“Shit, that would be awesome. I finish in about a month.”
She grinned. “Good. That’s settled; we’ll get a room set up for you.” She beckoned to the bar tender to bring us more drinks while I let the happiness settle in me that she’d made that offer. Nothing in my life had ever come easy, often it felt like I was pushing shit up a hill, but some things were finally falling into place. And this was a huge step in the direction I wanted to go.
“I think we’ve had enough to drink,” I suggested, looking at Harlow who was swaying like there was a bloody cyclone passing through.
Roxie followed my gaze and began laughing. She reached out and grabbed Harlow, trying to steady her. “Doll, it might be time to take you home to lover boy.”
Harlow smiled a drunken smile. “Yeah, he’d like that.”
Roxie murmured, “Oh, I’m sure he would.” She indicated for me to help her get Harlow under control and we made our way outside to find a cab. “Does she always get this drunk this quick?”
“No, she can usually hold her liquor. Maybe she didn’t eat much today,” I suggested.
Harlow interrupted us. “Was busy at the cafe today, didn’t get to eat anything after breakfast,” she slurred.
“Scott’s going to be pissed at us for letting you drink this much,” Roxie said.
“Totally not our fault,” I said. I wasn’t taking the blame for this if Scott wanted to have a go.
Harlow giggled. “Don’t worry about Scott. He’s easy to control.”
I laughed out loud. “Umm, only for you, Harlow. No-one else gets away with the shit you do where Scott’s concerned.”
She giggled again just as a guy approached us on the footpath. “Ladies, you ready to go home?”
“That’s one of the worst pick up lines I’ve ever heard,” I scoffed. “And that’s a damn shame, dude, because you’re rocking some serious hotness there.” I drank in his muscles, his dark hair, his tats; he had the exact look that did good things to a woman, but he seriously needed to work on his flirting skills.
Nash could teach him a thing or two.
Shit. Random thought number five hundred about Nash for the week; I had to get him out of my system. Maybe this guy could help me after all.
Before I could think about that any further, Harlow trilled, “No, silly, he’s the prospect. Scott must have sent him to take us home.”
“Either that, or he sent him to keep an eye on you. That’s a little too controlling for me,” Roxie didn’t hide her aversion to men who took charge like Scott did.
Harlow cocked her head. “No, I don’t see it that way. Scott likes to make sure I’m safe; I think he only has good intentions when he does stuff like this.”
“Yeah, I’m not so convinced.” Roxie wasn’t a man-hater; she just valued her independence and didn’t cope well when her man involved himself in her life like Scott did with Harlow.
The prospect tried to hurry us up. “While I find your conversation about men amusing, ladies, I’d like to get you home so that I can get back to more pleasurable activities.” He winked at me as he said this, and his hotness rating skyrocketed.
“I bet you would,” Roxie said.
His smirk almost convinced me to throw myself at him but there was some niggling thing in the back of my mind stopping me.
Nash.
I inwardly sighed. Nash sure knew how to capture a woman’s attention.
Roxie pushed Harlow into the front seat of the prospect’s car and she and I took the back seats. It wasn’t a long trip to Scott’s house, only about fifteen minutes, and he was waiting outside for us when we pulled up. Harlow stumbled out of her seat into his arms and he grimaced at her drunken state.
He turned his gaze to me and I held up my hands in defence. “Your girl didn’t eat today apparently.”
He muttered something under his breath but nodded at me. “Thanks for getting her home safe.”
Harlow wrapped her arms around his neck and said, “They’re good to me, those girls.” She hit him with a megawatt smile and you could see the annoyance seep right out of him. Damn, that man was so far gone on his woman. I never thought I’d ever see Scott Cole whipped but it seemed that Harlow had done just that.
“You’ll get Velvet and Roxie home, okay?” he directed at the prospect who nodded.
“Thanks,” he said, and then he took Harlow inside.
I got out of the car and quickly made my way to the front seat. Doing up my seat belt, I looked at the prospect and asked, “So, you got a name?”
He grinned. “Yeah, darlin’, it’s Wilder.”
“You don’t talk much do you?”
“I say what I need to say.”
Roxie interjected from the back seat, “Velvet, let the man rest his mouth. He probably has other things planned for it tonight.”
I caught his grin. “How long have you been a prospect for?” I continued firing questions at him.