Chapter 11
Eve stopped on her way back from the restroom to watch Aspen, who looked to be deep in conversation with Kit Hawthorne and Jack Watts from Titan Technologies that her father had been courting for years. Titan had its hands in everything from nanotechnology to environmental tech and landing them as clients would be a coup for the firm, but the tech giants had gracefully sidestepped every inroad the firm had made. Including the time three years ago when her father had tried to use her as an envoy.
She hadn’t realized at the time what was happening when her father introduced her to the gorgeous, willowy CEO—she’d just thought that they’d finally accepted her sexuality and were introducing her to a woman they approved of. I’d been Kit who’d clued her in—apparently her father had been angling to introduce them for years. Eve had never been more embarrassed in her life than she’d been in that moment, but Kit been impossibly kind to her and furious on her behalf.
Eve had been shocked when she crossed paths with the dark-haired beauty at the following glad-handing soiree, and Kit had been perfectly impish in her admission that she did it just to make her father pay for what he’d tried to do.
Literally.
Usually to the tune of the high five-figures, if the grumbling rumors Eve had heard were correct.
Where Kit went, Jack followed, so she’d crossed paths with them on several occasions since that disaster of a weekend, and she quite liked them both. However, she didn’t like Kit’s wide, playful smile as she leaned into Aspen and said something that made Aspen throw her head back with laughter.
Still, she had to admit that Michael hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d extolled Aspen’s virtues to sell her on Aspen as his replacement—Aspen certainly knew how to work a room.
“She is something, isn’t she?”
Eve nodded at Lydia’s assessment. “She is.”
Eve’s stomach gave a glorious little flutter as Aspen chose that moment to look up from her conversation. The heat in Aspen’s gaze as their eyes locked was palpable, and she bit her lip against the way her body reacted to it. Aspen’s gaze never wavered as she said something to the Titan execs that made them laugh, and a ridiculously sexy smile spread across her lips as she left them to saunter her way.
Eve’s pulse pounded in the base of her throat as she stared, entranced by the subtle sway of Aspen’s hips and the way her slacks tightened around her thighs as she walked. On the surface, Aspen was all coiled muscle and cool confidence in a way that dared anyone to not look at her, but what made those qualities even more appealing was the gentleness Eve knew lay beneath.
“Christ, Eve. Put your pants back on,” Lydia chuckled.
Eve frowned at her dumbly. “I’m wearing a dress.”
Lydia smirked and waggled her eyebrows. “Not for long, if the look on your face means anything.”
Eve blushed. “It’s not like…” Her voice trailed off into a smile as Aspen drew near, and she wrapped an arm around her waist to tug her into her side. “Hey, you.”
“Hey, yourself.” Aspen’s arm flexed around her waist. “It’s not like, what?”
“Nothing. Just girl talk,” Lydia replied smoothly. “How’re things with Troublesome Twosome?”
“Oh, you know…” Aspen huffed a little laugh and shook her head. “They’re Kit and Jack.”
Eve blinked at the familiarity in Aspen’s voice as she spoke of the duo. “You know them?”
Aspen pressed a gentle kiss over Eve’s temple. “We went to Stonebridge together.” Her arm tightened around Eve’s waist. “They’re going dancing and wanted to know if the three of us would like to join.”
“They’re trolling for ass, you mean,” Lydia corrected with a little laugh.
Eve bit the inside of her cheek as Aspen’s hand dropped lower to caress her hip. She was so distracted by the ripples of heat that followed the touch that she barely registered Aspen’s amused, “I mean, they are Kit and Jack. They have a private table with bottle service at Halifax.”
“Of course they do,” Lydia noted in an amused tone. “That definitely sounds better than this bullshit. Count me in.”
Eve’s breath caught as Aspen’s breath cascaded over her ear, and warmth bloomed low in her belly as Aspen nuzzled closer, her voice barely louder than a whisper as she added, “Would you like to go? We can just hang out in the booth and people watch if you’re not up for dancing.”
