Slide (5 page)

When his eyes re-opened they were dark and hungry. My little tease was working.

I leaned in closer, tilting my head to reach his neck, but not before deliberately brushing my lips against his cheek first. He shifted underneath me, lifting his hips so that his bulge pressed harder against me― right on the perfect spot.

It was a small game of cat and mouse, neither of us allowing ourselves to be the mouse for too long. As much as I wanted to have him, I didn’t want to lose this game.

I slowly licked the salt off his neck, just as he had done to me earlier. A soft groan escaped him. I shot my tequila and reached for the lemon, but when I was close enough, he purposely spat it out and before I knew what was happening, his mouth was on mine.

His kisses were powerful and hungry, leaving my body aching for more. His strong hands moved to my thighs, sliding up and taking the material of my dress with them. I wrapped my arms around his neck tightly, not wanting to let him go. Everything around me began to disappear, and all I could think about was having him inside of me.

Suddenly, Ryan pulled away unexpectedly, leaving me feeling a little disorientated. I eyed him curiously. He was breathing heavily; damn it so was I.

“I think we need to get out of here, before I take you right here on this very table.”

A smile broke out on my face as I imagined the two of us going for it in front of all these people.
Shit, the people!
I’d never done anything like this before. Not in public, not even behind closed doors. Sure, I wasn’t a virgin anymore, but this sort of crazy thing wasn’t me at all. My smile immediately dropped.

I glanced around the room. Thank goodness, the booth protected us from most of the late night customers. I then turned towards the bar. There was a smirk from the bartender who’d served us earlier, indicating he saw
everything.
It was definitely time to leave.

I nodded once I turned back to face Ryan.

“Are you sure? After what has happened, you sure this is what you want? You said before―”

“Shut up! It’s too late to play the good guy,” I barked.

Ryan let out a laugh and helped me up. We quickly tossed back the remaining shots and stumbled outside. Luckily for us, there was a cab right outside the front door.

I woke up the next day with my head pounding, but that was about to become the least of my worries.

I immediately realized that I wasn’t in the safety of my own apartment, but in the middle of a large unfamiliar bedroom with a contemporary black and white design. I slowly sat up, taking in my surroundings. The walls were all white except for a black feature wall behind me with a large mirror, the size of the entire bed’s width, hanging up.
Oh my…
To my left, a tall, sleek black dresser, stood against the wall with a vibrant green indoor plant inside a large, gray, balloon shaped vase on top of it. On the right, a long black rectangular box, almost the length of the bed, stuck out from the wall, which seemed to resemble an electric fireplace. Straight ahead of me were two large, black sliding doors that matched the dresser and the two low bedside tables. It could’ve led to a walk in robe or was the entrance to the en-suite, or both. There were small gaps in the ceiling, which if I had to take a guess, I would say were for a drop down, flat TV screen that came down at the foot of the bed. The room looked quite simple… masculine.
Oh no.

My eyes dropped down to the king size bed I was on and the exceptionally soft, black sheets I was wrapped in. I winced, too afraid to move because it would only confirm what I already knew in the back of my mind, and that was that I went home with Ryan last night.
Shit! After I told myself I wouldn’t!
Worst of all, I had no idea where I was or how I was going to get out of here.

I forced myself to lift my gaze to the mess of tangled sheets on the other side of the bed. Oh.My.God! We had sex and I had no recollection of it!
You’re a dirty tramp
, my mind whispered to me in a cruel voice.

A shuffling noise coming from behind made me turn my head.
For the love of…
Standing there, looking down at me was a bare-chested Ryan, with a
very
well defined torso and a mouthwatering V-shape line. Was that a six, no, an eight pack?
Really
? I guess that answered last night’s question: the guy
did
look exactly like the posters underneath his shirt. Couldn’t this perfectly sculptured, divine creature, have just one flaw?

“Good morning, sunshine,” Ryan sang in a playful tone.

I ripped my wide-eyed gaze away from his abdominals and looked up at him, instantly narrowing my eyes. He had an overbearing smile on his face but he wasn’t focused on me, he was busy staring at something just below my—
Shoot, my boobs!
I yanked the blanket up as fast as I could; making sure it covered
all
of my bare breasts.

I was still bright red by the time I found the courage to look him in the eye again.

Ryan was chuckling softly to himself, standing over me with both hands on his hips. He must’ve just gotten out of the shower because his hair was all disheveled and sticking up all over the place as if he’d attacked it with a towel. Speaking of towels… a large white towel hung very low on his hips and was the only thing covering his lower half.

“Did we have sex?” I blurted out, trying to ignore the crazy thoughts running around my head of him without the towel.

My serious question seemed to amuse him. With a cocked eyebrow he said, “And I thought you said that I’d let the ‘one girl’ willing to sleep with me get away last night?”

I gasped at his careless response. “This isn’t funny,” I growled, before hitting the palm of my hand against my forehead. “Shit! I’m such an idiot!”

Ryan walked around to the other side of the bed and sat down beside me, stretching out his long legs then folding one over the other. He lifted his arms up over his head and used his hands to rest his head against the black leather headboard. I tried not to gawk at the sight before me but I couldn’t help myself. His biceps were freakin’ huge! The guy worked out, that’s for sure. There was not an inch of fat on the man; just layers upon layers of muscle.

“
Relax
. We didn’t sleep together,” he said tilting his head slightly to face me. “Although, a great deal of naughty stuff went down,” he added with a wink.
Ugh.
I rolled my eyes.

“Then why am I in just my underwear?” Lifting the blanket high enough so that I was sure Ryan couldn’t see, I looked down at my almost completely naked body. “And why on earth is my stomach
sticky
?”

Ryan let out a laugh. “Oh yeah,” he said sounding as though something amusing had just occurred to him. “I forgot about the body shots.”

