High Strung (Power Station Book 1) (11 page)

“Ashlyn. You better start talking and fill me in with details.”

“Let me get dressed and I will come to you. There is way too much to discuss over the phone. Do you need me to get you anything on my way over?”

“You don’t happen to have any Percocet do you?”

“No, Megs. While I’m sure the apartment downstairs is probably a meth lab, I don’t actually live in a drug store.”

“Okay, then just get me the biggest coffee you can find and maybe a muffin. And hurry, I need details.”

“I’ll be there soon. Chill.”

We said our goodbyes and ended the call. Tossing the phone onto my bed, I moved into my tiny bathroom. The fuzzy, faded bathmat was still damp from when Dan had taken his shower. He had been naked in this very spot. I tried to ignore my excitement as I stripped off my clothes. Shit. I looked around my bathroom in a moment of dread. He had seen this. A bra hanging from the towel rack, my messy vanity that was crammed with cosmetics and skin care. My wicker laundry hamper filled with dirty socks and polo shirts from the bar. The chipped paint, ugly pea-green tub with it’s discolored shower curtain. The rust-covered faucet that spewed brown water for a few seconds when you ran the water for the first time in the morning. He had seen all of this. Mortified. That was probably the only apt description of what I was feeling. How he hadn’t run a mile the minute he stepped inside was beyond me. I shook my head, solidifying my silent resolve to never see him again as I turned on the faucet and stepped inside the tub.

The old pipes groaned in protest through the thin plaster wall as I turned up the water to maximum capacity. It was the only way to achieve any kind of water pressure and even then it wasn’t great. Still, today I had bigger problems than my ancient bathroom.

I showered and then dressed quickly, throwing on a pair of jeans and an old T-shirt before pulling on a pair of Vans. I just needed to grab my purse, my phone, and get out of here.

Now, where did I put my clutch from last night? It had my ID and my ATM card in there and while there was probably less than a hundred dollars in my savings account, the least I could do was spring for coffee this morning given Megs had paid for our night out yesterday. Hmm. Where did I leave it? I searched in the regular spots, the bedroom, and the kitchen counter - the places I would usually toss it when I walked in the apartment. Though given last night was not usual, it could be anywhere.

I ate up valuable time tearing from room to room, trying to locate the small, sequined culprit, but came up empty. I had my keys and my phone, so where was my clutch? I slumped onto my bed, willing it to reappear but sadly my
willing
did nothing but intensify the headache I was already fighting.

Giving up any hope of finding it, at least in the immediate future, I grabbed a random twenty-dollar bill I had found in my change jar and a handful of coins, and decided I would look harder when I got home. It had to be here somewhere.

****

“Hey.” Megs greeted me at the door, hobbling while trying to balance a bag of frozen peas on her ankle. “I was getting concerned and was going to send out a search party.”

“Sorry, Megs. I couldn’t find my purse from last night. It had my ATM card in there. I still don’t know where it is.” I handed her the prized coffee before opening the paper bag that housed her muffin.

“Where did you leave it?” Megs asked, balancing her precious muffin and coffee as she hopped back to the sofa where she allowed herself to fall into the large, plush cushions. Once settled, she lifted the lid from her cup to lick the whip off the top of her coffee.

“If I knew where I left it, it wouldn’t be lost.” I strolled out of the hallway and joined her on the sofa, pulling my cup of coffee out of the cardboard carrier and taking a sip.

Megs blew over the surface of her cup before taking a big gulp. “Okay, well you obviously got into your apartment so you must have had it on the way home…wait. How did we get home?”

“The Power Station Express,” I deadpanned.

“They drove us home?” Megs’s eyes widened.

“Yeah, well according to Dan, so not sure how reliable my information is.” I bristled, annoyed I was at the mercy of his version of events.

“You better start telling me everything you know, Ashlyn Marie, or you are going to be wearing this coffee.” Megs held up her paper cup up to verify she wasn’t kidding.

“Okay, okay.” I took a long breath and settled in, this story was going to take a while.

