Page 77 of Veil of Lies

“Good?” she asked with a grin.

“Delicious!” OK, so it was a poor choice. Maybe next time I’d try something a little less… weird. I knew I should have picked the White Lady. It had raspberries in it. One of my five-a-day and healthy as fuck.

Chapter 62

Stella

I had to hand it to Harley. The guy knew how to have fun. Five cocktails in and I was feeling a lot less anxious. Both he and Quinn had refused to let me pay for any drinks, which was just as well given how expensive they were. I’d glanced at the menu on a huge chalk board above the bar as we passed by. The prices were extortionate, although not surprising given we were in the heart of Manhattan.

“Another drink?” Harley asked with a grin.

“Are you trying to get me drunk?” I asked, slurring my words a little. Shit, it was too late. My head would be hurting in the morning.

“Think that ship’s sailed,” he laughed. “I’ll get you a glass of water. Don’t want you puking in the Uber back to our hotel.”

“No, bad idea,” I concurred. “Puking is horrible.” Just the thought of puking made me want to puke. Ugh. I leaned against Quinn and inhaled his delicious scent. God, he smelled amazing, like pine trees after a storm. Someone should bottle it. They’d make a fortune.

Quinn slid his arm around my waist and pulled me close.

“Don’t worry, we’ll look after you,” he murmured in my ear.

I believed him too. I’d never felt unsafe with Harley or Quinn. Even though I’d seen how uncompromising and cutting Harley could be when someone pissed him off, he had always been sweet with me. He had a heart made from gooey marshmallow.

The image of Harley with a gooey marshmallow heart made me giggle a bit, until I looked up and saw some chick hitting on him at the bar. A sharp growl rose from my chest and Quinn startled in surprise.

Then he saw what I was looking at and chuckled. “Someone’s jealous.”

Harley was ignoring the woman, but she wasn’t taking the hint. As I watched, she cupped his bicep with one hand and twirled her hair with the other.

Fucking bitch!

Without examining my motivation too much, I shot up out of the booth and stormed over to the bar, elbowing people out of the way in the process and attracting several hostile looks.

By the time I reached Harley, he looked deeply irritated by the woman. Despite his obvious disinterest, she was still trying to get his attention. I couldn’t work out whether she was too dumb or too drunk to spot when a guy wasn’t into her, but I’d had enough of watching her paw my man.

He was all mine.

“Back off, bitch,” I snarled, shoving her to one side. She huffed in surprise and tossed her bleached blond hair, looking very much like she was about to argue.

Thankfully a distraction came in the form of the bartender, who produced our drinks and looked askance at her, obviously waiting to see if she had an order. She was too busy scowling at me to say anything, so he shrugged and moved on to the next customer.

“Next time, if a guy isn’t interested, drop it. You’d be the first to cry rape if some guy hit on you and didn’t take no for an answer.”

She looked pissed but took a step back, casting a cautious eye in Harley’s direction, presumably to make sure he really wasn’t playing hard to get.

“I’m taken,” he clarified, a tray of drinks in one hand and me in the other.

Once back at our table, he pulled me into his lap. “Jealousy looks good on you, babe.”

“Not jealous at all,” I huffed, but I wasn’t fooling him or anyone. Yeah, I had staked my claim. Oh, I was so fucked.

Chapter 63

Quinn

Watching drunk Stella was both amusing and frustrating. It had been obvious from the second cocktail that she had very little tolerance for alcohol, which was why we had cut her off fairly quickly. She was now happy but thankfully hadn’t reached the falling-over, morose drunk stage.

The alcohol had loosened her inhibitions and lifted some of the funk she’d been in all afternoon. The problem I had was I wished it was my lap she was sitting on. Sadly, it seemed I was destined to play the third wheel tonight, despite the sizzling sexual tension simmering between us.

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