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The bar was a hell of a lot more fun than the party. Dance floor, packed. Drinks, flowing. Bartenders, happy as hell to see us and my wallet, flushed with cash. I ushered the girls in and kept them roped together. Piper’s eyes were enormous, in awe at the party scene with a hell of a lot of sweaty bodies pushed together and lights beaming overhead.
“It’s like your room!” she yelled at me.
I snorted. “And there’s no RA to shut it down!”
She hit my shoulder playfully, and I grinned, taking my place by the bar. If we were enjoying our time, we needed to enjoy it with an overpriced, watered-down drink in hand. I flagged down the bartender and brought Piper closer. Her blonde hair spilled over my arm, giving me a whiff of her perfume. It was hard to focus on what the bartender was saying.
“Run the specials by me again,” I said with an apologetic smile.
Piper stepped up to the bar and ducked close to me. I could feel the warmth of her body pulsing like the music in the club.
“Cracked-up Morning, Domino Effect,” he listed off, one after another. “Shower Sex—”
I glanced down at her, half a second really, and her eyes met mine. We were so close. My fingers curled back to my palms. I had to remember myself. This wasn’t the shower. That had been a one-time thing.
“Shower Sex,” I said with a grin.
We put our stuff behind us. We could laugh about it now.
“Hey!” June waved us down by the side of the bar and hurried up to meet us, Zariah in tow. “There’s an emergency rodeo meeting.”
“What?” I frowned. “We’re in Oklahoma. The rodeo’s months away.”
“Rodeo?” Piper tried to ask, but the bartender stopped her with the drink.
I passed some bills over to the bartender, and June sighed, apologetic. “No, the Marrs rodeo.” She turned to Piper. “We do one at the end of spring semester, but there’s this whole thing—I’m so sorry, one of the girls has her twenty-four-hour shift tonight for her building, and this is the only time she can do it. I swear, this happens every time I leave the dorm.” June sighed. “I just want one day without a phone call.”
“We’ll all go,” I promised and studied the drink I paid too much money for. “Damn. Do you guys have to-go cups?”
“I kind of wanted to stay a little longer…” Piper admitted.
I glanced at her in surprise. Did my RA just say what I thought she said?
She shot a hopeful smile at Zariah. “Are you staying?”
“If I could, I would.” Zariah grimaced. “I’m the representative for the freshmen dorms.”
All that work for nothing. Piper gave a wistful look around the half-filled room and nodded, but the disappointment was pretty clear. I should’ve been pleased. I wasn’t.
“We could stay twenty minutes,” I suggested. “We can take another taxi. Twenty minutes are up, we head back, and nobody’s the wiser. College experiences and all that.”
“Is wasting money on another taxi a college experience?” Zariah laughed.
Piper hesitated. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“What?” I frowned. “You don’t think you can handle yourself around me?”
June and Zariah burst into laughter. They knew me, they knew how I joked around, but I wasn’t joking with Piper. June started walking towards the exit, but Piper didn’t budge from the bar.
“Piper?” June frowned, glancing back.
The ice princess crossed her arms over her chest and gazed out at the smoky bar, a determined curve to her lips, indecision disappearing from her eyes. “Twenty minutes and we go back,” Piper whispered, more to herself than to me.
“Twenty minutes,” I promised and picked up the drink. I raised it to take the first sip, but Piper was quicker, tugging it out of my grasp and downing the first gulp.
“Have fun, you two,” Zariah snickered. “Be good.”
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