I started explaining how Dan had found us at the club’s entrance, and how Megs’s Louboutins were responsible for her rather undignified spill. Deciding to play hero, when clearly no one had asked him to, Dan had stepped in and with the help of Jason and Troy, bundled both of us into their car to drive us home. In reality, it could be seen as kidnap, who just takes two girls and puts them into a car? My theory was solid except obviously I hadn’t been resistant to the idea and according to him, had my hands all over him on the ride home. A vague recollection of giggling in the back seat flashed into my mind as I recounted the story.

“Let me touch you.” I moved my hands down his chest as I pushed my lips against his mouth, his hand threading through my hair as our kiss deepened.

“Fuck,” he groaned as I flattened my palm against the front of his jeans, he was hard. The denim between us was so tight it left little to the imagination.

“I’m such a good girl, such a good, good girl,” I moaned into his mouth, sliding my hand into the front of his pants. He hissed as my fingertips made contact with his skin.

“Yeah, you’re really good.” He gently eased my hand away from his erection, his sexy smile making me want him more. “But unless you want me to come in your hand you are going to need to stop that, not that I have a problem with it, ’cause I don’t, but I think we should probably get your friend home first.”

“I want you, Dan. I want to have sex with you,” I whispered into his ear, trying to be seductive but for some reason the word sex sounded so funny coming out of my mouth, it made me laugh.

Dan teased my lower lip down with his thumb. “Ashlyn, you’re so drunk you have no idea what you’re saying right now, babe.”

It’s strange, it was as if I was someone else, like I could say or do anything I wanted. I was braver, bolder, and his hand on my lips just turned me on more. I captured his thumb with my teeth, drew it into my mouth and sucked it hard. His jaw tightened. “Babe, seriously. I’m not even kidding. I’m so primed right now I’m going to blow my load in my jeans like a thirteen-year-old boy. I need you to really think about what we are doing, I’m not smart enough to be thinking for the both of us.”

“It’s killing me,” Megs whined from the row of seats behind, reminding us she was still with us. “It’s okay, Troy Harris, you can chop it off, I’ll be brave.”

“Megs, we’re not going to chop off your foot.” Troy chuckled, his voice surprisingly calm. “It looks like just a sprain. I still think we should swing by the ER and get it looked at.”

“Noooooooo,” Megs begged, sounding less like the twenty-nine-year-old professional she was and more like she just caught underage drinking. “They’ll tell my dad. I’ll be a laughing stock. We can’t go to the hospital. Just get me home.”

“Okay, Megs, we’ll get you home.” Troy tried to comfort Megs and he was being so incredibly sweet with her. “If you twist around, I can elevate your foot for you. Hopefully it will help with the swelling.”

As I leaned up against Dan’s chest, a sense of ease flowed through me. Strangely, it was as if I didn’t have to worry about Megs. She was in good hands. Whatever my thoughts had been about these guys, I was wrong. They weren’t bad guys.

“Oh thank you, Troy Harris,” Megs crooned, her discomfort eased by Troy’s hands on her feet.

“Megs, just Troy. Seriously, just Troy.” Despite it being the fiftieth time Troy had told Megs, there was no annoyance in his voice.

“I like saying your name though…it’s sexy, like you, Troy Harris,” Megs said sweetly.

“So you keep saying.” He chuckled.

“I have to hand it to you, Dan, I was convinced tonight was going to blow but it has been rather amusing.” Jason’s voice floated from the front seat. I had forgotten he was with us, obviously sitting next to the mysterious driver who had barely spoken.

“Whatever, douchebag.” Dan flipped him off which for some inane reason made me laugh.

“That’s such a funny word.” I smiled as my hands once again slithered southward.

“You girls are so wasted.” Dan smirked as he gently stroked my arm.

I tilted my head to look at him saying the words I’d been dying to say all night. “Take me to bed, Dan. Stay with me tonight.”

“Oh shit.” I rubbed my hands across my face, Dan hadn’t seduced me. I had seduced him. A fractured memory was providing more insight as to how Dan ended up in my apartment last night.

