by K. L Hart
Ash: I don't mind if I can come in the changing room and undress you.
I slam the phone back on the table and look away from ash, why is he getting to me, is it because I want him to do the things he's saying. I feel hot and bothered by the thought of him undressing me in a changing room. His big hands roaming every inch of my body. My inner self screams stop thinking about it. So I do, deciding that he's not being serious, I'm going to play him at his own game. Next time he says anything like that to me i'll play along let's see who cracks first.
"We have seen you in ten different dresses now Kassi, we're bored" Ethan whines. Ash and Brix got out of dress shopping after getting their tuxedo's stating they had recon work to do. "fine, I think this is the one anyway" I step out of the changing room and both boys start nodding like the little dogs you can get to sit in your car. Its a floor-length a-line black dress with off the shoulder straps, a slit that reaches the top of my thigh and crystals on the bodice. I spin around and the dress flares out as I do. "you look a princess Kassi" Kade says. I change back into my normal clothes as kade and Ethan go to pay for the dress, we leave the dress shop and I spot a jimmy choo shop across the road, “ooh shoes” I say as I basically run across the road and dive in the shop. I can hear the boys groan as they follow me in. Two hours later we arrive back at the safehouse where Ash and Brix are waiting. The boys carry in my bags “you two are on shopping duty next time, she is an animal”. Ethan grumbles “I didn't get that much” I shrug. “six pairs of shoes, one ball gown, two coats and four handbags. Not mentioning all the jewellery, accessories and makeup”. Kade states. “exactly not that much” I shrug, Brix laughs “dude you only went for one dress and one pair of shoes”. He exclaims I pout “it was hard to choose”. “we will just put these in your room then shall we”. Kade says sarcastically. I blow them a kiss as they head up the stairs.
It’s Seven-Thirty the next Evening and I am in the living area waiting for the boys to get ready, we have gone over the plan for tonight and once they appear we will connect out earpieces and cameras. “we will be late if you lot don’t hurry up,'' I shout. “I’m ready” Ethan says as he strolls into the room. “how the hell am I ready before you” I say, “because you started getting ready four hours ago” Brix answers as he walks into the room, followed by Kade and Ash. “damn, don't my twin look like a queen” Kade says as he nudges Ash, who then looks up from his phone. His gaze rakes over my whole body and it makes them butterflies come back but this time I know I flush. “she sure does” Ash replied his eyes locked on mine and I can feel his gaze heating up. Brix has already got our gear out, so we all start concealing wires for the cameras, mines been encased in a crystal so I just place It at the top of my dress. I grab my thigh gun holster and then realise I should have put this on before the dress. I internally roll my eyes. “hey, can one of you guys attach my holster while I lift the dress?” I ask Ash smirks and steps towards me “I'll do it,” he feigns annoyance but if his heated look is anything to go by, I know he’s enjoying this. I left the big skirt of my dress which is actually quite heavy, Ash grabs my holster and attaches it. Ok, that was not as bad I was expecting. He then runs his finger up the inside of my leg and his touch ignites electricity to surge through my body. “Ash you forgot the gun!” I remark trying not to sound like jelly which is how I feel. “sorry” he says and grabs the gun from the table and attaches it to the holster. He continues to run his finger up and down my leg so I cough to get his attention. “I think it's on now Ash” I whisper so no one else can hear, he stands and helps me smooth down the skirt as I drop it. He leans in and whispers in my ear “I like it when your hair up, it gives me access to that beautiful neck”. As if he's proving his point his hand creeps around the back of my neck and squeezes. I'm standing there frozen, for once in my life I don't know how to react, anyone else I would have put on their ass for touching me but I’m quickly realising I don’t actually want Ash to stop. “what are you two whispering about” Brix asks, Ash kisses me on the cheek, as he moves away from me I feel all the heat leave my body and I let out a breath I didn't realise I was holding. “I was just telling her how amazing she looks with her hair up”. Ash states. Brix nods and smiles and carry’s on concealing his weapons. I pop the wireless earbud in and grab my clutch. Ethan hands me a white gold charm bracelet “what's this for?” It’s got some electromagnets inside it that are designed to mess with metal detectors, so they won't go off when you walk through with an arsenal of weapons you have on you”. I chuckle at him “smart”. I reply. “everyone ready?” Kade asks “ready,” we all say one by one.
