Luca

We each licked the back of our hand and sprinkled the salt, licked it up and took the shot, followed by the suck of the lime. To be honest I’d have been happy to knock the Tequila back in one go and forgo the extras but Gina loved this ritual to start our evenings off. We did it every time without fail.

The club we were in tonight was on the other side of town. Run by some guy called Jackson Cain, I’d never heard of him but Tate and Gina assured me he was big news; a guy you wouldn’t want to mess with, and his clubs were the best. So I danced on the spot as I sipped my mojito and glanced around the club at all the pretty people, feeling content with my life at that exact moment.

We were all dressed to kill in our barely there outfits and towering heels. I’d chosen a black corset dress with thin straps to keep the girls in check up front and a criss-crossed corset style bindings at the back. My hair tumbled in curls all down my back and over my shoulders, I felt sexy as hell.

A group of guys next to us started trying to chat us up, their chat up lines were so terrible we couldn’t help but warm to them.

“Can you touch me just there on my arm?” The tallest blond guy said to me as he squeezed himself in between Stacey and me. “Only I want to tell my friends over there that I’ve been touched by an angel.”

The girls laughed and I rolled my eyes at him.

“Is that the best you can do?”

I sipped on my drink as his eyes sparkled at me. He called his friends over and then gave me the full impact of his chat.

“Oh I have a whole catalogue of lines for you baby…if you were a transformer you’d be Optimus Fine!”

That one had me laughing for real, this guy was a fun distraction. If I was in the market for a guy he’d have stood a good chance, but I wasn’t.

“Do any of those lines actually work out for you?”

I frowned cheekily at him in the darkness of the club.

“I’ll have you know I have a very good track record with my chat up lines…” He replied, “By the way is your name WiFi because we seem to have a connection.”

He wiggled his eye brows and I groaned and turned to Stacey to see if her guy was as cheesy as this dude.

It was as the blond guy leant down to whisper, “Do you believe in love at first sight or should I walk past again?” that I noticed a familiar face across the dancefloor.

My heart dropped to the floor and my body went rigid as I saw Luca dressed to perfection in dark jeans, a white shirt and a dark suit jacket looking like sex on legs. His beautiful face was tanned and a hint of stubble covered his square jaw. The sight of him made me go nervous and weak. He stood next to another man who was also ripped and hot as hell but he wasn’t the companion I was focusing on. No it was the leggy brunette hanging off Luca’s arm that made me want to throw up and throw myself across the room to challenge them all at once.

“You okay Chloe?” Tate asked seeing my face frozen in horror.

“Oh come on, my lines can’t be that bad.” The blond dude said but I just ignored him.

“What the actual fuck is that?” I managed to spit out nodding my head and pointing in Luca’s direction.

He hadn’t seen me yet, he was totally oblivious to our little group watching him.

“Oh shit.” Gina said and looked down with a guilty expression on her face.

“Did you know he was coming tonight?” I asked her.

She shook her head no but then reluctantly she told me what I hadn’t wanted to hear, “I knew he’d started seeing someone else though. I didn’t want to tell you.”

I didn’t know how to react. I felt like crying, I wanted to smash things, throw them round the room and have a childish tantrum. Most of all I wanted to get away but running away when I was being taken for a ride like this wasn’t my style.

“Chloe, he’s just moving on. As far as he’s concerned you don’t want a relationship. I’m sorry babe. I don’t know what to say…to either of you. To be honest Hun I love you both so I kinda want to stay out of it. I don’t want to lose either of you as a friend.”

My fury was bubbling up nicely beneath my calm exterior. “You could have told me Gina, I thought we were friends.” I felt deceived, it wasn’t a good feeling for me.

“Chloe I wanted to tell you but he told me not to, everyone did.” She held her head down and I looked around at Stacey and Tate. Jesus they knew too!

“Well this is fucking great!” I spat out, “Now you’re all lying to my face. Guess you can’t trust anyone really can you.”

I went to walk away but Tate grabbed my arm yanking me back into the group.

“We didn’t lie to you Chloe, we wanted to protect you from the truth.” She didn’t let my arm go, as if she was afraid if she did I’d disappear forever.