Chapter 7
"Yeah, I own a few companies. Just bought my third house, waterfront this time."
"Maybe you could show me sometime." Sophie pushes out her chest and the man she flirts with eyes her cleavage.
I cross my arms and look at the time on my phone.
11:43
Fucking hell. We've been here for almost three hours.
"Do you have somewhere else to be?"
My eyes go to the man beside me. Somehow, even after him accidentally knocking me against a wall, I still don't know his name.
"Home. I have work in the morning." I explain.
"You work on weekends?"
Tilting my head side to side I respond "Not all the time. But tomorrow I do."
"What are you doing tomorrow night?"
I feel my body clench and my fingers wrap around the edge of the seat.
"Umm...I...uh...I'm..not sure"
His gaze stays pinpointed on me, making me flush and break eye contact.
"Josh," he motions to the friend who's flirting with Mia. "Is having a bit of a get-together tomorrow night at his new house."
"Are you inviting us?" I ask.
"Yeah." He responds, my heart rapidly beating as he gives me a soft smile.
"Your friend won't mind us being there, will he?" We both look Josh and Mia as they practically grope each other.
"He definitely won't mind."
Asia stands up and picks up her bag and coat. "It's been great meeting you all, but it's almost our bedtime." I follow suit and stand up, slipping my coat over my shoulders.
"Aww come on guys it's only midnight!" Mia pouts.
"Don't you have lunch with your parents tomorrow?" Asia asks, knowing It's Mia's plan to stay out as late as possible so she won't have to meet her parents for lunch.
"Fine." Mia grumbles.
They say their goodbyes to us and we head outside.
"Hey!" I hear from behind me.
I slow down and let Asia and Mia walk ahead.
"This has my number on it." He hands me a jagged piece of paper. "Text me and I'll send you the address of Josh's house."
"Okay."
"It doesn't start till around eight." He tells me. "And it's just a casual thing."
I nod. "I uhh, never got your name."
"I don't think I got your either." He chuckles. "I'm Xander."
"I'm Flora."
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"Take your right hand and lightly trace your fingers down the side of my face."
Elijah's hand trembles as he follows my order. "Like this?"
"Use a little bit more pressure, you don't want to do it too lightly, it'll tickle the face." He applies more pressure, his hand softly gripping the side of my jaw.
"Gently slide your thumb against the bottom lip." My bottom lip pouts as he drags his thumb across. "And pull me in for a kiss."
I close my eyes and seconds later I feel his lips touch mine.
My mind drifts to last night, to Xander. I've never been so intensely attracted someone before, not even the person I had my first time with. I wanted his attention on only me, so much so that I wished Asia, Mia and his friends weren't there.
Whenever he spoke to me my body tensed with nerves. There was so much I wanted to say to him but the words got caught in my throat and I instead answered with few words.
After I got home last night I sent him a text asking for the address of his friend's house, he replied less than a minute later.
I told Asia and Mia about Xander inviting us and they both agreed that we all need to go shopping this afternoon to shop for an outfit.
Elijah pulls away leaving a string of saliva hanging between both of our mouths. He swipes his hand, breaking the saliva and grabs a tissue from the coffee table, handing it to me.
"It happens all the time." I tell him, noticing his flushed cheeks,
"Soo...how did I do?"
"Pretty good actually. We'll work a bit more on the pacing, just so you don't go too quick or too slow, but the kiss itself was better than most of my other clients did on their first go."
"Can we practice a bit more?"
"Sure, but this time we're going to try it with tongue."
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"It won't go over my butt."
Asia, Mia and I are all crammed in one of the dressing rooms at Nordstrom. I've been trying to get a pair of jeans over my butt for the last five minutes and it hasn't helped that Mia keeps elbowing me in the back, as she tries zipping up a dress.
"Is there another size up?" I ask.
"I think the bigger ones are all sold out." Asia mumbles. "Can you button up the back of the top?"
I pull the jeans off, clipping them back on the hanger and start buttoning up Asia's shirt. The shirt she's trying on has puffy shoulder length sleeves and has buttons on the back of it, making it look almost like a corset.
"Who the hell came up with the idea of putting buttons on the back of a top? What a dickhead!" She growls.
"Calm down tiger, it's not the end of the world." Mia says.
She blows out a harsh breath. "I'm just nervous about tonight."
"Why." Mia and I ask in unison.
She turns around to face us. "Come on. We meet these obviously rich guys at a bar; that I don't even know how we got into, one of them invites us to a get together his friend is having; they don't even know us, and the house ends up being in the middle of a forest outside New York! Why wouldn't I be nervous."
"Xander seemed nice." I tell her.
"Seeming nice doesn't mean he is nice." She states. "And that goes for his friends as well?"
"Would the both of you stop." Mia stomps her foot like a child. "We are going to this whether you like it or not."
"We don't have to do anything we don't want to." Asia retorts.
She sighs. "I had to sit through my parents listing all of my failures and tell me how I've disappointed them and the rest of my family, for an hour today. I endure all that thinking it was just the monthly lunch I'm forced to go to if I want all my bills paid. But no! Apparently, they think I'm wasting my life away by not doing what they want me to do, so they decide to cut me off."
"What did you expect to happen?" I ask.
Her eyes flash to mine. "Oh I don't know, make sure their child has a place to live and food to eat."
I scoff. "Wasn't it only a few months ago you promised them you'd get your shit together? You even went as far as lying to them about being one of only five up and coming clothing designers chosen to be featured in Vogue."
"What was I supposed to do?"
"Get a job, Mia. That's what you should have done."
"That would have taken months." She tries to make an excuse.
Asia steps between us, stopping me from responding.
"No more arguing." Her voice stern. "We're getting in an uber and going to get together and the both of you aren't going to talk to each other for the rest of the night."
Looking from me to Mia she says "Is that understood?"