Wren blinked, and the others blinked as well, as Diana began kissing him.

She stood up on her toes and wrapped her arm around his neck, making sure that she pressed her lips against his. On a regular occasion, Wren would have kissed her back but they were in public! In front of the other girls... There was no way he could do it.

Dani pointed at them.

"Isn’t this incest?" the short woman said, and Diana pulled back before slumping down, making Wren catch her by the waist.

"Ehehe~" Diana said as she poked his nose. "Wren has such a cute kissable face... Hic."

Wren raised an eyebrow while Rita let out a sigh, running a hand through her hair.

"That’s how she is when she’s drunk... she’s very audacious, though I wouldn’t think she would kiss you." She said it almost apologetically but there was amusement dancing behind her eyes. "We’ll just chalk it up to a drunk mistake, Diana really will throw a fit once she wakes up tomorrow.

Wren let out a sigh of exasperation and turned to Leah. The young woman was giving him a weird look with her green eyes wide as she clutched her now-empty cup.

"K-k-kiss..." Leah said, thinning her lips. "Wren, isn’t that your first kiss?"

She was staring at him. He couldn’t tell exactly what she was thinking, but he was very sure that she wasn’t happy about it.

"Not exactly," Wren replied. He had kissed Priya twice after all though he wouldn’t say that out loud. "Still, it’s really a surprise to see Diana acting like this."

Leah opened her mouth, wanted to say something but the words died in her throat. She closed it again with her fingers tightening around her cup.

"Hic..." Diana murmured, still clutching onto him and looked toward the counter with starry eyes. "I want to drink more. Hehe~ My head feels so high."

"No more drinks for yo—"

"Bart..." Rita said, cutting him off cleanly with a smile that was far too composed for someone who’d been drinking.

She slid fifty credits in cash across the counter toward the bartender. "We’d like to play the Rustic Wheel."

Wren closed his mouth.

"Oh, Mom?" Dani turned with a surprised look on her face. "You play the Rustic Wheel as well?"

"Of course I do..." Rita replied while leaning forward. "It’s the best way to get the most out of this place hehe~"

Leah glanced between them. "What’s the Rustic Wheel?"

Rita didn’t even need to answer, because Bart was already moving.

The heavyset man ducked beneath the counter for a moment, and when he straightened, he heaved a large brass wheel up onto the bar top with a deep thud that rattled the cups.

The wheel was gorgeous in an over-the-top sort of way with glowing neon accents ran along its edges and it featured dozens of tiny slots but three sections stood out, highlighted and impossible to miss: The Dealer’s Choice, Double Trouble and King’s Ransom.

Before Bart set the wheel down fully, his hands moved smoothly to collect the cups from the counter... stacking them off to the side efficiently with a smile on his face.

"What do these even mean?" Leah asked, raising an eyebrow.

Bart cleared his throat, adjusting his chef’s hat.

"First is the Dealer’s Choice." He tapped the first section while Wren sighed, this would be the second time he was hearing the definitions of these things. "If it lands here, you give up all control. I ignore the menu completely and craft something based on your vibe... your look or your mood tonight. It could be smooth or it could be dangerous, it depends on what you’re giving me."

He moved his finger to the next.

"Double Trouble locks two people into a shared session in two stages... it comes with a pair of awakening shots first, then a shared drink in one bowl and you don’t have to be a couple as well, friends can drink too."

He tapped the last one. "King’s Ransom is the rarest one. I ring the bell, you get a limitless tab for sixty minutes but you cannot step away from the bar rail for the full hour... You’re the King. Every five minutes, you pick one guest to receive a drink on your tab so that makes you the center of the room."

Leah absorbed this slowly then she reached back and pulled out her locket... the one Wren had gifted her for her birthday last year letting it catch the light.

"I think I’ll play," she said. "I have a bit of a lucky charm."

She glanced over at Wren as she said it but Wren didn’t notice. He was completely focused on keeping Diana upright.

"Hehe! I do hope one of you lands on King’s Ransom..." Bart said warmly, clasping his hands together. "You need to enjoy everything Harlow has to offer and a lot of drinks too."

Diana’s head snapped up at that. The older woman’s eyes glittered like she’d just heard the most exciting news of her life.

"More drinks?!" She slipped right out of Wren’s arms and planted herself onto the edge of the table leaning forward with an expression of pure want.

