Page 43 of David

“I wouldn’t mind showing you how great I can be for you tonight.”

I jerk my hand back, creeped out, before making faces at Chloe, who can’t stop laughing.

Her reaction might only pour gasoline on the fire.

Right now, these dudes seem laid back, but that can change if she can’t stop being the annoying chatterbox she usually is.

They could get pissed.

To prevent that from happening, I grab her by the elbow and tilt my chin to her drink.

“Pick it up, and let’s go.”

Like any tipsy person with a smidgen of willpower left in them, she fights me, laughing.

I eventually convince her to leave the booth, yet only after apologizing to the two men and making sure they’re not following us downstairs.

Moments later, I shove her gently into a bar stool and ask the bartender to bring us two glasses of ice–cold water.

“Rough night?” he says, sliding two glasses of water across the counter.

Chloe’s elbows are propped on the counter, her head leaning toward her hands as she looks at us with a funny expression on her face.

“Please leave him alone,” I say.

The bartender smiles at me, gets the message, and moves away.

“You are horrible. Here, drink this,” I say, pushing her cocktail to the side and the glass of water closer.

Surprisingly, she complies.

I drink the refreshing water and instantly feel much better.

“I’m sorry,” she drawls.

“Oh. Please don’t. We came here to get wasted and possibly laid. We’ve accomplished one of the two.”

“Speaking of getting laid,” she says as I set my water down.

Intrigued by the hint of soberness in her voice, I shift my eyes to her.

She stares at someone behind me.

“Isn’t that Klaus?” she murmurs, narrowing her eyes at someone in the distance.

“What?”

She partly twists in her seat and points to someone across the dance floor.

“It’s him, isn’t it. Tall, lanky, wearing reading glasses… Is that…?”

This time, she straightens and shifts all the way as if her eyes work better if she faces Klaus and the woman walking next to him.

I swallow the rest of my drink first.

“That’s my replacement,” I say dryly.

“The woman you hand him down to.”

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