Gold - Linde K. A. (версия книг .TXT) 📗

“What?” Stacia asked. Her mouth dropped open in her overly dramatic style. “I can’t believe it.”

“Well, believe it.”

“I mean…have you ever been rejected before?” Stacia asked. “I haven’t. What was it like? Did it suck?”

“I’m giving you my big, fat fucking I-told-you-so. I knew he’d say no,” she said as if everything else he had said didn’t bother her in the slightest. “Now, where are my drinks, bitches?”

“Maybe we should verify,” Trihn said.

Bryna shrugged her shoulders. “Confirm if you must, but Eric is going to tell you the same damn thing. I think a better use of our time would be to find some guys in VIP to buy me those drinks.”

Trihn still looked skeptical but acquiesced to Bryna’s suggestion. They walked across the room and to the upstairs VIP lounge. The bouncer checked them out first before allowing them access. In L.A., Bryna wouldn’t have even needed a second glance. If the bouncer didn’t know her, then her promoter friend, Max, would always put her name on the list. The scene was so different here.

Trihn swished her hair to one side and smiled at the bouncer. “Thanks!”

Bryna kept from rolling her eyes. Trihn, the eternally nice one.

“You don’t have to talk to him,” Bryna murmured.

“What?” Trihn asked.

“The bouncer. You don’t have to talk to him.”

“Ignore, Bri,” Stacia said. “You know she’s a bitch.”

“I am,” she conceded. “But I stand by my statement. Your approach to bouncers might be different in Brooklyn, but isn’t everything?”

“Hey now. Brooklyn gets a lot of heat, but it fits my image,” Trihn said with a smile. “Plus, you can’t have a fashion photographer for a father without living in an artsy area. You all should be glad I ended up with the fashion side and not the artsy side.”

“Trihn…you’re a design major. Does that not scream artsy to you?”

“At least I have a major,” she said, pointedly staring at Bryna.

“Whatever. I assume you lived your life like Dan from Gossip Girl.”

“I am not Lonely Boy!” Trihn cried.

Then, all three of them cracked up laughing at the ridiculous turn of their conversation.

“Drinks!” Bryna cried.

She ushered them away from the entrance. Once she reached the bar, she eyed the crowd and focused on her prey. She could see a couple of hot guys who would likely buy drinks for them with no more than a smile from her. The home game had brought in so many prospects.

Leaning forward against the bar, she let her chest pop over the top of her dress, and she winked at the bartender. “Maya!”

Maya fluttered her fingertips at them from the other side of the bar. The girls had quickly become regulars at Posse, and Maya was their favorite bartender. She finished pouring drinks for a group of frat douches and then sauntered all five-foot-ten inches of her luscious African-American caramel-toned body over to them. “Hey, babes. What can I get for you?”

Bryna pursed her lips and looked around the room. “Him and him and maybe him, too.” She pointed out each guy in turn.

“You don’t need help with them. Not if I know you,” Maya said. “How about a dirty martini with three olives?”

“You know me so well,” Bryna crooned.

“Trihni, my love!” Maya leaned across the bar and kissed Trihn on the cheek. “Gin and tonic, and something girlie for the cheer slut?”

“Perfection,” Trihn said. “Just like you.”

“I love when you talk dirty to me,” Stacia said.

A minute later, all three drinks were placed in front of the girls. Before any of them could retrieve their wallets, a guy motioned for Maya to put it on his tab. Bryna raised an eyebrow as Trihn fawned over his generosity. He was good-looking in an LV State button-up and slacks that he had likely worn to the game. His appearance screamed wealthy alumnus, and even though everything in Bryna told her to back away, she couldn’t help but be interested in older guys. Another unfortunate side effect of the Jude catastrophe.

“Why don’t you ladies come sit with me and my friends?” he asked with an easy smile that said he had done this before.

“Oh! We’d love to,” Trihn said.

Bryna’s eyes traveled down to his left hand buried in his pocket, and she wondered if something was lurking on his ring finger.

“Bri,” Stacia snapped, nudging her.

“Yeah. Sure,” she said.

She met his gaze and saw that look she craved. Desire. He wanted her.

She licked her lips and smiled, slow and sultry. “Sounds fun.”

She followed them across the VIP lounge. His friends had a booth right off of the dance floor, and Stacia immediately starting grinding on Trihn.

“Come on, Bri!” Trihn called over her shoulder.

But Bryna didn’t have any interest in dancing at that moment. She shook her head and held up her martini. Trihn and Stacia were almost finished with their drinks already, working toward that state of oblivion. Bryna liked to get there slower. After that one horrendously embarrassing moment when she had gotten shitfaced on her college visit, she didn’t like to let herself go like that. Being out of control didn’t suit her.

“Hey, I’m Thomas,” the guy said, sidling up next to where Bryna stood by the booth.

“Hey yourself,” she said with a smile.

Yes, up close he was even cuter. Strong jawline and extremely dark eyes. She could see the expensive watch on his wrist, and she took that as a good sign.

“What’s your name?”

This was a step in the right direction. “Brihn-uh,” she said, deliberately drawing her name out. People tended not to pronounce it right.

“That’s different. I like it.”

“Me, too. My friends call me Bri though.”

“Your friends seem to be having a good time. Are you guys students?”

Inquisitive one. She wasn’t used to that. Her European hunks hadn’t asked a lot of questions. And before that…well, Jude hadn’t cared to ask or else they might not have ended up in that situation in the first place. At least she was legal this time.

“Yeah. Students. And you’re an alum?” She plucked the Gamblers logo on his shirt with her fingers and leaned in closer.

His eyes landed on her lips, and then he nodded. “Yes. A proud Gambler.”

“I can see that,” she purred.

God, it was all a game. A very, very familiar game. And she wanted to hate herself for playing along…and even worse, for enjoying it. But she didn’t. She couldn’t hate something that made her heart race. She associated the mystery and danger with an unbeatable adrenaline rush and super hot sex. At the same time, she had an uncontrollable urge to watch with a smile as it all burned down in front of her.

He laughed and then offered her a spot at their table. They eyed her appreciatively and seemed impressed with their friend for not only finding one hot girl but three.

Shots appeared out of nowhere, and then they reappeared regularly. The girls were past tipsy and dancing sloppily with Thomas’s friends. Bryna even relented to dance with them. She was sandwiched between Trihn and Stacia, shaking their asses as if there were no tomorrow.

Thomas grabbed her hand and pulled her away from her friends. Grinding their hips together, he leaned into her. She thought he might kiss her or something, but he never did.

The music changed, and they all crashed back into the booth.

Stacia pulled out her cell phone and groaned. “B, we have to go downstairs. Everyone else is here, and they’re doing some kind of cheer thing.”

Thomas’s hand landed on Bryna’s, and his lips grazed her ear. “Don’t go. Stay up here with me.”

She smirked at the attention. She craved it like a life force. “I’ll come down later,” she told Stacia.

Stacia gave her a knowing look. “Are you sure? It’ll be fun.”

“S, go!” Bryna nodded her head toward Thomas and raised her eyebrows. Hello, I’m occupied.

“Fine. Trihn, are you staying?”