"I hate to say it but I think I'm done for the night." I sat back against the leather seat in the booth we were occupying and gazed out at the crowd packed into the club. Shouts and laughter competed with the bass pumping from the speakers, and people were downing shots at the bar.
We'd been amongst the chaos on the dance floor earlier, but the heat and crush of bodies had become too much so we'd moved to a quieter corner away from the flashing lights.
"Whose idea was it to come here anyway?" I asked, glancing sideways at my best friend.
Katie snorted and tucked her shoulder-length blonde hair behind her ear. Her grey eyes filled with amusement as she lifted her glass to her lips. "I told you it wouldn't be the same anymore, Jess. The only clubs you're suited to now are the lawn bowls kind."
I laughed and reached for my cider. "We're the same age!"
"I know, but you married doofus over there." She pointed her glass at my husband, Nathan. He'd made himself at home on the bench seat opposite, a smile appearing on his face as he listened to our conversation. "And I'm single. That makes you old and settled while I can still get away with pretending to be young and carefree."
"Oh, is that right?"
She sent me a smirk then went about emptying her glass. I shoved her shoulder and put some work into emptying mine.
We'd come out tonight for my birthday, and what had originally begun as a gathering of nine close friends quickly dwindled to the three of us, just like the old days. Nathan had suggested a romantic dinner but I'd wanted to go out dancing to help chase away the almost-crisis I'd been entertaining over the thought of getting older. It was one thing to be thirty—I'd handled that milestone birthday pretty well—but to be in your thirties just felt like a whole different thing to me.
Nathan leaned in and rested his forearms on the table. "You want to go home?" he asked. "I'm ready when you are."
"No, she doesn't want to go home." Katie jabbed her elbow into my side. "Tell him."
"Ow!" I nursed my abused ribs and pressed my lips together, staring across at him as I considered my options. I could stay here surrounded by drunken strangers or head home with him so we could make our own fun. His dark hair appeared almost black in the dim light, and the way his blue eyes cruised lazily over me made the second option more appealing with each passing second. I knew it wouldn't take long to unfasten the buttons on his navy blue shirt and work my way down to the fly on his jeans. As soon as I got the zipper open and slipped my hand inside, he'd be hard and ready to go.
He raised his brows to prompt a reply and I shifted my attention to Katie, already feeling arousal warming my cheeks.
She spotted the expression on my face and rolled her eyes. "Oh, c'mon. He only wins because he has a dick."
I heard Nathan's laughter and sent Katie an apologetic look. "Well, can you blame me?"
She downed the rest of her drink and set her glass on the table with a clunk. "I've told you a hundred times, just give me the word and I'll make you forget all about him." She glared at Nathan but it only made him grin.
The two of them were always fighting or flirting. She was the only woman I'd ever let get away with talking to him like this, mostly because she didn't mean anything by it but also because I knew he loved the verbal sparring. "And I've told you a hundred times I'm not into women."
Katie had brought up her bisexuality in a conversation with me years ago then confessed her attraction to me not long after that. It had left me feeling awkward, flattered and a whole host of other feelings I didn't want to examine too closely back then. We both knew it wouldn't go anywhere and had managed to joke about it at the time, but she still made a point of reminding me every now and then what I was missing out on.
"I feel like it's one of those things you can't ever really know for sure unless you try it," she said.
"Yeah, I doubt that." I shoved my long dark hair over my shoulder and tugged the bodice of my strapless blue dress a little higher. "Sorry, but the thought of being with another woman makes my legs clamp shut—and I don't have to go bungee jumping to know it would make me pee my pants, or stand in front of a crowd to figure out that public speaking scares the crap out of me."
She laughed and slanted a glance at me. "So it's just the below-the-waist stuff that bothers you?"
"Mmm...I guess so." I looked her over slowly, taking in the black dress hugging her figure and the silver pendant dipping into her cleavage. Her full lips were painted red and I'd always thought she had the most beautiful eyes, so expressive and full of life. If I ever had a change of heart and decided to go there with a woman, I could do a hell of a lot worse than going there with her. It was just the thought of lying naked with her in a bed, parting her legs and moving in between them—my mind refused to head in that direction. "I'd maybe be okay with kissing. Boobs too, but the rest of it's just not my thing."
