Chapter Nine
Anna
“What are your plans for the day?” Ethan asked me as he came out of the bathroom after his shower.
“Sleep.” I was exhausted. The frequent interruptions to my sleep were welcome, but I could quite happily spend the day in bed snoozing.
“You’re not staying in bed if I’m not there with you.”
“Are you always this cheerful in the mornings? It’s annoying,” I huffed and turned over away from him.
“You’re cute when you’re sleepy and grumpy.”
“Go to work.”
I felt the mattress dip on my side of the bed and his hand stroked my ass. “I might have to work late tonight.” My stomach twisted. “Did you hear me?”
I sat up and nodded, pulling my knees to my chest. He looked at me. “Do you have plans? Tonight? I mean later?”
I shrugged. I’d kinda assumed that I’d see him tonight. He’d become a habit in just a few days.
“You could stay here tonight, and then we could go up to the Hamptons first thing Friday.”
“You don’t have to work Friday?”
“I can do some calls from the car on the way up there. I should be able to manage a day off.”
“Ok,” I said. I was half-delighted, half-terrified. I wanted to spend the day with him Friday. I wanted to spend as much time with him as possible before I left, and I was terrified about that. I didn’t want to want that. I’d promised myself I wouldn’t want a man again. 3,000 miles apart after Monday should do it. I took a deep breath. “I’m in.”
“I knew I’d wear you down,” he said grinning at me.
“I just feel sorry for you, that’s all.”
He pulled my legs away from my chest and climbed over me, pinning my arms above my head. “What did you say?”
“I feel sorry for you.” He dipped his head to my neck and started to suck as I started to giggle. “I know you must have been having a drought before I came along. How long had it been? Five, six years?”
“Since a woman took pity on me and let me fuck her?” he asked and I laughed and tried to break my wrists free of his hands as his mouth tracked lower and started to suck again. “Since a woman let me give her three, four, five orgasms a night?”
“Since a woman came back for seconds.”
He let go of my wrists and moved off me.
“Hey, are you going to finish what you started?” I asked, propping myself up on my elbows.
“I have to get to work. Stop distracting me,” he said as pulled a tie on. He smiled, but I could detect that his mood had shifted.
“Sorry,” I said, trying to meet his eyes.
He nodded. I was joking. He must know I was joking.
I crawled out of bed and put on a robe as Ethan gathered his wallet and keys. I followed him to the door of the suite.
“Go do something cultural,” he said as he opened the door. Then he turned, kissed me on the forehead, and left.
Fear unfurled in my stomach. I wasn’t quite sure of the cause. Fear of not seeing him again, fear that I’d hurt his feelings, fear of going with him to the Hamptons, fear of complications, fear of going back to London.
I stood under the shower trying to decide whether to text him when my phone started to ring. I leapt out of the shower. It must be Ethan letting me know about plans tonight. I hoped it would be Ethan letting me know about plans tonight.
It was Leah. I pressed Accept and hooked the phone under my chin while I grabbed a towel to wrap around me.
“Hey, I have a fun-packed day planned. I got those tickets for Book of Mormon and I thought we could go do the Empire State this morning. How long are you going to be?”
“Oh, great. You got those tickets. That’s awesome.”
“Don’t worry. It’s the matinee. It won’t interrupt your holiday romance.”
“There’s no romance, Leah. And anyway, it wouldn’t interrupt anything. I don’t think we’re seeing each other tonight.” I wasn’t sure if we were seeing each other tonight. How did we leave it? Fuck. This wasn’t supposed to be complicated.
“Oh. Are you ok?”
“Of course. We’re not attached at the hip. It was just a fling. Nothing complicated.”
“Was?”
“I don’t know. I’ll be ready in 15 minutes. Shall I meet you somewhere?”
We agreed to meet in line at the Empire State Building. I pulled on my jeans and a t-shirt and combed my wet hair. There was no point in blow drying it in this humidity. I’d leave it to frizz. I’d brought a few more things with me last night, thinking I may be staying tonight as well but I was careful to collect everything. I didn’t know if I’d be back. Before I left I took out my phone and snapped a couple of photos of the view. God it was amazing. Worth every penny this ginormous suite must have cost. When I grew up and won the lottery, I was going to live here.
Leah waved at me from the entrance to the ticket hall.
“There isn’t much of a queue.”
“Who’d have thought it? It’s 8-frigging-15 a.m. on a random Thursday in July. Of course there isn’t much of a queue.” I hadn’t realized how early it was until I was in the cab on the way to meet Leah.
“Alright, grumpy knickers. I’m just trying to make sure we squeeze everything in. I want to make sure it’s not just the New York men you get to experience.”
I rolled my eyes at Leah and then leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. “Sorry.”
Without the queues we got to the top quickly and without the pushing and shoving that the crowds would inevitably bring later. The view of the park was almost surreal. Unlike from the hotel, where the view was lower, you could see the whole thing—as if a slice of somewhere else had been picked up and planted in amongst the buildings and bustle of the city.
