Chapter Fifteen

Mason

I could still smell the lush muskiness of Ella’s body when I woke up before I even opened my eyes. My body was humming from our encounters the night before, but that didn’t stop my eager cock from hardening again in anticipation of starting the day with another delicious fuck. I reached my hand toward the side of the bed toward her, but didn’t feel anything. My eyes snapped open and I looked over. That side of the bed was empty, the sheet and pillowcase still wrinkled where she had been. I ran my hand along the bed, seeking the heat of her body.

Maybe she just got up to go to the bathroom or get a cup of water.

But the bed was cold. She hadn’t been there in some time. I got up as fast as I could and pulled on my trunks. I crossed the room toward the window and looked out at the darkness of the early morning. There was just enough light for me to see the ground, but I didn’t notice anyone skittering from the building.

Holy shit. She’s gone.

I was stunned that Ella had left that way. I had never had a girl leave in the middle of the night without telling me, or without my encouragement, and I didn’t know how to process it. What I was more surprised about, however, was that I cared that she wasn’t there. I realized that I had actually been looking forward to seeing her in the morning and possibly spending some time with her before I had to leave for the day. That was a new feeling for me, something that made me feel off-balance and vulnerable.

I turned away from the window and looked around the room. My eyes fell on the dress that Ella had worn the night before, the shoes sitting on the floor just beneath it. I stared at it, the thought flickering through my mind that she didn’t have anything to wear on the way home. It occurred to me that I didn’t see the shirt that I had worn and wondered if she left wearing just that. The thought sent a shiver through me and I wanted to find her even more.

The tight schedule that I had for the day looming over me, I took a shower and dressed. Foregoing breakfast as to not waste even another minute, I rushed out of the apartment and down the steps in the back of the lobby, not wanting to wait for the elevator. I approached the front door to the building just as the sun was coming up and saw the doorman give me a smile far wider and brighter than the early hour warranted.

“Good morning, Mr. Dupree,” he said in his boisterous, cheerful voice.

“Good morning, George,” I said.

“You certainly got that girl out early this morning. You are cutting down your time.”

He said it with a laugh, but it made my heart thud painfully.

“You saw her leave?” I asked.

George nodded, his smile fading slightly as he seemed to notice the tension in my voice.

“Yes,” he said. “I hadn’t even gotten out here for my shift yet. I saw her coming out of the elevator and running across the lobby. Of course, I would be running, too, if I was wearing as little as she was. What did you do, confiscate her clothes?”

Oh, dear lord. She really did leave wearing nothing but my shirt.

“What was she wearing?”

“A pair of heels and what looked like one of your overcoats. Bare legs.”

Not quite as bad. Sexy as fucking hell, though.

George chuckled in the deep, belly jiggling way that he always did when we were talking about my conquests. Though his hair was still jet black and his eyes sparkling with youth, the older man’s laugh was even beyond his years. It was one of those laughs that filled a space and told you that he had laughed the same way since he was a young man and had just been waiting for the time when he would get old enough to grow into it.

Or to get a job stuffing himself down chimneys to bring toys to children once a year.

I didn’t know why, but the laugh bothered me that morning. I didn’t want him to think of Ella the way that he thought of the other women who he had seen coming out of the building. I hated the way that he looked at me with the glint in his eyes that said that he knew exactly why she was coming out of my apartment so early in the morning. In a way, he was right. In fact, there was a chance that he had been witness to us up against the glass the night before. But there was something about the way that he looked at me when he talked about her that made me feel angry and my stomach turn.

What the fuck was happening to me?

“Do you know where she was going?” I asked.

George shook his head, more of the smile fading. It was a question that I had never asked him before.

“No,” he said. “I’m assuming that she was going home. She didn’t stop to say anything to me. If I see her again though…”

His voice trailed off and I knew that just as much as I knew that there was no reason for Ella to ever come this way again, so did he. Her sister’s idea of a fun prank giving the concierge the wrong number meant that I wasn’t going to be able to get in touch with her. I couldn’t imagine that she frequented Fifth Avenue with an event planner’s budget, and unless one of the other men in the building decided to throw a party, she wouldn’t be coming back to The Avalon.

My coat. What is she going to do with my coat?

Just as it did every morning, my car slid up to the curb in front of the building and my driver got out to open the door for me. I nodded at George, not knowing what else to say to him, and headed toward the car. I climbed in and looked out the window, wishing that I had asked George what direction Ella went in when she left. At least that would give me an idea.

As the car started down the street, I tried to shake myself out of the thoughts. I should be glad that she left in the middle of the night. It saved the awkwardness of her leaving in the morning. It meant I could escape her asking for my phone number or when we would see each other again. It meant that I could just remember the feeling of her body and the taste of her mouth.

It was those things that I couldn’t get out of my mind for the rest of the day, but when I let my mind wander further it filled with the sound of her voice and the feeling of her breath on my neck. I fought to concentrate on each errand that I had to run and meeting that I had to suffer through. Several times throughout the day I took out my phone and stared at it, opening the social media app that I had designed so many years ago and still used fairly religiously. I wondered if Ella used it, if I would be able to find her. The first few times that I did it, I shoved it back into my pocket before even starting to type in her name.

This is fucking ridiculous. This is not what I do. The girls obsess over me, not the other way around.

Finally, though, the curiosity overtook me and I had to type in her name. I scrolled through the results, feeling disappointment settle into my stomach when I didn’t see a profile picture that looked like her.

I was on the phone with Aidan, talking about the party the night before and everything that he had scheduled for me for the week to come, when I arrived back at The Avalon late that afternoon. He was rambling on as I opened the door, but the sound of his voice disappeared when I stepped through the door. Ella was walking through the lobby.

Ahead of me I saw her coming out of the elevator, her head tucked down as she hurried toward the doors.

“Ella,” I called out.

She looked up at me, but her expression didn’t change. She continued toward the door, making a large curve to avoid me.

“I’ll call you back,” I said into the phone.

Without waiting for Aidan to respond, I tucked the phone back into my pocket and rushed after her.