Gigi rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. She seemed determined not to say anything again.

He climbed into his Porsche and drove the twenty minutes to his bachelor townhouse downtown. Then, he called a cab to take him to the bar. As much as he enjoyed showing up places with his Porsche, drinking and driving wasn’t high on his list. If he never had to go to the hospital again, that would be fine by him.

Soon, he was at a local bar, The Hill. It was aptly named for its location but nothing else. The place was dingy, and he knew of the dirty things that happened after-hours when congressmen and their interns would leave for the evening. He’d seen it all on Capitol Hill.

It was a place that Andrea would never frequent. It was one of the reasons Ethan and Cash liked it—though the easy female patrons were probably the biggest one.

“Clay!” Ethan said. He grabbed Clay’s hand and shook it forcefully. His dark hair brushed over his forehead, and he flicked his head to get it out of his eyes. “It’s been fucking forever, man.”

“Just a couple of weeks.”

Cash approached from the other side. “How’s the old ball and chain?” he asked, jokingly elbowing Clay in the side.

Clay tried not to wince. Douche. “Andrea is the same as ever.”

“She still trying to get you to stop fucking around?” Cash asked.

“Andrea has never cared about who I’ve slept with,” he said with a grin. “Why would she start caring now?”

“Fuck if I know,” Cash said. He wrapped his hand around a beer and shoved it into Clay’s hand.

Even though these guys had gone through law school with him, it wasn’t as if they were his confidants. He couldn’t tell them that Andrea actually had been acting weird, like she cared about who he fucked. He didn’t get it. But Ethan was more intuitive and slightly less of a douche bag, so he seemed to understand that Clay was bluffing about the statement. That was probably because he was one of the guys who’d gotten divorced during law school.

Andrea hadn’t really even been around this week. Normally, Clay wouldn’t have even noticed. He’d usually just stay in the city, and they’d live their own lives. But ever since New Year’s, he’d been heading back to their house, surprised to find it empty or, to his chagrin, Andrea there but distant.

He wasn’t a total idiot. He knew something was up with her. He just didn’t want to try to fix what wasn’t broken. And he had a feeling that was what she wanted.

“We don’t need to worry about that hot piece of ass you have waiting for you at home,” Cash announced. “Let’s find some for you here.”

Ethan laughed. “Shouldn’t be hard. Clay isn’t picky.”

“Neither are you two dipshits,” Clay growled.

He really wasn’t picky. He liked them hot and leggy. Blonde and skinny. But he’d take just hot. Hot worked for him.

“I need it after this chick I’ve been working with at Cooper and Nielson. Her boyfriend broke up with her, so she thought I’d fuck a pantsuit. She’s been frigid ever since.”

“Frigid is not worth the effort,” Cash drawled. He leaned his bulky build back against the bar and downed half of his Bud Light without blinking. He was a huge guy from southern Georgia with dark hair that he frequently let grow out too long for D.C. standards.

“Not worth your effort at least,” Ethan interjected.

“Yeah, well, we don’t want to end up like Ethan fucking his boss.”

“You still doing that?” Clay asked.

Ethan shrugged but smiled nonchalantly. “Every now and then.”

“Only when her husband is out of town,” Cash said.

Clay laughed along with his friends. He never would have guessed Ethan would be the one fucking the boss. Seemed much more like Cash to him, but Ethan must like it to be going back for more.

Over the next hour, Clay let the long week of work fall off his shoulders. His life had been stressful ever since the attack, and it was nice to just let the grind go and hang out with his friends.

A group of girls turned up in the bar at one point, and Cash dived right in. He had none of the sly, sexy game that Clay exuded. He was an act-first-think-later type, but girls tended to like that. Unlike Ethan. Clay had always said that his game was that he had no game. Ethan would pick up chicks most nights without even realizing that was what he was doing.

Cash seemed to have automatically zeroed in on the brunette ringleader, but Clay’s eyes were drawn to the cute redhead to the girl’s left. A cute redhead wasn’t his normal MO, but he liked the way she kept shooting furtive looks his way. He could work with that.

Plus, he knew that if he didn’t approach her now, he’d lose out to Ethan, who had a major thing for gingers. They were his kryptonite. Just as Ethan was about to walk over to Cash, Clay strolled over to the redhead. As he approached, she smiled up at him under hooded blue eyes with long thick lashes.

“Hey,” she breathed.

“Hey yourself.” Clay leaned his side into the bar and smiled his dimpled smile that always brought girls to their knees.

“I’m Bethany.”

“Nice to meet you, Bethany,” Clay purred. He liked the way she breathed in deeply when he’d said her name.

Bethany giggled and averted her gaze. “You don’t remember me, do you?” she asked after a minute of silence.

Shit!

His eyes shot to Cash, who was talking up the brunette and not paying attention. Did the dipshit know these girls? This was the biggest fucking issue with frequenting the same bar over and over.

“Don’t worry,” she said, brushing it aside. “It’s not a big deal.”

“Really?”

“I’d just dumped my boyfriend and needed a quickie. You were hot and obliged,” she admitted with a soft pink blush on her cheeks.

“Were?” he asked with a smirk.

She giggled again. “Are. You’re definitely still hot.”

“Well, we could make this time more memorable…”

“I got back together with the boyfriend.”

“How unfortunate for him that I’m here tonight then.”

She bit her lip and glanced down at his mouth, as if contemplating his suggestion. When she took a step toward him and not back toward her friends, he knew he had her. God, this is so easy. He swore, sometimes, he didn’t even have to put in any effort at all. With or without this boyfriend she’d spoken of, he still managed to get her eating out of the palm of his hand.