Free Bite Me by C. C. Wood Page A

times.” That was mostly a lie.
    After our dinner at Concord, Conner met me at my apartment almost every night after work and stayed all night. He did take me out for a more casual meal on my next night off, but my schedule and his dictated that most of our time together was spent at my apartment. I was beginning to get upset that he had never invited me to his place.
    We had been spending tons of time together over the last ten days and not once had he asked me if I wanted to come to his home after work. While he didn’t act as though I was his dirty little secret, I mean he had introduced me to Asher Leroux, he still seemed content to keep me away from the more personal aspects of his life. Well, with the exception of one.
    All four ladies were staring at me with wide eyes and I realized that I had been sitting there staring off into space.
    “If your face is any indication,” Ricki said, “it’s a lot more serious than you just said.”
    I felt heat rising in my cheeks but ignored the blush. If I gave an inch, Ricki would have me singing like a canary before our next round.
    “I honestly don’t know if it’s serious, but I do know he is seriously hot.”
    The girls all leaned in. “How hot?” Shannon asked.
    “Details, woman!” This was from Ricki.
    I sucked back the last of my lemon drop and caught our waiter’s eye. I raised my glass and he nodded.
    “Well, he has the tall, dark, and handsome shtick down.”
    They all glared at me and I sighed.
    “Fine. He is tall, and he has long dark hair. It’s almost black and it nearly touches his shoulders. He has fantastic bone structure, but he’s not what I would call traditionally handsome. I guess the best way to describe him is that he’s all man. I swear testosterone drips from his pores.” I paused, but they were still looking at me expectantly, so I continued. “He has the most beautiful blue eyes. I’ve never seen anything like them.”
    The waiter arrived with my lemon drop and the rest of the girls ordered another round. I sighed in relief. Time to change the subject.
    “What about you, Ricki? How’s it going with Craig?” I asked.
    “Do not even get me started,” she said. Of course she continued, which made me smile as usual. “He’s a dog. A horny dog. I called him a few days ago and some woman answered. I didn’t freak because, hell, it could have been his mother or something. When I asked to speak to him, she went off. Asking me who I was and what I wanted. I told her I was Craig’s girlfriend, and it turns out I can’t be his fucking girlfriend because she is his girlfriend. I told her that was fine that I didn’t want his ass since he seemed to be happy to dip his dick into any skank that seemed interested.”
    “Wait, are you calling yourself a skank?” Kerry asked. Leave it to her to sneak in a smart ass remark when we least expected it.
    The entire table burst into gales of laughter. Even Ricki.
    The evening continued on that vein. As midnight approached, I’m pretty sure we ran our waiter ragged. He seemed a little wide-eyed as our conversation continued to become raunchier and probably too loud. At one point I thought we were going to be asked to leave the restaurant. Somehow Ivie had found a video of goats screaming. Within minutes, we all had the video downloaded on our phones and were playing them at top volume. When we saw the manager approaching the table, we were like a bunch of twelve year old boys with porn, desperately trying to stop the video or hide our phones. By this time, we were so tipsy that it was a useless endeavor.
    Fortunately the manager seemed amused by our antics rather than intent on kicking us out of his restaurant.
    “Good evening, ladies. I’m David, the manager. I just wanted to come by and see how everything was tonight.”
    We all nodded and assured him we were having a wonderful time. Shannon jumped as someone’s phone continued to play the sounds of screaming goats.
    As he walked away, I