We enter the ball, my arm through Ash’s and the other three are behind us, Ethan hands over the tickets as we go through the metal detector one by one, once we are all through I smile at Ethan and he nods. We are handed glasses of champagne by one of the waiters that are carrying trays through the expansive hall which is decorated beautifully in white and gold. Some tables reach the dance floor in the front, behind the dance floor is a stage which has a band playing some classical music to create a relaxed and mellow mood. I notice a big sign above the stage which says, Helping children of abuse. “is this a charity ball?” I Whisper to Ash, he nods his head. We find our table which is in the second row and take our seats. We all just chat and laugh until the band stop’s and none other than Victor Barnes is at the microphone starting his speech. “good evening everyone, Myself and my wife would like to thank you all for being here tonight, as you know we are raising money for abused children and teenagers from Chicago” he says “a few of the teenagers are here tonight as guests of honour, I have had the honour of getting to know them and I can honestly say they are the strongest, kindest and smartest group of young adults I know”. He continued “after we eat and complete the auction, one of them will come up here a DJ for us, as they have informed me that they want to party not be bored at a stuffy ball” he laughs “This is their night so we will be getting down with the kids later”. Everyone claps and laughs. “please dig deep tonight, there is no better cause than supporting the next generation, dinner will be served in twenty minutes, so relax and most of all have some fun!” everyone claps as he exits the stage and sits next to his wife in the table closest to the stage.
“I think we should sneak up now” I whisper to Ash, “I doubt he will stay long after the auction, I doubt a teen party is his type of thing”. I add “Ash nods his head in agreement. “can you crack the safe in such a short space of time” he asks “I only need four minutes” I reply, he looks like he doesn't believe me. “ok, Brix you follow us in a few minutes, we only have twenty minutes to get this done and back in our seats for dinner.” Ash clarifies. Brix nods. Ash and me get up and head to the Toilets, no one is around so we slip into the elevator and head up to the fifth floor, we head up the stairwell to get to the sixth floor and immediately we can see through the little window on the door that there are two guards, one by the elevator and one by Barnes's office. “we need someone to get these guards away from here”. I say into my earpiece. “on it” Kade states, next thing we hear in our earpieces is Kade whispering to the guards that someone in the men's toilet had a gun and he had gone into the ballroom. The guards that were guarding the sixth floor left to help them find the mysterious man. We made our move, Ash picked the lock to the office door in two minutes “impressive” I say, he shoots me a grin as we all enter the room. I spot the picture the safe is behind as Ash watches the door and Brix gets straight to hacking the PC. I pop one headphone in and play NickIMinaj Barbie dreams. I swing the picture so I have access to the safe built into the wall. I start quietly rapping to the song as I place my left hand over the safe while my right starts turning the dial. I feel the first click and rotate the dial the next way as I hear Brix whisper through my earpiece “what is she doing, surely she cant crack that by touch, and why is she rapping”. “Kade, shut up and trust he, she needs to concentrate” he replies firmly. I smile at Kade’s response. “used to fuck with young thug, I ain�
��t addressing this shit caught him in my dressing room stealing dresses and shit”. I rap, then I feel the second lock release. I rotate the dial and slowly turn it waiting to feel the last lock and when I rap the line “had Odell Beckham banging the cake until I saw him hopping out of cars, dancing to drake.” I feel the final click and the safe opens. I stop the song “2 minutes 10 seconds”. I whisper proudly. I grab the flash drive, lock the safe and put the picture back, I turn to face Brix who is still sat at the computer and is staring at me like I have just sprouted horns “dude, stop staring at me and hurry up” I snap “don’t worry, I'm just waiting for it to finish deleting, damn baby-doll, you can rap!” he exclaims “that's the talent you decide to focus on when I just touch cracked a safe in two minutes”. I chuckle he shrugs. “done,” he says as he gets up and puts everything back how it was. We all leave and Ash relock the office, we all go down the stairwell “Ethan we are out” Ash says into his earpiece, “There’s the gun” Ethan says we hear the security guard say “that's a lighter in the shape of the gun”. “sorry” Ethan grumbles. After a minute Kade’s voice comes through the earpiece “your safe to exit the stairwell”. Brix goes first then Me and Ash, I duck into the toilets and Ash waits outside so we don’t raise any suspicion.
