“Glad you’re here,” she offered before leaning her head on the broad, beefy shoulder of the man beside her. “This is my husband, Sam.” The retired football player, I recalled. And I could definitely see it, given his size.
“Good to meet you.”
“You too,” he returned.
“And that’s Trey. Cheyanne’s very-soon-to-be husband.” Luna added, pointing to the man tucked in close beside Cheyanne, holding her to him like she was the most precious thing in the room.
“Nice to meet you. Thanks for letting me crash your evening,” I said as I lowered myself into the empty seat beside Luna.
“Not a problem,” Sam said. “The more the merrier. I was just about to get us another round. You good?”
I lifted my pint glass, still three-quarters full. “I’m good, thanks. But next round’s on me.”
He nodded and stood up, his height even more of a shock now that I could see all of it.
“Yeah, he’s a pretty big dude,” Luna leaned in to say, clearly having read the shock on my face. “You eventually get used to it and then he just becomes Sam: the friend you can always count on to get things from the high shelves.”
I drank down more of my beer as I took in the bar, the mass of people, the band. “This place is pretty cool.” I looked back to Luna with raised brows. “Definitely a step up from the last bar I saw you in.”
She let out another throaty laugh, and it was the kind of sound that made a man think of sex, burying himself as deep inside a woman as he can in an effort to pull that sound from her chest. “Yeah, but then again, pretty much everything is a step up from that place.” She took a drink from the beer bottle in front of her, and I might have stared longer than necessary at the way her throat worked on a swallow. “I take it being here means you have a night off from parent duty?”
“Yeah, unexpectedly. Impromptu sleepover at the grandparents. I was heading home when I remembered you giving me shit about not having a life. Figured I could at least stop in for a beer.” I tilted my head toward the stage. “Didn’t realize they had live music.”
“Yeah. A couple Fridays and Saturdays out of the month. Just a local band, but they’re great.”
The dance floor wasn’t exactly big, but it was jam-packed with writhing bodies. “That they are.” I turned back to Luna, staying close so we could continue our conversation over the music. With mere inches between us, I could smell that tantalizing scent coming off her skin, see the small flecks of gold in her tawny eyes that made them sparkle. If I’d been smart, I would have sat up straight, put some distance between us, but I was quickly discovering that smart flew out the window when it came to this woman.
“I’m not sure what you said to Evan while you two were together today, but whatever it was, thank you. She was in a much better mood this evening than she’s been in for quite some time.”
“Nothing to thank me for. She’s a great kid, Nate.” Something about hearing that, especially from her, lifted a weight that had been sitting on my chest for far too long. She leaned even closer, placing her hand on my knee in a gesture that was meant to be comforting, but had my blood rushing all the same. Christ, how pathetic was it that such a simple, friendly touch from this woman revved my motor like she’d just reached into my pants and wrapped her fingers around my dick?
The song changed just then, and a sharp shriek of excitement wrenched through the air as Monica and Cheyanne shot to their feet. “I love this song! Let’s, dance, Lu!” Monica demanded, grabbing Luna’s hand and giving it a tug.
Luna looked at me with a small grin as her friends dragged her out of her chair. “Guess I’m dancing.”
“Guess so.”
Something flashed across her face just then, something that got my blood pumping even faster as she kept her eyes on me. “You’ll be here when I get back?”
The expectancy in her voice damn near did me in. “I’m not going anywhere.” Even though I knew I should.
Shooting me one last smile, she let the ladies drag her off to dance.