Out of the Ashes

by S. M. Lynn

  Gavin was walking out of NYU’s art school, where he had been modeling for one of the school’s art classes and I was staring at a map trying to find the administration office and ran smack into him. It was like running into a brick wall. I started to stumble backward off the curb and Gavin caught my arm just before I landed in the street. “Whoa, slow down there. Also it often helps to walk with your eyes up here,” he said tipping my chin up, “rather than looking at your feet.”

  “Sorry first day here. I’m terribly directionally challenged and was trying to figure out where the hell I am on this map.” I looked up to finally see the face of the wall I had run into. Holy hotness. Despite my recent history, I was totally captivated by him. He was one of the most gorgeous men I had ever seen. Gavin offered to walk me over to the administration office saying something about wanting to save others from being mowed down the way I had him. I thought about pointing out that I was the one who almost ended up on their ass but then thought better of it and let him lead the way to the building. He was so easy going and pleasant to talk to that we quickly hit it off. He made feel completely comfortable almost like I could tell him anything, I said almost, even after such a short time. I totally would have snatched him up but always my luck I am the wrong gender for him to even be interested as I found out when we met for lunch that day.

  I explained to him that I just moved here a week ago and was getting ready to start my MBA at NYU. In the meantime I was living out of a suitcase in a hotel room until I could find a place. I had already looked at a couple places, both were people advertising for a roommate; but one was too far away and the other was a male roommate, a pervy male roommate. He spent most of the time staring at my chest and my legs and didn’t even bother to give me a tour of place except to show me his bedroom. Yeah, not happening. Gavin mentioned that he had recently moved to the city; his parents had bought him an apartment right on 5th Avenue across from Central Park. Oh shit, that must have cost a fortune. He told me to come by the next day and he would give me a tour. Rent would be cheap in spite of the location because the apartment was paid for and his parents paid the fees so all we would have to do is split the utilities. For a little while, I was worried that his parents would be upset that he had a roommate considering they were essentially paying for everything. But then I met Mrs. Shaw, or Kathleen, as she insisted I call her from the moment we met. She was a wonderful woman and I could see where Gavin got his easygoing nature.

  Gavin speaking pulls me from my trip down memory lane. “Wait a minute,” he says having recovered from the previous incident, “did you say Ian? As in Mr. Hot Boss?” His eyes went wide with shock.

  “Would you stop calling him that? But yeah, that Ian. He must have seen some of the commotion from his suite.” I nod in the direction he went with Connor.

  “Well, what are the odds that he’d be in the same club as you tonight?” Gavin smiles mischievously.

  “Hmm… Let me think, considering this is one of the most exclusive clubs in town, I would say this is the perfect place for entertaining some of his high end clients.” I gesture to the group of people with Ian. “So not that much of a coincidence after all.” I retort a little harsher than intended.

  “Hey, you know I’m just teasing you about him, right?”

  I smile up at him so he sees I’m not angry about his teasing. “Not that it matters anyway cause he never said a word during the whole incident and once the bouncers had escorted stubble guy away, he just nodded at me and walked away.”

  “Odd,” Gavin mumbles, shaking his head in disbelief. “Well enough of this standing around. Let’s dance, unless you’d rather go home? Which after everything, I wouldn’t blame you if you did.” I shake my head in answer. He grabs my hand and takes me back to the dance floor.

  We settle comfortably into dancing with one another though I can see Gavin giving ‘back-off’ looks to a few of the guys around us. “Don’t look now but I think you might have an audience.” Gavin shouts over the music and nods his head toward the wall. I turn to see what he’s talking about only to fall into hauntingly beautiful blue eyes. Why is he staring at me? So are we a little full of ourselves tonight, Celeste? He’s probably looking at someone else. There are a lot of hot people in the club tonight but just in case he is looking at me, I figure giving him a little show can’t hurt.

  During one particularly sexy song, I slide down Gavin’s front causing my already short dress to ride up a little higher on my thighs exposing some skin at the tops of my stockings. Then suddenly I’m pulled backward by a pair of strong hands. Oh no, not again. I look up to Gavin, the panic clear on my face and reach out to him. He just smiles a knowing smile and shakes his head at me. Okay, mantra time, what the hell? Taking a moment to calm myself, I decide if Gavin is on board with this guy dancing with me, and as long as he remains right next to me, I’m fine with it too. I can’t let one creep ruin my whole night.