We retake our seats with Ethan, Kade and Brix five minutes before the food Is served. “do you think that there would be CCTV in his office” I ask, “Nah, they have had an outage since yesterday, all the cameras in this building are down until tomorrow night”. Brix smiles proudly and I chuckle. “so NickIMinaj huh?” Ethan chuckles. “what it's a good song and it helps me concentrate” I shrug. “trust me it's not as bad as the crap she was playing in my car last week” Ash retorts. I slap his arm and scowl at him, Ash just laughs. After dinner and the auction, the tables are moved to the sides to make more room to dance. We all stand at the bar and order some drinks, I noticed a group of teenagers and go and talk to them. “hey” I say, the all smile at me “wow, great dress” a blonde girl says “are you an abused teen too?” a younger brown-haired boy asks? I smile “no, I’m here with my friends and brother” I point to the boys at the bar. “ooh, they are fit,” the blonde says ogling the boys and I laugh. A brown hair girl comes running over and hugs the blonde girl tightly, I can hear the brown hair girl sobbing into the other girl's chest. “Beth what's wrong?” the blonde girl ask. “I Can't do it, I don’t want to do it” Beth sobs out. “you have too, your the only one who can and Mr Barnes's will not be happy if you don’t”. says one of the younger boys. Beth cries harder “what has she got to do?” I ask. “she has to perform a song, she’s the only one who can sing but she has severe stage fright”. The blonde girl answers. “what song is it?” I ask “power by little mix,” Beth says still sobbing.. “listen I can help, I can sing but I need you all to be on that stage, with me.” I state “ok, we have a dance routine for the song we can do that while you sing.” the blonde girl says “are you ok with that Beth” I ask, beth nods and smiles before wrapping me in a hug “thank-you, thank-you” she says. “are you going to tell me your names” I ask them all. “I’m Rach” the blonde girl says “that’s Toby, Ryan, Paul and Tammi” she continues pointing at everyone one by one. “on the stage is Kyle and Brooke, they are the DJ’s” Beth adds. “we best go we are performing at the beginning of their set” Ryan says, I nod “give me two secs” I say as I head back to the boys, I hand Brix my earpiece, I have to help them kids a minute I’ll be back soon. Ash grabs my arm as I turn to walk away “are you leaving this room?” he grunts like a goddamn caveman. “no” I say as I snatch my arm out of his and walk off. The Kid’s take me backstage and introduce me to Kyle and Brooke. “I'll announce you in a minute so be ready,” Ryan says as he walks out on stage. “Beth are you sure you don’t want to sing?” I ask and the fright that flashes across her face tells me her answer “I’ll just watch you all from here”. She replies visibly trembling. Ryan hands me a microphone as I hear Ryan over his mic “we have a special performance by the teenagers Mr Barnes mentioned earlier now, they have enlisted the help from one of the guests so please put your hands together for Kass, Ryan, Rach, Toby, TammIand Brooke. We walk on stage and I immediately spot Ethan, Ash, Kade and Brix who are all making there way to the front of the crowd on the dance floor, Ash looks furious and the other three are just gobsmacked why do they always look so shocked? I internally roll my eyes. The song starts when I nod to Kyle and I immediately start singing “Hold up no you didn’t bow, bow, I ain’t the chick to walk behind you around town...” when the beat drops they others start dancing some great choreography. After the second chorus, I walk down the front steps of the stage and sing while walking around the crowd I stop and put my arm on Ash’s shoulder staring directly at him and sing “if you don't baby you should know, I'm the one who’s in control.” I wink and head back to the stage, the teens are waving their arm above their heads to the beat and I join in, so does the crowd, everyone except Ash who is just drilling holes into me with his eyes. The beat picks back up and I sing my heart out while strutting my stuff on the stage. When the song finishes the crowd roars with applaud I step back and mouth to the teen’s “bow” and they do. I wave at the crowd a do a minIbow before heading off stage followed by the others. Kyle starts his set and Rach hugs me “you were amazing, Kass, that was so much fun”. I just laugh at her as she lets me go. “can we go dance” Beth asks. Before I know it, Beth, Rach and TammIare dragging me to the dance-floor and we are all dancing to a remix of don’t call me up by Mabel. Strong arms wrap around my waist and somehow I immediately know its Ash. “can I borrow the superstar for a moment?” Ash asks before leading me to the hallway and into the girl's toilet, he locks the door and turns back to face me, he looks furious I stand my ground. “Why did you do that?” he grits out “They needed the help, the girl meant to sing had stage fright” I snap “we are meant to be invisible, not the centre of attention! He shouts. I step towards him “relax, arsehole the mission is done and no-one knows it's us, it's not like they can ring the police”. I say sternly. Ash pushes me into the wall and kisses me hard, I push him away “what are you doing?” I barked. He smirked “kissing the amazing, talented, stubborn as fuck girl, I can’t stop thinking about” he walks closer and kisses me again, this time it's soft and sweet, I try to resist but end up just melting into the kiss. When he pulls back we are both panting and I touch my lips which are now swollen. I don’t think I could have asked for a better first kiss. My mind has turned to jelly as I stare at him and he stares at me, I can’t pull together one coherent thought. “come on, let's get you back on that dance-floor.” he smiles.
