James
I couldn’t get her out of my mind the whole day. No matter what I did, her face flashed in front of me every now and then. Her eyes, hurt as they’d been when she’d left my office, her features angry.
I didn’t like it when Ava was upset with me. She was beautiful when she was angry but she was like a wilted flower when it was due to pain and I was the cause of that.
I needed to see her.
When I left the office, I decided to go to her. No doubt, she would be at the hotel. Aside from Caleb, she knew no one in Tampa and I doubted she was in the mood to go out anywhere and meet someone new. At least, I hoped this was the case.
Ava was the type of person that could capture the attention of any man she wanted. He could find someone here in a heartbeat, despite being a visitor.
I pushed the thought of her being with someone else out of my mind. I was going to her now to fix what I had done wrong, and then I wouldn’t have to worry.
The Meridien, where she stayed, was a spectacular place. Caleb paid for it but if it were me I would have put her up here as well. Or at my own place. Of course, I had been the one to ask her to come she might have rejected me. I was under the impression that working for me, with me, was as a favor Caleb alone.
I climbed the steps to the lobby.
“James,” a familiar voice said and when I looked up, Caleb just came out through the doors. His face was serious, his brows knitted in a frown.
“Caleb,” I said. “What a surprise.”
He smiled tightly.
“You okay?”
He looked uptight.
He nodded curtly at me.
“I’m fine, thank you. Are you going to speak to her?”
I nodded. “I don’t know anyone else staying here.”
Why was it so strained? What was his problem? Maybe she had told him about her idea that Amanda might be involved. Maybe they had spent the afternoon talking about how blind I was if I couldn’t see what was right beneath my nose.
I shook off the idea.
“Where are you headed now?” I asked.
Caleb shrugged. “I guess I’ll go out,” he said. “I need a distraction. It’s been a rough day.”
I groaned. “You and me both.”
“Will I see you at Hush, later?” he asked.
I shook my head. If everything went the way I wanted, I wouldn’t have to. I just wanted to fix things with Ava.
Caleb’s face changed, and expression flicking across his features that I couldn’t place. He nodded at me and headed down the steps without saying anything else.
I walked into the hotel and announced myself at the reception desk. The woman phoned up to Ava’s room. She shook her head.
“I’m sorry, sir. No answer.”
I nodded and walked to a chair in the waiting area. I sat down. Every now and again I glanced at the receptionist. She was busy with her work. When she got up and walked to a back room I hurried to the elevator. I stepped in and the doors slid closed before she returned. I knocked on Ava’s door.
She opened it wearing nothing but a robe provided by the hotel. Her hair was loose over her shoulders and wet like she’d just had a shower. She had no makeup and her raw beauty was breathtaking.
“James,” she said, surprised. “What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to talk to you,” I said. “About earlier. About everything. I just want to make it right.”
Ava swallowed as if she was trying to bite back emotions she didn’t want me to see. I wished it wasn’t this formal between us, that she felt she had to hide things from me.
Of course, it was my fault.
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” she said.
“Please, I just want to talk,” I said.
She hesitated before she stepped aside and let me in. She walked to the bed and picked up a towel. She hung it up in the bathroom before she came back. I sat down on the armchair in the corner. Ava tightened the robe around her waist. I knew what she looked like beneath the robe. Every inch of her was spectacular.
“What do you want to talk about?” she asked.
Right.
“I know we have a past. I’m sorry about that – I wish we could start with a clean slate. That’s not possible, though. I want to make sure we can work together until the end of this project without getting stuck again.”
She shook her head. “How am I supposed to do that?” she asked. “I can’t just ignore what happened. Not when we were kids, and certainly not now that we’ve had sex.”
I nodded, looking at my hands. “I know that’s made it harder. Can’t we put it behind us?”
She folded her arms over her chest. “Don’t you mean me?”
“What?” I was confused.
“Don’t you mean I have to put it behind me? I know you’ve put it behind you ages ago.”
I shook my head. “Don’t do this, please,” I said. “I’m trying to make it right, not pick another fight.”
I got up and took a step closer to her. She took a step back.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” I said.
“You manage to do that without even thinking about it.”
Her words stung but they were true.
