Burn For Him (6 page)

Remember the days when you used to go out without a coat, come rain or shine, rain or snow? The joys of being a teenager who got so steaming drunk that you never got affected by the weather. We didn’t let a little thing like ice get in the way of our partying. Now that I was getting older, I thought about these things more and more. It was quite depressing really, but at least I was warm.

Milligan’s didn’t look like anything too special from the outside. It was just your standard old warehouse that had been turned into a banging nightclub with only a single blue neon sign outside to tell you that you were in the right place. You could just about faintly hear the rapid bass every single time the main doors of the club opened up. The crowd outside were buzzing with anticipation and the fever was catching. It wasn’t only the cold that was making me eager to get inside those doors.

“I’m not waiting here any longer.” Destiny said suddenly and stormed away from us before I could utter a single word. I wondered what on earth she was doing, but with Dee, it could have been anything. She was unpredictable at the best of times.

Within a couple of minutes she was back and grinning at us as brightly as a Christmas tree. “Come on! We’re in!” She grabbed both our hands and dragged us off to the front of the line, me hobbling in the stupid heels she’d put me in. A lot of the others that were standing outside waiting impatiently huffed and puffed and threatened to blow our houses down, but Dee held her head up high and ignored them all.

She dragged us over to the doormen who were guarding the entrance. They gave us all a good once over, frowning slightly when they saw Harper with us, but nodded and pulled the rope to one side to let us in. Destiny grinned as we turned to walk through the main doors, eager to start her night out.

“Wait here a minute.” Harper said as he went over to pay the entry fee.

“This place looks amaaaaaaazing!” Dee said as she spun about in a small circle, taking in all of the black, white and silver décor. It did look rather swank and trendy in here and it put some of the other clubs in the city to shame. And, that was even before we got into the club itself. It was clear that someone had spent a fortune kitting this place out.

Harper came back over and the three of us walked up the flight of stairs to the main floor. As soon as the door was opened for us by yet another uniformed doorman, we were hit by a riot of lights and a bass line that thumped through our chests. It blew me away. This place was really out of this world and I was instantly glad that Dee had encouraged me to dress up a little more tonight. This place needed something special.

The club itself was built over three levels, plus several other rooms off to the side of the main room. We headed straight over to the closest bar. It swept around in a semi-circle, the chrome of the bar lit up by discreet spot lights, marking the way. Even though the place was already heaving, there were plenty of staff on hand and as soon as we stepped up to the bar, someone was there ready to take our order within a split second.

I saw Harper sneak a glance at Dee. We both knew what she was like. The atmosphere in here was affecting us all and we knew that she would find it hard to resist temptation. Dee leant over the bar to whisper in the bartender’s ear, making him laugh while he got an eyeful of her cleavage. Harper looked away in annoyance. I had to giggle to myself when the bartender brought over three bottles of water. Dee turned and stuck her tongue out at Harper, making me laugh even harder.

“Come on.” Dee said as she made a grab for the bottles, passing one to each of us. “Let’s go and check this place out.”

It was amazing. It was positively huge. It blew away every other club that I’d ever been to out of the water. I knew right there and then that we would soon become regulars of this place.

The other bonus was that Destiny was sticking to her resolve and was only drinking water. So far, so good. It meant that I wouldn’t have to spend all of my time worrying about her and could concentrate on having a good time myself. Harper also visibly relaxed, which was good to see, especially after what went down last weekend.

The music and atmosphere relaxed me and I rapidly found myself tapping my foot along to a familiar tune. In no time at all, I felt comfortable enough to take my jacket off and slung it over my shoulder. There were plenty of people in there that were wearing way less than I was and I knew that I looked good in it, so why not show it off?

“I’m just going to go and check out the bathroom.” Destiny shouted in Harper’s ear, grabbing hold of my hand and pulling me along behind her. Harper grinned and waved us off, knowing that it was some girly ritual to go to the bathroom in pairs.

