On the other hand… it had been incredible…
I think a little smile crept onto my face without my realizing it.
“What?” Connor asked.
I came out of my reverie and looked at him.
“What were you thinking?” he prodded.
I sighed.
“That I wish I wasn’t freaking out, because…”
I paused.
“Because what?”
“…because I was having the best night of my life.”
I probably shouldn’t have said it.
He wasn’t going to call me.
I was just going to be a story he bragged about to his ‘bros’ at the gym. The chick he ‘banged’ in some other company’s boardroom after hours.
I knew I shouldn’t have told him.
But it was true.
A smile slowly crept onto his face as he stared into my eyes.
He held out his hand to me.
“Walk me down to my car?”
16
We walked out to the penthouse reception area. Before we stepped into the elevator, I looked at my reflection in the glossy black of the marble walls, and tried to put myself together so I didn’t look like a girl who’d had crazy, wild sex.
I probably looked alright, but to my mind at that moment, anybody who saw me would instantly know. Like there was a blinking neon sign over my head: Just Had Sex On Boardroom Floor.
Oh God, I was going to have to do the Walk of Shame in front of Stanley, and it wasn’t even morning.
I sighed and got in the elevator with Connor.
“Still freaking out?” he grinned.
“Yes.”
“Let me see if I can take your mind off it.”
Then he raked his fingers down ever single button for ever single floor. They all lit up.
Not exactly what I was expecting.
“What did you do that for?!” I cried out.
“So I’d have a little more time for this.”
When they say ‘sweep a girl off her feet,’ I always thought it was an expression. I mean, it is an expression.
Except when it happens literally.
Which it did in that elevator.
He pulled me into his arms and leaned me back and kissed me – soft and slow at first, then more and more passionately.
As far as taking my mind off things, he succeeded.
I barely even heard most of the dings as the doors opened and closed in the empty building.
I wasn’t entirely sure if the butterflies in my stomach were caused by the kiss, or by the stop and go of the elevator – because even when the elevator was stationary, I felt giddy and off-balance.
Finally I realized that the door was going to open on the main lobby, and we were going to be in the middle of a lip-lock. I broke it off and pushed him away.
“We have five more floors,” he growled, and came in for another kiss.
I yielded – because I really, really wanted another kiss – but then I struggled out of his arms, giggling as I went, and straightened my clothes.
Just in time.
The door opened, and the empty lobby stretched out in front of us. I walked out fast, head held high, not looking back at Connor.
“Hi, Stanley,” I called out nervously – from across the cavernous lobby.
Nice. Way to play it cool, Lily.
Stanley looked up, puzzled, from behind his desk. He lifted one hand hesitantly.
Connor walked up beside me, a huge grin on his face. “Very slick. Very under the radar,” he teased me under his breath.
“Oh, shut up,” I whispered back, then turned towards the elevators that led to the parking deck.
“I’m this way,” Connor said, and gestured towards the front doors of the building.
“You didn’t park in the garage?”
“No.”
“But… there’s no street parking out front after seven,” I said, suddenly frightened for him – and imagining myself in the same situation. “They might have towed your car!”
“I don’t think it’ll be a problem.”
“But – ”
“Lily. Calm down. Just walk out with me.”
I got a hold of myself, nodded, and we proceeded to walk across the lobby. As we went, Connor pulled out his smart phone.
My heart skipped a beat. Maybe this was where he was going to ask for my number?
But that was bad – not in front of Stanley! –
…and then he tapped out a text on the screen, sent it, and popped the cell back in his pocket.
So much for him getting my number.
My heart sank.
“Night, Stan,” Connor said as we walked by.
Stanley smiled and raised his hand again.
Then we walked out of the lobby doors and onto the street.
17
Downtown Los Angeles is a ghost town at night. During the day, it’s a bustling metropolis with people walking through the canyons of glass and steel. Once the sun sets, though, it’s like all the pedestrians are afraid of vampires, and they mostly just vanish. (Not the cars, though. Cars are omnipresent in Los Angeles, no matter where you go.)