“Girrrrrlll…” Gordie gave me a look, his dark eyes gleaming. “I keep telling you to find yourself a man for the night. Orgasms are good for you. Not just for your body, but your mind, stress levels—”
“Makes your skin glow too,” Kiki interrupted.
I rolled my eyes. “Thanks, guys, but I’m too tired to worry about my skin glowing. Although, it might help me get laid if it did.”
“Let’s do facials on Monday,” Gordie suggested. He was in school to be an esthetician and always practiced on us, giving us facials, waxing off unwanted hair, and other random things we didn’t necessarily need.
“Check out the dude in the cowboy hat,” Jenna murmured, nudging me as a group of eight or nine came in.
“Cowboys aren’t really my thing,” I said, giving him a once-over. He had really long, curly hair but it was hard to see his face under the hat.
“Anything with good hygiene and a penis needs to be your thing,” Kiki said.
“Well, definitely not the cowboy but…” My voice trailed off as the group sat down about ten feet away from us at one of the bigger tables in the back. He had his back to me now, but I’d seen a quick glimpse of the guy sitting across from cowboy hat and he looked so much like Declan my heart skipped a beat.
That was dumb. What were the chances the cutie from the other morning in the elevator was here at Kendall’s playing trivia?
I glanced in that direction again and this time Kiki, Jenna, and Gordie all followed my gaze.
“What are you looking at?” Kiki whispered.
“That one guy looks familiar,” I admitted. “But I’m not sure.”
“Go say hello,” Gordie suggested.
“I’ll feel ridiculous if it’s not him,” I said, shaking my head.
“Who do you think it is?” Kiki asked. “I’ll go see.”
“You wouldn’t recognize him.”
“Holy shit, that’s Lexi Rousseau,” Jenna said, her mouth falling open. “And Zaan Hagen.”
“Who?” I squinted in confusion.
“Lexi Rousseau, from Special Kay.”
“Oh, and Zaan Hagen is her husband!” Gordie nodded. “He plays for the Sidewinders.”
The Las Vegas Sidewinders were the local professional hockey team, that much I knew, and Special Kay sounded vaguely familiar but I wasn’t sure from where.
“Oh my god, those are the guys from Pretty Harts!” Kiki’s hand flew to her chest.
My head whipped around because even I knew who that was. Pretty Harts was one of the biggest rock bands in the world. Even a country music fan like me was familiar with them, though I didn’t listen to their music. Their lead guitarist had married European royalty or something and the wedding had been a big deal.
“Eeek,” Gordie almost squealed. “Ariel Fox is over there too.”
Okay, that was another name I knew. She was a pop star who had several big hits. She was all over the news about a year ago because the conservatorship she’d been under had been dissolved and for the first time as an adult, she was free of her overbearing father.
These people were big-time celebrities so it made no sense they were sitting here in a local pub playing trivia, but it appeared that they were.
“Well, that explains that,” I said after a moment. “It can’t be who I thought it was since those are a bunch of famous people.” I lifted my virgin strawberry daquiri and was just about to take a sip when the guy that looked familiar turned and I got a glimpse of his face again.
It was him.
My heart skipped a beat and I stared, trying to see him better.
The guy with the cowboy hat caught me staring and winked, before turning to his friend, who then turned all the way around.
Our eyes locked and we both froze.
Declan.
It was Declan!
“Declan?” I spoke before I could help myself and he slowly rose to his feet, a smile playing on his lips as he approached me.
“Well, hello there, mocha venti whatchamacallit.” His eyes danced with mischief.
“What are you doing here?” I couldn’t believe the guy from the elevator was right in front of me.
“Came to play trivia. How ‘bout you?”
“Uh, same.” I swallowed.
“Girlfriend, you’ve been holding out on me.” Kiki was up and holding out her hand. “I don’t know how you know my best friend in the whole world, but I’m Kiki Hansen.”
“Nice to meet you, Kiki.” Declan smiled and shook her hand. “I’m Declan.”
“Oh, yes, you are.” Kiki batted her eyelashes. Then she turned to me. “Please tell me this isn’t the guy you dumped our coffee on the other day.”
I bit my lower lip and gave a half-shrug. “Um, okay.”
“Well, hello, ladies.” The guy in the cowboy hat came over to us and held out his hand. “Ford Malone.”
“I’m having heart palpitations,” Kiki whispered, staring up at him.
“Then I might have to perform mouth-to-mouth,” he replied.
“Huh, in that case, I’m definitely having a heart attack,” Kiki deadpanned, batting her eyelashes at him.
“Wanna be my trivia partner?” he asked her.
“Sure.”
“Will you be mine?” Declan asked me, a smile playing on his lips.
“Absolutely.”
“You can’t just abandon us!” Gordie protested.
“Come join our table,” Declan said. “We’ll split up in groups of four.”
By the time trivia started again, we’d split up into three teams of four people each and we’d been introduced to everyone at the table.
“And then,” Declan was telling everyone about our encounter in the elevator. “I turned around and knocked the whole tray of drinks out of her hand.”
“That’s not—” I began.
“Well, your shoe caught in the rug,” he interrupted. “So you were already off-balance, and I tried to catch you but instead, I missed and disaster ensued.”
It was sweet that he took the blame for my clumsiness and I decided to let him. He’d slid his arm along the back of my chair as if this was a date or something, and I wasn’t sure what to do. Was he actually interested in me or was this about sex or was he just being nice? It was hard to tell, but he was incredibly sweet and attentive. And so good-looking my entire body tingled every time our eyes met.
“You want another drink?” he asked after we’d been playing for a while.
“No, thank you, I have to drive.” I’d been making excuses for not drinking alcohol for so long, the lie slipped out before I realized it but he didn’t seem fazed.
“Okay.” He cocked his head slightly as the others talked around us. “Tell me something about yourself, Brianna.”
“I’m twenty-six, never been married, and currently single.” Oh geez, now why had I said that? He probably thought I was a dork-and-a-half.
“I’m thirty-two, never been married, and also currently single. My favorite color is red, I’m a Libra, and I love Greek food.”
I laughed. “My favorite color is turquoise, I’m an Aries, and I love Italian food.”