New Year in Manhattan (4 page)

Anna

The next few weeks became a gigantic countdown. Ethan and I settled into a routine of sorts. We spoke to each other when he got up and then sometimes just before I went to sleep. He’d worked every weekend since being back in New York. It was selfish of me, but I liked that his life seemed to be about work. When he went out it was always business related. He’d only seen Andrew and Mandy once since he got back.

Work was less and less interesting to me. It was difficult to know whether that was because Ethan was the ultimate distraction, or whether it was the job, the clients and the politics. Maybe it was all of the above. I just didn’t see my future at the firm any more. Once I realized that, it made it difficult to get up in the morning. I needed to be working toward an alternative, but I wanted Ethan as part of that. I didn’t want to be the girl whose future depended on a guy, but that ship had sailed. My future without him was unthinkable. I would never choose a job over him, it was as simple as that. Especially a job I felt, at best, ambivalent about. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to resign.

The weekend before Christmas, Leah invited me to have her dinner with her and Daniel at their place. I was pleased to have the distraction. It was dark, wet and cold as I arrived at their place.

“It smells delicious, Leah,” I said as I followed her into the kitchen. ”Did you cook?”

“I did. I hope it’s all right.”

“I’m not sure I’d ever bother cooking if I had a housekeeper.”

“I know, but I feel really guilty about her doing everything for us all the time. And anyway, I quite like cooking. Daniel’s been in the study all day working, and I’ve been cooking. It’s been like something from the fifties. Wine?”

“Of course wine. So where’s Daniel now?”

“Behind you,” Daniel said as he came into the kitchen. “My spidey sense told me you were about to open some shitty wine, so I’ve come to save you and find the good stuff.”

Leah grinned. “So how’s Ethan?”

“Good. He’s still not asked me to go to New York. But we’re going to talk about it when I go over for New Year, so it’s all good.”

“Have you offered to go?” Daniel asked.

“I want him to ask me. I don’t want to feel I’ve backed him into a corner.”

“He loves you. He’s not going to feel backed into a corner,” Leah said.

“Then why doesn’t he ask me?”

“Have you asked him to move to London?” Leah asked.

I shook my head. “It’s difficult for him.”

Daniel started laughing. “You know how ridiculous you sound, right?” Was it ridiculous to want Ethan to show me he was sure about us? “He’s in an impossible situation. He can’t ask you to move to New York without running the risk of looking like a dick because he’s asked a girl to give up a life and career for him.”

I’d not thought about it like that. “I suppose.”

“And moving to London has got to be tough for a New York lawyer. I mean, I’m not trying to say your career isn’t important, but he’s a partner, he’s built a practice. It would be hard for him to start again.”

“I know. I’m happy to go to New York. I don’t love my job that much. I’m bored and I could do with a fresh challenge.”

“I’m going to miss you so much,” Leah said as the kitchen timer started buzzing. “Will you two go and sit down. You’re distracting me.”

“Are you sure you don’t want us to help?” I offered.

Leah ignored me, and Daniel guided me toward to the table at the far end of the kitchen.

“So, you think you’ll end up in New York?” Daniel asked.

I shrugged. “I guess we’ll talk about it over New Year.”

“Look, I don’t know if you’d be interested, but I need a lawyer for my hotels in New York. I’ve put a new management team in there recently. There was a whole lot of crap that happened earlier in the year. And I want someone I can trust working with them.”

My stomach churned. Was he serious? “Daniel.”

“What do you think? I mean, I was planning to kick off a search process, but if you’re interested . . .”

“Did Leah put you up to this?”

“What are you guys talking about? I heard my name,” Leah shouted from behind the counter.

“Nothing. Tell you in a minute. Do you want a hand?”

Leah didn’t respond.

“Why would Leah put me up to this?”

“Because she’s my best friend and she loves me and is trying to look after me.”

“Well, okay, yes, that’s all true, but no, she didn’t put me up to this.”

“Fuck.” It was all I could say. A million thoughts were whirring around my head. This could be a perfect solution—but I’d always worked in a law firm. Being corporate counsel was not something I’d ever considered. Could this work?

“You might have to tone down the f-bombs in the office.” Daniel chuckled.

“Are you serious?”

“Of course. Are you interested?”