No sooner had we walked away from him, a big breasted blonde had sidled up next to him. It didn’t surprise me one little bit. Harper always attracted plenty of attention wherever he went, especially tonight when he was dressed from head to toe in all black. I think one of the best things about Harper was that he really didn’t have the first clue about quite how attractive he really was. There wasn’t a shred of arrogance in him. Women loved him.

“Looks like someone’s going to be getting some tonight.” Destiny nodded her head back in his direction. I just laughed it off. Harper wasn’t into anything casual, but it was quite a while since he stopped seeing Lola, so you never knew. I would have to reserve judgment until I saw if anyone was joining us in the taxi home. Glancing back myself, they did look kind of cosy, though. The woman had squeezed herself in tight between him and the bar.

“Where are we going?” I said to her as we passed by the signs for the bathroom. She was heading in the opposite direction. I threw Dee a puzzled look.

Dee stopped for a moment and laughed. “That chick has been eyeing Harper up for the last thirty minutes. I thought it was only fair that we let her have a shot at him.”

I grinned back at her. Fair enough. I just hoped that Harper appreciated her little match-making efforts.

“So, where is it we’re really going, then?” I asked her again.

Destiny said something but I couldn’t hear her properly over the pounding music of the club. She shook her head at me and, knowing that talking was proving impossible, pointed over her shoulder to a roped off area at the top of some illuminated stairs. The VIP area? How the hell did she think she was going to get us in there? I felt some of my new-found confidence ebbing away from me.

“Come on. It’ll be fine. Trust me.” She replied with a cheeky sparkle in her eyes.

I gave her the look. It was the one that said that I would have to throttle her if she made the pair of us look like fools. I would have personally preferred to have gone back to Harper, but as Dee had said, I didn’t want to spoil his chances. It was always a sore point for any new girlfriend of his that he shared his home with another girl. It tended to put them off. I didn’t want to go back there and stop things in their tracks before they’d even started for him.

I had no choice. I had to follow Dee up those stairs. She was already half way up, smiling winningly at the doormen, who were standing menacingly guarding the closed doors to the VIP.

“Good evening, ladies.” One of them said, his eyes roaming their way over our bodies but he didn’t move to let us by. I groaned inwardly.

“Hey.” Dee turned all of her attention to the other doorman. “Louis! How are you?” She said enthusiastically as she leant forward to kiss him on the cheek, making sure that he got an eyeful down her top as she did it. I shouldn’t be shocked by anything she did these days. I wasn’t.

The poor guy looked totally stunned for a moment. “Um, yeah. It’s good to see you too.” He stuttered out a reply, his eyes glued firmly to her chest. The girl sure knew how to work it.

“Do you know these two, Louis?” The other guy asked him. Louis didn’t take his eyes off of Destiny, but managed to nod. The other one tutted slightly before opening up the barrier and then the doorway behind him to let us through.

“Thank you, Louis. You’re a total sweetheart. Good to see you again.” Destiny gushed at him as she moved passed him before turning her attention to the other guy, resting a blatant hand on his chest and trailing her fingers along his shirt. “And it was great to meet you.”

To give him his due, he didn’t rise to the bait. He didn’t even bat an eyelid at her. I could tell that he got plenty of girls playing up to him to get their way into the VIP rooms and he didn’t seem at all impressed that he had to let the two of us slip by. What was his problem? He should have just turned us away if he didn’t like it.

Destiny grabbed my hand to make sure that I was following her. When we got into the large VIP area, and well away from the doormen, we both burst out laughing.

“How the hell do you know him? Who is Louis?” I asked her.

Dee cracked up all over again. “He worked one night at a bar I used to work in. He spent the whole evening talking to my boobs. As soon as I saw him, I knew that we would be able to get in up here no problem at all.” She winked and grinned at me.

Trust Dee. She knew how to get what she wanted out of life. She was sober and still out making trouble.

