight face. I looked up at the DJ booth to see Kieran having a word with the DJ. When he started smirking and shaking his head, I knew that he was up to something. Moments later, the opening bars to “Raining Men” by the Weather Girls sounded out across the club, and the dance floor erupted. Tommy stopped, looked at Nikki and me, grinned, then went absolutely nuts. This was definitely his party trick. I’d never have guessed, but it was attracting women like magnets, and a huge group of girls soon surrounded us. Laughing together, we threw ourselves into the mix. Chucking our limbs around and copying Tommy’s moves, I was having so much fun that I forgot to worry about Frank and anyone else who might be around me. I let go of everything and became caught up in the sheer joy of the moment. I couldn’t remember a time when I’d had so much fun. O’Connell promised me that he had my back, and I had absolute faith in him. I didn’t need a white knight to swoop in and save me from my crappy life. I was just fine saving myself. Besides, O’Connell wasn’t a knight. He was the battle-scarred dragon that would lay waste to armies to protect me. This mismatched band of people, educated and uneducated, fighters and pacifists, were slowly becoming the family that I’d never had. With them around me, I was young and happy, and for the first time in my life, carefree.
Eventually, the diva songs morphed into something a little edgier and the dance floor became crowded. I couldn’t see O’Connell or the other guys, but I knew that they were out there somewhere, keeping an eye on me. A couple of guys, who looked like college students, had been dancing near us for a while. One of them leant down next to me to speak over the loud music.
“Do you know what time it is?” he asked.
I clearly wasn’t wearing a watch or holding a purse, so I frowned as I tried to work out why he thought I’d know. A shiver ran down my spine as strong, big hands skimmed my hips.
“What do you want?” O’Connell asked this guy from behind me.
“Chill out. I was just asking her for the time.” The guy smiled, though he looked very nervous. It wasn’t hard to work out why. I could feel the anger radiating from O’Connell like heat.
“It’s time for you to fuck off. Right. Now,” he added, unnecessarily.
The guy was already moving off the dance floor, looking like he was going to piss himself at any second. I turned around to face O’Connell.
“That was rude. He was only after the time!” I lectured.
He laughed, as he tightened his hold on me. I lay my hands against his chest, trying not to show him how hot his possessiveness made me.
“We’ve been watching those arseholes eye fuck you and Nikki for ten minutes. I think I deserve a kiss for showing enough restraint to warn him first instead of just walking over and punching him in the face.”
“Really?” I exclaimed, pondering whether or not that was a good enough excuse for a platonic kiss.
When Nikki announced that it was time for shots again, I was reluctant to let him go, but desperately in need of another drink. Wanting anything that would quench my thirst, I threw back the shot that Kieran passed me and chased it again with a beer. O’Connell looked at me with an unfathomable expression, probably worried that I couldn’t handle the drink.
A couple of hours, and countless dances later, I’d lost track of how many drinks we’d had, and my pleasant buzz now had me feeling a bit sick and dizzy. Mac and Albie were still happily shooting the breeze as they had been all night. Nikki was on the dance floor with Kieran, which meant that Ryan stood, beer in hand, staring daggers at the both of them. I’d seen Tommy a while back sucking face with some random girl, who sat in his lap as the others milled around. My ongoing euphoria died a death when I spotted Katrina by the bar, looking at me like road kill she’d like to reverse back over. Right then, I lost my footing and to my mortification, realised that I was going to face plant right at her feet. As I fell, strong hands lifted me like I was weightless, just long enough for me to regain my footing. I turned around clumsily in O’Connell’s arms, and no longer caring about Katrina, kissed him full on the lips. This gorgeous, sexy, lethal man could have as many Katrinas as he wanted, but he’d chosen me. Right now, as drunk as I was, I couldn’t see a reason for not showing him how happy that made me. His firm lips moulded to mine in a way so natural and powerful that it was addictive. Every breath made me crave him even more. His kiss ramped up every one of my senses until all I could smell was the whisper of his aftershave and the uniquely addictive scent of his skin. All I could hear was the rasp of our breathing as we struggled to take in as much oxygen as possible between kisses. All I could feel was the hard strength of his muscles tensing as he hauled me against him, and the gentle shiver that ran through his body when I stroked the soft skin at his lower back. He broke away from the kiss to whisper in my ear.
“Fuck, sunshine. You have no idea how much willpower I’m exercising by not wrapping your legs around my waist and carrying you out of here right now.”
Just the idea of wrapping myself around his body filled me with lust. Alcohol had stripped me of all inhibitions, and I stared at him longingly, silently willing him to do it. He looked pained as he shook his head.
