“I take you out now with you wrapped around my waist, and I’m fucking you. Hard. I don’t want that for us. Our first time together is something we won’t ever forget, and I have some big plans for us. So stop raining on my parade. You deserve all that romantic shit, but I’m so hard it’s getting painful. So, go easy on me, baby, okay?”

Well, wasn’t that the most romantic thing I’d ever heard? O’Connell had made me feel sexy, loved, and wanted all in the same speech as rejecting me. My huge, drunken, sloppy grin told him just how cute I thought that was. I leant up on my tiptoes and reached my lips up to his ear. Thinking that I was trying to talk to him, he bent his head toward me. Feeling bold and brave, I sucked the lobe of his ear gently between my lips and nipped it lightly before I answered him.

“Promise me a few more kisses tonight, and I promise to stop trying to wrap myself around you like a pretzel.”

He groaned as he touched his forehead to mine.

“A pretzel? Fuck, baby, you really are gonna make me come in my jeans. You have no idea how sexy you are, do you?”

I shook my head vigorously as though the question wasn’t rhetorical, and O’Connell kissed me quickly on the lips.

“Come on. Let’s get some water in you.”

After drinking at least two pints of water, I felt a pair of floppy arms wrap around my neck.

“See. I soooo promised to take care of you, didn’t I?” If I was drunk, then Nikki was completely plastered. Her idea of looking after someone and mine were wildly different, but there was no doubt that my first choice for a friend had been a brilliant one. Nikki was one of the kindest, most generous people that I’d ever met. She leant me clothes, worried about me, and cared enough to turn up tonight with practically no notice. If she was a little unreliable when drunk, well, it wasn’t the worse fault to have. I only hoped that given time I could be as good a friend to her as she’d already been to me.

“Do you know that I’m a teensy bit drunk,” she told me very matter-of-factly, as she held up her thumb and index finger slightly apart to indicate just how fractionally drunk she was.

“Do you know, I think I might be a bit, too,” I admitted.

At this point, our arms were wrapped around each other in solidarity, as we struggled to hold each other up. O’Connell and Kieran looked amused, but Ryan was pissed.

“What shall we do now, shots or dancing?” she asked me. “My vote’s on shots,” she decided for us, as she pulled me toward the bar.

“Who wants a shot?” she shouted to everyone. Tommy didn’t once detach his lips from his slut, but lifted one hand off her tit and raised it in the air to show that he was part of the round. I held my hand up as well and waved it enthusiastically like a little kid, afraid that she’d miss me even though I stood right next to her.

“I’m good, thanks, sweetheart,” Mac answered.

“Me, too,” agreed Albie, shaking his blond head no.

“Well, count me in, baby,” Kieran hollered, looking at Nikki dangerously.

“Arsehat?” Nikki asked Ryan.

“For fuck’s sake, Nikki. I have a name, use it!” he grumbled. She rolled her eyes at him.

“Okay, don’t get your knickers in a knot.”

“Don’t you think you’ve had enough?” he asked her.

“Who are you, my mum? Do you want a shot or not?”

“Fine!” he all but screamed at her.

O’Connell and Kieran grinned openly at the pair of them. You could cut the sexual tension between them with a knife. It was only a matter of time before they either kissed or killed each other. Nikki brought the tray of shots over and handed them out. Tapping our glasses together, we threw them back like pros. I fought the shiver that ran through me as the liquid hit the back of my throat.

“This has been such an awesome night. Thanks for inviting me, Con,” Nikki screeched at O’Connell, while squeezing me like a rag doll. I could feel the bile rising up in my throat as she did it.

“No problem, Nikki. It’s been pretty cool hanging out with some of Em’s friends. We should do it again sometime,” he answered.

Everyone except Ryan seemed pleased at the suggestion. I did feel a little sorry for him. Having his masculinity threatened by all these God-like men might not have been so bad if Nikki was acting a little nicer toward him. Right now, though, I had bigger things to worry about, as the churning in my stomach seemed to get worse.

“O’Connell?” I whispered, tugging gently on his shirt as I clutched my stomach with the other hand. “I don’t feel well.”

“What’s wrong, baby?” he asked with concern.

I opened my mouth to answer him when my stomach rolled over. Losing all control, I vomited down the front of his shirt.

I TRIED NOT TO CRY as my stomach emptied itself repeatedly. For one brief and glorious moment, I’d feel better, then my stomach would churn, and I’d vomit all over again. Even when there were no fluids left inside me, I was still going, retching so much that my stomach hurt.

“Make it stop, please,” I begged O’Connell, as he held back my hair. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear amusement in his voice or even censure. It was the least that I deserved, but he seemed genuinely concerned for me.

“Sunshine, if I could take your place, I would. But it will stop soon, I promise.”

With his free hand, he rubbed big comforting circles on my back, and I slumped against his enormous frame.

“I don’t deserve you. I get blind drunk on my first real taste of alcohol, vomit all over you then spend the rest of the night showing you exactly what I had to eat yesterday. And you’re still here.”

He chuckled as he let go of my hair and reached up to wet a washcloth in the sink. Squeezing out the excess water, he placed the cool compress over my eyes.

“Ahh, that feels so good,” I moaned in relief, as it shielded my poor retinas from the blinding bathroom light.

“Before I met you, this was pretty much my typical weekend morning. I hate that you’re feeling shitty, but I kind of like the fact that you felt comfortable enough to get drunk with me. I know you wouldn’t have let down those barriers of yours if you didn’t think I’d protect you.”

“That’s important to you?” I asked him curiously.

He removed the compress and looked into my eyes.