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Millie is grinning from ear to ear, but I can tell she has more to say on the subject as well and I roll my eyes at her. “Go ahead.”
She gushes as soon as the words are out of my mouth, “Oh my God, babe. Please tell me how amazing that kiss was!”
I shrug, trying to play it off as nothing, but fail to hide my smile in the process. I’d be lying to her if I said it wasn’t amazing, but amazing isn’t the way I’d describe it. My body is still tingling in places I wasn’t sure would ever tingle from a man’s touch. Lord knows I never had this reaction in Alex’s presence.
“God, Millie, it was magical. Which is ridiculous because we are talking about Ryan freaking Rivers.”
Millie bounces her feet on the floorboard in excitement, fanning her face as if just talking about it is getting her all worked up. I don’t doubt it though, I could go for a little fanning myself. Heck, give me an entire air conditioner.
I would’ve loved to stay in Ryan’s arms all night, but I’ve never done much with anyone before and I panicked. The moment he asked me to come back to his place with him I reacted instinctively. That’s all it was, he saw me vulnerable with his best friend and only wanted in my pants because he knew Alex had never been. He wanted to win me, it wasn’t about anything more than that.
The way he looked at me tonight is clear as day in my mind and my stomach swirls with an intense pleasure. This feeling is foreign to me, the intensity of it at least, but damn if I don’t want to explore it further. Millie is smirking at me with a knowing expression on her face and I turn to the window to avoid her penetrating stare.
It takes a lot longer than necessary to get to our apartment by taxi, mainly because of the Times Square New Year’s Eve event that takes place every year, but we eventually get to the front of our building after twenty minutes. Millie and I both hand a tip over to the driver before we exit the vehicle and scurry from the cold into the warmth of the apartment lobby.
The receptionist smiles at us politely with a small wave as we head straight for the elevator. A group of people get onto the elevator first, leaving us to stand in wait for it to come back down. You’d think with a city as populated as this one that our apartment complex would have added another elevator by now so shit like this didn’t happen.
I danced so much tonight, which is rare for me, that I want to soak in a hot bubble bath before crashing in the comfort of my bed. There’s a bench sitting by some fake potted plants that I flop onto, knowing that the elevator will take forever to come back down, and Millie flops beside me with a groan.
“You’re the one who chose this place.”
She rolls her eyes at me, but gives me a small smile because she knows I’m right. If I had known her when she was apartment hunting, I would’ve steered her away from this dump. It wasn’t that long ago she came to me about all of her issues with this place. The staff is nice enough, but the building is terrible to live in. The walls are thin and we can hear everything that happens surrounding our apartment.
There’s a woman who has a baby that’s up most hours of the night. She lives next door. A guy who lives on the other side of us clearly really loves to have sex. Luckily, I only have to deal with the screaming baby, and I’ve learned to sleep with my headphones in. Millie, on the other hand, got the sex addict, and that’s why she’s cranky most mornings until she gets her special coffee.
When another group of rowdy drunks walks through the lobby doors, Millie and I make a beeline for the elevator just as the doors slide open. With the group stumbling everywhere, it doesn’t take much to keep them from stepping into the elevator with us.
Millie acts like she’s going to stop the door from closing as soon as one of the guys rushes to the closing doors, but she moves too late and they shut in his face. I laugh at her antics, but lean against the wall of the elevator and slide down to the floor. She stands next to me, watching as the numbers increase as the elevator moves higher and higher, before it finally lands on our floor.
It seems as if it’s forever before we finally barge through our door and both hurry into our own rooms.
“Night, babe!” Millie calls from down the hall.
“Night!”
She shuts the door softly while I turn our lights out and head to my own room. I touch my lips softly, thinking back to not only the one kiss, but the second one as well, and if I looked in the mirror right now my cheeks would be bright pink I’m sure.
As soon as I take the heels off my feet, I almost cry out at the relief it brings me. I’d been so occupied that I didn’t realize just how uncomfortable the heels were.
This will be the last time I wear heels.If only I could actually believe that life would be great right now.
After a few minutes, I walk into my bathroom with a towel and robe in my arms with only my bra and panties covering my body. I grab a makeup wipe from the medicine cabinet and proceed to wipe everything off my face before throwing the wipes away and throwing my bra and panties into the dirty hamper.
The moment I lean back into the hot water in the full tub, my body instantly relaxes, but my mind has other ideas and focuses on Ryan’s piercing gray gaze tonight. When he slid those bright eyes down my body, it took everything in me not to jump him right then and there. He looked at me as if he could have me for a meal and be satisfied with that for the rest of his life.
Something I’ve learned to do since I’m still a virgin is pleasure myself, and damn if my hand doesn’t betray me by gliding down my stomach and between my legs. His kiss is on replay in my head, the way he devoured my mouth and his tongue staked a claim on my own.
Ten minutes later I lift myself from the tub and slip my arms through my robe, making sure to tighten the belt around my waist. I catch the clips shining from my hair in the mirror but I don’t have the energy to take them all out right now. Instead, I climb under my soft blankets. After taking care of myself in the bathroom, it shouldn’t be too much longer before I fall asleep.
* * *
I squeeze my eyes shut at the sudden light shining into them and bring the blanket up to cover them. My head feels like someone is pounding it with a hammer, but I guess that’s what I get for drinking more than I could handle last night. My tolerance for alcohol is about slim to none. It doesn’t take much to make me wake up with a pounding headache.
When I force myself to get out of bed, I stumble out of my room and into the kitchen where a bottle of Advil sits with a note from Millie. This girl can read me so well.
I barely swallow down the pills before my phone starts blaring from the pocket of my robe. The added noise causes me to groan in pain, but I deal with it when I see my mom’s picture on the front of my screen. My finger immediately hits the accept button, not wanting to miss a chance to talk to one of my favorite people.
“Sweetie, just wanted to wish you a Happy New Year!”