  The guy with his hands on my hips doesn’t turn me around and I don’t attempt to turn but just settle back into his hard chest and begin dancing with him in earnest. As the music changes to Jason Derulo’s The Other Side, he grinds his hips into my ass and I press back against him. I can feel his reaction to my body and am, despite the earlier situation, pleased to find that I turn him on. Seeing the approval on Gavin’s face only further relaxes me into his embrace. I’m overcome by a feeling of safety and security. His hands are large but surprisingly comforting as he wraps them around my waist. I didn’t think it was possible to get any closer but he pulls me further into him. There’s no space at all between us now; the only way we could get any closer now would be to have him inside me. Holy shit, my hormones are taking over my brain; pull it out of the gutter, girl and get it together.

  I slide my ass down the front of his body and my dress rides high on my hips. Suddenly, my mystery man turns me around. Holy fuck, I’m face to face with Ian Jacobs. My fucking BOSS!!!! I had just been rubbing up on him like I needed the contact to breath and that whole time it was my boss! This cannot happen again! Oh I’m so beyond mortified. He doesn’t say anything but this time I’m greeted with a panty-dropping smile and I melt into his arms as Jason sings about everything changing if we do this. The lyrics aren’t lost on me in this moment. How will I be able to work with him after this? It’s just a few dances, really and this is how you dance at clubs like this. The other night does not count because we’re going to be professional to one another. So that’s all it is, well, at least to him and I am trying to keep it that way. I just need to reign in my raging hormones. I’m trying way too hard to convince myself that the feelings I have for him are nothing more than my hormones raging out of control. Well, that and the fact that I know exactly how godlike the man pressed against me is.

  I lean into him when he pulls me closer. Oh my, he smells delicious. The scent of his cologne mixed with sweat from the dancing is doing nothing to help the situation between my thighs. His hands run down my hips to my thighs and as they start to make their way north again, I feel him rub over the exposed skin at the top of my stockings and his fingers play with the hooks on my garter. My knees go weak in his embrace and I’m sure any minute I will be a puddle at his feet. This needs to stop or we will end up exactly where we did the other night. I tip my head back trying to get away from his intoxicating scent and he takes that opportunity to run his tongue up the length of my neck. This should upset me as it’s something totally inappropriate for my boss to do but I don’t care. Ian stirs feelings in me that I haven’t felt for a long time. He nips at my ear lobe and kisses the sensitive spot behind my ear. He’s so perfect; I’d love to take him home with me. As that thought goes through my head, his eyes bore into mine. I stare into his cerulean pools begging with my eyes for him to kiss me, to take me, to make me his. Where are these thoughts coming from? He pulls back some putting a little space between us. I want to pull him back to me, to press his lips to mine and run my fingers through his hair. He must realize his mistake because h
is face gets a slightly panicked, agitated look on it and he drops his hands and walks away, leaving me staring open mouthed at his backside. I throw my hands in the air. WHAT THE HELL?

  The other people on the dance floor probably think I’m a crazy woman but I don’t care. Just when I thought this day, hell this week couldn’t get any stranger; I practically have sex with my boss on a dance floor. I enjoy how he runs his hands all over my body and he seductively nibbles my neck making me ache even more for him than I was before. Then he leaves like it was the biggest mistake of his life.

  Oh shit, what am I going to do about tomorrow? Before I can even start to think about that, Gavin makes his way over and yells in my ear over the music. “What happened to Mr. Hot, I mean, Ian? I thought he was going to eat you up and then I looked back and he’s gone.”

