Page 2 of Wild Tonic
It wasn’t long before Nate decided he made the right decision.
The room where the wedding reception was being held was tastefully decorated in golds and creams, with pale pink and white flowers. The circular tables, that would once have been organised with place names and settings, were artfully untidy, half full glasses and the remains of the coffee and petit fours course littered the crisp white tablecloths. A space had been cleared at one end of the room for dancing. Nate watched the dancers, where the bride and groom were whipping up a storm with assorted family and friends.
His mystery woman smiled at him. “What’s your name?”
For a moment, Nate considered playing the lying game. In the past, he and Alik had both pretended to be each other when the moment suited. Nate cast a glance around the room. He doubted whether any of the wedding guests would have even heard of Blood Stone Riot, let alone know who he was. There seemed little point in hiding his true identity.
“I’m Nate. And you are?”
“Clementine, although my friends call me Clem.”
“So I can call you…?”
The blonde grinned. “Clem.” She grabbed his hand again and led him towards the dance floor to join the others, just as the band switched to a slow number.
Clem moved in close to him. They’d barely had any sort of conversation and here she was, pushing herself against him, although he couldn’t say her body felt bad pressed against his. Maybe she did know who he was after all. Instinctively, he drew away, freezing a little.
As if sensing his discomfort, Clem pulled back.
“Ooh that’s embarrassing.” She smiled and shook her head, her blonde waves bouncing under the lights. “Let’s go and get another drink instead.”
She led him in a different direction from the bar and into one of the adjoining rooms. This one was empty except for tables and chairs stacked up against the wall. The music from the main room could still be heard, albeit somewhat quieter. There was, however, a long bar down one side, with pretty much every kind of drink that Nate could think of.
“Are we meant to be in here?”
Clem shrugged. “I’m pretty sure Tim’s family have the whole hotel for the night, so yeah.” She lifted herself up onto the bar, her shapely legs dangling in front of her and Nate realised she was still barefoot. “We’ve got the whole place to ourselves. What do you want to drink?”
As Nate scanned the bottles, Clem swung herself over the wooden bar top. She helped herself to a bottle of tequila and unscrewed the lid, sipping directly from the bottle.
His mouth curved into a smile. Tequila was his favourite.
She passed it to Nate and got back up on the bar, twirling and dancing across its top. Nate watched her enjoyment, trying to remember the last time he felt so carefree.
He couldn’t.
He took a huge slug of the tequila, wondering how Clem had known it was one of his weaknesses. Clem was definitely not Poppy nor Rach. His mind was telling him not to go there. It seemed his heart and dick had other ideas. He reached up and took her hand, holding it as she skipped up and down, giving her the bottle every now and again. The longer they continued, the more unsteady on her feet she got. As she reached the end of the bar, Clem span round, stumbled and fell right into Nate’s arms.
“I’m so sorry!” Her speech was slurred.
Nate couldn’t help but smile. She was light as a feather, her blonde hair all mussed up. “Don’t worry about it.”
Clem looked up at him, her eyes half closing. “Thank you for saving me. I could have fallen and hurt myself.”
“Think of me as your knight in shining armour.” Nate leant forward, instinctively moving towards her lips.
As he was about to kiss her, the door burst open.
“Clem! There you are!” A tall brunette, dressed identically to Clem, entered the room. “We wondered where you’d gone. They’re just about to start serving bacon butties.”
Clem slid out of his arms and reached into his pocket for his phone. She nestled in next to him and snapped a couple of pictures of the two of them and then tapped out a text message, sending the shots to that number. “That’s my number if you fancy seeing me again.”
“But I don’t live in Leeds.”
She flashed him a wide smile. “Neither do I.” She swept out of the room followed by her companion, with a swish of her lemon skirt, not looking back.
Nate stared after her.That sass.He knew he would see her again.
Chapter Two