“Interested in what?” Leah interrupted as she came to the table with a huge pot of something.

“I just offered Anna a job.”

“You didn’t. You’d have to interview me and everything,” I said, not thinking straight. This couldn’t be happening.

“If you want the job, it’s yours, Anna.”

“What job?” Leah asked, collecting plates from the counter and setting them on the table.

“The General Counsel job at Palmerston.”

“Oh my god, that’s perfect!” Leah said, starting to dish out the contents of the delicious smelling food from the pot she’d brought to the table.

“You didn’t know he was going to do this?” I asked.

Leah shook her head.

“And it’s not a made up job? You were going to recruit someone?” I asked Daniel.

“Yes, I told you. Think about it. I’ll send you the job spec. You wouldn’t be working for me, it would be the guys in the US. Do some research on the business. Let’s talk in a few days.”

Jesus. Maybe Leah was right about the universe trying to bring Ethan and me together. Next, I’d be reading my horoscope and going to see psychics.

Anna

I’d always loved Christmas. Loved the chaos and the needless presents, the rush to get everything done and the time spent with my parents and my brother. This year it felt like it was just a warm up for the main event of seeing Ethan.

The actual day was fun, but not as fun as it could have been if Ethan and I had been together. Mum had sensed my distraction, telling me with a meaningful look in her eye to “take care” as I left them, which was the most demonstrative my mother ever got. Dad was oblivious, which suited me.

Back in London, I gave in to the excitement of seeing him. I’d been patient enough. Now, I wanted to be in New York already. I’d packed and repacked about seven times. I would only be there a little under a week, and I planned to spend most of it naked, but just in case we ventured out, I wanted to make sure I had every base covered.

My phone buzzed and “Sex God” flashed up on my screen. I grinned. He did, after all, live up to the self-titled nickname.

“Hey,” I answered.

“Are you packed?”

“And hello to you, handsome.”

“Sorry, I just want you here already.”

I didn’t know when the ache for him started. Maybe I’d had it since New York, since our first night together. Maybe since he’d left London. I did know it was getting bigger, more needy, more pressing. Speaking to him made it worse.

“I’m packed and just about to leave.”

“Just bring a carry on. You won’t need any clothes anyway. And it means you won’t have to wait for your bags.”

I laughed. “I’m not bringing just a carry on. Girls don’t do that. Well, I don’t anyway. Apart from anything else, I have to bring some of the gifts you’ve bought me.”

“Well, any of the gifts that I want you to bring with you don’t take up much space.”

Every couple of days a new gift had arrived from Ethan. It was mainly underwear but I also got a framed film poster of Pretty Woman signed by Richard Gere and Julia Roberts, after which I promised him head every hour we were together over New Year. I also got a vibrator, which I refused to use without him and wouldn’t need when I was with him. But there was lots of underwear. Underwear he made me try on and then take photos of myself in so he could “see if it fit”. I feigned exasperation but I loved that he wanted reminders of me. And I thought it was funny that he thought he’d have to convince me to send them.

The underwear didn’t take up much room, and I’d packed every single piece.

The door buzzed but I wasn’t ready to hang up on Ethan so I maneuvered my case out of the flat, and outside to the waiting cab while Ethan told me about his day coming back from Aspen. I wanted to ask whether he’d told his parents about us, but I held back. I didn’t know what New York would bring me on this trip. Last time it had brought me Ethan, but would this visit take him back from me? Would we find a way to be together? I pushed the thought from my head and tried to concentrate on what he was saying.

“Were your parents unhappy to only have such a short time with you?”

“I don’t think so. They seem to be delighted that there may be a prospect of continuing the Scott name. I’m sure they thought I was gay.”

I half choked on the breath I’d inhaled. “So you told them about me coming to visit?” I managed to push the words out of my still-winded lungs.

“Of course. Shouldn’t I have?”

“Of course. I just . . . ”

“Did you tell your family about me?”

Jesus, was this going to be a thing?

“Umm, kinda.”

“Don’t bullshit me, Anna. You didn’t say anything?” He sounded puzzled more than anything.

“Well, not specifically. I really don’t have that type of relationship with them. They knew something was going on. I mean, I spent my whole visit either on the phone with you or texting you.”