I glanced over at Nathan who appeared entertained by the conversation but wisely decided to keep his mouth shut. Neither he nor I were against the idea of adding another person in the bedroom, but his aversion to being intimate with a man and mine with a woman made it unlikely we'd ever experience that together.
"What do you think?" Katie asked, sliding her hand onto my thigh and squeezing as she quirked a brow at Nathan. "Do I have what it takes to unclamp your wife's legs?"
"How about I give you some pointers to improve your chances?" He sent me a quick smile that made me feel like laughing and smacking him all at the same time.
Katie had taken the inside seat when we'd claimed our booth. She smiled at Nathan's remark and leaned in close, pressing her breasts against my upper arm. "What about this idea? Would you be open to me doing things to you that I wouldn't expect to be reciprocated? Maybe expand your horizons, make the most of the dirty thirties, let me give you a birthday present you'll never forget...that kind of thing."
I wanted to laugh at the exaggerated hopeful expression on her face but my heart pounded and a flurry of butterflies filled my stomach. I drew a bracing breath as I tried to sort through my thoughts. How did we even get to this point? One minute I'd been feeling past my used by date then the next I had my best friend hitting on me—again.
My gaze flicked across to Nathan then returned to Katie. The scent of her flowery perfume drifted toward me. She sat so close that all I had to do was move forward a couple of inches in order to touch my mouth to hers. Her comment about experimenting during my thirties hit home and I had to admit it triggered a tiny amount of curiosity.
She appeared to forget about me for a moment and stared at a point somewhere over my shoulder, then I saw her mouth soften and her lips part. "Oh, wow," she said. My eyes narrowed and I turned to see what had inspired that reaction, discovering a blonde man and a woman with red hair leaning against the opening to our booth, kissing in a way that made me think they'd be looking for somewhere private pretty soon.
I noticed the man's hand slide up his partner's short skirt, the material bunching over his wrist and leaving her pink panties on display. His fingers swept around to the front and dipped into the elastic at the top of her thigh. The heat in the room seemed to climb a few degrees and I took a deep breath, holding it as I watched his hand begin to move.
I couldn't believe they were doing this right here in front of us. Katie swore softly beside my ear. Nathan followed our line of sight, his eyes widening at the view. We watched in silence as the woman's hips rocked against the man's stroking fingers, both of them lost in their own world while the noise and activity continued on around them. The idea of doing something like this in a crowded place caused a rush of excitement inside me.
Katie's hand moved higher on my thigh and my legs relaxed without me even being fully aware of the movement. I couldn't tear my gaze away from the couple. The woman tilted her hips and pushed closer to the man's body. They were both so into each other they didn't appear to notice or care that they had an audience.
I stole a quick glance at Nathan. His searing gaze sent warmth spreading through me. I looked back to the other man and noticed his fingers had picked up their pace. The woman's hips ground against him as their kiss grew in intensity. I shifted in my seat, uncomfortably aroused, watching as she pulled her mouth free and pressed it against his throat.
Her chest moved with her heavy breaths. He looked to be struggling, too. His head lifted and he swept his gaze over their surroundings as if he'd only just realised they were in a public place. His attention suddenly came to rest on me and my heart thumped so hard I could feel it without even touching my chest. Kissing her had left his lower lip moist and swollen. A slight smile crossed his face as he watched me. Our gazes remained connected until the woman finally let out a strangled cry, coming with a shudder against his hand.
I could feel Katie's breaths against my neck as the woman's knees wobbled. The man wrapped his arm around her to hold her steady, then kissed her cheek and spoke to her in a voice so low the words were drowned out by the music. Although the urgency had faded, they indulged in another long kiss, then while my breaths were still coming quickly and my pulse continued to race, he took her by the hand and led her away.
I watched in stunned silence as a group of rowdy guys filled the space they'd vacated. They stood with their backs to us watching the action on the dance floor, effectively blocking off the exit and our view of the rest of the club.
The couple's departure left me feeling restless and needing release. It had all felt so surreal that if my body hadn't been telling me otherwise I would have been convinced it had never happened. Beneath the table my legs spread even further and Katie's hand slid up the inside of my thigh, stroking my sensitive skin. I looked down in surprise to see it there.