“What? What
oh shit
? Tell me I didn’t make an even bigger ass of myself than it sounded like.” Megs paled. While I had wanted to spare her the details, I figured it was better to be honest and tell her exactly what I remembered. Her muffin and her coffee forgotten as she carefully placed them on the side table. Obviously, the caffeine hit and nourishment was going to have to wait.

“I threw myself at him, Megs. He confronted me with it this morning and I denied it. I flat out refused to hear him out, but I remember being in the car, I remember having my hands all over him and asking him to spend the night.” Sipping my coffee, not willing to forgo my caffeine injection.

“So you slept with him?” Megs’s eyes widened.

“I guess I did because he was still there this morning, but I honestly can’t remember.” My fingers squeezed at the bridge of my nose. “Who forgets they had sex? Is that even possible to have sex and have no recollection of it at all?” I mean, surely I should have remembered something? It’s not like I had sex a lot, surely it would have stood out in my brain as something noteworthy.

“There’s a few times I’d rather forget but sadly they are still with me,” Megs commiserated. “So you guys dropped me off and then you went to back to your place. Do you remember anything about getting home?”

I closed my eyes, trying to force the fragmented night to somehow piece itself together in temporal lobe.

“Babe, you sure this is where you live?” Dan glanced out of the tinted window of the Suburban, studying the derelict building I had directed the driver to.

“Yes, this is me. I have to grab my keys, the security light is out again and I can never find the keyhole in the dark.” I fumbled in my clutch for my keys, pulling out my phone instead. “I have to text Megs, she likes to know I get home safe. Unless I stay at her house, then she automatically knows I’m okay.” I hoped the sentence made sense to Dan, the words didn’t sound right as they spilled from my mouth but there wasn’t a lot I could do to steer them into anything more coherent.

Dan opened the door as I finally fished out my keys. I held them up
victoriously, jingling them in my fingers as I placed my clutch on the seat beside me and unhooked my seatbelt.

Dan stepped out of the car and walked around to my side of the car. “Let me walk you up, okay?”

“You aren’t staying? You said you would stay.” I pouted as I stepped onto the sidewalk, doing my best puppy dog impression and trying to not drop my keys or my phone.

Dan pulled me into a hug, his breath tickling my ear. “Babe, I don’t think that’s a good idea. I’m really trying not to be a piece of shit here and I have to tell you, my dick wants to kick my ass right now.”

“But I want you.” I wrapped my arms around his neck, ignoring the idling car waiting for his return. “Maybe I should have words with your dick, we both seem to want the same things
.”

“Fuck, Ashlyn.” He released himself from my embrace. “Look, give me one minute.”

He moved over to the car and spoke to Troy through the window. I couldn’t hear what was being said but it felt like victory. I had convinced him to stay. He was going to have sex with me. It was going to be good sex too, I bet. He looked like he was built for it and I couldn’t tell you the last time I actually came. Well not when a guy was present anyway. Dan Evans was going to make me orgasm.

“Okay, babe, lead the way.” He put his arm around me and walked me up the stairs of my apartment building.

While I was no closer to finding out how
good
the sex had been, I was fairly sure I knew where my clutch was. Probably sitting on the backseat of the Suburban, where I had stupidly left it after grabbing my keys. I scrubbed my face with my hands. I was going to have to call him. I wasn’t sure if it was excitement or dread bubbling in the pit of my stomach.

“I have to call him,” I vocalized, clueing Megs into my internal thoughts.

“Well I was hoping if you’d slept with him, at the very least you were going to see each other again.”

“I hadn’t planned on it but I guess I don’t have much choice. Unless I get him to UPS my clutch to me.” I laughed, knowing how ridiculous that sounded. We were adults, sure it might be awkward, but we could move past it so that he could give me my misplaced item and I could try to salvage some self-respect.

I placed my half-empty cup on the coffee table in front of me and pulled my phone from my pocket. I scrolled down my contact list, angling my screen away from Megs so she wasn’t able to see the sensual shot Dan had gifted me with this morning. My finger hovered over his name, not quite able to make that final step.