Chapter 16
16
VIOLET
Sleepily, I hug my bedcovers and watch Lincoln redress in last night’s clothes.
“I’m sorry I have to take off, but I do this thing on Saturday nights. I help Rio’s friend out and I can’t get out of it.”
“That’s okay.” I yawn. “We didn’t make plans for tonight, you and me. I’m supposed to be going out with my girlfriends.” I stretch, feeling sore all over. It’s a pleasurable pain, evidence of our bedroom gymnastics marathon.
Lincoln pushes his phone into the pocket of his black jeans and grabs his car keys off the side.
“Christ, I need to get a move on.” He checks his wristwatch.
“I ordered you a cab but remember I did offer to take you.”
“I know, but you can have a nap before you go out tonight. Are you going out with your two friends you have plastered all over social media?”
“Yes, Hannah and Ruby,” I confirm.
He throws himself on top of me playfully. “Well, I hope you tell Hannah and Ruby all about me. How good I am in the sack, how I have a massive dick, and?— ”
“How much you like me fingering your ass?”
He drops his forehead to my shoulder. “Please don’t tell them about that.” His voice is muffled.
As if he has a sudden thought, he flings his head back to meet my gaze. “Where the hell did you even learn to do that?”
I run my hands through his hair. “I have never done it before. I read a how-to guide in a sex column in a magazine. It stuck, and I remembered. You loved it.”
He groans, as if too embarrassed to admit he did.
“Okay, I feel better now knowing you’ve only tried that on me.” He double-checks the time. “Argh.” He smacks an urgent kiss against my lips and catapults backward off the bed. “I really have to go. Have fun tonight. Remember to tell your friends I have a big dick.” He winks. “See you tomorrow, yeah? Can you surf?” He hits the elevator button on the wall.
“You’ll be quicker walking.”
“But it means I get to spend an extra twenty seconds with you. Can you?”
“Nope.”
“Great, me and you tomorrow. We’re going surfing.”
I almost mention the thought of squeezing into a tight wetsuit makes me feel sick, but I bite my tongue.
My body is beautiful.
The elevator pings open.
“See you tomorrow.” He waves goodbye.
“Oh, Lincoln,” I call out to him just as the doors almost close. His fingers appear between the two stainless-steel doors, prying them apart.
“Yes.”
“You’re fired.”
“What?” he exclaims.
I turn onto my side, push myself up, and rest my head on my hand. “You heard me; you’re fired. I checked our employment policy. We can’t date.”
“You can’t fire me.”
“I just did. Your temporary contract is now void and your services are no longer required at Urban Soul Studios.”
“I’ve never been fired in my life.”
“You’re a director of your own hotel. You can’t fire yourself.”
With his hands on either side of the doors, his dark frame fills the entire space of the entrance, his mouth agape.
I sit up and continue my reasoning, mimicking his earlier balancing scales analogy. “It was either mind-blowing sex for six weeks or working together. It was a tough choice. Sex or no sex.” I tip my arms back and forth like I’m juggling an invisible ball.
“You are wicked cruel.” He narrows his eyes.
“And you are the biggest weirdo I know, wanting to work when you are supposed to be having time out to travel. I should call your dad. Does he even know you have a job ?”
“I knew it, you are a ball-breaker, and are we having our first fight?”
“Yes.”
“I hate you.” His eyes twinkle with mischief, not meaning what he says.
“I hate you too.” I let the covers wrapped around me lower slightly, exposing my boobs.
Just as expected, his eyes drop to his other new obsession.
He licks his lips and steps back into my room. “You made a good choice. Well done. Yup, I want more of those.”
He’s completely distracted as the elevator begins to shut behind him. “Aw, shit.” He squeezes himself between the closing doors.
“See you tomorrow.” I laugh as the doors shut .
When he finally hits the ground floor, he calls back up the stairwell. “Can we have angry make up sex tomorrow?”
“Yes,” I shout back.
“And can I still help you at the gym? Not as an employee, but as a volunteer. If I don’t, I won’t see you as much.”
“Yes.” I can’t figure him out. Actually, I can. He enjoys working, more than me it would appear.
“Pom-pom has pooped in the hallway. That’s what you get for firing me.” Lincoln’s laughter fills my house then the sound of the door closing signifies his exit.
Wow, Lincoln Black.
He was most definitely not on my agenda this month, but it looks like he’s just become my priority.