Sleeping with the Enemy (An Enemies to Lovers Collection)

“Is this seat taken?” a deep, familiar voice had me turning my head just as I’d taken a sip of my first whiskey for the night. Yes, I was drinking whiskey!

“Damon,” I said and sighed. At this point, I was beyond caring why he was even here.

“Just so you know,” Damon flagged down a waiter, “this wasn’t my idea.” He ordered the same as me.

I could see that Damon was as sober as I was. Huh, he’d actually listened and stuck to an agreement we’d had about keeping our heads straight to make sure we didn’t lose anyone. These parties usually ended by ending relationships, someone up in the hospital, or with just a bunch of embarrassed people with huge hangovers. Damon and I had decided we were aiming for the latter of the three options. Well, at least until we got back for the stag-hen.

“You know what, Damon,” I sighed, “I don’t really care.” I raised my glass to him and took a big swallow when the lights on the stage went off and the room went silent. “What now?” I slumped.

“You really don’t want to know.” I looked over at Damon as he took his drink from the waiter, downed it and ordered another for him and I before the waiter walked off.

CHAPTER 18

Damon

I had to hand it to Ken. He’d gone all out for Drew’s bachelor party and I actually found myself getting along with the guy. He’d saved my hide from being punched out by one of the bachelor party attendees. Ken had even assigned me my own peacekeeping help as he’d called it. I liked to think of my bouncer as my personal bodyguard for the night. I so wished I could’ve taken him with me when the men decided to crash the women’s strip club.

They didn’t only want to crash it. They wanted to dance for the ladies and get them to fill their waistbands with dollar bills. Boy was it starting to be a long, long night and I was completely sober. Carla and I had agreed to keep our parties in line and not drink until the stag-hen when we were all back safe and sound at the hotel.

But I was exhausted and needed a drink. I went to find Carla to warn her and let her know this was not my idea. Ken has said he’d back me up if she did not believe me because I just knew she would immediately blame me for this party crash.

I was surprised to find her sitting alone in a corner sipping on a whiskey and being flirted with by a shirtless muscular Adonis with an oiled body. I walked over and politely asked her if I could sit down. Of course, I glared off the Adonis and then wished I hadn’t as the man was wearing a thong beneath his apron. That’s an image I wish was not burned into my brain.

As I tried to warn Carla of what was about to go down, the stage show began. At first, the ladies were stunned by seeing their spouses, boyfriends, and other halves up on the stage. But after a few minutes, the ladies were spurring their men on who were soon joined by the real dancers on the stage.

Carla and I both just gave up at that point. We were supposed to have been back at the hotel for the last venue of the night. The mixed stag-hen party. But it looked like the stag-hen venue had moved to a ladies strip club. After our third drink, Carla and I decided it was time to break things up and head back to the hotel. It was Carla and my turn to let our hair down and have some fun for a change.

***

I thought that had gone extremely well all things considering; the party goers really didn’t want to leave the club. I managed to escape with minor dents to my ego. Carla, on the other hand, had her hair pulled and got cussed at—a lot. Wow, prim and proper ladies had the vocabulary of a sailor when they’d had a few too many shots. But Carla had just rolled her eyes and stood her ground. It was funny to see how quickly the women jumped in line once she became Sergeant Major Carla.

Finally, we were back at the hotel. We had thought that the party goers would start to get tired and straggle off. We were tired and wanted to straggle off. I was hoping to share another elevator ride with Carla. I had not been able to get our kiss out of my mind the entire day and night, although she seemed rather cool about it as if she’d not given it a second thought.

I ordered a whiskey and leaned on the bar as I waited for it.