Eve’s stomach swooped when she looked up at Aspen and saw her watching her with a soft expression. It was more than a little unfair, honestly, how completely that look undid her. “Sure.” Her pulse stuttered at the obvious rasp in her voice, and she cleared her throat softly to add, “Sounds fun.”
Aspen’s eyes crinkled with joy even as she checked, “You sure?”
Only about you , Eve thought. The club scene had never really been her thing, mostly because she was too self-conscious about her complete absence of skill when it came to that kind of dancing, but the idea of cuddling up to Aspen in a dimly lit booth while the world pulsed and swirled around them in dreamy, varying neon hues was too tempting to resist. “Yeah. Totally.”
“Cool, then let’s get out of here and leave the networking to the boomers,” Lydia cheered as she turned to leave.
Eve had a moment of panic that her parents would insist she stay when they stopped to say goodbye before getting their coats—they’d never allowed her to leave until the last guest had departed—but they just smiled in that practiced way of theirs that looked genuine enough but didn’t reach their eyes as they told them to ‘go, have fun’.
It was disconcerting to be given such latitude, and she was only slightly annoyed that it was only granted because Kit, Jack, and Lydia were all pointedly waiting for her and Aspen at the door.
Still, it was an escape, and she took Aspen’s hand as she fled.
Forty minutes after grabbing their coats, they were checking them at the club. She laced her fingers through Aspen’s as they followed Kit and Jack along the elevated walkway that ran along the edge of the dance floor that was teeming with young, pretty people who looked like they were used to getting what they wanted and considered Aspen their personal playground.
She squeezed Aspen’s hand as Kit leaned in close to be heard over the music as she gave her name to the handsome twenty-something blond who stood sentry at the entrance to a section of booths behind plush velvet ropes. She watched the crowd bobbing and swaying in the smoky lavender haze that coated the dance floor as they were led to an intimate round booth upholstered in buttery-soft gray velvet in the corner. They were left with the promise of a server coming soon with their drinks, and Eve was glad for Aspen and Lydia’s familiarity with Kit and Jack as it provided her space to find her equilibrium. All of this was wildly out of her comfort zone, but she was surprised to note that the buzz in her veins that pulsed with the beat of the music was more anticipatory than anxious.
She was pulled from her thoughts by a warm hand on her thigh, and her pulse stuttered as she turned to find that Aspen had leaned in close enough that she could feel Aspen’s breath on her lips.
“Okay?” Aspen asked, her voice just loud enough to be heard over the beat of the music.
Eve nodded.
Concerned dark eyes danced over Eve’s face as Aspen pressed, “We can leave if this isn’t your thing.”
It wasn’t. Not at all. But the buzz was intoxicating, and Eve wanted to drown in it. “I’m good,” she insisted. When Aspen didn’t seem quite convinced, she leaned in to kiss her softly. “I’ll tell you when I’m ready to leave.”
The promised server arrived then, balancing a tray with bottles of Patrón Silver and Redbreast Irish whiskey and five glasses. Kit grinned at them all after she’d left and gestured to the selections. “What’ll it be?”
“I’d like to be a functioning human tomorrow, so whiskey,” Lydia laughed.
Kit nodded and threw a playful wink at Lydia. “Smart girl.”
“I have my moments,” Lydia sassed playfully. “But aim that wink elsewhere, Hawthorne. Your charms don’t work on me.”
“Your loss.” Kit pretended to pout as she slid a glass of whiskey toward Lydia.
Jack laughed as he uncorked the tequila and poured a generous amount into his glass. “Just means more of the good stuff for me.”
“Hold your horses there, Watts. I’ll take some of that,” Aspen said, nudging a glass toward him.
“Yeah, you will,” Jack cheered. He arched a brow at Eve. “What’ll it be? Or would you prefer something else? We can get anything you’d like. I just put the order in for these with our table request because they’re our usual.”
“No, this is fine,” Eve assured him. “But whiskey and I are not friends.” She grimaced at the memory of Michael’s twenty-seventh birthday that she’d told Aspen about and the hangover that lasted for three full days afterward. “I’ll also go with the Patrón.”
