Page 11 of Bad Boy Billionaire Protector

I looked back at the paperwork on my desk and knew that I should stay and work. But with my concentration having disappeared, I thought a few hours out of the apartment might be a good idea.

I texted back,Sure, count me in,and I dropped him a pin for my apartment.

They knocked on my door at seven on the dot. I grabbed a short fleece jacket and zipped it up. It was going to be chilly out there.

Closing the door behind me, I locked it up and headed into town with my newfound friends. In either event, it was always a good idea to keep up appearances as a typical grad student.

Chapter 6 – Amber

Thebarwaspackedwith students waiting for the Spoken Word event to begin. I saw Helena, Foxy, and Nathan sitting in a corner booth facing the stage area and took a deep breath before going over to say hello.

Sliding into the booth, I took off my jacket and adjusted my sweater, a red fluffy confection with pink love hearts on it, that came to my midriff. I was wearing high waisted, wide legged jeans and Converse sneakers to finish the look.

Foxy and Nathan got up to hug me.

“Hey sweet girl, it’s been so long!” Nathan gushed, his Southern accent a long drawl that made everything sound erotic. His grey eyes twinkled and his dirty blond hair was artfully messy. I hugged him back and realized that, out of the three, I had missed Nathan the most.

“I missed you, Nathan the Third,” I teased.

“Yeah, well, you might answer the phone sometime…” he teased back. Fair enough, he was right about that. I really had let my friends fall by the wayside.

Foxy hugged me next. He was tall, with dark, curly hair that fell over his eyes in a foppish fashion. He was dressed like a modern-day dandy, with couture red pants and a billowy white shirt over a blue and white striped T-shirt. He looked like a model. Helena did too, with her blonde hair and her boho chic dress. She was wearing a celestial halo headband and looked like she should be off to Burning Man Festival or something. But for Helena, this was normal dressing mode. She was always wearing something interesting to make people talk about her.

Nathan went off to the bar to get us drinks and I sat down in the booth, making myself comfortable.

“How are you feeling?” Foxy asked.

“I have good days and bad days. I was saying to Helena earlier that I wasn’t sure if I’d come back too early, but I suppose it’s better just to dive right back into everything. I guess life has to start again sometime.”

Foxy nodded in agreement. “You’re right. What happened was horrific and you’ve obviously taken the time out to grieve, but at some point you have to carry on with your own life. It’s what Adam would have wanted.”

I highly doubted that Foxy had the slightest idea about what Adam would have wanted, but I didn’t say anything. Foxy was the most standoffish out of the three friends and hadn’t been so keen to invite me into their friend group. He gave the impression to everyone that he was a carefree, happy go lucky kind of guy, but I sensed there was a darkness inside him, and it made me wary of him.

Nathan returned with a tray of drinks for us. Negronis all around plus shots of tequila. I looked at the others as they excitedly prepared to take their shots.

Foxy raised his shot glass. “To absent friends, and to Amber returning to the fold.”

Everyone drank their shot, including me. I grimaced as the clear liquid hit the back of my throat. I had a love-hate relationship with tequila. I had a saying, “tequila is not my friend”, and I usually asked my friends to steer me away from it since I had a tendency to do shot after shot and get blind drunk on the stuff.

But tonight I didn’t really care if I got drunk. I was out to enjoy myself and I felt as though I deserved to let my hair down after a long year of seclusion and sadness.

Finally, it was time for the event to begin. Foxy jumped up first and gave a rousing rendition of a poem he had written. It was about a non-consensual bite from a mosquito and had everyone roaring in laughter.

When he sat back down everyone congratulated him on his performance. During a lull in the event, I pointed to Foxy’s ring.

“So these rings you’re all wearing, are you all part of some secret club? I noticed Adam wore one too. I was kind of wondering what a girl’s got to do to get one?”

They all looked at each other, their faces impassive. Then Helena smiled a huge smile and put her hand over mine.

“If we told you, then it wouldn’t be a secret, would it?”

“I guess not.” Dammit! I wasn’t going to get anywhere with them on this matter, by the looks of it.

I turned away and tried to hide my disappointment. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a familiar face coming into the bar. Christos! Oh shit! I hadn’t answered his phone call earlier and he might ask me why I didn’t call him back. Plus, I had deleted his phone number. It was too late to hide, he had seen me. I smiled and waved him over and he strode across the bar to our booth.

I felt a familiar tingle in my spine and between my legs as he walked towards us with his gorgeous manliness, all pouty lips and tousled dark brown hair, and sex appeal to spare. Several women stopped what they were doing and openly stared at him as he walked past them. I didn’t blame them. He was an attention-grabber.

Helena noticed him walking towards us and just about drooled, purring under her breath, “Oh my, would you look at this dreamy man coming towards us. Yummy.”

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