We get back to the safe-house a few hours later and I head straight to my room, I haven’t spoken to Ash since the kiss and my mind is still reeling. I shower and get into bed and stare at the ceiling for the next hour, my phone buzzed on the bedside table, I sit up and read the text.
Ash: Are you awake?
Me: yeah
Ash: I need to see you
Me: ok
a few minutes later my door quietly opens and closes, Ash sits next to me in the darkness wearing only sweats. I have to restrain my hands from touching his bare chest, “Kassi” I nap my gaze to his eyes “are you ok? you’ve been in a strange mood since we kissed”. Ash asked softly. “I'm, ok it’s just it's weird, I don’t know how to feel about my first kiss” I reply looking down at my hands. Ash grips my chin and forces me to look at him. “Angel, do you realise how happy I am that I am the first guy you’ve kissed.” I flush at his words. “come on, lets sleep”. He says as he lays down and pulls me into his chest, I smile when he wraps his arms around me and draws circles on my thigh. Why do I not want him to leave? My inner-self shouts because you like his arms around you dumb-ass. Just as I let sleep take over I’m sure Ash whispered “I want all of your firsts”, and I could not stop the pure happiness fill me as I drifted to sleep.
Chapter five.
It’s now Thursday morning and I’m sitting in my
kitchen having a coffee before I leave for school, we got back yesterday afternoon and I can’t help but smile when I remember Ash holding my hand under the table for the whole flight while I sang along to the music on the earphone’s we shared. If he wants to continue whatever it is we are doing then I have no choice but to go with it. A text pops up on my phone
Ash: You want a lift to school? I’ll let you have control of the music?
Me: ok
Ash: be there in five
I finish my coffee and head out, I don’t have to wait as Ash I already here, he is leaning against his car in his suit trousers, shirt and tie. His sleeves are rolled up his muscly arms and he is looking at me through his sunglasses, his light brown hair styled to perfection, honestly, he looks as if he just walked off the catwalk. He smiles at me when I walk towards him. When I reach him he pulls me close and tenderly kisses me. “good morning, gorgeous”. He says as we pull apart, “morning” I smile at him. He opens the door for me to get in the car and then gets in himself. “we have a surprise for you when we get to school” ash exclaims “what is it?” I ask “wait and see angel” I frown and he laughs “what are we listening to today?” “hmm” I murmur as a scroll through my phone “what about this,” I say as I play uptown funk by Bruno Mars. “oh god it gets worse” he chuckles. I shoot him daggers and then start singing along, when Ash starts singing to I swear I feel my heart swell. When we get to school I notice the other Three boys standing in a line looking at us. As soon as Ash Parks I walk up to them “Is my surprise behind you?” I ask and they all just smile “ok move, I want to know what it is” I say as I barge between Brix and Ethan. “OMG, Charlie” I squeal as I envelop Ethan's little sister in a hug. “I thought you were in finishing school!” I exclaim. “damn girl put me down,” Charlie says through her laughter. “I was but when I heard you were home I promised Mom I would behave if she let me come back” I laughed. “I'm so happy your here”. I say trying not to cry. “I can imagine, being stuck with these four dickheads must have been hard.” she says “you don't know the half of it” I laugh. Charlie is slightly smaller than me and she is beautiful she has warm brown eyes and bright blonde hair that's cut into a stylish bob, her dark eye make-up and tattoo that creeps out from the bottom of her skirt scream rebel. “come on we best get to class, you best be letting me sit with you fuckers at lunch” she says to the guys. “of course your sitting with us, fuck the heir only rule”. I say. “what if we do say no” Brix jokes. “I’ll kill Ethan and then she’ll be next in line so she will have to sit with us”. I say, Ethan mocks hurt and laughs “I don't want to die so it's a yes from me”.