“Well, thank you… but did I make it?” she asks me again .
I shake my head, confused .
“You said seven minutes,” she reminds me. Her triumphant smirk is charming, enticing, and begging me to compete. But compete in what ?
“Eight and a half, sorry,” I lie, pretending to look at my Rolex .
“Lies.” She rolls her eyes. “I know for a fact it was less than seven. So, Ethan Mercer, impress me! What you want to do with me ?”
I bite the inside of my cheek, not quite certain that she is ready to hear the answer to that question just yet. I feel a strange resistance. Normally, I would tell a girl exactly what was on my mind. But somehow, I feel like I need to be cautious here. After all, Ava doesn’t see me the way other women do. She’s not going to believe the whole Rolling Stone mystique .
“Let’s just go,” I say, letting her notice my eyes sliding over her bare skin, her round thighs, her dimpled knees. The tiny gold ring around her second toe .
My cock throbs in my pants, aching intensely. As she looks up at me, I have the urge to push against her, to hold her against the door and fuck her right here in this quiet hallway. I want her juices drying on my cock before the end of the day. The sensation is so vivid, I almost feel like it’s happened already .
But I’ll have to wait, at least a little while. I guide her back to the elevator, listening to the sound of our footfalls in the hallway. After sending a quick text to Perry, I’ve got an escape route diagrammed in my mind. We’re going to need to make this quick .
“Put your sunglasses on,” I advise her, just before the elevator doors open again on the main ballroom lobby .
“What? Why?” she asks me, but she does it just as the crowd turns around. I take her hand, tugging her toward the left-most doorway. The crowd of conference participants all seem to turn around at once, noticing us, noticing her hand folded in mine. I hear their gasps. But I don’t want to focus on that. I need to focus on her. She’s weathering it well, keeping up with me, squeezing my fingers tight. She keeps her head down just enough, with fringes of her hair flowing around her cheekbones. I hear a couple of cameras go off, but I’m fairly certain they couldn’t have gotten a good shot of her .
Within moments, we’re on the sidewalk, diving into the back seat of my Rolls with Perry closing the door immediately behind us, his voice muffled as he tells the crowd to back off, back off, leave me alone .
The Rolls pulls away immediately, leaving us breathless in the roomy, plush interior .
Ava pushes her sunglasses back up. Her eyes are wide and startled, the tip of her nose candy pink .
“What was that ?”
I shrug. “That was us, trying to get through a public space .”
She nods, looking away thoughtfully. “Is it always like that? Is everybody just… Do they always get in your business like that ?”
“Basically, yes,” I admit. “You get used to it .”
“I don’t know if I could ever get used to that,” she sniffs .
She reaches for her bag and opens it with her long fingers which I notice are trembling only slightly. After she rummages around for twenty or thirty seconds, I realize she’s just doing that to cover her nervousness. I reach out and stroke her golden, baby-soft knee .
“Really, it’s nothing,” I reassure her. “No one is going to follow us or anything. You are going to enjoy this .”
“Gee, Ethan,” she teases me, her eyes twinkling, “I’m going to enjoy it? Have you ever said those words to me before? Just try it? You’ll like it ?”
I settle back against the seat, enjoying the way she thinks she sees me .
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Ava .”
“Fireball shots ring any bells? Maybe that bowl you convinced me to smoke ?”
“Oh, I forgot about that,” I smirk. “I hope you never get a taste for pot, Ava. You’re terrible at it .”
“I don’t think I ever coughed so much in my whole life !”
“Peer pressure kills, you know,” I smile, remembering .
It wasn’t even my pot. It was her brother’s, freshly packed in a bowl, ready to go. Marijuana has never been my drug either, but something about her wide, innocent eyes made me want to antagonize her. I wanted to see if she would do it. I wanted to see her wrap her lips around the pipe, furrowing her brow as she concentrated on inhaling. She got a lungful of smoke like a champ, but then coughed so dramatically I thought she was going to throw up. Her eyes bleary and tear-streaked, her hands shaking. Even then, she didn’t want to give up. She was mortified .
But somehow, totally sexy. I can’t explain it .