Surrendering Series Box Set

“And you’re perfect,” he said and I heard someone sigh near me.

Lucah sat back down and Ryder was glaring at him.

“Do you have to keep raising the bar? It makes it harder for the rest of us,” he said and Sloane rubbed his arm.

“You do just fine, R Blythe.” I happened to know that he’d done some of the most painfully romantic things I’d ever heard of for Sloane, so he was no slouch in the romance department either.

“Thank you S Harris,” he said and they shared an intimate moment. They loved each other so much. It made me happy to see. It was good that Fin wasn’t there or else Lilia might have felt like she was crashing one big couple fest. We could get pretty intense sometimes.

But she was chatting away with Marisol and I could tell they were definitely going to be friends now. Good. At least that was something.

The drinks flowed and we all got a little tipsy and rowdy. Well, except for Ryder, who was riding the sober train.

“One of us should stay sober. You’d get into an awful lot of trouble if I wasn’t here to watch you,” he said to Sloane, who was on her way to wasted.

“Oh, whatever,” she slurred and he just laughed and kissed her forehead.

“This has been really fun,” Lilia said as we lined up a fleet of cabs to take us back to our respective dwellings. Sloane and Ryder were sharing with us and Marisol and Lilia lived not too far away from each other, so they were sharing.

“Good, I’m glad. I told you we were a lot, but Marisol is super sweet.” She nodded and said she’d see me on Monday as she tottered toward the cab.

“I’m drunk,” I announced when we’d all crammed into the cab.

“No shit,” Ryder said, snorting.

“Oh, you’re just grumpy because you’re sober,” Sloane said. Or at least that was what I thought she said. The words were all linked together and some were hard to make out. I found this terribly funny and I couldn’t stop laughing.

“Drive as fast as you can,” Ryder said to the cabbie. He was definitely grumpy about being sober. I thought that was hilarious as well.

“You are just all full of giggles,” Lucah said. He held his booze much better than I did and it annoyed the crap out of me. I told him that and he just brushed my hair back from my face and placed my head on his shoulder.

I crashed on the way back and he had to half-carry me, which was quite a feat, considering he was also somewhat intoxicated.

He got me into bed and pulled off my shoes before getting his own off and collapsing next to me.

“Night, night,” I mumbled before I was totally out.

~*~*~

The next morning I woke and wished I was dead. I groaned and almost cried. I did NOT want to open my eyes because I knew it was going to be rough. So I opened just one, and it was awful.

“You up?” a hoarse voice said next to me.

“Noooo,” I moaned as quietly as I could. Everything hurt.

“Okay then,” he said with a chuckle. How could he be laughing? I turned my head ever so slowly and opened both eyes to see Lucah in bed next to me and holding out a cup of steaming coffee.

“I ordered breakfast. It’s on its way. I also got some for Sloane and Ryder.” I wanted to be seriously irritated at him for not being as hung over as I was, but I couldn’t because he’d ordered hangover food and I needed him to bring it to me.

“I hate you,” I croaked. He laughed softly, aware that I couldn’t deal with anything loud.

“I’m going to assume that you mean the opposite.” Right then we heard the buzzer from downstairs which meant the food was here. Lucah got out of bed (a little slowly, which made me feel better) and walked out of the room. I used the time he was gone to try to get myself to sit up. I did not succeed. I was too afraid to move. If I moved, I was going to hurl and I didn’t want to get that all over my bed, thank you very much.

Lucah came back with the food and laid it out on a tray. Gingerly, he carried it over to me and set it down. There were fried egg sandwiches with cheese and bacon and fried potatoes and biscuits and yogurt and fruit.

“You went all out,” I said, levering myself up, inch by inch. A wave of nausea went over me and I froze until it settled. My head pounded like an offbeat drum and I vowed that I would never drink that much again.

“I figured I should. You were pretty hammered.” He grinned down at me as he got in bed next to me and reached for one of the sandwiches.