“How late are we?” Chloe asks as we step through the door to the restaurant.
I look at my watch. “Twelve minutes.”
“That’s not too bad.”
“I’m never late,” I tell her. “I like to get places a little early, though burying my cock inside of you is as good a reason as ever to run late for anything.”
“Sam!” she whisper-yells. “Someone might hear you.”
“Then they’ll be jealous. Though all it will take is one look at you and they’d already be jealous.”
“Is this dress too much?” She looks down at her breasts, which are beautifully pushed up together. She’s nervous to meet my friends, and I love that about her. She’s met actors and producers. Appeared on talk shows and gone on week-long book tours all around the world. You’d think meeting two of my friends would be no big deal.
“You look beautiful.” I give her hand a squeeze and bring it up, kissing her fingers.
“Thank you. I do think I look good in this dress. That time at the gym has paid off,” she adds with a slight laugh. I give our name to the hostess, who leads us over to our table. Quinn sees us first and waves.
“Hey!” she exclaims and gets up to give me a hug. “It’s been so long!”
“I know, it has,” I reply, giving her back a pat. “This is Chloe.”
“Hi,” Chloe says shyly, reminding me of my childhood best friend I secretly fell in love with all over again. “Nice to meet you.”
“And this is Quinn and Archer,” I introduce. “Sorry we’re late.”
“Did you get caught up at work?” Archer asks as I pull out the chair for Chloe.
“Not exactly,” I reply and give Chloe a cheeky grin. She smiles back, cheeks flushing slightly.
“Making up for lost time?” Archer laughs and looks at Quinn. “We did the long-distance thing for a while and it was hard.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” Quinn quickly adds, giving Archer a pointed look. “It was hard for us because I was pregnant and Archer was finishing his residency. I was in Chicago and he was in Indy.”
“That’s a bit closer than LA and Chicago,” Chloe notes. “So that’s when you lived with Sam?”
“Yeah. He’s all yours now, so good luck.” We laugh, and a waiter comes over to take our drink orders. Chloe orders a glass of red wine and I get an Old Fashioned.
“Have you eaten here before?” Chloe asks, looking over the dinner menu.
“I haven’t,” I tell her. “It has good reviews online, though.”
“I’ve been here,” Quinn says. “Like three years ago.”
“When?” Archer asks. “I wasn’t with you.”
“It was a work dinner,” Quinn tells him. “And it ended in a fight.”
“Robot fights don’t count.”
Quinn purses her lips. “It wasn’t a robot fight, but it was about robotics. Well, kind of. We were talking about an object-relational database management system and—”
“You lost me already,” I tease, and Archer nods in agreement.
“What do you do?” Chloe asks Quinn.
“I’m a software developer and write computer code. I joined a start-up a few years ago with a focus on using technology to help the environment.”
“Ohhh, that’s cool. I don’t know the first thing about computers other than how to use my writing program, and after years I still find it too complicated and only use like half the features on it.”
Quinn laughs. “Computer stuff can be complicated, I’ll admit. But I understand code and programming…but writing a book, there’s no way I could do that! And you’ve written so many. I’m a huge fan of the Nightfall series!”
“Thanks,” Chloe says with a genuine smile. “Writing comes easily to me, well, sometimes. Other times I’m tempted to take a sledgehammer to my laptop, give away all my possessions, and join that cult of nuns who live in the Blue Mountains in Australia so I never have to write again.”
“Don’t you have to take a vow of chastity to be a nun?” I ask, putting my hand over Chloe’s.
“I’d sneak you in on the weekends,” she tells me and then looks back at Quinn. “Though really, I love writing.”
“I promised Archer I wouldn’t bombard you with questions, but I wanted to tell you how much I am dying for the next book in the series. That cliffhanger killed me!”
Chloe laughs, and I can tell she genuinely likes to talk about her series. Her creativity astounds me, and now I really have to pick up the first book in her series and give it a read.
“I feel like I should say sorry, but I’m not,” she laughs. “And I actually wrote that last scene years ago. It was one of the first scenes I had in my head when I first thought of the series. That cliffy killed you, but it killed me having to wait six books to finally let you all read it.”
“If Marcus dies, I’m going to cry. Please tell me he doesn’t.”
Chloe innocently shrugs. “I haven’t even decided his fate yet. I will tell you I’m already about halfway through the first draft already.”
“You got a lot written the last few days,” I say, remembering her saying she’d barely made a dent in her book before.
“You are kind of inspiring,” she tells me with a grin.
“Ohhh,” Quinn coos. “So this book is going to be super sexy?” She wiggles her eyebrows and looks at Archer. “I like the super sexy books, and so does Archer.”
“Is that weird to hear?” Archer asks Chloe, looking at me almost as if he did something wrong.
“Not at all,” Chloe says with no hesitation. “I think it’s important to remove the stigma around reading romance. We as humans like sex. We like having it, watching it, and reading about it. As long as something is in the realm of appropriateness, if it gets you in the mood, go for it.” The waiter brings us our drinks and Chloe takes a sip of wine before going on. “And it’s no secret watching porn or reading about people having sex can get you in that mood.” She turns to me again, gaze intimate. “Writing about it does too.”
“I noticed.” I circle my thumb over the pulse point of her wrist, and Archer kicks me under the table.
“Need to get a room?”
“I wouldn’t object,” I shoot back.
“I’d like to eat first,” Chloe laughs. “I’m starving.” She takes another drink of wine and looks over the menu, asking Quinn what’s good since she’s been here before. The evening is off to a good start, and everyone is getting along well. Everyone in my family already loves Chloe, and she and Dean hit if off just fine.
My mind goes back to what Chloe said before we left for dinner, how things happen for a reason to make us who we are today, how all of our choices mix in with things beyond our control, shaping our own reality.
I pick up my Old Fashioned and take a big sip. The whiskey is smooth all the way down, and I take another gulp, wanting it to dull the ringing in my head, reminding me that my choices have led to hurting Chloe in the past…and how they’re going to again.