  “Yeah, that pretty much sums up what happened.” I yell back. I tip my head to the door indicating that I’m ready to leave; I’ve had all of this day that I can handle. Gavin makes a pouty face but follows me toward the entrance anyway. Once there, Gavin gives Brett a longing look and then looks apologetically at me. I can see how much Gavin was looking forward to meeting up with Brett later so I tell him to stay. Brett will be off work in about an hour and I’m sure Gavin can find something to entertain himself with until then. He smiles at me as he puts me in a cab and instructs the driver where to take me. “I’ll be calling you in 20 minutes; that’s all the time it should take to get home.” He says loud enough for the driver to hear. He just wants to make sure I get home safely and he feels a little guilty that he isn’t coming with me. I smile and tell him it’s fine. He stands to close the door on the cab when suddenly a familiar black Audi comes screeching to a halt, blocking it in. Gavin starts to shout at the driver about moving his fucking car when Ian steps out of the back seat. His face is set in a hard line and I can tell once again he is not happy about something. This is definitely not the Ian I met at the interviews yesterday and today. Well, maybe I saw a slight glimpse of this at the end of lunch today. He comes barreling over to the cab and moves Gavin aside. Oh shit, if it was anyone other than Mr. Hot Boss, double shit Gavin’s got me calling him that now too, he would lay him out flat on the ground. Gavin is not one to be pushed around. He has no trouble pushing back but given that it’s Ian and I think Gavin’s a little dumb struck, he just moves when Ian grabs him around the arm. “What do you think you’re doing?” He speaks; for the first time tonight, he has actually said something. Though now that I look, I see he isn’t even talking to me. He’s looking directly at Gavin. “Helping her get home.” Gavin has fully recovered his wits now and he is getting pissed. “Helping her get home?” Ian sounds incredulous. “By putting her in a cab alone with instructions to a stranger to take her there. How is that helping?” Oh, this is so not going to go well. I hang my head as if some how I have actually done something wrong. Before Gavin can reply to his last remark, Ian has me out of the cab. I tug at the hem of my dress trying to pull it back down to a decent length after it rode up a little while I was getting in the cab. Ian takes me by the elbow and leads me to his car, puts me in and then walks back over to the cab and Gavin. I can’t hear what they’re saying but Ian hands some money to the cab driver and then says some things to Gavin before walking around the back of the car and climbing in behind the driver.

  Running his hands through that gorgeously messy hair of his, he turns to look at me. “I’m taking you home.” Then he turns and looks out the window; fingers still in his hair. Man, I wish those were my fingers. Oh stop it! I start to give him the address but he cuts me off. “I already have it.” I blush as I remember the other night, the hottest, most passionate night of my life. Looking back at Ian, he is glowering at me. I can feel the anger pulsating off of him in waves. “What were you thinking allowing him to put you in a cab alone? Especially after what almost happened to you on that dance floor.” I don’t need to be reminded that this night could have ended very differently. So I do the only I can in the situation; I start to cry. This day should be a happy one. I just got my dream job; well not really, but I’m working for the company that I always wanted to. At least before all this went down at the club, I was working there. I have no idea what will happen now. Ian lets out a sigh and puts his arm around my shoulders. “I’m sorry for losing my temper,” he says in a whisper close to my ear. I want to jump into his lap and put my arms around him as I had on the dance floor. I want to feel him on me, in me just one more time. But the reality of the situation slaps me in the face.

  “Ian, what’s going on?” I say finally stopping the flow of tears. “Why are you acting like this? One minute you’re hot and the next cold. I can’t keep up.” His hands grip his hair again. Jesus, he will be bald by the end of the night if he doesn’t stop doing that.

  “Look I saw that guy pick you up off the dance floor and could clearly see that isn’t what you wanted so I had security intervene. And then I was getting in my car and saw your friend,” he almost spit out the word, “putting you in a cab and he clearly was not going with you. You’d already been at risk once tonight; there was no way I was going to allow it to happen again.”

  So no explanation for what happened on the dance floor, then? We rode in silence the rest of the way to the apartment. I thanked him for driving me home and stepped out of the SUV. “Celeste,” he says leaning over, “you’re dress is really lovely.” He turns on the panty-dropping smile. “See you tomorrow at one.” Oh, this man is exasperating.