“Wow.”

“It’s no big deal, Ethan.”

“Apparently not,” he said. I wasn’t quite sure what he meant by that. “Listen, it’s late. I’ll see you at the airport.”

“Ethan.”

“Have a safe flight. I love you, Anna.”

And he was gone.

My ache for Ethan intermingled with the anxiety that had sprouted out of our last conversation. I just needed to see him and it would be like it always was when we were together, wouldn’t it?

Time on the plane seemed to pass at a different speed than in real life. I couldn’t focus on my book or any of the films. I just needed Ethan. I wanted him to tell me everything was going to be okay.

By the time the plane arrived and I’d passed through security, my excitement and nerves had brought on full body shaking. Border control must have thought I was smuggling something illegal. I was surprised I wasn’t searched.

Ethan spotted me before I saw him and the smile that spread across his face made my stomach curl. Jesus, I’d forgotten how handsome he was. I was tempted to dry hump him right there. Our eyes locked and he cupped my face with his hands and slid his lips across mine, softly, gently.

“God, you smell good,” he said into my mouth. “And you taste good,” he said, trailing his tongue along my bottom lip. “And you look phenomenal. Are you sure you’re real?”

He dipped his tongue past my lips and pushed against mine. I moaned. God, how I had missed the feel of him. I smoothed my hands up from his shoulders to find his neck, straining and tight under my fingers. He pulled me toward him, deepening his kiss, pressing my body to his, pushing his hardness against my stomach. I needed him, in every way, right there. He circled his hips and then pulled his head back.

“We should go, or I’m going to get arrested.”

“I think it would be worth it.”

He growled and grabbed my abandoned suitcase in one hand, my arm in the other and started charging toward the exit. I had to half skip to keep up with his large strides and determined pace.

“Like the idiot I am, I drove,” he said tightly. “Thought it would stop me from having you in the back of the car in front of Rory.”

Ethan

I heard Anna laugh and I turned my head. She was looking at me, laughing at me.

“What?” I asked, without interrupting our breakneck pace to the car.

“You.”

“You’re laughing at me, Miss Anna?”

“I am.”

“I’m so pleased I amuse you.”

“It’s forty minutes. I thought I wanted you bad, but it’s only forty minutes.”

But I really couldn’t wait, or didn’t want to. It had been too long and now I wanted to feel her, touch her, taste her. I didn’t want to waste a single second.

“Tell me what you have planned for us today.”

We reached the car and I popped the trunk and looked at her quizzically as I put her case inside.

“My plans are all about you and me naked for the rest of the day.”

“I get that. Tell me what you have planned, exactly.”

I studied her for a few moments, and she returned my look. She didn’t explain herself. Didn’t rush me. She just waited.

“Well, I made a promise to you that I wasn’t able to keep, so I have some making up to do,” I said as we got into the car.

“Yes, Mr. Scott, you told me that you’d make me come every day you were away. So I calculate that you owe me twenty-two orgasms.”

I smirked at her. “You’ve been counting?”

“Counting the days until I had you inside me again.”

“Fuck, Anna.” I crunched the gears and sped out of the parking lot. “And don’t look at me like that. Not now. Not yet. Not when I can’t do anything about it.”

“Like what?” she asked, innocently fluttering her eyelashes at me.

“You know that I need to be inside you when you look at me like that.”

“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.” She grinned and it was all I could do not to pull over to the side of the road and have her.

Driving had been a terrible idea. I wasn’t a patient man at the best of times, but with Anna sitting beside me, practically begging to get fucked, I was close to having an accident.

“I was thinking,” she said. “Do you, you know, get tested regularly?”

I quickly turned to look at her. “For STDs? Why? Is something wrong?”

“No, it’s just, I got my annual check-up and I came back clear and . . . I’m on the pill, so, I just thought that if you got tested, then—”

“I got tested about six months ago. A few weeks after you were in New York.”

“Oh.”

I could hear the unspoken question behind that one simple syllable and I reached across and stroked her leg. “There’s been no one since,” I said quietly.

She slid her hand over mine and I turned my palm and clasped her fingers tightly.

“Really?”

“No one since I had you the first time. Really.”

“Okay.” She paused. “Me too. No one since you.”