“So you’re not seeing him tonight?” Leah interrupted my thoughts that for just the twenty seconds before hadn’t been full of Ethan.
“I’m not sure. We were and he invited me to the Hamptons, and then it got weird, and now I’m not sure.”
“Wait, he invited you to the Hamptons?”
“Oh, yes. Sorry. I was going to speak to you to see if you would mind if I went. I guess it doesn’t matter now.”
“Of course I don’t mind. You should go. I’m sure it’s fine. He didn’t uninvite you, did he?”
I shook my head. No, not yet. That would come later … I was sure of it.
Ethan
I’d officially grown a vagina.
Make that two vaginas. I was becoming a vagina farmer. What the fuck was the matter with me? It stung when she said that women didn’t want to sleep with me more than once. I mean, I knew it wasn’t true, but the fact that she might think that. A vagina farmer. Fuck.
She was the greatest lay I’d ever had and I had to wear her down to spend the weekend with me. That stung, too. That was it. I needed to kick some ass and take some names. I wanted to get this work done so I could fuck her out of my system. Just after I had another look at that sexy-as-hell text she’d sent me of her in her underwear.
I worked like a maniac all day. I was sure that my associate was on the verge of quitting two or three times. I could see the panic in his eyes as I piled more and more work onto him, but I was too busy to think about it. He said that he wanted more responsibility, so he shouldn’t fucking whine when I gave it to him. I was going to have to look over various documents over the weekend, but I was going to be able to get out of the office. My biggest client was on vacation, which couldn’t have come at a better time. I looked at my watch. Jesus. How was it 6 p.m. already? Would she be at the hotel by now or was she spending the evening with Armitage’s girlfriend? Had she said? I checked my cell for messages but there was nothing.
Me: Hey sexy. What are you wearing?
Nothing. For thirty minutes.
Anna: Hey.
Hey?
Me: Are you at the hotel?
Anna: No.
Me: When will you be there? Make sure you bring your case so we can get straight off in the morning.
Anna: Later. Okay.
Me: Let me know when you’re at the hotel. I should be back by midnight.
Three hours later and I’d just come off the least useful conference call in my career. At least it hadn’t generated more work. The ball was in the court of the Chinese. We had the weekend off.
Back at my desk, I checked my phone.
Anna: At the hotel bar.
The text was sent over an hour ago. The hotel bar, for Christ’s sake? It was close to 9:30. No doubt a million sleazy guys had hit on her.
Me: On your own?
Anna: You haven’t died then.
Me: On your own?
Anna: I’m making new friends.
New friends? New friends with dicks? My fists clenched. Jesus. I was going to end up in prison by the end of the weekend if I wasn’t careful. I put some papers together quickly and left the office earlier than I should have.
* * *
I saw her as soon as I entered the bar. She was sitting at the bar, her head tipped back, and she was laughing at something the bartender had said to her. He looked like he’d just hit a home run. I knew how that felt—it lit me up when I made her laugh. I didn’t like that he got to feel that, too. I’d never felt jealousy over a woman before now.
I came up behind her and rubbed her back. She was mid-laugh and she jumped when I touched her. I hated that.
“Hey!” she said a little too loudly and both her hands flew into the air. “He’s here,” she said to the bartender.
The bartender nodded at Anna and turned to me. “Can I get you a drink, sir?”
Anna interrupted my response “You’re here! I’d thought you were gone and now you’re here! My New York lover.”
“I think she’s had enough for both of us,” I said.
“No! Have a drink. I have lots of new friends to show you. Which one do I like best?” She looked imploringly at the bartender.
“You like them all, ma’am.”
“I do. I like all these cocktails. They are my friends. My New York friends.” She pointed at a list of at least twenty drinks.
“Tell me you’ve not served her all these?”
He shook his head. “Just the first five or so. She was working her way down the list.”
“Come on, beautiful. Let’s get you to bed.”
I signed the tab and helped her off the stool.
“My case, my case, my case,” she said as she spun around and went to grab a small silver suitcase, which I took for her. I put my free arm around her waist and guided her back to the elevator bank.
“Why didn’t you leave it in the room?” I asked.
“No key, no key, no key.” She was pretty unsteady on her feet, but her mouth was working just fine, if a little slurry.
“Did you lose your key?” I asked.
“No, of course I didn’t lose it. I left it in the room because of your weirdness this morning.” She prodded her finger into my cheek. “And then I wouldn’t have to bring it back and run into you when you dumped me, which would definitely happen because I have the worst luck with men, and that would be weirder and awkward so I left it, and then you texted me and then it was weird and now I’m here. I’m so tired.” She slumped against the elevator door.
That was a lot of information to process in one go. “We’re going to get you to bed, beautiful,” I said and pulled her against me. I kissed the top of her head. “I’m sorry for being weird this morning.”
“That’s ok.” She looked up at me and grinned. “I think you’re awesome so I’ll forgive you.”
Something inside me warmed and I could feel myself harden. Jesus, how was some drunk crazy girl getting me hard?
I stroked her face. “I think you’re awesome, too.” She grinned, closed her eyes, and put her head on my chest.