Page 42 of Sully

To be held.

To be moving with him.

I just relaxed into him, letting my cheek press to his chest.

And we just moved.

Even as one song switched to another.

Finally, I lifted my head from his chest, glancing up at him, knowing my interest was likely written all over my face.

Sully’s gaze went from my eyes to my lips, then up again.

And I thought maybe—just maybe—he might lean down, press his lips to mine, make all my fantasies from the shower earlier come true.

But it was right then that there was a chorus of female voices in the common room.

“Sull, I’m all for drinking at midnight, but what the fuck is a ‘duster,’ and why did I need—” Layna’s voice called, then stopped short as Sully and I broke away from each other as she moved into the doorway. “Oh,” she said, looking at the both of us. “It’s a robe. You know, you could have just said a robe,” she declared.

“Don’t worry, I got you covered,” another woman said, appearing behind Layna wearing her own midnight blue duster covered in golden moons and stars, but holding another deep red one fringed in black lace for Layna. “Hi! You must be Bonnie,” the pretty, peppy blonde said, offering me a megawatt smile. “I’m Gracie.”

“Hi,” I said, giving her a smile too. And with the tequila still rushing through my veins, it was surprisingly easy to stay calm in the face of not one, but several, interlopers.

“I, uh, didn’t have a duster either,” another voice said, and Gracie moved aside to let a pretty dark-haired woman with warm golden skin move into the kitchen. “So, I went with a normal robe,” she added. Sure enough, she was wrapped in a big, fluffy lilac robe. It didn’t escape me that there was a little paperback sticking out of one of the pockets.

“This is Luna,” Gracie introduced. “Luna, Bonnie.”

“Layna, tequila,” Layna introduced herself to the bottle, giving it a kiss. “We meet again, old friend.”

“You get to have two drinks,” Gracie warned. “Last time you had more than that, I was picking up your clothes all down the road. And just barely got to you before you tossed off your bra.”

I couldn’t help but smile at that. And the rest of the banter between these three women who were clearly a tight-knit friend group.

I was so distracted by their dynamic that I almost missed the way Sully was standing right beside me, our bodies still close, his hand still at my hip.

“Round two?” Layna asked me and Sully, but she was already sloshing the frozen drink into our glasses before we could respond.

“Don’t let them pressure you,” Sully said, his lips near my ear, making my belly flip-flop. “You can just sip this one for the rest of the night if you want.”

“Okay,” I agreed.

Then Layna was lifting her glass, prompting us all to do the same. “To questionable life choices and the margaritas that make them seem brilliant!”

“I’ll drink to that,” Sully agreed, taking a sip of his drink.

“Your turn,” Layna said, looking at Gracie.

Oh.

Was this some sort of drinking tradition I didn’t know about? Did everyone have to come up with a toast?

Damnit.

My brain wasn’t going as quick as it usually would. That tequila was thick and sticky in my head.

“To the women before us, the magic within us, and the tequila in front of us,” Gracie declared.

“Oooh, good one!” Layna cheered as she raised her glass. “Luna?”

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