Mara nodded, joining in the laughter. “You should see us, some mornings. We’re all hobbling around, half-crippled from a night of being plundered by a Badd brother cock.”
“Especially when it’s been a pounding-me-like-a-jackhammer kinda night,” Claire said. “Was it a jackhammer kind of night? I know Brock can get a little carried away sometimes, and I suspect it probably runs in the family.”
“It was a little bit of everything kind of night.” I covered my face with my hands. “God, I can’t believe I’m having this conversation!”
Dru eyed me. “What? You don’t talk about sex with your girlfriends back home?”
I shrugged. “I mean, they talk, and I usually just listen.” I took another drink. The whiskey was starting to go down more easily now, and I was starting to like it, as I got used to the burn. “It’s not like I’ve ever had anything to add anyway.”
Dru’s gaze was speculative. “You never had anything to add…because you weren’t having sex?”
I shrugged, nodded, and kept my gaze averted. “Pretty much.”
“You weren’t…” Mara paused to gasp dramatically, her eyes wide. “You weren’t a virgin were you?”
“No, but…” I toyed with the glass and stared at the table. “I’m not exactly…very experienced.”
Claire laughed, clapping her hands. “Oh man, oh man, ohman—you lucky, crazy, ballsy bitch! You go from ‘inexperienced’”—she used air quotes, heavily emphasizing the word—“to fucking Baxter Badd? Damn, girl. I mean just…damn.”
“It has been rather…eye opening,” I admitted. “In a lot of ways.”
Mara guffawed. “I bet it has! Eye opening…and pussy opening too, probably!”
“Can we talk about something else, now?” I asked. “My capacity for shockingly blunt and personal conversation is kind of used up at this point.”
And just like that, the conversation shifted to more innocuous topics, like which forthcoming movies we were excited to see, and favorite bands, and humorous personal anecdotes. The conversation was always funny, and always vulgar, always filled with jokes and good-natured insults, and the whiskey flowed freely and I ate more greasy fried food than I thought I was capable of, and had more fun than I’ve ever had with women who felt more like true friends than any of the girls I’ve known at Yale for three years, some of whom I’ve also known even longer than that.
I just…clicked with them. Which, in the back of my head and the pit of my heart, set off warning bells.
I ignored them, though, because I was having too much fun.
And then, before I knew it, Baxter was beside me, smelling like sweat and dressed in his fighter trunks and a baggy hoody, with a duffel bag in one hand. “Ready, Eva?”
I stood up, feeling a little wobbly. “Sure am!”
He eyed me, and the nearly empty bottle of whiskey on the table. “I take it the girls have been introducing you to our boy Jack Daniels, huh?” He took my hand and led me out of the bar through the kitchen door to the truck. “Have fun while I was gone?”
“So much fun! The girls are so great,aaaaaandI like whiskey.” I realized, as I walked, that I was actually rather drunk. “Oh boy. I’m a little more unsteady than I thought I was.”
“They are pretty great, and so is whiskey.” He opened the passenger door for me. “What’d you talk about?”
“Oh, you know…this and that.”
He laughed. “Which means they got the goods on us, I’m guessing?”
“Maybe a little of the goods?” Worry blasted through me. “You’re not mad are you? I don’t normally…I mean…” I sighed. “Ugh. I’m sorry, Baxter. I said I wouldn’t talk about us, and I did anyway”
“It’s all good, baby. No worries.” Hopping into the driver’s seat, Baxter shot me a reassuring grin. “I told you I’m fine with you talking about it if you want. Besides, each of those girls is impossible to resist once they decide they want something. And all together? Shit, you didn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of keeping the details to yourself.”
“Only a little bit of the conversation was about that. And it wasn’t just me talking, they were all…rather forthcoming.”
The rear passenger door opened, and Zane climbed in. “Hey, Eva. Ready for your first underground fight?”
Once Zane was in, Baxter backed out of the alley and headed for the highway.
“I don’t know,” I admitted, twisting in the front seat to smile at him. “You’re coming too?”
“I’m his second, so to speak,” He patted me on the shoulder. “I’ll be with you the whole time, so nobody’s gonna mess with you.”
