Three Wicked Wishes by Raina James

Author:Raina James
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Published: 2012-10-30T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

“Where have you been?”

Cassie dropped her bag over the corner of the ladder-back stool and shrugged off her coat. “God, don’t ask,” she said, eyeing the fishbowl-sized margarita Michelle cradled in her small hands. Like the younger woman, she raised her voice to be heard over the sound of the energetic band playing classic rock on the club’s small stage. “Please tell me you ordered one for me.”

As the words left her mouth, a grinning waiter leaned around Cassie to flip down a coaster with all the flash of an Atlantic City blackjack dealer. He set a salt-rimmed margarita glass on the coaster and produced a small dish of roasted soybeans with a flourish.

Cassie seized the glass. “Thanks, Rick. You’re a prince.”

His grin was a blend of boyish charm and manly sex appeal that made Cassie briefly wish she went for younger men. In some ways, it would be simpler than pondering the impossibility of a relationship with the man she really wanted. She pegged Rick at a very tempting twenty-two. Simpler, but that kind of relationship came with its own set of problems.

“Anytime, doll,” he said, oblivious of her speculations about his potential as a no-strings hookup. “Michelle told me to have it ready as soon as you walked in the door.”

“Then you, m’dear, are a princess.”

Michelle winked and popped a soba bean in her mouth. “What are friends for?”

Cassie lifted her glass in a toast and took a long, deep gulp of the tangy drink—and gasped as the extra jolt of alcohol hit the back of her tongue. “Whoa! That’s got some kick! Absolutely perfect. But how’d you know I’d need it?”

“Ah, well…” Michelle looked helplessly at Rick. Since he had smarts to go with his sexy smile, he leapt into the conversational breach.

“Can I get you ladies anything else?”

“The appetizer platter?” Michelle looked at Cassie, but didn’t wait for agreement before hurrying on. “Yeah, the appetizer platter. And the dessert platter.”

Rick gave a silent whistle. “Wow, the big guns. You got it.”

As he walked away, Cassie stared at her friend with raised eyebrows.

“First the high-octane margarita, now the appetizer platter and the dessert platter? For just the two of us?” She narrowed her eyes. “All right, Sharpe, spill. What’s going on?”

Michelle worried her lip with her teeth. Cassie continued to stare. Michelle relented with a whoosh of held breath. “Okay. All right, I’ll talk. But please don’t kill the messenger.”

Cassie felt a sinking sensation in her stomach. Straightening in her chair, she carefully set her margarita aside and folded her hands on the table in front of her. In a deliberately calm tone, she said, “I promise I will kill you if you don’t start talking. You’re giving me the heebie-jeebies as it is.”

Michelle took a long swig of her own drink before blurting, “It’s Amber.”

Deliberately, Cassie loosened the white-knuckled tangle that had been her folded hands. “I should have known. I guess it was too much to hope that messing with my files was all she was up to.

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