SLOAN

The next morning, I wake with Ava curled up next to me, wondering how to go about handling this situation. We never even talked, other than a few words exchanged at the bar, before I bent her over this bed. I did the same a few more times before we crashed three hours ago. One-night stands are awkward. I have a love-hate relationship with them for obvious reasons.

I slide my legs off the bed, grab my pants from the floor, and remove my cell phone from the pocket. Several missed calls from the hospital flash on the screen along with two new messages from my best friend, Wyatt Summers, about his bachelor party tomorrow night.

I get dressed in a hurry, glancing over my shoulder at Ava. She stirs in the bed, the sheets wrapped tightly around her naked body.

“Morning,” she says, wiping the sleep from her eyes.

“Morning. I have to get to work. You can sleep here until the checkout at ten if you like.”

Ava sits up, taking the sheet with her, and pulls her legs into her chest. With her back propped up against the headboard, she leans her head to the side and looks at me. She’s gorgeous, and for a second, I want to be greedy and have her again. But I think better of it. I have to run home, shower, and get back to the hospital to meet with the Chief again.

“No, that’s okay. I need to leave, too.” She drops the sheet on the bed and stands up to look for her clothes, giving me a magnificent view of her naked body. “Have you seen my dress?” She glances around the room until she spots it on the floor next to me.

I pick it up for her, and she rushes over to me to take it from my hand. I want to touch her. Her nipples are the perfect shade of pink and pointed right at me. I want to close my mouth over them and suck until she moans my name again. Now, I’m hard and annoyed that I have to leave. Fuck. One-night stands are supposed to be easy. So, why don’t I want to go?

“Do you want to do this again?” I ask her, now realizing how dumb that sounds.

“I start a new job on Monday. I won’t have much time for dating.” She slips into her dress and turns around for me to zip her up.

“We don’t have to date,” I counter. “We could keep it casual.”

She spins around to face me and fixes her hair over her shoulders by using her fingers as a comb. “Just sex? No strings attached.”

I nod. “I’m afraid that’s about all I have time for now that I’ve gotten a promotion.”

Ava holds onto my arm as she shoves her foot into one heel and then the other. “Yeah, that works for me. I’ve never done this before. How do we do this?”

“We can start by texting. I can let you know when I’m free, and you can do the same.”

“This weekend would be good,” she says, bending down to retrieve her purse from the carpet. “It’s kind of my last weekend of freedom for a while. My friend is dragging me to a club called The Sixth Floor. Have you heard of it?”

“Yeah. My friends love it there. They have cage dancers and themed nights.”

“My friend signed us up for the amateur dance night they’re having on Saturday. I’m sure that will be super embarrassing for me. Feel free to stop by and witness my public humiliation.”

For the first time since we met last night, the girl I messaged with finally appears. The girl behind the chat message was funny, whereas the woman I met in her place seemed nervous and closed off until she slid her hand up my thigh.

I smile at her. “I wouldn’t miss it. I’ll be out that night for my friend’s bachelor party. We’re doing a bar crawl, so it might take a while to get to The Sixth Floor, but I’ll make sure we end up there.”

She flashes a polite grin and tucks her purse under her arm.

We check the room one last time to make sure we have all of our stuff before we exit and head to the elevator bank at the end of the hall. Ava pushes the button to call a car, and then steps back to stand next to me. Peeking up at me, she bites her bottom lip.

“We don’t have to make this weird,” I tell her. “If you don’t want to meet up again, you don’t have to.”

The elevator opens on our floor, and we step inside.

“No, I want to.” Ava brushes her fingers against mine as if to reassure me. “I had fun last night. We should do it again.”

We step off the elevator to a crowd of people moving throughout the bustling hotel lobby. For a second, we break apart to make room for a family of six, and then Ava is back again at my side.

A bellhop holds open the door for us, and we step outside to the sun glaring in our eyes.

I raise my hand up to my forehead and look at Ava. “Do you need a ride?”

She shakes her head and pulls a set of keys from her purse. “Nope. I parked my car in the lot across the street.”

“You know they have valet parking at the hotel, right?”

She laughs. “We can’t all be doctors who can afford the thirty dollars to have someone park our car.”

Unsure of how to respond without sounding like a rich jerk, I offer her a closed-mouth smile.

I hand the man at the valet stand on the sidewalk the ticket from my wallet. He reads the ticket, tells me to wait here, and that he’ll bring my car around in a few minutes.

“Well, it’s been real,” Ava says to me, her voice soft and seductive. “I guess I will see you at The Sixth Floor.” She inches away from me.

“Sounds good. See you then.”

Should I grab Ava and kiss her goodbye? No, that might make this more of a date than a hookup. So, I let her walk away, my cock growing harder with each shake of her perfect ass.