Page 49 of Heartstruck at Dawn
“Me too,” Sophie chirped.
“I’ll have … half a shot,” I said to Tobias, but Ren laughed as he grabbed his glass.
“Billie, there’s no such thing ashalfa shot,” Tobias said with a chuckle, filling it up to the top.
Nathan placed his hand on the small of my back and leaned in to grab the shot Tobias had just filled for me. “I’ll take your half.”
I looked over my shoulder, and his neck wasright there,an inch away from my face.I looked up to meet his eyes and lightly pressed my lips. “Thanks.” He smelleddelicious.
Everyone else did their shot before us. I turned around to grab a lime because I couldn’t do the shot without the lime, but there was only one left. And I knew I had no more left in the fridge.
“You can take it.” I offered it to Nathan. He was a guest at my house.
“Tosh, you need it more than I do.” He chuckled.
But I ignored him. I licked the salt, drank half of the shot, closed my eyes, and shook my head twice as I felt the burn on my throat again. I opened my eyes, and the lime was right in front of my lips. Nathan held it out for me. He nodded once, inviting me to chew it. I took a bite into it as he stared into my eyes.
That. Was. Hot.
Nathan drank the other half and clicked his tongue. He glanced at the empty shot in between his fingers and tossed the lime inside it, dropping the glass on the table.
This guy was killing me! He’d been subtle all night. But every little flirty thing he did had a raw edge to it. He had me wanting for more, wondering what he’d do next.
Focus. But how? The tequila was doing the exact opposite of that.
We were all ready to go, so I went to my bedroom, grabbed my golden clutch, my favorite green coat, and touched up my lipstick. We all left the apartment and headed downstairs.
“Are you—okay, Billie?” Tobias whispered as we stepped into the lobby.
“What do you mean?” I chuckled.
“I don’t know. Do you usually drink like this?”
“All the time!” I messed up his hair and kept walking.
He grabbed my arm and said, “Take it easy, okay.”
“You brought the tequila, remember? Besides, you said you’d take care of me.”
“I know, buthe’sgoing to kill me if anything bad happens to you,” Tobias kept whispering.
“Who’s he?” I laughed again, faking dementia. I assumed Tobias meant William, but this wasn’t a conversation I wanted to dive into with him. “Relax, Tob. You’ll live.”
Cecile grabbed my hand and pulled me away from Tobias. She was probably listening in on our conversation, and I was thankful she pulled me aside. I didn’t want my night getting ruined by talking to Tobias about how his brother “worried” about me. Bullshit.
“Cohen!” I poked Caleb’s back. He turned around to look at me, and his eyes widened. The blonde wig must’ve surprised him. “Can I have a cigarette, please?” I grinned. He didn’t. His facial features rebooted to cyborg mode in record time.
My costume needed a cigarette as a prop. I wasn’t planning on lighting it up, but he didn’t need to know that.
Caleb’s cyborg eyes scanned me, analyzing my costume as if he were my tailor looking for imperfections on the gown. I couldn’t tell if he liked it or not. His eyes expressed one thing but his frown another.
But yeah, he was most definitely starting to malfunction, and I was glad to see him relaxing again around me because the robotic version of Caleb never laid an eye on me.
His hand reached into his coat pocket for the cigarette box I requested with his gaze fixed on mine like a hawk. He handed a single cigarette to me with hesitation. He noticed I was a little drunk. AndthatI could easily tell he didn’t like.
“Ooh!” Sophie said, shooting in our direction. “I want one too!”
Caleb took another cigarette out and gave it to her, his expression denoting exasperation. Cecile extended her hand. “Do you have a lighter, Caleb?”
