Butterflies in Honey (Growing Pains #3)(68)

“Umm hmm. Well, anyway, sorry for snubbing you earlier. I am currently besties with the biggest busybody on the face of the earth. She is also a god-awful wench, but anyway. She hates you with a passion, so I had to keep my distance.”

“Geez, Marcus, thanks for breaking it to me gently.”

“Oh, don’t worry, doll. Her opinion is generally thought to be ass backwards anyway. She doesn’t think women should be in the workforce.”

“But she is in the workforce…”

“Yeah, I know.” Marcus rolled his eyes. “Anyway, tell Sean I have a granny gold nugget for him, and I’ll give it first thing in the morning. Also, to behave.”

“I don’t think he was planning to behave, Marcus, but I’ll tell him.”

“Why? What happened?”

“Just that he said he was going to give the men what they expected, then chatted up all the pretty girls.” Krista’s words were slurring. She was officially drunk. Actually, she should probably add a really in front of drunk. She needed to hit the sack.

“Geegee, you are the dumbest smart girl I know. Just go tell him. And stay away from that tall, dark hunk. He’s bad news. Also, I thought I would pass this on now when you will hopefully forget it…You know that information you wanted from me?”

Oh yeah! She bobbed her head eagerly, clutching onto Marcus to stay standing straight.

“Oh hey,” Krista said, quickly sidetracked. “First, let me tell you, your body is bangin’!”

Marcus was about to scold her, but stopped at the subject matter. He puffed up like a peacock.

“Oh? What do you like best?”

“Shoulders are great and biceps are looking really good. A bit more peck would have me panting, but I bet the stomach is good times. I would definitely hit that.”

He smiled. “Yes, pecks are on the list, but I’m flattered.” He batted his eyelashes, getting her to laugh. “Anyway, back to the subject at hand…”

“Right, sorry.”

“Well, all I’ll tell you now is that Bob is impotent. I’ll tell more later if you need it, but that is a dark little nugget for you. He is spreading rumors about you and Sean, so I figured if you have to, drop that bomb and see if he shuts up. Hopefully you won’t need me to tell you more. I don’t really trust your delivery. Now, get going…”

Before she could process—because that was HUGE—Marcus physically turned her around, gave her a light push, then slapped her on the butt. She yelped and jumped but managed to hang on to her drink. When she turned around again, Marcus was heading away.

She ambled a while, finishing her drink, then forgot what she was doing, and decided to head to bed. She was so bad with direction, though, and drunk, that she wandered around for a second before she found the way back. That’s when she saw Sean.

He was sitting with the girl with the too-short dress. She kept crossing and uncrossing her legs a la Sharon Stone, and Krista just knew she was showing him her undies. She was on the low side of her twenties, though, so she probably didn’t realize how stupid it made her look. Or maybe she didn’t care. It probably worked like a charm to get men naked.

Although, just asking them also worked. At her age, though, the fun was in the chase.

Like a flash of lightening Krista remembered she had a message. She tried to snap, realized she still had her empty drink in her hand, and walked up to Sean completely flummoxed because she really did intend to drop it by the bar.

Sean and the panty showing trollop were sitting in the middle of the open space between the bar and the elevators. There were chairs and couches set up on a large rug with a piano not far off, currently silent. There were end and coffee tables between the furniture and two ferns. It was kind of a nice place to hang out, actually. She wished she’d known about it earlier.

Currently she wished it was burning.

“Sean—“ Krista noticed the rug, but she hadn’t noticed the rug. She stumbled and nearly dropped her glass. Sean was up and steadying her immediately.

“Krista,” Sean said by way of greeting. He looked both tired and relieved at the same time. He probably thought she was going to end up doing a strip-tease on the bar.

The pink panty showing trollop wore loathing on her face. Krista nearly pointed it out because really, what if she didn’t know about showing the naughty bits? The dress was that short!

“Hey Sean, sorry to int’rupt—in-ter-upt. Um. Marcus said to tell you he’s got a nugget of some sort, and to ask him for it tomorrow. He might have said something else, but I forget. And also…”

Krista looked at the girl, saw the hatred looking back, then started laughing. “Sorry—WOW!”

Sean had a puzzled expression and a half smirk. Krista realized he’d always thought of her as a funny drunk. Probably because she reminded him of his sister, Cassie, who was equally wild.

The girl crossed her legs in a huff.

“Mine are cuter,” Krista blurted, looking back at Sean and shrugging. “I make more money, though. I can afford nicer quality under-roos.”

Sean barked a laugh then coughed into his hand.

“Okay. Anyway, off topic. Why the hell am I here?” Krista, still using Sean to steady herself, tapped her chin while looking up at the ceiling. Then she noticed the heat pouring off Sean. She noticed the tingling in her crotch. Sean’s answering focused look. The heat exchanged between the two of them.