My head shot up. “
Body shots?
” What the hell? He had to be lying. I would never…

“Ah-ha. You let me lie you down on the kitchen table and suck tequila off your stomach. It was so fucking hot.” He adjusted himself so that he was lying on his side, facing me, with his elbow propped up. “You’re quite the little minx after some drinks.”

I threw him an irritated glare. “We drank more tequila when we got home?”

“Sure did, babe.”

My face blanked. How could I not remember leaving the Mexican bar? I didn’t have
that
much to drink did I? A few margaritas, some tequila shots… the vodka martinis at the club…

Ryan’s brows suddenly furrowed and he scratched his chin with his free hand. “Perhaps that’s where we went wrong? If we’d stopped drinking sooner, we would’ve definitely done the deed.”

I blinked. Was this guy being for real? “So you’re telling the truth about not sleeping together?”

His hand dropped from his chin. “Of course I am! I love having sex but I’m not a damn somnophiliac. I don’t like having sex with unconscious women, Evangeline,” he replied in a stern voice.

Without asking how he knew the word for that kind of thing, I nodded once to show him that I believed him. I was still watching him when a tiny smile broke his serious expression. The smile quickly turned into a wicked smirk. “But you know we’re both sober and very much awake now. So how about it?”
Ugh.

I managed to pick up one of the smaller pillows nearby and launched it at him without exposing my boobs. Ryan just laughed and blocked the attack with a quick flick of his arm, sending the pillow flying towards the ground somewhere.
Impressive reflexes.

“I’m joking! I’m only joking,” he exclaimed, roaring with laughter.

“Yeah, well, I can never tell with you.”

“Listen,” he started, losing his smile and going serious again. “I did want to say how sorry I am for your loss. I know it doesn’t mean much coming from a stranger but I’m just glad you weren’t alone when you found out, and I hope last night was able to take your mind off it, even if it was for a short while.” Was he really saying all this to me? Who was this guy?

We stared at each other for a moment before I eventually replied, “Thank you… And yes it did, even though you tried to take advantage of me.”

His cheeky grin returned, which I found strangely calmed me. “That’s where you’ve got it all wrong. It was
you
who took advantage of me, don’t you remember? How did you expect the little guy to react when all of a sudden a beautiful woman is straddling him and rubbing up against him in public?”

I hit him with another pillow.

****

I left Ryan’s shortly after and took a cab home. He offered me coffee and breakfast but it felt odd to hang around when I barely knew the guy. I guess it served me right for going home with a stranger in the first place. On my way out of his
huge
apartment, I couldn’t help but notice all the nice furniture he had and the artwork hanging his hallway. The guy had money; h
eaps of it.
Maybe that explained his cocky attitude? That, and the fact he looked like Adonis and was obviously a very popular male model.

Ryan also offered to drive me home, but I insisted on taking a cab. Just because he was rich and was acting polite didn’t mean he couldn’t still be a crazed lunatic. And there was still a nagging thought in the back of my mind that the guy could very well work for or sell my story to the press. So, it was agreed that it was best that he didn’t know where I lived or knew anything else about me.

I rang Derek as soon as I was safe inside the cab.

“You’re a dirty tramp, you know that?” I laughed into my cell at Derek’s statement. “I’m sorry about your father baby girl and I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you.”

“It’s okay, Derek. You can’t be expected to be there for me all the time.”

“But as your best friend I should damn well try! Look, I’m sure you don’t want to talk about anymore sad and upsetting news, so, tell me the name of this handsome man that has you blushing and what did he look like?”

That’s what I loved most about Derek; he never allowed me to drive myself crazy over a situation that was out of my control. Ever since we were young, Derek made it his mission to keep me happy. I spent a lot of my childhood avoiding everyone, not wanting to speak to the other kids because all they ever wanted to do was ask questions about the accident. I preferred to be alone, that is until Derek came into my life. He seemed to understand me. He distracted me with other things and helped me keep my mind off everything that worried me. He was the perfect best friend.

“Ryan and he―”

“Does
Ryan
have a last name?”

I fell silent. I never caught his last name.
That’s because you didn’t want him to know yours.

“That’s it? You didn’t catch a last name? Damn, this really was a one-night stand, huh? I am so proud of you!”

I laughed. It kind of was. I was upset and wanted to get drunk, and then I got horny.
Holy shit
. Except.... “Well, we didn’t actually sleep together…”

“
What?!
” He screamed the word so loud I had to pull the phone away from my ear until he stopped.

“Apparently I passed out. But Derek, he was delicious. Very arrogant and annoying most of the time, but the guy
oozed
so much sex appeal.”

“You’re making me hard.”

“Oh,
eww!
”

I heard him laugh loudly.

I described Ryan to Derek in
very
fine detail, even the way the dimple appeared on his left cheek when he did that ridiculous panty-dropping grin. I did, however, purposely leave out the part that he was actually a male model and there was a huge billboard of him posing seductively wearing only white Dolce and Gabbana briefs right outside my apartment. Derek was already in love and if I mentioned that a giant poster of him giving me bedroom eyes could be seen just outside my balcony, he’d never leave my place.

I tried to remind my best friend that it was pointless getting excited, because Ryan and I never exchanged numbers and I was never going to see him again. It was probably for the best anyway.

After arriving back at my house, I quickly showered and freshened up. Even though, I was in desperate need of some sleep, I headed over to Connor’s house. That’s when reality sunk in. My father was gone and I’d missed my one chance of telling him what he really meant to me. I was furious at myself for how weak I was. Not only did I have that weighing heavily on my shoulders, Connor and I now had to help with the funeral arrangements. I had no idea what that entailed but I helped out the best I could. I tried to be there as much for my brother, since he had known my father far better than I had, while the guilt continued to build up inside of me with each passing day.