“How are you expecting me to just get over it?” she asked. Her voice trembled like she wanted to cry. “Maybe the part where you rejected me ages ago – we were just kids then, after all. But now? Why did you sleep with me if you wanted to forget any of it ever happened?”
I shook my head, closing my eyes briefly.
“I was wrong,” I said.
“What?” She seemed surprised to hear an apology.
“I don’t regret it, at all. You’re fantastic.” In fact, just thinking about it and seeing her in the robe made me want to have a do-over. “What I mean is that I was wrong for toying with your emotions when you were already fragile.”
She was suddenly angry.
“I’m not fragile!” she snapped. Gone was the kicked puppy. Ava stood in front of me, brilliant in her anger. “Don’t flatter yourself thinking anything you do can break me. You’re just like all the other men out there – selfish with no concept of reality.”
I wanted to say something. She wouldn’t let me. She carried on with her rage and I was forced to listen. I watched her face, her bright eyes, her mouth as she formed the words of insult. It made me want to kiss her. Desperately.
“I have been by myself for long enough to know that I don’t need someone to fend for me. Men think they’re heroes, set on earth to look after women. Well, let me tell you…”
I grabbed her face and kissed her. I couldn’t help myself. She was beautiful in her anger, her words flung with aiming art, her lips irresistible.
She fought me, shoving me away. She slapped me and I cried out in surprise. My cheek stung where she’d connected with the skin. My ego was bruised more than my cheeks would be.
“You don’t get to take whatever you want. I’m trying to tell you that I don’t want you.”
I was breathing hard. My body screamed. I wanted her. She was breathing hard, too. Her eyes slid to my mouth. She huffed like she was angry with her own feeling.
“You can’t arrive here and do this,” she said. “You’re not welcome in my life. Not like that.”
I stepped closer to her. She tried to back away but her legs hit the bed.
“Don’t do this,” she said. Her voice was pleading, now. I lifted my hand and touched her cheek, sliding my fingers down toward her jaw, down her neck. Her breath hitched her throat. My body ached for hers, my sex throbbing in my pants. I wanted her. All of her, not just the sex.
“James,” she said, her voice barely a whisper now.
I kissed her again, one hand on her cheek, the other pushing underneath her robe at the base of her neck. She didn’t fight me this time. She kissed me back. I pushed my tongue into her mouth, tasting her. She met my tongue with her own, drawing circles around mine. I moaned into her mouth. I wanted this. I wanted her.
Her arms slipped around my waist, letting go of the robe. I pushed my hand further into the rob, sliding it over her shoulder and down her chest. Her breast was naked and soft, the skin warm and supple after the shower. Her nipple was erect in my hand and I pinched it.
She whimpered softly.
I let go of her breast and used two hands to untie her robe. It fell open and she was bared in front of me in all her naked glory. Her breasts were perfect, her stomach almost completely flat. Her skin was like milk, smooth and pale. I kneeled before her and ran my hands down her body, feeling her skin beneath my palms. She looked down at me, her hands in my hair.
I gently pushed against her hips. She sat down on the bed, letting the robe fall off her shoulders before lying back. I ran my hands up her thighs.
“You are a goddess,” I said.
I parted her knees with my hands and leaned forward, inching closer and closer to her sex. I caught a whiff of her scent and my body went into primal mode. I wanted to claim her right away.
I stopped myself. I would go slowly. I wanted to worship her, show her how precious she was to me.
When I reached the apex of her thighs I blew on her lips and she shuddered. I kissed her down there before licking her from her entrance to her clitoris. She shuddered. With my hands on her thighs and my lips against her sex, I licked and sucked her, tasting her, worshipping her body.
She writhed against my mouth, curling beneath me. I placed my hands on her hips to hold her n place and carried on, pushing her to the brink of no return.
When she looked like she was about to come undone, I stopped. She moaned in protest. I got up and stripped off my clothes without ceremony. I wanted to be inside of her.
She watched me as I got naked in front of her. When I was undressed I crawled over her body, my erection searching for her sex. When I pressed against her entrance it felt like electricity traveled through my body, numbing all my thoughts but that of what I was doing.
She shuddered beneath me.