“Not friends, you say?” Jack inquired as he poured her drink.
Eve pulled a face and nodded. “Very much enemies.”
“Yeah, we all have one of those,” Lydia laughed. She tilted her glass toward the center of the table and offered a cheery, “Sláinte!” before taking a generous sip.
Aspen tipped her glass against Eve’s, and a pretty smile bowed her lips as she murmured, “Cheers, beautiful girl.”
Eve was glad for the dimness of their surroundings that hid her blush as she echoed, “Cheers.” She held Aspen’s gaze as she sipped at her drink, but the heat that filled her belly when she swallowed had nothing to do with the alcohol and everything to do with the way Aspen’s dark, dark eyes had dipped to focus on her lips.
“Let’s dance!” Lydia shouted as she jumped to her feet.
“Hell yeah!” Jack cheered, grabbing Kit’s hand and dragging her along as he took off after Lydia.
Aspen set her glass on the table and inclined her head toward the writhing sea of bodies their companions had disappeared into. “Would you like to dance?”
Eve bit her lip as she surveyed the gyrating, bouncing crowd. “I’m not very good.”
It wasn’t a no, and Aspen smiled at her as she slipped out of the booth. She extended a hand invitingly as she said in a voice layered with longing and promises, “Don’t worry. I am.”
Anticipation fluttered in the base of Eve’s throat put her hand in Aspen’s and allowed herself to be led to the dance floor. The heavy bass, flashing lights, and the suffocating press of bodies that surrounded them as they waded deeper into the throng would have been overwhelming on any other night, but tonight, with Aspen’s hand curled protectively around her own, they barely registered.
They found a bubble of space just large enough for the two of them maybe ten feet from where Kit, Jack, and Lydia had ended up, but all thoughts of their companions disappeared when Aspen turned to her with bright eyes and an easy smile to pull her close. It wasn’t the first time Aspen had held her, but her pulse picked up all the same as she looped her arms around Aspen’s neck and their bodies melded together.
Wrapped in the anonymity of the crowd and the darkened room, Eve yielded without hesitation to the press of Aspen’s hands on her hips that guided her into motion. Left to her own devices, she would never have been able to replicate the way her hips rolled and swayed with Aspen’s, but with Aspen’s body pressed so perfectly against hers, it was the most natural thing in the world.
She closed her eyes as she surrendered to the moment, curling one hand around the back of Aspen’s neck as her other fell to rest atop her sternum, delighting in the way the music pulsed through her and the feeling of Aspen’s breath falling in hot waves against her lips. Arousal, hot and molten and so very devastating coiled low in her belly when Aspen’s hands dipped to grab her ass and pull her onto a muscled thigh. She felt more than heard Aspen’s moan when she ground against her, and she was helpless but to lift her chin to drink in that sweet sound of pleasure from its source.
Her stomach clenched as the hands on her ass tightened and Aspen’s tongue delved into her mouth with devastating precision, and it was all she could do to hold on as they kissed slow and deep and dirty right there in the middle of the dance floor. She’d never done anything like this before. Had never thought herself capable. But goddamn did she never want this moment to end.
She felt alive and completely, blissfully unburdened. She was a creature of want, driven by desire, and Aspen was the only thing that could slake her thirst. She needed to be closer. To taste. Touch. Take.
To be taken.
“God, Eve.” Aspen’s voice, rough and ragged and overflowing with the same potent, heady hunger Eve felt, slipped through the haze that’d enveloped her.
Eve swallowed thickly as she dragged her eyes open, and her nipples tightened painfully when she found Aspen watching her with a heavy-lidded, hungry expression. A thrill shot through her as she drank in the hunger that shone in Aspen’s eyes. She tugged Aspen closer to flick her tongue over Aspen’s lips. Her clit pulsed at the wanton groan that rumbled in Aspen’s throat as she withdrew, and she smiled with a brazenness she hadn’t thought herself capable of as she said, “Take me home.”