Page 16 of Deny Me

Six

Time passedin a blur of wedding preparations and plans for the bachelorette party. Lu didn’t want anything big, so I decided to keep it simple: pizza and drinking at my house as we got all fancy. Then we would take a cab downtown to Mynt Martini on Fountain Square.

I used the wedding preparation to distract myself from my lack of interest in dates. I reasoned that it was normal when I was designing. Not only was I working on my line for the website, I also had to design my best friend’s wedding dress. It was normal. I wasn’t at all caught up in the way Jameson had praised my work and set tingles of happiness through me. Not at all.

So, instead of going on dates a couple nights a week with different guys, I fell into my bed exhausted and reached for my vibrator. It was fast and easy and got the job done.

Our Sunday lunches that we still had every week for family time turned into wedding planning between Lu and I. Jack and Jameson would usually sit at the bar talking about whatever boys talked about. The wedding was taking up all my time in between my regularly scheduled designs.

So when we finally made it to the bar for the bachelorette party, I was ready to let loose.

And let loose we did.

Between me, Luella, and two of her friends from work, Victoria and Gwen, we killed five bottles of wine. As if that wasn’t impressive enough, we did it in less than forty-five minutes. When we walked into the bar, Lu threw her hands up and declared, “Shots!”

By shot number six – or seven – we were grinding against each other on the dance floor. The mint green lights flashed all around us as we celebrated the last month of Lu’s freedom. Seeing her laugh and dance or jump around, my chest pinched in fear that she would pull away and leave me out once she started a family with Jack. Nausea settled heavily in my stomach at the thought of seeing her less and less.

But then she grabbed my hands, pulling me out of my melancholy, and screamed at me that she needed another shot. She mouthed “bar.” We formed a train, making our way to the bar lined in mint green lights. The bartender kept pushing martinis at us, but we held true to our shots.

We lined up three more each, downing them one right after another. Lu leaned in to my ear. “I need to peeeee,” she dragged out in my ear.

I pressed my cheek to hers so I could speak into her ear. “You want me to go with you?”

“Gwen has to go too, so unless you need to, we’re good.”

“Nah, I’ll guard our spot at the bar.”

She gave me a thumbs up and disappeared into the crowd. It was too loud to talk, so Victoria and I did another round and bobbed our heads to the music, while people-watching everyone around us.

Lu and Gwen had just reappeared when some of the bartenders climbed up on the bar to dance to Baby Got Back. That song was my jam.

When they reached down to start pulling other women onto the bar, Lu shoved me forward. I looked back at her with an eyeroll, but she only shimmied at me, pushing me to head on up. I managed to wiggle my way onto the bar, thankful I wore high-waisted shorts rather than a dress.

Once I was on the bar, I gave Luella a show with all my best stripper moves. One of the bartenders held a bottle like it was a microphone and shared it with me to sing into.

When the song ended, a hot guy with dark hair and a tight black tee helped me down. Feet firmly planted on the ground, I winked at him in thanks.

“Let me buy you a drink,” he shouted low in my ear.

“Sorry,” I shrugged. “I’m here with my girls. If you wanna buy me a drink, you gotta buy all of us drinks.”

He looked at them and nodded. “Okay. But you have to let me take a shot out of your sexy-as-sin belly button.”

My heart raced at his bold suggestion and forward attitude. I liked a man that didn’t beat around the bush. It had been a long time since I’d done a body shot, but I was just drunk enough to go for it. Apparently, the girls had heard the proposition because the next thing I know, I had hands clasped on my shoulders from behind and a bunch of high-pitched voices started screeching, “Do it! Do it!”

I shrugged and climbed onto the bar space they cleared for me. I had to admit, I loved the attention. It had been a long month of no sex, and the way he looked at me made me want to let him see more than just my stomach. I wanted his tongue in many more places than just my belly button.

He decided on vodka with a lemon chaser that he placed between my lips. The cool liquid splashed into my belly button and made chills break out all along my body. His tongue dipped in and slurped up the liquid, leaving a lingering kiss behind that shot straight to my core. When his tongue flicked one more time, it tickled, making me laugh and drop the lemon.

“Jack!” I heard Luella scream excitedly from beside me. Jerking my head to the side, my eyes crashed with angry midnight blue ones.

Jameson.

What the hell was he doing here? I looked over at Lu who was now plastered all over Jack’s tall frame, his arms wrapped firmly around her.

The stranger who had his mouth on my bare stomach a moment ago moved in front of my line of sight and asked, “You want to get out of here?”

The next moment he was jerked back. “Let the girl up. What the hell is your problem?” Jameson growled in the man’s face, sneering in anger.

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