“I bought the penthouse and loved what you did with it.” Yet nothing prepared me for the face behind the project. The face gazing at me now. “I can assure you,” I say quietly, “I didn’t expect you to come rocking up, with your perfect figure”—fuck, that figure—“olive skin”—that’s wonderfully soft—“and big brown eyes.”That I get lost in each time I look at you.
“You weren’t exactly the Lord of the Manor I was expecting, either,” she says, her lips stretching. Is she remembering our first encounter? The chemistry? The intensity? I catch a slight roll of her shoulders. She’s remembering. “How did you know where I was on that Monday lunchtime when Ibumpedinto you at the bar?”
“Lucky guess.”I didn’t follow you there at all.
“Of course,” she huffs. She knows. It makes me smile.
“I couldn’t think of anything else after you left The Manor. I had to have you.”
“Do you always take what you want?”
Give it to her straight. Eliminate any room for doubt, just in case you haven’t already.“I can’t answer that, Ava, because I’ve never wanted anything enough to pursue it so relentlessly. Not like I wanted you.”
“And now you have me,” she whispers, her eyes moving to my lips. She wants to kiss me. “So,” she goes on, lifting her gaze to mine, “with the chase over, do you still? Want me, I mean.”
“More than anything.”
“Then I’m yours.”
Mine.Never has anything sounded so right, and when her eyes drop back to my mouth, I lazily lick my lip. She will beg for me. “Ava, you’ve been mine since you turned up at The Manor.”
“Have I?”
“Yes.” She knows it. I know it. The fates know it. “Will you spend the night with me?”
“Are you asking or demanding?”
“I’m asking,”Make the most of it.“But if you give me the wrong answer, I’m sure I can think of something to change your mind.” I’m rolling over all the ways right now, listing and filing them for future reference. Something tells me I’m going to need them.
“I’ll spend the night with you.”
Of course she’s spending the night with me, I can literally taste her want, and since she’s being so acquiescent, let’s see how far I can push this. “Tomorrow night?”
“Yes.”
Oh, she is making me a very happy man. She won’t regret it. “Take the day off.”
“No,” she fires quickly. I’ve reached my limit. Too bad for her, there is no limit. But for the sake of my sanity...
“What about Friday evening?” I need clear and concise arrangements between us.
“I’ve arranged to go out with Kate on Friday night.”
“Cancel.” It’s out of my big fat gob before I can hold it back, and she balks at my abruptness. I can’t abide the thought of her out drinking.That’s your problem, Ward. Not hers.
“I’m going out to have a few drinks,” she says with a pretty formidable glare. “You can’t stop me from seeing my friends, Jesse.”
Out for a few drinks? I’ve seen Ava after a few drinks. “How many is ‘a few drinks’?” I’ve said I’ll have afew drinksbefore. Next minute, I’m unconscious after fucking my way through The Manor.But she’s not you.
“I don’t know.” She looks so bloody confused by my twenty questions. “That depends on how I feel.”
She should take a leaf out of my book. Go T-total. It’s liberating. Refreshing. Knowing what I’m doing every second—even losing my fucking mind—is oddly nice. Shit, how do I deal with this? “I don’t want you out drinking without me,” I grate. Her safety is a good enough reason. The other reasons are of no consequence.
“That’s a bit of bad luck, isn’t it?”
Not really, baby, because you won’t be drinking.“We’ll see.” Is she smiling? She finds this funny? I stare her down, intent on maintaining the displeasure but, in truth, her sass drives me wild in more ways than one. It turns me on. How she tries to fight me. How she invites the inevitable, almost as if shewantsme to take charge. Fine by me.
“You like?” I hear Luigi say, but nothing would make me look away from the challenge in Ava’s eyes.