Page 79 of Craving Paradise
I take a couple of moments to regain the ability to move. I bend down and pick up my T-shirt and wipe my hand clean before grabbing my track pants and putting them back on. Lauren is doing the same. She’s thrown her vibrator onto her bedside table and picks up her T-shirt and underwear.
“Thanks for that,” she says, picking up the phone and bringing it to her.
“No, thank you. Didn’t know I needed that.” I lay back down feeling exhausted. “What are your plans now?”
“I’m going to finish watching my unboxing videos. Wanna watch?”
“I’ll watch one because I’m fucking curious.”
Lauren giggles and grabs her laptop, and I grab mine. She texts me the link to what she’s watching, and I type it into my browser. It brings it up, and I set the video to mute so I can hear her.
“You ready?” she asks.
“I think so.”
An hour later, and I know way more about fucking handbags than I did before.
22
LAUREN
“Happy Birthday, bitch,” I scream as Elle walks into the VIP section of Minx. I asked my sister if she could hook me up with a booth tonight for Elle’s birthday since she works at the Ibiza club, and she came through. Everyone else wished her a happy birthday too.
“Thank you so much. I can’t believe you got us a booth here,” Elle exclaims to me, her eyes wide with excitement.
“I know people,” I say, bumping her arm.
Moments later, there’s a parade of women with sparklers on bottles of champagne dancing with a sign that reads ‘Happy Birthday, Elle’ on it.
“Oh my god,” Elle squeals, looking at the spectacle.
The girls dance around until the sparklers go out and then place the bottles in the champagne buckets in the middle of the tables.
We continue partying the night away with all our friends—some from the club and some from the real world. Elle is having a blast. She really needs this as she’s been working so hard. She is currently occupying herself with some hot French soccer player, his teammates have found their way into our booth, and she is currently sucking his face off in the booth.
A group of guys walk in laughing and joking together, grabbing my attention and take a seat in the booth next to us. They are dressed in suits, their egos and wealth dripping off them. You can see the women in the room begin to turn their heads and eye them off eagerly. My eyes drift across the men, each one equally as good looking until I’m met with those familiar forest-green eyes. They widen in surprise as they see me standing before him.
What the hell is he doing here tonight?
It’s not long until the dancing ladies are back with sparklers and bottles of alcohol and put on a performance for the guys. Jasper’s attention is pulled away from me for a couple of beats as he enjoys the gorgeous dancing girls. I grab the bottle of tequila and pour myself a shot, throw it back, and then excuse myself from the rest of the table. It’s not long until the dancing girls are gone that the other single women around the club begin to make their move. A group of beautiful women walk over to the boys’ booth and introduces themselves to them all. Jasper’s friends look excited by their new guests. If I have to be here and watch him with someone else outside of the club, I’m not here for it.
“I’m going to the loo,” I tell my table, but they’re all drunk and ignore me. I head down the dark corridor toward the bathrooms.
“Lauren,” I hear Jasper call out my name. I turn around and plaster a smile on my face.
“Oh, hi,” I say, giving him a wide bright smile.
Jasper’s eyes narrow on me. “I didn’t know you were going to be here.”
“Neither did I,” I bite back.
Jasper frowns at my tone.
“Just pretend I’m not here,” I tell him.
“That’s going to be hard when you’re the most beautiful woman in the room.” He steps into my personal space.
“Save that kind of talk to those bimbos at your table.”