Page 101 of The Payback

“That depends, handsome. What’s on the menu?”

“Oh my God, Maria,” Valentina says. “Keep it in your pants for at least an hour.”

The bartender just chuckles. “You know, I’m here to serve,” he says seductively, running his eyes over Maria’s decolletage, never tearing his gaze away from her, even as Ana shouts our order out to him from beside me.

“Champagne all around,” she says.

With one last look at Maria, he turns around and busies himself with filling four glasses for us.

I turn to Ana. “What are we celebrating?” I ask.

“Oh, honey, we’re always celebrating. We are women out on the town spending our husbands’ money without a care in the goddamn world. We’re celebrating life.”

Four glasses appear on the bar, and we raise them together, toasting to a night with the girls.

We listen to rendition after rendition of hits from the last three decades. Some are pretty good, and some are quite terrible.

The champagne has been refilled twice already, and Maria is leaning over the bar flirting with the bartender again, whose name I learned is Steve. Not the name I was expecting for the tattooed, long-haired bartender, but it is what it is.

“Elsa, you should go sing a song,” Ana says, encouraging me with a hand on my arm. “We should sing a song fromFrozen!!”

Ana and Elsa. How did I not notice that before?

She’s jostling me out of my chair, but I dig in my heels because absolutely not. “You truly, truly do not want that. I promise you that unless you want to clear out this bar, I should stay very far away from that stage. There are many things I can do, but singing is not one of them. I couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket with a lid on it.”

She cackles, clutching her side when she can’t control herself.

Yeah, the bubbly has gone into full effect now.

“Fine, then we’re going to sing,” Valentina declares loudly, grabbing Maria’s hand and dragging her towards the stage.

Steve’s eyes are still on Maria, and hers are on him, even as Valentina yanks her in the opposite direction.

Ana and I laugh and turn our attention towards the stage where the others have disappeared. I carefully cross one leg over the other. A feeling of heat flickers on my bare leg, and an awareness tingles down to my very soul. Without moving my head, I let my eyes slide to the left and look towards Nik.

He looks different without the usual cigarette tucked behind his ear, but it’s a welcomed change. As soon as he found out about Bella, he quit the habit, tossing every pack in the garbage and not touching one since. When I asked him about it, he shrugged and said, “I have something to live for now.”

From his seat at the table directly behind us, the man in question studies me. His gaze is ravenous as it traces my bare leg, running from my stiletto heel up my calf, around the curve of my knee, towards my thighs. I shift in my seat, tilting slightly towards him and spreading my legs a fraction.

This side of the bar is not exactly hidden, but it is darker than the rest of the space, and the patrons are all looking up at the stage, lending me a modicum of privacy to tease Nik.

His eyes snap up to mine, and the shadow of a smile unfurls on his lips.

Oh, yes. Nik likes a show.

Maxim is watching Maria as she and Valentina flip through the songbook by the stage. And with Nik’s proximity and the way he’s positioned in his chair, it wouldn’t take much for him to reach over and slide his fingers up my leg and between my thighs.

Fuck, how I want that right now. I want his hands on me. His lips devouring me. I want him unrestrained and unhurried as he explores every inch of my body.

Ana’s attention is on the stage, oblivious to Nik and his hungry gaze. He shifts his chair so he’s closer, a mere half a foot away now. And then, he reaches out, crossing the small distance. I settle my weight on my right hip, keeping my left leg crossed over the right and pulling my thigh higher, giving him access to the space between my thighs and what he wants most.

The song ends just as Nik’s fingertips brush my panties. My tongue darts between my lips, which have suddenly gone dry. And just as fast as his touch landed, it leaves, and my hips attempt to chase him.

“Oh, they’re up!” Ana cheers, gripping my arm and turning back towards me.

Nik’s hands are carefully in his lap, covering the semi you’d have to be blind to miss.

The music changes to something upbeat and exciting, and it isn’t until Maria belts out the first bars of the song that I realise it’s “You’re the One That I Want” fromGrease.

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