A familiar voice floated into her entryway. “We’re here, Miss Serious Business Graduate, and we’re ready for the drinking!”

“This is a joke. Tell me this is a joke,” I said, glaring at her.

She shook her head, biting back a smile.

“I am in no mood to share right now. You have got to be f**king kidding me.”

“I forget how much I love seeing you on an angry tear.”

She walked to the door in her f**king underwear, and opened it a crack before turning and sprinting into her bedroom, leaving me to greet the intruders.

What in the actual f**k.

“I’ll be out in a few!” Chloe yelled over her shoulder, her nearly bare ass disappearing into a bedroom down the hall.

Julia whistled loudly, stepping over the threshold, and then stopped, and broke into laughter when she saw me.

“Wow, I didn’t expect you to answer the door in your underwear, Chloe.” Sara walked in with her hands over her eyes, reaching out blindly. She grabbed a handful of my half-unbuttoned shirt and shrieked when she uncovered her eyes and saw that it was me she was holding on to. “Mr. Ryan!”

“Hello, ladies,” I said, voice flat. I straightened my shirt, pulled my tie back into place.

“Oh boy, did we interrupt something?” Julia asked, eyes wide and teasing.

“Yes, in fact. We were . . . becoming reacquainted.”

Chloe called out from one of the bedrooms down the hall to help ourselves to the champagne in the fridge, and I tried to ignore the way Julia’s eyes dropped to my zipper. I stood still, letting her take a good long look. My erection was gone anyway.

Mostly.

“I didn’t realize it was to be a girls’ night out,” I said, when the silence felt like it had dragged on forever.

Sara stepped back, her eyes seeming to struggle to stay above my shoulders, and explained, “I don’t think any of us expected you to be here and . . . want a night in.”

I most definitely wanted a night in. In every part of Chloe.

Julia studied me for a minute and then smiled. “I’ll admit I was pretty sure Bennett would be here.”

I couldn’t help but mirror her grin. She had, after all, called me to urge me to go to Chloe’s presentation. She was obviously on my side.

Even if she had interrupted my attempt to f**k Chloe for the first time in forever.

I turned, moving into the kitchen to wash my hands. Julia followed, and behind me I heard her open the bottle of champagne, the squeak and pop and then the quiet fizz reminding me how much I’d rather be opening that bottle over Chloe’s naked body, and licking the foamy bubbles from her skin.

Julia continued, “But I think we should all go out to celebrate, and he can have as much of her as he wants.” She poured four flutes of champagne and then handed one to me. “You’ll just have to wait until later to . . . reacquaint.”

Chloe emerged from her room in black skinny jeans, strappy black heels, and a shimmering blue tank top that made her skin look golden.

No way in hell would I be able to keep my hands off her if she wore that out.

“Chloe,” I started, walking over to her and setting my champagne down on the kitchen counter with a shaking hand. I scowled at her hair, tied back in a sleek low ponytail.

Her eyes sparkled with amusement and she stretched to reach my ear so only I could hear. “You can take it down later.”

“You should count on it.”

“Do you want to grab it? Pull it?” she asked, kissing the shell of my ear. I nodded, eyes closing. “Or do you want to feel my hair down and loose on your stomach while my mouth works your cock?”

I reached for my champagne with a shaky hand, downed it. “Let’s go with yes.”

Need coiled low in my stomach and I was torn between wanting to smash something and wanting to drag her back into her bedroom and peel those jeans down her legs. Absolutely no part of me felt like spending an evening drinking wine and eating cheese and listening to girl talk. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep it together.

As if reading my mind, she whispered, “It’ll just make it better when we get home.”

“I doubt that is even possible.”

Her fingers lightly scratched over my chest. “I’ve missed that surly face.”

Ignoring her, I asked, “How about you come to my place later? Go out with the girls, enjoy this night. I’ll be there when you’re ready.”

She stretched and slid a slow, warm kiss across my mouth. “What happened to not letting me out of your sight until Christmas?”