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Soul Girl is already bounding over to the tall glass doors that lead to Jack’s foyer, so we set off to catch up with her.
“How many times have you been here, Bryce?” she asks me over her shoulder.
I clear my throat as we wait for Jack to enter the code.
“Only once,” I say, and her eyes widen.
“Once? Are you serious?!”
“Yes, just once. Very briefly. Earlier today actually, when Jack was, um, changing into his tux.”
Her stare flits between us.
“Wait, what the fuck? You knew each other already though, right? Like knew knew.”
Jack laughs as the entrance opens and he steps inside.
“Nah. We ran into each other at a bar last night.” He grins like a dirty, hot jester. “What can I say, though? We kinda hit it off.”
The situation sounds so absurd out loud that I want to butt in. To say something to justify it, or explain that’s not usually how I work, or inject something of me into it, to reassure her, but my gut lurches when I realise there is no need.
The brightness of Alice’s grin knocks me sideways. So genuine. I used to see it so often, back in the days when we were friends.
“That’s so fucking cool,” she says. “You guys…” she gestures to the sky. “Wow, I’d never have thought it. Mega surprise. Boom, shake the room.”
“A nice surprise, isn’t it?” Jack says, and gestures us both on ahead to the elevator. He steps on in after us and presses the button for the top floor. “Passion,” he says with another of his magnetic grins, his eyes right on Alice. “What’s life without passion?”
“I’d give a cheers to that if there was a champagne glass in my hand,” she replies, and it’s clear as day that his passion has got a hold of hers.
I get another flash of envy. My shoulders feel stiff at the contrast between us. Even though I’m loosening up, I’m still like a cardboard cutout compared to a man like him.
“BT likes to boom and shake the room,” Jack says. “Trust me, you ain’t seen nothing yet.”
That bloody grin of his is such a curse. It takes all of my resolve to rein myself in.
“We’re here for a glass of champagne and some fun.” My words sound weak. “Not a full-on orgy. Steady on.”
Jack swats the air.
“An orgy? With three of us? You might want to check your terminology. I’d need to call up a good number of friends to go all out gangbang.”
“You know what I mean.”
He puts a hand to his chin. “No. I don’t, actually. Enlighten me, before we get cracking.”
The elevator door pings, and Alice hops out to scope out the corridor.
I’m stepping out to join her when Jack clamps a hand on my shoulder, pressing his hot lips to my ear.
“Let yourself go, Bryce. You want it, so take it. You’ll regret it in the morning if you don’t.”
“I suspect you might have that the wrong way around, actually.”
“Nah. I haven’t. Trust me.”
Alice is gesturing us over, hands frantic, her grin so alive it makes my heart pound. Soul Girl really suits her.
“Let’s go!” Jack says and races up the corridor, scooting her along with him as he fishes in his pocket for his keys.
