Total pages in book: 23
Estimated words: 21893 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 109(@200wpm)___ 88(@250wpm)___ 73(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 21893 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 109(@200wpm)___ 88(@250wpm)___ 73(@300wpm)
No. She is obviously mine, and all I have to do is make her see it.
“Enjoying your meal?” I ask with a smile. I’m being slightly ironic, as Ivy hasn’t touched her raspberry spring salad. “Come on, have some. This place is one of the top five restaurants in New York.”
“I know,” Ivy replies with ice in her eyes. There’s something about that that’s so sexy to me.
“You’ve got to be hungry,” I say. “There’s no way you had a big lunch. I know you.”
She glares back defiantly. I’m right, of course. We may have only been working together for two weeks, but I know her pretty well already.
“Come on,” I say, pushing her plate closer. “Eat. Sara would be pissed at you for skipping out on a good meal.”
That gets to her. Ivy immediately frowns at me and sighs. “You’re annoying, you know that?”
I chuckle as she picks up her fork and spears a bite of the salad and stuffs it defiantly into her mouth. I keep my eyes on her plump lips as she chews. There’s something so sexy about watching her eat, and I can feel myself getting hard under the table as she swallows.
“Good, right?”
She shrugs. “It’s good.”
“Come on,” I laugh. “It’s really good.”
“Why do you care if I think it’s really good?” she counters. “You didn’t make it.”
“Because, Ivy,” I reply, “as much as you might not believe it, I actually want you to have a good time here tonight.”
Ivy’s eyes roll so hard I wonder if her head might roll off with them. It’s strange for me to see her like this, so uninhibited and free. She’s always been on her best behavior at the studio when she was working as my assistant. I guess after the way I got her here, she decided the walls between us had come down and she no longer had to perform anymore.
“Right. Blackmailing a girl into being your date, of course you want her to have a good time.”
“Well, I couldn’t get you to come with me willingly,” I reply. “But that doesn’t mean I want you to suffer. I’m not here to torture you with one of the best meals in New York City. But I suppose we could leave and I could take us to Denny’s if you’d prefer that?”
To my surprise, Ivy actually laughs. She instantly tries to hide it, though and covers her mouth with her napkin. “No thanks. I’m good on paper-thin, burnt bacon and the ultra-weirdos that hang around Denny’s this time of day.”
I just smile back and take a bite of my marinated squid. The flavors that hit my tongue are mind-blowing. 4Pine is an incredible restaurant, but I can think of one place I’d rather have my tongue right now, and it has nothing to do with the award-winning menu in store for us.
Ivy is underdressed compared to the other women seated around us, but that’s not why she’s been drawing dirty looks from them; she’s been drawing dirty looks from them because her beauty is making the rest of them insecure.
All these women here are rich: sugar babies or wannabe models with their husbands financing their careers. Ivy, simply with her presence, is upsetting them, especially the models, who know who I am and are wondering why I’m with her and not them.
“You have absolutely no idea how gorgeous you are, do you?”
Ivy can’t hide her reaction to my words this time. She nearly chokes on her bite of her spring salad and has to take a quick sip of her water to prevent it.
I’m hard as a rock now, my cock ready to stretch the buttons off my pants. It’s not just her good looks, which are utterly incredible, but how completely unaware she is of them. How can a girl so beautiful not know she has every eye in the room on her?
“Stop it,” she says.
“I mean it. Were you raised in Amish country until you were sixteen or something?”
Ivy giggles, causing her face to light up. “No, but my dad had a no-dating rule throughout high school, so I dunno…”
“Is that right?” If I had a mustache, I’d be twirling it right now. I know that Ivy is only eighteen, and if her dad didn’t let her date throughout high school, that would mean I could be the first man to get my hands on her.
Christ, she’s just getting better and better…
“Yup,” Ivy replies, clearly embarrassed. “You can say it. I’m just a safe, sheltered girl from Connecticut.”
I burst out laughing. “I would never say that, Ivy. What, you think I’d prefer one of these girls I shoot who’s slept her way to the top and been with every photographer in the city?”
She shrugs and stuffs another bite of spring salad between those perfect, untouched lips of hers. “Well, I wouldn’t want to shame anyone…”