Page 11 of Bearing Secrets
“Wait?” She groaned. “We never said we were doing shots!”
“If you’re finding a husband, you’re gonna need some courage, woman. I know you better than that!” Loren grinned wildly.
“What? I thought we had agreed that was too ridiculous!” She sniffed at the drink, recoiling at the powerful scent of cinnamon. “Fireball? Seriously? What the fuck did I ever do to you?”
Loren just grinned and cheers’d her.
They tossed back the shots and then Natalia was handed something that looked suspiciously like a vodka-cran. A quick sip showed she was right. That was acceptable at least.
“Come on; let’s find you astud.”
“How about we just dance for a bit. Let’s be silly and have some fun.” She stared at Loren, imploring her to go along.
Just then, the song changed to one of their favorite tunes. In typical college student fashion—even if they were both well past that stage—the two of them shouted in excitement and made a beeline for the dance floor, hands in the air.
They bounced and danced with each other, and for once, no guys came and tried to grind up on them while they did. It was amazing. Natalia began to relax, a combination of enjoying herself and also probably the alcohol as she finished her drink. It didn’t really matter though; she was having fun and that was what was most important.
“Who isthat?” Loren gasped, looking over her shoulder as they danced up on one another, their hips moving to the beat.
Standing up, Natalia looked over her shoulder in the direction of Loren’s stare just in time to see who she was talking about.
He was tall, broad of shoulder and dressed in a black suit that somehow seemed to shine in the dark. The crowd parted around him as he walked, but Mr. Suave and Sexy didn’t even seem to notice them. He towered above the crowd, somewhere around six and a half feet of form-fitted clothing that clung to his frame in all the right ways—and all the right places.
“Wow,” Natalia whispered, unable to tear her eyes away.
The strong jaw, the rugged look to his skin that suggested he was outside a lot, were all pulled together by the blue in his eyes; it was more visible as the lights swung around, illuminating the brightness of them. Natalia was staring, but she soon realized so was every other woman in the club. This man exuded sexuality, from the tautness of his shirt across his chest, to the way his hands shouted delicious, calloused roughness.
Someone rushed out of a back room and approached the man, immediately escorting him to a private booth up a set of stairs Natalia hadn’t even seen before, at the back of the dance floor. The man then sat with his back to the club, and slowly the place returned to normal as the women were once more swept up in the music and the guys stopped being threatened by the presence of someone with such an alpha personality that he could steal the entire room, even over the thumping music.
“You know, I’m going to do you a favor!” Loren called out to her friend over the noise.
“How’s that?” Natalia asked warily, her eyes focused on the stranger, not on her friend.
“You’ll see,” Loren said, but Natalia barely heard her speak.
A pair of women in outfits even more scandalous than her own were headed toward the stairs that led to the mysterious man’s private booth. Out of the shadows, a hulking security guard emerged, turning the women away. Over the next half an hour, the same scene played out over a dozen different times. None of the gorgeous women even made it to the stairs, and the man in the booth didn’t look at any of them.
“This could be the husband you need,” Loren teased, grabbing her hand and pulling her. Right toward the stairs.
“Whoa. Hold on. What are you doing?” Natalia yelped, trying to get herself free.
Loren was holding on tight, though.
“I am not going up there,” Natalia protested, standing her ground. “No way.”
“Oh, come on.” Her friend stopped trying to drag her. “Where’s the harm? You go over there, get up on the stairs and talk to him.”
“Are you serious?” Natalia asked. “He hasn’t let a single person even get up onto the first stair yet, Lore. How am I going to do any different?”
“Just try! If you get turned away, you can come back here, tell me you told me so; I’ll buy us some shots and drinks and we’ll just go dance. I won’t even try to get you to dance with any guys. If he lets you up though, you go and at least talk to him. Deal?”
She groaned. “Are you serious?”
Loren grinned. “Go get him!’
“I don’t want a fake husband, though. Come on, Lore, that’s ridiculous.”
As much as she tried to deny it though, her attention kept tracking upward, fixing on his broad shoulders, barely visible over the railing. Who was he? Why was he up there alone? She wanted to know more about him.
