Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 61672 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 308(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61672 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 308(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
“Why not?”
“I just . . . I need to go home.”
“Let me take you home.” I grab my clothes and put them on as fast as I can. I may have to follow her out of here.
“No,” she bursts.
“Tell me why, or I’ll drag you to my car myself.” I’m only half-joking. It’s not like I’m kidnapping her. I just want to take her home . . . and find out where she lives.
“My family, they’re really conservative. They’ll freak out if they see you,” she says, slipping her feet into her heels. She’s already wearing her lingerie. I know she’ll have to visit the restrooms, where the lockers are, before leaving the premises.
“They’ll freak out if they see you coming home on a weekend with a guy?” I frown. That’s unbelievably conservative. “Wait. You live with your family?”
“Yeah. I told you. Really conservative.” Ashley grabs the brass knob and turns it, but the door doesn’t budge. She stands aside, her fingers gouging into her forearms. She’s not faking; she really is nervous “Would you mind opening the door for me?”
I push my key through the lock. I could choose not to do that, of course, and I could keep her as my hostage inside this room forever. But I won’t do that. I want her to give me her submission willingly.
“What’s with your family? Religious?” I ask as I hold the door open.
Ashley flies out the room, and I follow, realizing I’m barefoot as soon as my skin makes contact with the cool marble. “Nope. Just weird.”
“Weird how?” I know weird families. Hell, mine is more insane than most. I’ll bet I can handle hers just fine. She’d be worth the trouble.
“Smothering. Overbearing. Demanding.” She stands at the double doors leading to the public area.
“Look, my family’s the same way. I had my own life somewhere else, and they wanted me to come home, stat, so now I’m here. I don’t even know why they want me home.” I cram my words into the seconds that tick by as I unlock the double doors. I hold on to the knob, trapping her gaze. Get to the point. “I need to see you again, kitten.”
“Me too,” she says softly.
Relief courses through my veins. That’s all I need to know for now. I can’t let this goddess slip through my fingers, this magical girl who’s somehow both sexy and innocent, all at once. I’ve never met anyone quite like her.
I pull the door open. “Give me your number.”
Ashley’s hips sway from side to side like a pendulum as she makes her way through the crowd. “I can’t.”
“You can’t even give me your number? Your family won’t even let you take calls? Receive text messages?” I find that hard to believe. It’s the twenty-first century. There are thirteen-year-olds regularly accessing hardcore porn on their gadgets, and Ashley’s obviously in her twenties.
Ashley stops in the midst of her climb up the stairs. On both sides of us, people are either watching the sex unfolding on the stage behind me or enacting something sexy themselves. I wish Ashley and I could join them, my lips against her ear whispering something dirty while my fingers slip inside her panties.
“I wish I could. I swear, Matt,” she says, sincerity gleaming in her green eyes. “I’ve had to put up with these restrictions my whole life. Sometimes, I’m so frustrated I think about just disappearing. Start a new life somewhere without my family.”
I know exactly how she feels.
She huffs a short laugh. “That’s just a dumb thought I have sometimes. Forget I ever said that.”
“Will they really find out if I contact you?”
“I can’t risk it,” she says, glancing at her watch yet again.
I pat my pockets and find a piece of paper and a pen. “I need to see you again, Ashley.” I press the paper into her delicate hand. “Promise me you’ll call me.”
Ashley looks back at me, sadness breaking through the barrier she puts up against the world. There’s a crack in her shell—just a hairline fracture, but it might just be enough.
“I don’t want to get you in trouble, but I need to see you again. You said you want that too,” I remind her. “Or was that a lie?”
“I do want to see you again,” she says, her voice earnest.
I stroke her hand with my thumb. “So call me.”
Ashley hesitates, but then she nods.
“You’ll call? Promise me.”
“I promise. I’ll call you.” Ashley drags air into her lungs and sighs as though she doesn’t want this moment to end. “I have to go, Matt.”
I nod. I’ll let her go. For now.
Grace
Two Weeks Later
Squeezing the phone in my hand until the metal digs into my flesh, I tell myself the same thing I’ve been repeating for two whole weeks:
I should call him.
Since I found out earlier this week, the mantra has grown longer.