Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
Logan
I offered to take her anywhere.
Pearl & Vine in Tribeca, The Tonic Club in Midtown, Velvet Jack’s in the Upper East Side. She could have been dining with celebrities and eating caviar flown in from Madagascar, but this is what she chose.
A small greasy pizza shop in Hell’s Kitchen called Vito’s on 47th . There are no tables, only overturned milk crates scattered on the sidewalk to sit on—if you’re lucky enough to get one.
We’re stuck in a line that curls around the block, but at least it’s moving.
“I can’t believe you’ve never eaten here,” she says as she tucks a strand of silky brown hair behind her ear.
I notice she does that every few minutes and it drives me crazy.
I can’t wait for the day I get to reach over and do that for her whenever I please.
“If I lived in New York, I’d hit up every famous pizza shop there is. ”
“I normally order from the place down the street,” I say, hoping she doesn’t ask me any more questions about it.
“What’s it called?”
Dammit .
“Pizza Hut.”
She just shakes her head in disgust. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.”
The line moves and we shuffle forward. We’re behind a group of firefighters who look like they just battled through hell with all the grime, ash, and water coating their suits. Their pizza is on me.
“So, what do you have planned for me after this?” I ask, unable to take my eyes off this incredible girl.
I feel alive whenever I look at her. My whole body tingles with excitement and possibility as I roam my eyes over her sexy lips and adorable cheeks.
I just want to sink my hands into her hair and pull her mouth to mine.
When she asked me where I wanted to go on my birthday tour, I almost said my bedroom.
Instead, we’re here getting pizza, and I have no idea what we’re going to do next. She left her suitcase in the lobby of my building with the security guard, because she wanted ‘to be totally free to do anything we pleased’—her words.
“That’s the fun part,” she says with a grin. “There is no plan. We’re going to go wherever the wind takes us.”
Right now, there is no wind. It’s August in New York and it’s hot as fuck. Hell’s Kitchen is definitely living up to its name. I take off my jacket and roll up my sleeves. Amber’s eyes dart to my thick forearms, her breath hitching for a second or two.
Apparently, I’m not the only one with more than just pizza on my mind. I take my time rolling my sleeves up, giving her a show. When she finally turns away, her cheeks are an adorable shade of pink and my hunger is stronger than ever.
I want her. Badly .
I haven’t wanted something for my birthday in ages, but I want her.
She grins when I pull out my tie and stuff it in my pocket.
“There you go,” she says, nodding with a smile on her face. “That’s more like it. I knew you had it in you to loosen up a little.”
I don’t want to hold my suit jacket throughout our whole date, or whatever this is… I might need these hands free if what I’m fantasizing about comes true.
“If you think that’s impressive,” I say with a grin. “Watch this.”
I walk across the street and toss my jacket into the big garbage bin on the other side.
I have a closet full of them at home and if I had to choose between having another Italian suit jacket or sinking my hands into this girl’s silky hair while we kiss at the end of the night, well, that’s hardly much of a choice in my mind.
She’s smiling like she can’t believe I just did that as I jog back over.
“Now we’re getting somewhere,” she says when I return.
My adrenaline is so fired up that I take a risk and reach for her hand. She lets me take it. I can feel my heart pounding in my chest as I swallow her hand with mine and hold it like I’m never going to let it go.
Her gaze flicks up to mine—just for a second—but it’s long enough to spot the burning heat in her eyes. Damn . If she keeps looking at me like that, I’m going to get rock hard, and this is not the place—in public surrounded by firemen—to pitch a trouser tent.
She clears her throat and drops her gaze. “Anyway,” she says, pretending she wasn’t just mentally undressing me with those beautiful hazel eyes, “I think birthday nights should be spontaneous. No plans, no schedules, and definitely no spreadsheets.”
“You say that like spreadsheets are a bad thing.”
“They are,” she says, deadpan. “They’re joy-killers. Fun assassins. If a spreadsheet were a person, it’d be wearing khakis and saying ‘let’s circle back.’”
I laugh. I actually laugh. God help me.
Amber’s smile is full of delight as she looks up at me. “Was that an actual, legitimate laugh, Mr. Strickland? Careful now, what if someone saw you?”
“Don’t worry, it won’t happen again.”
Fuck, I don’t remember the last time I felt this... loose. This light. I’m standing in the middle of a New York City sidewalk in one hundred-degree heat and somehow I don’t want to hail a taxi and race home.
And it’s all because of Amber. She’s making it fun.
I’d go anywhere, and do anything with her.
The firefighters ahead of us cheer when it’s their turn to order.
Amber hoots and hollers like she’s part of the team.
One of them offers her a fist bump, which she accepts without hesitation.
Somehow she knows everyone and no one at the same time.
It’s effortless for her. She’s magnetic.
It’s like she belongs here. In this city. In this moment. In my life.
I’ve been here for twenty years, she’s been here for twenty minutes, and somehow she’s more of a New Yorker than me.
This girl is unreal.
I raise my hand, flagging Vito or whatever cousin is working for Vito tonight. “All the firemen are on me,” I say.
