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Dougie and Nick were both postgrads.”
    That explained the sense of seething hostility she’d felt aimed toward her boss in the bar yesterday.
    “It must have been awful. Can you imagine?” Moisture gathered in the corner of Leanne’s eye.
    Susie was mortified by how badly she’d misjudged Nick Archer, and how badly she’d wanted to misjudge him.
    “I couldn’t bear the thought of losing Dougie.” A tear ran down Leanne’s cheek, but she scrubbed it away. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m so emotional these days.” There was a pause. “You don’t think I’m pregnant, do you?”
    Envy made Susie’s insides twist, but she pushed away the ugly emotion and peered at Leanne’s ultra-skinny frame.
    “You’d know better than me. Have you had unprotected sex in the last six months?” She wiggled her brows as Leanne mentally tallied the probability of being pregnant.
    “Oh, yeah . As often as possible!” Leanne pushed the wine to the back of the counter, wet tears spiking her lashes. “Looks like we’re on the wagon until I know for sure.”
    “Not me. Hey, give me that!” Susie grabbed a glass, poured herself a healthy dose of red wine and took a fortifying gulp. If she couldn’t be pregnant she could at least enjoy the benefits of being not pregnant. And numb the grief.
    Leanne faked annoyance, the skin between her eyebrows crinkling even as her eyes shone. “How can you not support me during my maybe pregnancy?”
    “When you find out for sure I’ll consider it. Although you being over-emotional isn’t exactly proof.” Susie snickered. Despite her brains and street smarts, Leanne was a soft touch. “Anyway, you get to have sex whenever you want with a gorgeous man who loves you. No way I’m giving up alcohol as well as abstaining from sex.”
    It took a moment but Leanne and Susie grinned at each other.
    “And if I’m going to be nice to Nick Archer, I need something stronger than OJ.” Susie took another swallow of wine, absorbing the alcohol across her tongue, aware the nice convenient barrier to her attraction had been swept away like a stick over Niagara Falls.
    Nick Archer was not the type of man Susie wanted to get involved with. She was done with bad boys. She was going to fall in love with a nice, easygoing man and have a comfortable, relaxed relationship and make babies. She was done with wild and destructive, no matter how good looking.
    “If you drink lots of wine maybe you won’t have to abstain from sex.” Leanne jiggled her brows.
    Knowing any reaction would be willfully misconstrued, Susie shrugged noncommittally, but Leanne wasn’t put off.
    “Here—” Leanne grabbed the bottle, tipped it into Susie’s nearly full glass. “Let me top you up.”
     
    Lily was building a Guinness, tilting the glass beneath the beer tap and taking her time despite the Saturday night melee. Noise was a physical wall bombarding her eardrums, the bar a battlefield of bodies. Outside, October ravaged the coast, the wind coming off the North Sea like an open blast-freezer. But in this cramped oasis of beer, darts and slot machines, it was as hot as Venus and sweat trickled between her breasts like blood from a nicked vein.
    The manager, Niall, caught her eye and gave her a nod to take her break. She gave him a smile, watched the light in his eyes turn hungry.
    He fancied her, but she was not going there. Getting it on with the boss was icky. On cue, Rafael Domenici strolled up to the bar, lounging across it with the assurance of the bold and the beautiful, waiting for her to serve him.
    In your dreams, pal.
    She ignored him, gave the regular his pint and change, and headed through the flap at the end of the bar. She pushed through the mass of sweaty bodies to the backroom, heavy Latino eyes on her back, tracking her progress.
    No doubt about it, Rafael Domenici was a good-looking guy and she wasn’t immune to hotties, but she’d rather get it on with a goat than get involved with