I sat down, got introduced, ordered my cosmo and heard the gorgeous, blonde Gwen say to the equally gorgeous, African-American Camille, “Sex hair. Mitch got the business before going to work. She’ll do.”

Third degree over.

I passed.

It was time to get drunk.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chestnut

I was three sips away from the end of cosmo number four. Kenny had already picked up Roberta. A handsome black man introduced as Leo had picked up Cam and Tracy. Brock had come to get Tess. Mitch had texted that things were going to go later than he expected so I should catch a ride with Hawk, he would get home as soon as he could and I was not to take off my dress or shoes (it was a long text and a bossy one, a sexy bossy one). And Elvira, Gwen, LaTanya and I were waiting for Hawk to show to take us home.

I was also giggling myself sick, the kind of giggles that are silent but your whole body shakes and your stomach muscles hurt. Although I was giggling myself sick, I didn’t exactly know why. And I didn’t know why because Gwen was relating the story of the aftermath of her man Cabe “Hawk” Delgado getting kidnapped and her story was kind of scary. If that happened to Mitch, I would be beside myself.

But the way she was telling it was hysterical. Because Hawk got kidnapped, he pretty much rescued himself then, after they were reunited and everything was okay, he lectured Gwen on how to be a commando’s woman. And although his rules were as scary as the story, I couldn’t help it, they were also scary funny.

“Then,” Gwen kept going, wiping under her eye, “he said, ‘Confirm you get me, babe.’”

Elvira, LaTanya and I burst into gales of laughter. Why? Again, I didn’t know. Possibly because I was three sips away from the end of cosmo number four and therefore significantly beyond tipsy.

Then Gwen affected a super-deep man’s voice and said, “Confirm…you…get…me.”

Hearing her talk like that, the hilarity was too much. I found I couldn’t hold my head up anymore so it crashed down onto my hand on the table and I left it there as my shoulders shook with my laughter.

I was close to pulling myself together when I heard an immensely attractive, deep man’s voice say, “Jesus, babe. How drunk are you?”

My torso shot to straight, my head tipped back and my mouth dropped right open.

Holy cow.

“Hey, baby,” Gwen said to the tall, built, gorgeous man looming over our table but I couldn’t tear my eyes from him and he was just so…damn…hot. I didn’t have it in me even to close my mouth.

Wow.

Wow.

Detective Mitchell James Lawson was the most beautiful man I’d seen, the perfect male specimen from top-to-toe and, now I knew, inside as well as out.

This man who Gwen called “baby” (ohmigod!) was the second most beautiful man I’d seen but in ways entirely different from Mitch. He was tall, black-haired and had an unbelievably great body. Mitch had all this too, of course, though he had dark brown hair that you could run your fingers through, not black and cropped short. But where you knew Mitch was good to the core, gentle, kind, all this just from a look, this guy was not that.

He was dangerous.

The good kind.

“Hi,” I breathed and his eyes went from Gwen to me.

My br**sts swelled.

“You Mara Hanover?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said, still breathy.

“You Lawson’s?” he asked.

“Absolutely,” I answered.

His mouth twitched. Then his eyes went back to his woman.

“So, you’re all shitfaced,” he observed then finished, “Or at least Mara is.”

“Nope, we all are,” Gwen replied airily if a little slurred.

“Fantastic,” Hawk muttered, eyeing the intoxicated remnants of the girl gang and not hiding the fact he was not big fan of dragging our drunk asses home. He then asked the table at large, “Can any of you walk or do I have to carry you?”

I loved Mitch. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Mitch. I wanted to make babies with Mitch. I wanted to grow old with Mitch.

But I also wanted this man called Hawk to carry me. I didn’t even care where he carried me. I just wanted him to do it.

And I was drunk enough to share this.

“I vote for being carried,” I announced and Gwen, Elvira and LaTanya burst into more gales of laughter.

Hawk’s eyes came back to me and my heart fluttered. Then they moved over me and my legs started tingling.

Then they came back to my face. “Lawson see you in that dress?”

I nodded.

“Gave her the business before they came out,” Elvira volunteered, Hawk looked at her while she spoke then he looked back at me.

When he did, I leaned in and up and whispered, “It was hot.”

His lips twitched again.

That was hot too.

Hot!

“Right,” he stated. “Seein’ as you’re hammered, this might not penetrate but I’ll say it anyway. You lookin’ like you do, wearin’ that dress and bein’ Lawson’s woman, he is not gonna want my hands on you. Unless, say, you were lookin’ like you do and filled with bullets. So, to keep your man happy, my advice is you should attempt to ambulate. You start to go down, I’ll catch you. Deal?”

Gwen bumped into me when she leaned into me and I tore my eyes away from the hot guy to look at her.

“I think this is good advice,” she slurred. “Mitch is sweet and trust me, Hawk can be sweet too. But even if I was wearing sweats and had ratty-assed hair, he would lose his mind if any man touched me. Mitch may be sweet but he’s got that in him. I can tell.”

I nodded to Gwen thinking that what she said was true. Mitch felt pretty intensely about me, in this dress and out of it. I didn’t think he’d take the news that a hot guy had carried to his car very well.

I turned to Hawk. “I’ll attempt to ambulate.”

“Good call,” he muttered, his eyes going to Gwen and his lips twitching again.

Totally…

Hot!

Then I heard him ask softly, “Sweet Pea, tab?”

“We haven’t paid, baby,” she answered softly.

Ohmigod!

He called Gwen “sweet pea”.

He could be sweet.

Hawk headed to the bar and I turned back to Gwen and declared, “He’s the second love of my life.”