With This Ring

“Do you think I have a shot?” she asked over the loud music, and gyrating bodies around us.

“What?”

“A shot!” she yelled into my ear. “With Tom.”

I stared at her with surprise. “Uh… I don’t see why not. He looked pretty interested.”

“He smells fucking amazing. I swear I couldn’t breathe properly when he was next to me.”

“You know he is the lawyer for a criminal family, though,” I reminded her.

She laughed. “I think I can handle it. There’s nothing a smoking hot guy with great dick moves can’t resolve, right?”

“Oh, there’s Maxim,” she suddenly called out.

My heart jumped in my chest. I turned at her nudge and saw him with the manager who had taken our order earlier. They were standing on the top floor and over the railing. The manager was gesticulating with his hands to emphasize whatever he was saying, and Maxim looked around while he listened, until his gaze collided with mine.

I instantly turned away.

“He just looked at you,” Britney squealed.

My phone began to vibrate then. I pulled it out of my pocket. It was Bianca.

“Food is here,” she said.

“Be right there,” I told her and informed the girls. Aldie managed to pull away from the man she was dancing with, and we were on our way. Tom had received a call on our way down, and stepped away to receive it before we’d gotten to the dance floor so I didn’t know where he was.

We returned to the room to find Levan’s hand quite high up Bianca’s skirt. He didn’t want to pull away when we arrived, so she smacked him away.

I knew whose hand I wanted that high up my thigh, but he was nowhere to be found. This I told myself was how it would be. Outside the bedroom we were nothing more, but as I watched Levan unable to take his eyes from Bianca, I became more and more sad and even envious of their love and passion. We dove into the food, and soon Tom returned and joined us. He made a point of sitting next to Britney, which made me wink at her.

I was happy for her, but I needed a breather from it all, so I excused myself.

“There’s a private bathroom just down the hall. Go past the mural and take a right,“ Levan said to me. The code is 3768.”

“3768,” I repeated, and went out.

I stepped out of the box and began to head down the hallway in search of the mural. I found it easily enough, but just as I turned to the right… I saw Maxim. The manager was speaking to him along with two other men in suits.

At first, he didn’t notice me, but then he lifted his head and saw me. His gaze lingered on me, but I quickly escaped and headed over to the bathroom.

My cheeks felt overheated. I wanted to pat some water on them, but I was worried that would ruin my makeup. So I just washed my hands, fixed my hair and exited the room.

And almost passed him, if not for the fact that all the hairs on my body tingled with a familiar awareness. I stopped in my tracks and turned to my left. He was leaning against the wall, his arms folded across his chest and just looking at me. I felt my knees go weak.

His eyes ran down my body, a knowing smile on his face, and it reminded me of what he had done to me that afternoon. I couldn’t help the heat that ran up my cheeks.

“I didn’t know you were going to be here,” I said.

“If you did, you wouldn’t have come?” he shot back.

I straightened my shoulders and flipped my hair back airily. “Don’t be so big-headed. Bianca invited me and I had no reason to refuse.” I paused and raised an eyebrow. “Would you rather I wasn’t here?”

“I’d rather you were on top of me,” he said.

The pang of arousal in my belly was real. I turned away, but he stepped forward and caught my hand, and drew me towards him.

I accepted the fact I had no will anymore when it came to him. Then he slipped his hands around my waist, and held me tightly to him, his face in my neck, and his nose breathing in my scent.

I didn’t move. I couldn’t and I never wanted to. It stunned me how such a simple, intimate touch, could mean so much. To the rest of the world he was so strong and impenetrable, but right now it felt as though he were in the palm of my hands.

I drew back to look up at him. I felt as if I was drowning in his eyes. The way he looked at me terrified me. There was so much intensity in his gaze. My hand moved to the side of his face.