“But clearly you are since you’re here.”
“Clearly I am. But you always have the option of saying no, even now,” I said.
“Do you want me to?”
I gazed into her big, round eyes as they implored me for an answer. Her curves. Her innocence. It all called to me, but it was completely new. I’d never once thought about Ava in that way. I’d only seen her as a potential friend, maybe someone I could trust down the line. Never had I thought about sleeping with her or having any sort of relations with her.
Until now.
“I’m here, and I haven’t said no. But just because I haven’t said no doesn’t mean you can’t, Ava. You need to understand that,” I said.
“I know. I do,” she said.
“I’m sorry Camilla didn’t tell you about us.”
“She apparently hasn’t told me a lot of things.”
“Are you okay?”
“I think I should be asking you the same question,” she said.
I nodded as I walked around the room, taking in the expanse of it all.
“It’s very romantic,” I said.
“What is?”
“The room.”
“Yeah. I suppose I may have gone into a little too much detail during my interview.”
“It’s nice.”
“You think?” she asked.
“I do. I think a lot of people undervalue the impact of romance and what it can do for a particular situation.”
“Do you like romance?”
I turned to her, a mere five feet between our bodies.
“I do.”
“Camilla has no idea what she’s lost in you,” Ava said.
“Well, maybe it’ll be for the better in time,” I said.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“About what?”
“What happened between you and Camilla?”
“I’m not really sure if that’s a line I should cross with you. She might want to tell you in her own time in, her own way.”
“Really? We’re standing in a room because we agreed to sleep with one another, and we’re discussing not crossing lines?” she asked.
“Okay. I’d rather not talk about it then.”
“Fair enough.”
Ava brought up a good point, though. She was my ex-girlfriend’s best friend. I couldn’t cross that line. And wasn’t there some sort of girl code that prevented her from sleeping with her friend’s ex?
“I don’t know if this is a good idea,” she said, as if reading my mind.
“If that’s how you feel, then I respect that,” I said.
“I mean, sleeping with my best friend’s ex is not what I signed up for when I did this.”
“What did you sign up for?”
“To lose my virginity.”
“May I ask why?”
Her eyes glazed over for a few seconds before she ripped herself from her trance.
“I just—woke up one day and was ready,” she said.
“To lose your virginity to a complete stranger?”
“Well, you aren’t really a stranger.”
“I could have easily been a stranger. But that would be a perk to going through with this. You wouldn’t be losing something so precious to someone who doesn’t care about you.”
“You care about me?” she asked.
“Of course. We’re friends. We get along. I care about what you think, how you feel about things.”
Her eyes latched onto mine, and the veins in my groin pulsed.
“If you want, it can be strictly a business arrangement. If it makes you feel better about the whole thing, it can be a one-time encounter, and I promise to infuse as much passion into it as possible,” I said.
She giggled, and the sound catapulted me into another realm.
“This is so insane. I can’t sleep with my best friend’s ex-boyfriend,” Ava said.
“Then don’t.”
Her eyes fluttered down my body, and heat rose up my spine. I didn’t want to make her do something she wasn’t sure about, but fucking hell, I wanted to put my hands on her. The idea of a stranger taking something so precious from her burned my blood. I didn’t even know why. If this was going to happen, I wanted to be the one to do it. I wanted to know Ava had given it to someone who would take care of her, who would ensure her pleasure and make sure she didn’t get hurt.
“Strictly business?” she asked.
It took all I had not to smile at her question.
“Strictly business,” I said.
“Okay then.”
“Okay?”
“Yeah, okay. Let’s, um—”
I searched her face as she looked around the room.
“Let’s do this,” she said.
“Then my first question to you is this: Do you want the control, or do you want me to have it?”
Her eyes panned to mine as I took a step toward her, then another, and yet another still. I walked toward her until our bodies were centimeters apart and my head was craned down to meet her eyes. I cupped her face, feeling the fire of her skin surge through my veins. I stroked my thumb over her cheek as those wondrously blue eyes danced.
“I don’t know what I’m doing,” she said, whispering.
“Allow me to take the reins,” I said.
A nod of her head was all I needed to guide her lips to mine.