Page 15 of Aria

I slunk down into my seat, embarrassed, while Devon gave me a reassuring squeeze.

"I'll go," Lisa announced. She sat up straight, her eyes twinkling. "I've never had a threesome."

"Boring," Julia dismissed, taking an extra big swig. Noah followed.

To everyone's surprise, I took a quick sip.

Noah choked and sputtered on his beer. "Are you serious?" He gazed at me with stunned curiosity.Julia also looked astounded.

"My ex was very persuasive," I explained, my tone low and unreadable. I didn't go into further detail—they didn’t need to know thatpersuasivewas code forforced. "Who's next?"

"Shit, I'll go," Noah said. "I've never been pregnant."

The group laughed and nobody drank.

"I've never done hard drugs,” Devon said.

Noah drank.

"I've never cheated," Lisa stated.

Julia drank, then said, "I've never been in love."

Both Noah and I took a sip.

I raised an eyebrow at the man on my right."You? In love?" I was incredulous with my query, as if he'd just announced he was a nuclear physicist at NASA. Acknowledging the rudeness of my implication, I softened the blow. "I mean… you just don't seem like the romantic type."

Or tried to, anyway.

Noah scoffed at me. "Love isn’t always rainbows and roses, Water Girl." He chugged down the rest of his beer with vigor and tossed the empty bottle into the trash. "And, what, you don't think I look lovable?"

I pretended to think hard about the question, my lips thinning. "You probably don't want me to answer that."

"Touché," he said flatly.

"Noah is just a big, giant teddy bear," Devon said, reaching behind me and smacking his friend on the back. "Aren't you, Hayes?"

Noah looked less than amused. "I've never killed anyone," he muttered, reaching for another beer. "Yet."

Laughter filled the limo.I noticed that Noah was not sharing in the mirth, and I wondered if I'd hit a nerve with my comment about love.It was true, though—I couldn't picture Noah in love with another human being.He was crude and arrogant, and even his friendship with Devon surprised me. They were so…different.

As the limo pulled up to the bar, I glanced up at Devon, my heart racing at the thought of being Devon Sawyer’s date for the evening. My eyes shifted to Noah who was nursing another beer, his foot tapping against the floor of the limo. I squinted my eyes.

I knew that look.

Noah had the look of someone who’d suffered a broken heart.

CHAPTERFOUR

NOAH

Itrailed behind the group as they entered the bar through the back entrance, sucking on my cigarette and blowing the smoke out into the early spring air.My eyes assessed the three women in front of me, landing on the blonde-haired nuisance who'd stolen my bandmate's heart.

Chelsie was an obnoxiously beautiful girl—she must have known that fact, as it was apparent to anyone who had eyes. Yet she carried herself in a modest, humble way with troves of nervous energy and mysterious secrets hiding behind her pretty features. I decided that what she lacked in confidence, she made up for in fire and sass.I couldn’t believe it when the petite waitress had come at me with her defenses up, claws sharpened, looking for a fight.The girl had been burned before, that much was obvious.

I recognized a broken heart when I saw one.

And being the asshole that I was, I had no problem playing into her insecurities.

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