I had a few hard limits—like taking advantage of drunk girls. And I had a feeling she was well past the point of tipsy.

She made a face like I’d insulted her. “What, are you gonna breathalyze me?”

“Should I? You seem pretty wasted.”

“Maybe a little.” Bailey swayed on the spot, confirming my suspicions that she was significantly more intoxicated than she had been during our earlier encounter. Grabbing the edge of the bar, she braced herself, looking down at the surface. “Okay, maybe more than a little. That last shot is hitting me hard.”

“Do you want a glass of water?”

“No, I think I want to leave.” Her lips folded into a frown. “I’m getting tired.”

Pretty sure “tired” was code for the spins, but I wasn’t rude enough to call her out.

“Your friends look a little occupied.” I nodded in their direction, where Tyler and Zara were dirty dancing in the corner of the dance floor, accompanied by Noelle and our third-line center, Gabe. “Should I go break it up so they can leave with you?”

Bailey glanced over and paused, brow crinkling. “No…I don’t want to ruin their night.” She hiccupped. “I’ll get an Uber.”

In other words, she’d rather ruin my night than Zara and Noelle’s, because there was no way I’d let her leave by herself. I’d be surprised if she even made it home.

“You can’t leave here alone.”

“Sure I can,” she said, grabbing her purse off the bar. “Watch me.”

I shook my head. “I’ll come with you.”

“Because you want to get me into bed?” She gave me a coy smile and tripped over her own feet. I caught her elbow, steadying her.

“No, because I want to make sure you don’t die.”

She shrugged, tossing her long blond hair over her shoulder. “Eh, works for me.” She pulled out her phone and typed a quick text. A moment later, from over on the dance floor, Zara checked her phone and glanced up, looking in our direction.

Bailey waved at her friends, pointing to the exit and mouthing, “Bye.”

Noelle shot her a questioning look, gesturing as if to say “what gives?”

Bailey waved her off and gave her a thumbs-up, which seemed to pacify her.

“They’re okay with you leaving with me?” I asked.

“Oh, I told them who you are,” she said. “If anything happens to me, they’ll know who did it.”

Drunk logic for sure, but whatever worked.

6. not tonight

CHAPTER 6

NOT TONIGHT

Chase

Was Bailey always this clumsy, or was this a by-product of how much alcohol she’d consumed? Either way, I had to catch her three times before we managed to exit the club, one of which was a close call after some drunken idiot plowed into her.