Alpha Billionaire Series

ALICIA

The bar was stuffy and loud. I could handle one, but not both. After a long day of walking around town my feet hurt. Only I wasn't certain if my feet were hurting from the new cowboy boots, or because I started my day in flat strappy sandals.

“Ym so drunk, Alicia” Emily yelled in my face.Property © NôvelDrama.Org.

I pushed her back. She was, and her breath reeked. We were the only two left sitting in the booth. Everyone else, including the brides, was on the dance floor. I did not feel like dancing.

We had gotten a late start that morning. This was my cousin Cassidy's bridal shower excursion, and the reason we had gotte, a late start was because she wouldn't get out of bed. We started the first morning of a long weekend in Nashville with Cassidy having a raging hangover. This was our first day of fun, frolic, and shopping and we missed our reservations for the drag-show breakfast.

Breakfast ended up being hotel vending machine granola bars, followed by shopping that we had to walk to. So much walking. Cassidy purchased herself a new crown to wear. She had a tiara on her head proclaiming her as the bride. The rest of us trudged around in matching t-shirts letting the world know we were the brides maids. The plan was to go everywhere in these identifying outfits.

Her new crown was a snowy white cowboy hat, wide-brimmed and trimmed with the sparkliest rhinestones that ever existec It was a crown, it was a hat, but it was not my style. I was the only one who didn't think it was adorable. Especially when we ran into another bridal party at the barbecue place for lunch.

“Check out her hat, it's like yours but pink!”

I didn't think Cassidy would start crying and go over and demand the other woman take her hat off. But she did. And then they were both crying and hugging. And the two groups merged into one super bridal extravaganza. The other bride was Katie, and it tumed out they were both getting married the same day but in vastly different cities. Wasn't it wonderful? We a had to party together now.

Ialmost felt sorry for the clerks at the Boot Barn, until I realized they were going to make bank from the sales from our supe group alone. My feet had already started to hurt from my lack of planning, and I bought a pair of low cowboy boots that didn't have to fit around my curvy calves.

I understood why Emily was drunk. It was the only way to survive this weekend. I hadn't been looking forward to it at all. I “grew up with Cassidy, I knew how she was, and I spent the first few hours waiting for her first meltdown. Once she started crying and complaining she would keep going until everyone was as miserable as she was, or until everyone bowed down to her demands. I almost wished I drank.

Of course, watching Cassidy and Katie on the dance floor, both dry humping the thighs of some tourists, really made me not want to remember this weekend. We weren't in Vegas, but the adage fit here as well, what happens in Nashville stays in Nashville. It was going to stay here because no one was going to remember.

Emily abandoned me with a loud “woohoo!” and joined my cousin and her new best friend on the dance floor. I crawled out of the booth, leaving it for another party.

“Can I get a Diet Coke?” I asked at the bar.

The bartender held up three fingers. I handed over a five and was given a plastic cup of soda. I waited and realized I wasn't getting my change anytime soon, so I left. This honky-tonk was a hot spot of tourist attraction. More of a tourist trap than a nightclub, I couldn't tell if I had heard country music or not, once we got past the first floor. I wandered up the stairs following the arrows that claimed there was an open terrace with a view on the roof.

I had hoped the fresh air would have been less oppressive. The roof was open to the elements, but those elements weren't any more friendly now that the sun had set. It was a hot southern night, the kind some romantic poet would claim as being heavy with anticipation.

No, it was oppressively hot, and very muggy. My skin felt sticky. The barometric pressure was building because at some point itt was supposed to rain. I leaned on the railing and watched Nashville's nightlife, hoping the view would distract me.

I looked down at the throng of bodies on the street below. The city closed the street to traffic at some point during the evening. People and noise spilled out of the bars on Lower Broadway and out into the street. The lights were bright, and people sounded like they were having fun.

“It's almost pretty,” I muttered. Maybe it was best that I was far away from all of that.

“Said as if you are trying to convince yourself”

Iturned my head to glance at who had interrupted my contemplations. The profile I saw didn’t belong to a human. It was toc sculpted, too perfect.

“Said as if I'm wondering how I got myself into this situation.”

“And your situation is what exactly? This isn't a terrible place to be. Cocktails on the roof in the middle of a city-wide party?” “I thought that was the point of Nashville? Big party every night?”

“Free flowing beer in red Solo cups?”

“Neither of us is drinking beer,” I pointed out. I tipped my cup at him in a salute. My cup was red, and it was plastic, but it was not the iconic Solo brand backyard kegger party cup he referred to. He actually had a glass full of something clear with sprig of mint. I guessed a mojito.

He stood and stepped over to me. I tried not to swallow my tongue. He was stunning. Thick, messy hair, a strong jaw, one of those sexy dimples on his chin. He wore little round sunglasses that I guessed hid the bloodshot eyes of someone who was as drunk as my cousin and her friends downstairs.

“You are not a local’ he declared.

“Neither are you,” I said, taking a chance.

“Touché” He leaned on the railing next to me, his back to the view. His muscular arm was ridiculously close to mine. Body heat radiated from him. “Why aren't you drinking beer? And why are you here if you are so uncomfortable?”

Normally I wouldn't bother continuing a conversation like this with a stranger in a bar. But what did I have to lose? It wasn't as if I would ever see him again. I could lie and tell him fantastical stories making me seem vastly more interesting than I fel at the moment, or I could use him for cheap therapy and dump all of my woes on him.

I gazed over at him. He was stunning, and I wasn't sure if he realized it or not. Some woman came over and stood next to him. She sorts of undulated and preened. She was pretty, and she knew it.

My chance at unloading anything was shot, his girlfriend was back. That was the end of that. I sort of shrugged, and said, “That's what I keep asking myself. Have a good evening”

Iturned my attention back to the crowd in the street, expecting the hot guy and his girlfriend to leave. I could tell from her harrumphs that she was getting impatient with him.

“Ouch, such a complete brush-off,’ he complained. “What's your name?”

“Not interested,” I said. I pointed to his girlfriend. “And your girlfriend is really not interested.”

His brows pulled in together and he looked at the woman on the other side of him. “Excuse us"

He wrapped a large hand with long tapering fingers around my elbow and moved me to a different spot along the railing. “I have no idea who that woman is”

“Ym sure she would be plenty interested in getting to know you, if you don't actually know who she is”

He let out a bark of a laugh and leaned in with a predatory air. “And I have no inclination to find out anything about her. You however.”

He let his words hang in the heavy air, thick with innuendo.

I blinked up at him. “Are you hitting on me?” Didn't he realize I was the oddball in my cousin's group of bride's maids? I was only here because our grandmother guilted both of us into pretending we were friends ever since we were born. I wasn't here to party. Or was I?

I let my eyes trail back over his torso. I knew exactly the last time a man who looked like him had hit on me. Exactly, never. When was I going to get a chance like this again?

“You might be a little drunk” I said with a smile.

I wasn't fully convinced of his intentions. I wanted to be very clear that he should be aware of what he was getting himself into. Neither of us needed him to wake up to the realization of what he had said to me, after the fact when all the regrets would come rushing in.

He reached up and twisted his fingers into my hair. It had exploded with ringlets in the humidity of this place. “I think we are the only sober people in the building. I thought getting drunk was my plan until I realized I can't have a hangover tomorrow. I've been drinking sparkling water, and you are drinking Coke. I know exactly what I'm saying”

He gave the back of my hair a tug and tipped my head back.

I closed my eyes and sighed against his mouth as he kissed me.