“Yet oddly, I find myself dying to check out semiprecious jewels. ”
We were rushed out like the trash.
Jin and Mduduzi fell back and stared at me. Jin’s words actually held force. “So you know Abe Krasner?”
I could see the little journalistic wheels spinning in their eyes. Too late for anything but honesty now. “That would be a yes. ”
Which meant I would end up in Tanya Jones’s office as soon as she was back.
But before that, I had a party to go to.
* * *
Lucy acted briefly censorious when I asked her and Sabeen if they wanted to come out that night. “I thought you were getting over this guy. ”
“I am. I’m just. . . it’s just confusing. I’m confused. It’s a party! Who turns down a party?”
They stared at me.
My shoulders slumped. “Maybe I shouldn’t go. It’s probably not my scene. I don’t even have anything to wear. ”
Lucy shrugged. “This is easy. It’s at Turquoise. You just wear something skanky. ”
“I don’t really do skanky well. ”
“Are you kidding me? Look at your boobs. You’d do skanky fabulously. ”
My lips twitched. “I suppose I should rephrase that to I’m not super comfortable doing skanky. ”
“That’s why you have Lucy,” Sabeen said lazily. “She takes all the responsibility and leaves you to the fun. ”
Which was as good a theory as any, and led to me sitting on Lucy’s bed as she went through her closet.
Lucy was taller than me, which meant most of her dresses would be longer on me than her, but she certainly wasn’t as busty, so it sort of balanced out. She handed me a piece of cobalt fabric. “Try this one. ”
I held it up. “Are you sure this is a dress?”
“Not only is that a dress, it is a piece of magical fabric that enchants and enhances. ”
I rolled my eyes. “I can’t wear it. I need something at least vaguely professional because some of the other guys from the team will be there. ”
Luce rolled her eyes right back. “Useless. Fine. Oh! You can wear a striped shirt and black short shorts and be a sexy referee. ”
I raised one brow and drew the word out. “Professional. ”
In the end, I slung on a black dress and spiral earrings. Because it belonged to Lucy, the dress was obscenely short on me, and because of my body, the neckline was a little more revealing than usual. It certainly wasn’t anything I’d wear into the office, given how much it clung to my top and bottom, but it seemed to be suitable club attire.
Another half hour passed before Lucy finished my makeup. When she let me see, I was embarrassingly fascinated by my reflection—rather like the pretty girls on the subway—because it looked nothing like me, but rather like a fashion-slave had taken up residence in my mirror and decided to mimic my every movement.
The subway ride to the club took half an hour. A line crawled out the door, but Lucy confidently strode to the front, past all the other people, and managed to talk our way inside. I tried not to gape as I followed her in. That worked. I couldn’t believe that had worked.
Once inside, I paused. Abe had been right. This wasn’t my scene.
But I was exhilarated with youth and happiness and the idea that I could bypass lines and that rules didn’t apply and that everything was in my grasp at this moment.
Blue lights flickered through the club. Everything was too dark and too bright, too close and too much.
“Drinks first,” Lucy said. “Boys later. Damn, I hope Keith’s here. If he is, you have to introduce me. ”
I stared around, in something of a daze. “Done. ”
We fought our way to the bar, where scarily beautiful women measured out drinks like alchemists. I asked for a rum and Coke because I was too overwhelmed to ask for anything more complicated.
“All right. ” Lucy took her cocktail. “Now what? Where are they?”
The club was absolutely packed with writhing bodies, and none of them wore shoulder pads and helmets. After a disorientating minute of searching, I pulled out my phone.
Then someone’s hand trailed across my bare shoulders and I stiffened. That was not Abe’s hand.
“Well, hello. ” With a slight leer, Jensen Clay circled around in front of me. He barely glanced at my face.
I straightened to my full height, which was at least two heads shorter than him. “Don’t try lines on me, Jensen. ”
Jensen jerked his eyes to mine, startlement clear and recognition slowly forming. “Wait. . . ”
“Yup. ” I crossed my arms as his eyes went back to my very bare thighs. Thank God I’d switched out the plastic-wrap dress for this one.
Jensen looked vaguely horrified. “You’re the Sports Today chick. ”
“Yeah. ”
He started to grin. “That’s not a very professional outfit. ”
Damn, and I thought I’d done well.
Another second string Leopard sidled up to Jensen and draped his arm around him. He grinned at me—and my roommates, who stepped up to my side. “Hello, ladies. ”
First, I wasn’t an it, and second, I wasn’t property. “Is he here?”
“He’s upstairs in the back room. ”
I lifted my gaze to the upper level and saw a winding balcony manned by a guard. “Thanks. ”
The other Leopard grinned at Lucy as we started off. “You could stay here with me, babe. ”
Lucy brushed past him. “You couldn’t afford me. ”
I eyed her curiously as we wended our way through the crowd to the staircase. “What did that mean?”
She threw back her head and laughed with sheer joy. “I don’t know, but it sounded good, didn’t it?”
Sabeen smirked. “It sounded like you wanted to be a mistress. ”
“A mistress,” Lucy mocked. “What does that even mean?”
I ignored their squabbling as we reached the top of the stairs. The bouncer, tall and broad, but with a wiriness that set him apart from the football players, shook his head. “Sorry, ladies. Private party. ”
Right. Shoot. We should have brought Jensen along to vouch for us. “We’re meeting someone in there. ”
He arched a brow. “Of course you are. ”
Lucy pushed forward. “Yeah, but we really are. ”
I caught sight of Dylan and waved an arm. “Hey! Dylan! Will you let us in?”
Dylan stared blankly for a moment like he couldn’t place me, and then he started laughing convulsively. “Damn, Abe’s in trouble. ”
All over again I felt embarrassed about this ridiculous dress. Last time I tried to look sexy when I ended up in seeing work-related people. “Will you let us in?”
Dylan waved magnanimously at the bouncer, who seemed to be resisting an eye-roll or two. We skirted by him thankfully.
Several private rooms were up here, and we entered the loudest. My spidy-senses tingled, and I spotted Abe from the back. He stood at the bar, laughing with several of his teammates. I shouldn’t have cared about the three women around him who wore more revealing dresses than mine, but they rubbed me the wrong way instantly.