They stepped into the bar, and Harlow knewthis felt different withouther other girls. She hadn’t talked to Ava, Abriana, Raven,or Larissa since Big Dick had entered the bakery, and, well, theyhad all known what happened next, and there was no point inrehashing it.
“Oh, wow,” Hailey said. “This isamazing.”
Harlow didn’t quite know what made the baramazing, but she grabbed Hailey’shand and pulled her to the bar.
“What do you want?” Harlow asked.
“Shots.”
Clearly, Hailey hadn’t thought about who wasgoing to drive. Harlow wasn’t in the mood to drink, but it wasbetter than wallowing in self-pity. The barman served them a coupleof shots, and down they went.
Hailey came close to spitting hers out,while Harlow didn’t mind the burn. In a weird sense, it did makeher feel … alive. No, that wasn’t right. It didn’t make her feelanything. Spending time with Hailey helped her forgeteverything.
“Another,” Harlow said.
They had another shot lined up and Haileydowned her second and then slapped her palm on the table.
“Wow! I don’t think it’s supposed to do that.”
Harlow laughed, but then a third shotcame, and she knew after that one, they would dance. She wasn’t oneto handle alcohol or even spirits, so she would have to paceHailey. The other woman was clearly along for the ride. With thethird shot down, Harlow grabbed Hailey’s hand, and together theywalked and shimmied onto the dance floor.
Harlow was quite happy to swing her hips.Even at three shots, she was starting to feel the effects of thealcohol. She’d drank even more than she had on her birthday, andshe knew how that ended up.
People cleared them a space on the dancefloor, and they held hands, just swaying from side toside, the occasionalswing of the hip.
Hailey laughed. “Maybe now is a good time totell you that I can’t dance. I have never been out dancing, andthis is certainly a first for me.”
Harlow found that to be the funniest thing. It didn’t stop themfrom enjoying themselves. Harlow ignored everyone else, closed hereyes, and just let the music take over. It was loud, with a thickheavy beat, and as long as she didn’t think too hard, she was ableto forget everything else. That was all she wanted to do. Ignoreeverything and focus on herself, on the here and now. She could dothat.
Harlow didn’t need to think about howlonely she was at night. How in the short time they were together,she had come to love Hunter’s scent as he wrapped his arms around her. Or the feel ofhis lips brushing across her skin.
None of that mattered right now.
She felt tears prickle her eyes, but sheignored it.
“Fuck me, you’re sexy,” the deep timbre voice had Harlowtensing.
Before she could stop it, an arm was wrappedaround her waist, and she was in the arms of a total stranger. Ahandsome total stranger, but a stranger nonetheless.
“I didn’t give you permission.”
She put her hands on his chest and triedto push him away, but hewasn’t having it.
“You look like a woman who needs somecompany.”
Harlow glanced behind her and saw thatHailey had someone else dancing with her.
“Don’t worry about her.She’s going to be takencare of.”
She glared at him. “Let me go.”
“Why? Do you really want me to let you go?”he asked.
Harlow didn’t like this. There was dancingand then there was just plain rude and invasive.
“Come on, don’t you want to dance withme? I’m not a badguy.”
All her alarm bells were ringing. Reachingdown, she grabbedhisballs in her hand, and she wasn’t nice about it. Hegasped.