“No,” he said firmly, and my heart sank at his blatant rejection. The great Cormac O’Connell, who’d fucked countless women, was turning me down. He tilted my chin up with his finger until I met his eyes.
“I take you out now with you wrapped around my waist, and I’m fucking you. Hard. I don’t want that for us. Our first time together is something we won’t ever forget, and I have some big plans for us. So stop raining on my parade. You deserve all that romantic shit, but I’m so hard it’s getting painful. So, go easy on me, baby, okay?”
Well, wasn’t that the most romantic thing I’d ever heard? O’Connell had made me feel sexy, loved, and wanted all in the same speech as rejecting me. My huge, drunken, sloppy grin told him just how cute I thought that was. I leant up on my tiptoes and reached my lips up to his ear. Thinking that I was trying to talk to him, he bent his head toward me. Feeling bold and brave, I sucked the lobe of his ear gently between my lips and nipped it lightly before I answered him.
“Promise me a few more kisses tonight, and I promise to stop trying to wrap myself around you like a pretzel.”
He groaned as he touched his forehead to mine.
“A pretzel? Fuck, baby, you really are gonna make me come in my jeans. You have no idea how sexy you are, do you?”
I shook my head vigorously as though the question wasn’t rhetorical, and O’Connell kissed me quickly on the lips.
“Come on. Let’s get some water in you.”
After drinking at least two pints of water, I felt a pair of floppy arms wrap around my neck.
“See. I soooo promised to take care of you, didn’t I?” If I was drunk, then Nikki was completely plastered. Her idea of looking after someone and mine were wildly different, but there was no doubt that my first choice for a friend had been a brilliant one. Nikki was one of the kindest, most generous people that I’d ever met. She leant me clothes, worried about me, and cared enough to turn up tonight with practically no notice. If she was a little unreliable when drunk, well, it wasn’t the worse fault to have. I only hoped that given time I could be as good a friend to her as she’d already been to me.
“Do you know that I’m a teensy bit drunk,” she told me very matter-of-factly, as she held up her thumb and index finger slightly apart to indicate just how fractionally drunk she was.
“Do you know, I think I might be a bit, too,” I admitted.
At this point, our arms were wrapped around each other in solidarity, as we struggled to hold each other up. O’Connell and Kieran looked amused, but Ryan was pissed.
“What shall we do now, shots or dancing?” she asked me. “My vote’s on shots,” she decided for us, as she pulled me toward the bar.
“Who wants a shot?” she shouted to everyone. Tommy didn’t once detach his lips from his slut, but lifted one hand off her tit and raised it in the air to show that he was part of the round. I held my hand up as well and waved it enthusiastically like a little kid, afraid that she’d miss me even though I stood right next to her.
“I’m good, thanks, sweetheart,” Mac answered.
“Me, too,” agreed Albie, shaking his blond head no.
“Well, count me in, baby,” Kieran hollered, looking at Nikki dangerously.
“Arsehat?” Nikki asked Ryan.
“For fuck’s sake, Nikki. I have a name, use it!” he grumbled. She rolled her eyes at him.
“Okay, don’t get your knickers in a knot.”
“Don’t you think you’ve had enough?” he asked her.
“Who are you, my mum? Do you want a shot or not?”
“Fine!” he all but screamed at her.
O’Connell and Kieran grinned openly at the pair of them. You could cut the sexual tension between them with a knife. It was only a matter of time before they either kissed or killed each other. Nikki brought the tray of shots over and handed them out. Tapping our glasses together, we threw them back like pros. I fought the shiver that ran through me as the liquid hit the back of my throat.
“This has been such an awesome night. Thanks for inviting me, Con,” Nikki screeched at O’Connell, while squeezing me like a rag doll. I could feel the bile rising up in my throat as she did it.
“No problem, Nikki. It’s been pretty cool hanging out with some of Em’s friends. We should do it again sometime,” he answered.
Everyone except Ryan seemed pleased at the suggestion. I did feel a little sorry for him. Having his masculinity threatened by all these God-like men might not have been so bad if Nikki was acting a little nicer toward him. Right now, though, I had bigger things to worry about, as the churning in my stomach seemed to get worse.
“O’Connell?” I whispered, tugging gently on his shirt as I clutched my stomach with the other hand. “I don’t feel well.”
“What’s wrong, baby?” he asked with concern.
I opened my mouth to answer him when my stomach rolled over. Losing all control, I vomited down the front of his shirt.