Now, they’re all cheering and fist-bumping with me too. They slap my back and thank me in their thick New Yorker accents. I can’t help but smile, feeling like a real, legitimate New Yorker for the first time in my life.
Amber whispers something to the pizza guy and when I get my slice, there’s a single birthday candle sticking out of the crust.
I laugh as she starts singing Happy Birthday at the top of her lungs. The firemen join in and so does everyone in line. Even the pizza cooks are singing as I go bright red, the whole street serenading me. It’s the best birthday of my life.
“Don’t forget to make a wish,” she says, bright smile, wide eyes, so unbelievably perfect.
There’s only one wish I could dream up. Only one thing I want.
Her.
I wish for her.
I blow out the candles and everyone cheers.
Amber wraps her arm around my neck and plants a kiss on my cheek.
I feel lightheaded as her kiwi-scented shampoo fills my lungs and her perky boobs press against my shoulder.
That can’t be the last time those luscious lips are on me. I need to feel them again or I’ll die.
The firemen ask us to sit with them, but we both want to be alone so we grab two milk crates and sit under a street light off to the side.
Goddamn, even under the bright city lights, this girl looks like a dream.
I want to see her in every kind of lighting—candlelight, sunsets, early morning sun waking up in bed…
Hell, I even want to see her under those harsh fluorescent lights in McDonald’s.
I want to see it all. I want to experience her in every way.
“What do you think?” she asks when I take a bite of the pizza. It’s good. Really fucking good.
“Better than Pizza Hut,” I say before taking another bite.
“Told you,” she says with a big grin. “There’s more to life than just your condo, commute, and office. You gotta get out more, Mr. Cranky Pants.”
I kind of like that name now. I’d like anything she calls me.
After the pizza, we wander around and end up in some underground salsa club.
Normally, I’d hate a place like this, but I get to dance nice and close with my girl.
This time, I can’t stop myself from getting rock hard as she grinds against me, the music blaring in our ears.
She must feel it on her hips, but she doesn’t stop or hesitate.
She keeps that sexy little body gliding up and down mine as she shakes her hips in the most mesmerizing way.
We’re surrounded by sweaty, half-naked people on the dance floor doing some of the dirtiest dancing I’ve ever seen, but I only have eyes for her. Her hair is sticking to her glistening temples and when she comes in close, I tuck her hair behind her ear.
She looks up at me with the most breathtaking shy smile and I know in my heart, soul, and every damn cell in my body that this is the girl for me.
She’s the one I want. The only one I want.
Now, tonight, forever. She’s it. She’s my soulmate.
I just hope it doesn’t take her too long to realize it.
A slow song comes on and the wild dancers come together in pairs all around us, tangling limps and getting in close.
I take Amber’s hand and pull her against my body where she belongs. She moans as she looks up at me, those beautiful eyes lingering on my mouth before rising to my heated gaze.
“What did you wish for?” she whispers as we start to sway to the nice song.
It’s hard to focus on words with her breasts pressed into my chest and her hips so close to mine.
“No, wait,” she says, shaking her head. “Then it won’t come true.”
I look down at this perfect girl in my arms and let out a low breath. “Don’t worry. It already has.”
She smiles shyly and then rests her head on my chest. I can’t believe I’m here right now, experiencing this. A few hours ago, I was at my desk saying goodnight to Cassandra, and my entire world has changed since then. It feels like a lifetime ago.
I believe there are rare moments that happen in life that completely change you. Moments so intense, they crack your lifeline in half, so there is only the time before the moment and the time after.
This here, tonight, with Amber, is one of those moments.
I could be one hundred years old on my deathbed, thinking back over all the long years I’ve lived, and I know that my first thought will be this night.
The unexpected encounter in the office, the birthday singing over pizza, the dance, the switch in my mind when I realized it can’t all be about work.
A life has to have some fun in it too otherwise what’s the point?
“Am I going to see you again?” she whispers.
“I sure as fuck hope so,” I say with a laugh. “Otherwise, I might not know how to go on.”
“I’m only here for two weeks,” she says. “Until Willow and Greg— Shit! ”
I lean back as she goes rigid in my arms. “What is it?”
“Munchies!” she says with panic in her eyes. “I need to get him his medication!”
“Okay,” I say, trying to calm her down.
But she’s too wound up to listen.
“I gotta go!” she says, pulling away. Every instinct in my body is urging me to stay with her and keep her in sight, but she’s as slippery as she is fun. “I’m not flighty. I’m responsible.”
It’s the last thing I hear her say before she dissolves into the packed crowd, moving with impressive speed.
I’m much larger, so it’s harder for me to follow and get around everyone.
“Amber!” I shout over the music. “Amber, wait up!”
My heart is pounding when I finally get to the door, and I feel like I might be sick when I see her slip into a taxi and disappear from my life as quickly as she crashed into it.
No ...
It can’t end like this.
But it won’t. I have to know it won’t.
We’re soulmates, and this is just the beginning.
I’ll make damn sure of that.
I’ll burn down the world before I let that girl slip out of my life.
My birthday wish will come true.
Amber will be mine.