  Chapter 7

  The following morning, I make my way out of my room to the kitchen just as I hear the front door open. Gavin walks in talking on his phone. “Oh, you are totally the best. What would I do without you? Oh yeah, I wouldn’t exist.” He says with a laugh. I gather that he’s talking to his mother. “Hey Mom, I just got home and I see Celeste isn’t ready for the day despite it being almost 8:00 so I will have to let you go.” Gavin’s mom says a few more things and then hangs up. She is such a great lady. I’m so lucky to have her and her son in my life. She is wonderful mother; I often find myself wishing that I had had a mother like that. I definitely wouldn’t be where I am now if mine had shown just a little more interest in me over what she wanted. Shaking off that thought, which would only lead to tears, I straightened up. Had he just told his mother it was almost 8:00? Crap! “Mom says hi,” he says. “You better hurry up; we have lots of shopping to do if we are going to get you a dress and all the accouterments before in the next couple hours.”

  “Couple hours?” I say raising an eyebrow at him. “Gav, I don’t have to be work until 1:00.”

  “Oh, I know babe, but my most wonderful mother has arranged for a spa appointment for us all today at 10:00 so you can be thoroughly pampered before tonight’s gala. Now hurry up we need to get going.”

  I take the world’s fastest shower, thanking god that I had the forethought to get a wax on Wednesday so I didn’t have to worry about any of that this morning and since we were going to the spa, I didn’t need to worry about my hair either so I just threw it into the neatest pony tail I could manage when I got out of the shower. I put on a navy pencil skirt with thin white pin striping and my white silk blouse. The fabric felt wonderful against my skin. I was just attaching my stockings to my garter belt when Gavin walked in. “I’m almost ready, just need to get my shoes.”

  “Okay but hurry up because now it really is almost 8:00.” I glanced at the clock on the nightstand. “Asshat,” I shout at him. “I thought we weren’t going to have time for everything. I have been rushing around since I got up.”

  “Well, I had to tell you something to get you to hurry up. You were moving at a snails pace and we have things to do.” How he could be so chipper after being out so late, later than me in fact and then getting up so early is beyond me. “Okay, okay. Your intentions were good.” I step into my shoes. “There we can go.” I grab my purse and my bag and we head out to do some shopping.

  After grabbing a cab, Gavin leads me into thi
s gorgeous boutique on the Upper East Side. If I can’t find anything suitable in here then there is seriously something wrong with me. Though do they sell off the rack? This looks like one of those custom made boutiques. “Gavin!” The woman stepping out of the back squeals as we walk in. “Oh, it has been too long, my dear. I was beginning to think I would never see you again.”

  “Oh, Marlene, you are always so dramatic. I have not done any shows or photo shoots in formal wear, or the other naughty things you design, for a while. I will have to do my best to remedy that.” With a wink, he leans in to give the woman a hug.

  “So what brings you in?”

  “My darling friend here,” he says gesturing to me, “needs a dress but I’m afraid it’s a bit of a sticky situation because the event is this evening. I was hoping that you might have some samples or something that we could buy ready to wear.” Marlene gives me a look and runs her eyes over my body. When she meets my gaze again, I see a flicker of recognition but I must be confused because it’s gone a second later.

  “Oh my! Hmm, that is difficult. Well, my dear, you appear to be about a size 4. Is that correct?”

  “Yes,” I say. This lady is good if she can tell my size just by looking at me.

  “Ah but these,” she says gesturing toward my chest, “are not typical for a size 4. We will have to see what we can do about that; we may have to do some alterations. Come; let me show you what I’ve got.”

  After trying on about five gowns, I step into a silver strapless one. It has a lovely bead and crystal design that works its way down the bodice and onto the skirt. The dress is gorgeous. A little tight on the top but otherwise it clings to me in all the right spots and Marlene assures me that when she is done with the alterations, my breasts will look just as fabulous as the rest of me does in this dress. Marlene has agreed to have the dress sent over to me before 4:00 this afternoon. The only thing that worries me is the slit in the side. It goes well past mid-thigh, which means I will have to be very careful all night so that the people in attendance don’t get more of a show than they paid for. But I have to have it so Marlene gets all my measurements and then takes us over to look at shoes. I settle on some stilettos in the same shade as the dress but make the mistake of checking the label. Jimmy Choo, holy shit! I can’t get these shoes. All of this is going on Ian’s account and I’m sure someone checks the statement; in fact had I been hired for the job I applied for, I may have even been the one doing it. And lord only knows how much the dress cost. I admit I own some designer pieces but those are all courtesy of Gavin and his connections in the fashion industry. I have never bought anything this expensive; well, there was a time… No, not going there.