Page 24 of Perfectly Imperfect Us
The cloud I’d been floating on all day began to fizzle out. “Your parents don’t like me? Or are you ashamed to be with a dumb model like me?” I had to know.
Ava frowned and jumped up, coming to sit next to me, her hands on mine. “No! It’s not like that at all. I’d just have to explain a bazillion times that nothing was going on and we got double beds and it’s none of their business what a grown woman does anyway. I just don’t want to deal with that right now. Why would you say that about yourself?”
Her eyes were shooting lasers, and despite that little voice in my head whispering I wasn’t good enough, I believed what she said. I shrugged. “People assume a lot of things about me. Even you.”
Her shoulders sagged. “I know. I’m sorry I judged you before. It was wrong of me and—”
I squeezed her hands. “It’s fine, Ava. You already apologized. I’m over it. It’s just that a lot of people think the same thing. They see the face and they assume that’s all I am. An empty shell for magazine covers, pretty but no substance.”
Ava batted my hands away and placed her palms on my cheeks, making me look her in the eye as she squeezed my face. “You listen to me, Ryder Burns-Steele-Whatever-you-want-to-call-yourself. You are amazing in ways I’m just starting to discover. If anyone underestimates you, that’s on them. Not you. You keep flashing those pretty eyes and then slay them with the intelligent words that come out of those kissable lips. You hear me?”
If I could have moved my face, I would have grinned from ear to ear. Ava was fighting for me. We weren’t officially a couple and here she was fighting off my naysayers for me. Fighting off my own brain for trying to tell me lies.
“I hear you loud and clear,” I whispered through my smashed lips. “We’re more alike than you may think, Ava.”
That line came back between her eyes, but her eyes stayed locked on mine, telling me she knew what I meant and how her advice applied to her as well. She leaned in slowly, never blinking until our lips touched, and then her eyelids fluttered closed. She nibbled on my lips as if to taste and savor them. I let her, knowing if I gave her that time, I could have my time with her later too.
The only problem was the flame that ignited every time we were together. And considering we were alone in a hotel room away from home, where temptations could escalate out of control even with good intentions, I pulled away far sooner than I wanted.
Ava panted, her lips wet, looking like a woman who very much wanted to be kissed again and again. My entire body physically ached with the need to pull her back in my arms and continue what I stopped, but one tiny little shred of decency blared in my head.
“Wait.” I jumped off the bed and paced the tiny room, running my hands through my hair. “I’m sorry, Ava, but I really did only bring you here to talk with you more. I have no intention of taking things further tonight. You’re worth more than just a night in some random hotel.”
She dipped her head and looked up through her eyelashes. “I know. I’m sorry too. Maybe we should make that line on the floor after all, huh?”
I took a couple more deep breaths and then headed back to my bed, sitting down and pointing to her bed. “Over there, woman.”
She rolled her eyes. “Well, that’s one way to kill the mood, ordering me around like a caveman.” But she moved with a smile.
“How about we get tucked into bed and then we can just talk?” My heart rate still hadn’t settled simply from being alone in a room with Ava all night long. The simple act of sleeping near each other held an intimacy I wanted very much.
Ava looked around and then pulled back the covers. “How about I go wash my face and then I’ll climb in?” She bit her lip and I knew what it took for her to suggest such a thing.
“I’d love that.” And I would. I desperately wanted to see every inch of Ava, starting with her bare face. “How about sleeping in my T-shirt so you’re more comfortable?”
She put a hand on her hip. “And what would you be sleeping in, sir?”
I looked down at myself in designer jeans and a simple T-shirt. “My jeans and the upper body God and restraint around sugar gave me? Can you control yourself?” I gave her my signature smolder-stare I’d perfected over the years staring into the camera lens.
Apparently Ava was impervious.
She snorted and spun on her heel, tossing over her shoulder, “Pretty sure I can control myself, buddy.”
The thing was, I knew she could too and that was such a welcome change I couldn’t seem to get enough. The idea of waiting for anything more intimate was a change I intended to stick with simply because Ava was the first woman I actually cared about for more than a single day. I’d studied relationships for years, fascinated with the idea of two people trusting completely and accepting the other person for who they were, faults and all, yet I hadn’t experienced one that came close to what I found was possible for other people. Ava might be the one and I wasn’t going to screw it up.
While she washed her makeup off in the bathroom, I stood and stripped out of my T-shirt, laying it out on her bed, and taking my socks and shoes off. The pants came off right as Ava came out of the bathroom, hair piled high on her head.
She ogled me shamelessly. “Well, well. Maybe I can’t control myself after all…”
For a guy who stood naked for photoshoots without blinking an eye, I’d never felt more conspicuous. More seen. More undressed.
“Turn around,” Ava said, coming closer.
I obeyed, knowing right where she was staring. “Why? Want to check out my backside too?”
She barked out a laugh. “No! I’m changing, silly.”
I glanced over my shoulder, startled. She squealed and danced out of my line of vision.
