Page 41 of Heir

I always did, and I was fine.

Blue frowned.

“Yeah,” he said, answering the man on the other line. “Okay. Cool.”

Then he hung up. “What, Gemma?”

“You don’t have to stay with me. I’m okay. I’m not going to fall apart.”

“Who said I’m staying in for you?”

I shot him a look, and he sighed. “There is a house party tonight.”

I wrinkled my nose. “I think we’re a little too old for that.”

His lips twitched. “Not the kind of parties I took you to in high school. It’s just a bunch of people from the club hanging out.”

I looked at him expectantly.

“And some club bunnies.”

I wrinkled my nose at the choice of words regarding women who hung out with the club.

I stood. “Sounds like fun. Let’s go.”

Blue seemed surprised by that. “This isn’t going to be like the bar, Gemma. It’s going to be much louder. I know how you are with loud noises. The crowds are rougher.”

“I’ll be fine. I’m doing better, you know. I’m a big girl. I can handle it.”

Blue didn’t look like he believed me.

I rolled my eyes and tugged on his arm. “Come on, Blue. I can’t just stay home and look at you all night.”

And I was feeling great. My period was over. There were no more bloating or uncomfortable pads stuck up my butt.

“Hey, what’s wrong with looking at me? I’m fucking handsome, don’t you think?”

I laughed and shook my head. Blue was handsome. Handsome in a way, American male models were handsome, and in another life, perhaps that’s what he would have done for a living. But Blue was restless. He wouldn’t have done well in front of a camera, forced to pose. He craved freedom and excitement, and I supposed that was why he’d joined the club in the first place.

“Let’s go,” I said, pulling him to his room when he stood. Blue let me, otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to drag him along.

Blue was almost a foot taller than me and outweighed me by more than a hundred pounds, covered in hard muscle and tattoos.

I eyed the tattoo of a naked woman on his arm as I pushed him into the room, and he flexed his biceps for me, making me laugh.

“All right,” he relented. “We’ll go to the stupid party, but you totally owe me.”

I shut the door in his face.

* * *

Despite Blue sayingthis party wasn’t going to be like any of the parties he took me to in high school, I had a hard time finding much difference between the two.

The partygoers were a lot older than high school kids, so they weren’t doing any illegal drinking, for sure, but there was still the same loud music; the same scent of weed and B.O. filling the room; people grinding against each other, trying to get some; and people either popping pills or doing coke in the corner.

Blue grabbed my hand and led me to a large sofa occupied by a huge group of people. They all cheered when they saw him, and he pushed people away to make room for us at the end.

“Hey, guys,” Blue said. I sat back against the couch. I wasn’t usually into going to parties. I hadn’t been a party person in high school, and I wasn’t now, but when I went, it was for Blue and for the experience.

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