A loud pop drew my attention and I blinked over to where Henry and Will had uncorked a bottle of champagne. “Show of hands for those of us who think Bennett just needed to rub one out in the bathroom,” Will said, offering me a glass of champagne. I waved it off, waiting instead for a real drink at the restaurant.

“We did just leave a strip club,” Henry said, protective-brother mode in full force. “Cut the man some slack.”

I worked to keep my expression neutral. Will and Henry didn’t know the girls were here, but they were eerily close to the mark.

“Henry’s right,” I cut in, surprised to find myself defending Bennett for deserting us to go shag his fiancée during the first night of his stag weekend. “Maybe he just needed a moment. The man is notoriously ruled by his dick.”

“Ha!” Will barked. “I love the implication that you’re any different.”

It didn’t matter that he was right, and since meeting Sara I’d thought of practically nothing else beyond what she was doing, what she was wearing, and of course, where I could fuck her. The side of me that loved to argue with Will couldn’t resist responding. “I’ll admit that Sara takes up a great deal of my thoughts—” I began.

“Understandable,” Will interrupted, giving me a knowing glance.

“But,” I continued, ignoring him, “I’m perfectly capable of keeping my head in the game when necessary.”

Unfazed, he hummed and topped off his drink, settling back into the supple leather seat. “Yes. Clearheaded businessman like yourself, never dream of shirking responsibility or, let’s say . . . friendship, for a woman.”

I nodded warily, sensing a trap.

“And when you missed picking me up after my flight back from China because you had an ‘emergency,’” he said, using air quotes, “which of course means getting sucked off by Sara in the back of your car in the airport parking lot, that was keeping your head in the game.”

I felt the weight of Henry’s congratulatory slap across my back. “You sly son of a bitch,” he said.

I winked at Henry, knowing Will was far from done.

“And when you ditched me with three of the most boring clients on the planet for two hours because you were fucking Sara in the library at James’s house—that also was keeping your head in the game. Yeah, Ryan could really take a lesson and stop thinking with his cock.”

“I think you’ve got it about squared,” I said, laughing.

“Just making sure,” he said with a charming smile, lifting his champagne flute to his forehead in salute.

We stopped at a light just beyond the Palazzo and although I was looking forward to the meal, I wished I’d had the idea to run to the “pharmacy” before Bennett did.