’Are all the women in this town drunks, or what?’ Wren couldn’t help but think. It was the same with Cara, the same with the rest of them... and now even Diana.

He looked at her, bright-eyed and flushed and entirely too cute about the whole thing, and felt his resistance crumbling at the edges.

"Don’t worry, Diana..." Rita said pleasantly. "If you roll Double Trouble, you can drink together with Wren."

Diana’s eyes sparkled and Wren opened his mouth but Rita had already placed her hand on the wheel and sent it spinning.

The brass wheel whirred loudly, generating a small gust of wind as the pointer flicked past slot after slot in a blur of neon and gold.

The whole table leaned in slightly, watching it slow... tick, tick, tick and then stop.

Dealer’s Choice.

"Alright, Bart." Rita spread her arms wide. She was wearing a singlet and long black trousers, looking relaxed and completely unbothered. "Lay it on me... Give me a drink according to my vibe."

"On it." Bart adjusted his chef’s hat with the gravity of a man accepting a serious commission. He turned to his counter and began working... he lifted bottles and shook them getting to work and in a minute, he presented the glass to Rita. "Here... You’ll enjoy it."

Rita accepted it without hesitation, sipped, and her expression eased into something satisfied. She gave a small nod of approval and Bart received it like a compliment.

"Who else wants to spin?"

Leah tucked her locket away.

"I suppose it wouldn’t hurt." She reached into her pocket, placed a fifty-credit note on the counter, and when Bart presented the wheel she wrapped her hand around the edge and gave it a good spin.

It moved fast. The neon blurred and the pointer flew past all of the options twice... and then slowed before stopping.

Double Trouble.

"Oh, that’s quite impressive," Rita said, setting her cup down. "Now you and one other person are locked into a two-round session."

She looked between the table with the air of someone making a very natural suggestion. "Why don’t you drink with Dani?"

"Ugh... why would I drink with her?" Both girls said it at exactly the same time and they turned to look at each other.

Dani’s jaw was tight. If she had known that Leah was going to be another love rival, she wouldn’t have directed her here at all. Leah, on her side, was busy thinking exactly how close Dani seemed to be to Wren and wondering, with a feeling she didn’t want to examine too closely whether he was into shorter girls.

"To commemorate your friendship, of course..." Rita said serenely. She slid her cup toward Bart. "Pour me another shot, please."

Bart obliged, filling her cup to the brim while she pulled it back.

"My daughter needs more friends like you." she added, looking at Leah.

Leah sighed. She looked over at Wren who was still managing Diana and then back at Dani. "Alright, Bart. Please pour us the awakening shots."

"As you wish."

Bart brought out two small shot cups, uncorked a fresh bottle, and poured with a steady hand. The liquid inside was pale gold and looked entirely innocent but it was not innocent.

Leah found that out roughly four seconds after she downed it when the warmth detonated behind her sternum and spread outward in every direction.

She coughed once into her fist and across from her, Dani blinked rapidly at the ceiling. Neither of them said anything for a moment then Bart slid a wide bowl between them with two straws already in place.

"Bon appétit." 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Leah and Dani looked at each other then, with the mutual resignation of two people who had no real choice in the matter, they each leaned forward and took a straw.

"Would you two like to use the wheel as well?" Bart asked, looking toward Wren and Diana.

Diana materialized at Wren’s side before the sentence was even finished, grabbing his arm and pressing it between her hands.

"Wren~ Wren~" She tilted her head up at him, doing the eyes... those big soft puppy eyes. "Let’s use the wheel and roll some drinks~"

Every single objection Wren had assembled crumbled instantly.

’She looks so—’

"Sure," he said.

Bart pushed the wheel across to their section of the table.

"This one’s on the house..." He said simply, and Wren didn’t argue with that either.

"Thank you, Bart~" Diana said brightly, manners intact even through the haze of alcohol. She straightened up, focused on the wheel and gave the wheel a decisive spin.

It was a good spin. It went fast, the neon a continuous blur of colour as the pointer chattered against the slots then it slowed... slowed some more and stopped on a gleam of gold.

King’s Ransom.

The light above the bar lit up as Bart seized the small brass bell behind him and swung it through the air in one clean arc as the sound cut through the music like a blade. The DJ faded his track and the bar quieted.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Bart announced, shouting so his voice filled the room. "The wheel has spoken! Diana the Goddess has rolled King’s Ransom!"