“So, do we have any idea who is supposed to be in here tonight? Anyone I would have heard of?” I asked as I causally looked around. Well, as casual as I could muster. There weren’t any faces in there that I recognised as of yet. There were plenty of people sitting around the tables and wearing sunglasses in the dimly lit club, but again, they weren’t anyone that I easily recognised, just regular douchebags who thought that they were something special.

“I’m not sure, really.” Dee replied, peering around the room herself and looking a little disappointed after all the trouble she went through to get in there.

“Can I get you ladies something to drink?” A voice said from behind us. I whirled around and felt the breath catch in my throat.

Standing behind us was the best looking man that I had ever set eyes on in my entire life. He was simply mesmerising. With his dark closely cropped hair and rich penetrating blue eyes, I couldn’t tear my gaze away from him. I knew that it was rude to stare, but he didn’t seem to object too much. With sharply chiselled cheekbones and a five o’clock designer shadow that gently paraded across his jaw line, it wasn’t so much that he was out and out beautiful, but he was way much more than simply ruggedly handsome.

He was similar in build to Harper, but he had a few extra inches on him in height, making me crane my neck back to get a better look at him. I should have felt a fool, but I couldn’t help myself. He wasn’t smiling with his lips, but there was a certain sparkle in his eyes that told me that he knew exactly what I thought of him.

I felt Dee kick my ankle before she hissed at me. “Carrie? What the fuck is wrong with you? Act cool! Stop staring at him like that.” She turned to smile widely at the man in front of us, but he didn’t take his eyes off of me. I could feel the blush starting to creep its way over my cheeks. How embarrassing. I hadn’t really thought that I was being quite that obvious, but the look in his eyes told me that he appreciated what he was looking at just as much as I did.

“We’d love to have a drink. Thank you. Champagne, maybe?” Dee asked, clearly going for the most expensive option.

“And for you?” He kept his intense blue gaze on me and I felt my throat dry up. “You don’t look like a champagne kind of girl.” The way he said it, it was meant as a compliment and Dee rose her eyebrows at him, but he was taking no notice of her.

I finally found my voice and croaked out, “Just a bottle of water, please.”

“Why don’t you both take a seat and I will get someone to bring your drinks over to you.” He smiled at me finally and his whole face seemed to take on a kind of glow. I knew it was only me that was seeing it, but that smile lit up his face and made my legs feel like mush. I had never been so affected by a man like this before. It was disconcerting.

“You aren’t going to be joining us?” I asked him, suddenly finding my voice. It took a lot of courage for me to say those words and I could feel myself getting redder and redder by the second. It wasn’t like me to be quite so forward, but I couldn’t seem to hide my disappointment.

“No. Not just yet. I have a little business to take care of first. Hopefully, I will be able to catch up with you before you leave.” He replied in a voice that was low, husky and soft all at the same time. The voice fit the man like a glove.

“I’m Carrie.” My voice was barely a whisper, but he nodded in acknowledgement.

“I’m Destiny.” Dee shouted loudly, but he barely glanced in her direction.

“Hopefully I’ll be seeing you again soon, Carrie.” He said, capturing me in his gaze before turning and walking away.

“But, you didn’t even tell me your name!” I called after him. He glanced back over his shoulder and smiled. I knew that he had heard my question, but he chose not to answer it.

“Who the hell was that?” I turned and said to Dee as soon as we sat down at one of the tables that was placed next to the window wall, looking down at the main dance floor. I was still watching where he had disappeared through a door, even though he was long gone.

“That’s Milligan.”

“Who?”

“The owner of the club, you dummy!” she laughed at my stupidity.

Well, that kind of explained why he was walking around like he owned the joint. He did. But, it was more than that with him. You know when you get that pull from someone the very moment that you meet them? It’s more than just basic animalistic lust, and whatever it is, you can feel it right down to your very toes? Yes, that was definitely the effect that Milligan was having on me.