Silk and Thorne by L.K. Rayne

Author:L.K. Rayne [Rayne, L.K.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2018-11-08T16:00:00+00:00

Tit for Tat

After April left, I took a moment to compose myself. All I had to do was make it through one drink with Ethan to win the bet and then I’d be dining on juicy, marinated Korean BBQ this weekend. Besides, April, Giselle, and even Ethan thought that I deserved to take it easy for helping out. Who was I to argue with that?

I returned to Ethan's side of the bar. The drinks had not been prepared yet, as if Ethan had frozen the moment in time.

"Shall we continue where we left off?" he asked. His tone indicated that he never had a single doubt that I’d return. Where had Ethan learned such self-assurance? There was just something so infuriating about his demeanor that made me want to see him off balance for a change.

“Sure,” I said. I turned my attention to the bartender, "Mr. Thorne will enjoy his Cosmopolitan now."

Just because I was here to prove April wrong, didn’t mean that I had to put up with all of Ethan’s bullshit. I hadn’t forgotten his little power trip of making me order him a drink, and I wasn’t about to let him off the hook.

Without missing a beat, Ethan nodded and the bartender went to work. I noted with annoyance that the bartender had waited for Ethan’s go ahead instead of mine.

It only took a minute for the bartender to prepare the Cosmopolitan and pour the Glenn Mackay. He set them down on the counter in front of us before drifting away to attend to the other guests, leaving the two of us alone.

The Cosmopolitan was perfect. The pretty pink cocktail came in a slim wedge shaped glass with a slice of lime balanced on the rim.

Ethan considered what I’d ordered him, as if deciding his angle of attack.

Let's see him try to drink that like he was James Bond. I watched him carefully to see if I could find a chink in his armor of suave nonchalance.

Ethan swept his drink off the bar, his fingers wrapping powerfully around the thin glass stem. He flashed me an easygoing smile, and held the Cosmo up in a toast. "To the tamer of chaos.”

He means me. I’m the tamer of chaos.

I hadn’t thought about it that way, but if I had already tamed an impossible situation, then how hard could it be to tame Ethan Thorne for the duration of one drink?

Growing bolder, I motioned to the nearby banner of a tiger with the Conservation Fund logo on it and said, “To big cats.”

I grabbed my drink—the Glenn Mackay something-something year—like how I imagined a sophisticated man might, clinked my glass against Ethan’s, and took a gulp. My mouth instantly felt numb from the spiciness. I forced the liquid down without tasting it, which did little for the burning.

Grimacing, I pounded the glass back down onto the bartop and then turned away to cough into the back of my hand. Jeez, when was the last time I had hard liquor?

Ethan didn't seem to notice or pretended not to notice.

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