Unfiltered & Undressed (The Unfiltered Series) by Payge Galvin, Meg Chance Read Free Book Online Page B

differently than they did her.
    By the time the cab driver deposited me in front of The Dunes, I felt halfway hot, which was saying something considering I’d been dressed for Dumpster-diving less than half an hour earlier. I could feel the eyes on me even before I reached the door, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Maybe Emerson had been right. Maybe I really did need a night out.
    When I passed my fake ID to the bouncer, my heart pounded extra hard—the way it always did—until he gave me the green light—which they always did. I slid it back into the small gold purse I carried, right next to the plain white envelope I’d stuffed inside.
    Emerson was waiting for me inside the door, and when she wrapped her arms around my neck, I could already taste the Fireball on her breath. “Shot!” she shouted in my ear, and from out of nowhere, someone was handing me the same drink she had.
    I downed the cinnamon whiskey, wondering for the millionth time why Emerson loved it so much. Making a face as it burned a path down my throat, I asked. “Can I get a beer now?”
    Em giggled. “Of course!” She took my hand and placed it in some guy’s, but not like a handshake. It was more like she was making the two of us hold hands. “Zane,” she shouted, because it was even louder tonight than it had been the first time I’d been here. Music was pulsing and the people were jammed together. “Lauren wants a beer. Go get her one!”
    Zane, who was apparently the guy whose hand I was holding, flashed me a gorgeous smile, and it might’ve been the Fireball talking, but there was a little bit of that panty-thing again—the one where the California boys started fires down there. He pressed his free hand to his chest and did a little bow. “I’m Zane,” he explained, in case I’d missed the part where Emerson had screamed his name in my ear. “Apparently, I’ll be your personal butler this evening.” It didn’t escape my notice that he hadn’t yet released my hand.
    It also didn’t escape my notice that his eyes had wandered several times to my chest, not that it surprised me— the girls were barely contained in the little blue number with the deep-V I’d pilfered from Emerson’s closet.
    “You don’t have to do what she says, you know?” I nodded toward Emerson, who was rounding Lucas up and dragging him toward the dance floor, her obligation to me complete now that she’d found someone to fulfill my drinking needs.
    He grinned, leaning close in a hush-hush kind of way. “To be honest, she kind of terrifies me. I’ve never seen a girl wrap Lucas around her finger the way your friend has.”
    I laughed. “You must be the roommate.”
    “Guilty,” he admitted, while his thumb moved over the back of my hand. He held my gaze like he was trying to hypnotize me, and I wondered if I shouldn’t clue him in that I was only in this for Emerson’s sake. His seduction moves—while not half-bad—were being wasted on the wrong girl.
    I lifted a brow. “About that beer…”
    “I wouldn’t want to keep you waiting.”
    We waded through a sea of bodies until we reached the bar. The dark-haired bartender spotted us first, giving me a nod. “Hey, Body Shot! What can I get ’ya?”
    “Corona,” I answered, pretending I didn’t just feel Will’s eyes shoot my way from where he was working at the other end of the bar, or that I hadn’t noticed the cluster of girls converged there, just for him.
    From behind me, Zane’s hand landed just above my hip.
    “Make it two!” Zane called out to the girl behind the counter as he dropped the money for both our drinks on the countertop.
    My cheeks burned as I recalled the last time I’d been here, at this very bar— on this very bar —with Will’s lips roving over my skin.
    Whatever humiliation I felt, I needed to get over it. I needed to make peace with Will if my plan was going to work.
    Taking a breath and forcing my gaze upward, I glanced Will’s way. But he