The revelation sat heavily between us. There was meaning there.

Eventually we pulled into my parking garage and I leapt out of the car, clumsily pulling her case from the trunk.

“In a rush?” she sing-songed.

“Whatever gave you that idea?” I raised an eyebrow at her and clamped my hand over hers as we headed to the elevators.

“You know that midnight-blue underwear set you sent me?” she asked coyly as we stepped inside the elevator.

“Er, yes.” There had been a lot of underwear. A lot of pictures. But I knew the set she was referring to.

“You liked that a lot, I remember.”

“I liked all of them a lot.”

“So this one doesn’t stand out?” she asked, facing me as she pulled at the sides of skirt, revealing blue barely-there underwear.

“Fuck.” Instinctively, I reached for her and cupped her mound. She was hot. Her head fell back but her eyes stayed on mine and I moved my whole body, pressing it to hers. “I thought you might want to freshen up before we fool around?”

“Freshen up? I’m not dirty enough yet. I want you to make me really dirty, Ethan.”

A sound erupted from the back of my throat. God, I wanted this woman. I sealed my lips against hers and the elevators doors sprang open.

My erection throbbed, desperate for her—it was almost painful. She pushed her hands against my chest, separating us. She was panting and reluctantly I pulled away from her and almost dragged her into the lobby.

I fumbled for my key as she stood behind me, kissing between my shoulder blades, rounding her hands across my ass and over my crotch. I groaned, dropped my keys, turned and grasped her face in my hands, taking her bottom lip between my teeth. The taste of her was so sweet. Had it been like this before? I ran my tongue along the inside of her upper lip, tracing the shape of her mouth, wanting to feel every inch of her, inside and out.

She trailed her hands across my back and over my shoulders. It wasn’t enough, I wanted us skin to skin. Reluctantly, I retrieved my keys and made more of a determined effort to get them to work. It took more effort and concentration than usual, but the door sprang open and then closed behind us. There we were—together, in private with no plans for the rest of the day apart from to be together. The thought calmed me. She was here. We had time.

The atmosphere changed between us. In the car the only thing I could think about was how my cock was going to feel buried in her pussy. Now, it was only one of the things I wanted to do with her.

I grinned at her and she grinned back. I didn’t know where we should start. There was so much I wanted to share with her. I couldn’t wait for her to get to know my place properly. I wanted to hear about her journey and how things were at work. I would tell her about the office, my niece Izzy, catch her up on the news around my sister’s new job.
And
I wanted to fuck her so badly I could barely stand.

We had time.

I pulled her toward me, her head against my chest, and we stood in my hallway, our arms wrapped around each other’s waists.

Finally she spoke.

“In all seriousness, it would probably be a good idea for me to shower. Can you wait?”

“Do you want company?”

My phone rang before she could answer.

“Shit.” I bellowed into the phone. “Scott?” With Anna’s arm still around my waist, I carried her case into my bedroom. She placed small, chaste kisses on my chest as I walked her backward into my bathroom and continued the conversation with work about nothing that I found remotely interesting or important. I had bought some toiletries that I thought she would like and I opened one of the cabinets to show her. She grinned at me in that way that she had that made me feel like a god. I turned on the shower and pulled some towels off the rack.

“I’ll be ten minutes max. I’m sorry,” I whispered

Don’t be. This is perfect
, she mouthed back.

She was perfect.

I closed the door behind me to give her privacy, despite the fact I wanted to watch her naked in the shower, I kicked off my shoes and lay on the bed.

There had been a disagreement between two associates at work on how to handle an issue that had cropped up with one of my clients. The case law was conflicting and they were taking opposing views. Trying to impress me, no doubt. Interrupting my time with Anna did not impress me in the slightest.

The sound of Anna in the shower echoed through the bathroom door and the thought of her in there, the water cascading down her skin, across her perfect tits and between her legs kept my hard-on at the center of my attention. The water shut off sooner than I expected. This call was going to have to wrap up quickly.

“I’m putting the phone down in five minutes, so if you want my decision on something then ask me. All I’ve heard so far is a battle of egos. And in a battle of egos, I’m always going to win, so get the fuck on with it.”

I hung up a second before the door to the bathroom opened to reveal Anna wearing a smile and some underwear that should be illegal.