The cheer that went up was immediate and enthusiastic. Diana raised one hand over her head, gracious and radiant and only slightly swaying.

"And as the King..." Diana declared, "everyone gets a free drink!"

Another roar, it was louder this time with someone at the back started clapping rhythmically and others picked it up.

"That’s not exactly how the thing works..." Wren said.

"Why not?!" Bart bellowed, laughing, and spread his arms wide to match the crowd’s energy.

The cheers surged again, and several people near the bar were already leaning in to claim their drinks before anyone had changed their mind.

Wren rubbed his face.

He looked at Diana, who was absolutely glowing... flushed and happy and thoroughly pleased with herself as Bart began filling glasses around the bar like it was a celebration, which apparently it now was.

"Bart," Diana said, leaning against the counter and settling her chin in her hand. "Pour me a good one."

"As you wish, King."

He made it properly this time, with actual effort which was a deep purple drink presented in a wide glass that caught the light. Diana accepted it with both hands, looked at it for a moment, then looked at Wren then she stood up straight, tilted her head back, lifted the glass high, and poured.

The drink came down in a shining arc, and Diana caught it with her mouth open... or mostly. Some of it missed.

It ran down her chin, trailed across her throat, soaked into the fabric of her top and clung there with the material going translucent against her chest, highlighting every curve beneath it. She swallowed and lowered the glass with a breath that came out as a satisfied little sound.

Wren stared.

Diana turned to him with that soft, glittering look in her eyes and then turned back to the counter with a smile on her face as she told Bart to pour her another.

Wren exhaled through his nose.

’I might need to purchase a bottle before we leave...’ he thought while watching her settle back against the counter. ’For research purposes of course.’

...

The table they moved to was tucked slightly to the side of the main floor... not so far that they were isolated, but far enough that the noise dropped to a manageable level.

Diana had claimed the seat next to him before anyone else could even think about it, and now she was sitting with her feet swinging above the floor, kicking gently against the base of the other chair several hours later.

"Diana," Wren said, hand moving in slow circles against her back. "How does your head feel?"

"I Hic... feel okay," she replied, then turned to look at him with an expression that was very earnest. "Why won’t you kiss me?"

"Because we’re in public..." he said. He leaned close, dropping his voice so it was just for her with his breath near her ear. "You don’t want weird looks tomorrow."

Diana’s brow creased slightly thinking about this.

"But when we get home," he added, "I’ll give you all the kisses you want."

Her face transformed. The furrow smoothed out, her eyes lit up, and she brought out her pinky finger with a solemnity that was absolutely at odds with her current state.

"Pinky promise?"

Wren linked his pinky with hers and they shook on it.

Diana beamed.

He glanced over toward the stage. Leah and Dani had made it up there at some point... both of them flushed from the shared bowl and other drinks and now they were dancing freely up there.

’Thinking about it, I don’t really know how to dance.’

Next the music stopped as the DJ began speaking.

"Alright, Harlow... you’ve been warm tonight, but warm isn’t good enough."

A few cheers from the crowd.

"We’ve had royalty roll King’s Ransom, we’ve had iron broken, we’ve had awakening shots and shared bowls and I know some of you are still holding back so here’s what we’re going to do. The moment I drop this next track and it’s going to hit! I want every single body in this room moving! Man, woman, I don’t care! You came to Harlow tonight, which means you already agreed to have a good time so don’t make me come down there!"

Somebody near the front hollered and others joined in.

"Let’s go!"

The beat dropped.

It was the kind of song that didn’t give you a choice.

The crowd responded like they’d been waiting for exactly this as the floor filled almost immediately with everyone moving their bodies and even some guy shaking his trousers so hard that Wren could see the outlines of his dick from where he was.

’Who the hell dances with a hard-on too?’ He thought with a sigh and then he felt a hand close around his.

"Come on!" Leah had appeared at his side looking slightly breathless with a flush on her face as she tugged at his arm with both hands. "We should go dance!"

Before Wren could respond, his other hand was seized.

Diana had taken hold of it and pressed it firmly against her chest, looking up at him with an expression that brooked absolutely no argument. "Wren should dance with me."

"He’s dancing with me... You’ve had him all to yourself since!" Leah said.

"Me."

"Me."

Both of them pulled and Wren planted his feet on instinct, bracing against the floor with his eyes wide as he looked from one side to the other.

"Uh... girls? Please don’t rip me apart."