Page 17 of Role Play
My cheeks felt hot, and I was sure that if I glanced in the mirror behind the bar, my face would be bright red. Ash had adatetonight. Or at least, it seemed like he did. A date he’d forgotten about because of me. That fact shouldn’t make me giddy… but itdid.
“I actually won’t be needing you tonight after all,” Ashsaid.
Her eyes narrowed and the corners of her bright red lips tightened. “I have a cancellationpolicy—”
“I know,” Ash said, his voice calm and controlled despite how upset she looked. “Have Chloe add it to my bill and I’ll pay you for the timeregardless.”
Ash had a date… with aprostitute? I glanced at her again. She didn’t look like a prostitute. Maybe it was something else… another sort of meeting. But my gut told me otherwise. There was something in the way her hand rested on his arm, her thumb brushing in slow, methodical strokes. They had an intimacy between them that made my stomachturn.
Her shoulders relaxed with that and she even gave him a small smile as she bowed her head. “Thank you,Sir.”
“Eve, I want to introduce you to Lucy. My… friend.” I swallowed. Friend. Not co-worker. Not colleague. Was that what we werebecoming?
“It’s nice to meet you,” Eve said. Her smile was warm, but her eyes were a totally different story; cold as they traveled up from my ballet flats, across my frayed jeans and worn-out, still-damp t-shirt to my glasses. Like two peacocks sizing each other up, except one of the peacocks had gorgeous, exotic feathers; and the other was more like a pheasant. Plain. Brown. Boring. That was me. An intentionally boring bird so that the other peacocks attracted the mates, notme.
Andrea delivered Eve’s drink in record time. Even as a bartender, that girl was the best wing-womanever.
“It was nice seeing you Eve,” Ash said, handing her the freshly poured drink. “Sorry again for theconfusion.”
Her smile flickered like a dying flame, and she nodded, grabbing the drink and disappeared into the thick crowd ofpeople.
Ash turned his attention back to me, smiling. “Where werewe?”
Sir. She’d called himSir. Hehadcome here forher. To be with that woman, it seemed. My stomach dropped, and I hated the swell of emotion that clogged my chest. I swallowed, pushing the half-empty vodka-Diet-Coke aside. “I was leaving. You and Eve could still…” My voice faded, and I wasn’t sure exactly what to say. “You could still catch her. Keep yourdate.”
“I’d rather sit here with you, sip my drink and talk more about how awesome Liza Minelliis.”
I snorted, shaking myhead.
“You don’t believeme?”
“No. Idon’t.”
“Why?”
I sighed. “Well, for starters, you didn’t know I was at this bar—as you pointed out earlier. And since you’ve made it clear you’re not afraid of people knowing your ‘kink,’ I would guess you came here tonight to, um, hang out with Eve.” Topayto hang out with Eve, though I kept that part tomyself.
A flicker of a smile curved his lips. “Hang out?” herepeated.
I tossed my hands up, defeated, and they landed in my lap with a satisfying snap. “Fuck. Tie up. Spank.Whatever.”
His smile tilted higher, yet he remained cool and collected. Totally unfazed by the accusations I was tossing his direction. “First of all, I don’t ‘hang out’ with anyone. I fuck them. Hard. I make their ass welt and their toes curl. Women I have scenes with leave my playroom the next morning begging me for more.” I swallowed, my throat suddenly parched. “Second, Eve is a professional submissive and I had booked an appointment with her to interview about how she entered the community. For research for the movie.” He paused, licking his lips before continuing. “Then I ran into you here at the bar and I’m finding this chat extremely enlightening. And way morefun.”
I cleared my throat. “I can’t imagine why. I’m not a sub. And I’m not interested,” I said, then cleared my throat. “Interesting. I meant to say I’m not interesting.” Holy Freudianslip.
His smile widened. “I beg to differ. I think you are interesting.” Then, he leaned in, his gaze tracing down my body. “And I think you areinterested.”
When I opened my mouth, words knotted up at the back of my tonsils. I couldn’t exactly sayUncle Richard, your boss, warned me that you sleep with women you work with.“Well, I’m not. Interested, thatis.”
“Whynot?”
To be fair, Uncle Rich had actually warned me abouteveryman on the crew. There was literally a list he put together of each crew member and why I needed to stay away from them. But at the top of that list? Was Ash. I cleared my throat. “Let’s just say you’ve developed a reputation aroundset.”
Ash sighed, and for the first time since I met him—no, since I caught my first glimpse of him on set—there was a crack in his assured demeanor. A tiny fissure that broke the solid ground he stood on. Small, but enough to shake loose his strong stance. “Shit…” He pinched fingers around his nose and squeezed his eyes tightly closed. “Kelly told you about us, didn’tshe?”
Wait… What?Kelly told me… Oh my God.Kelly. AndAsh. That explained so much. The way she was so neurotic about Ash. And why she got so bent out of shape when he showed me attention. Closing my eyes briefly, I forced myself to not look shocked. I forced my jaw to stay tightly closed and my eyes to remainimpassive.
Ash took a large swallow of his drink, and as he set it down, his fingers brushed over the ring he wore on his pinky, twirling it nervously. It was an oddly delicate, feminine looking ring for a man of his size, and I couldn’t help but think it was meant for someone else… meant for a woman. “Look, it was months ago. Before we even went into pre-production for this. I had no idea they were going to choose her as the costume designer. I didn’t even know she was interviewing for the job. We met at a party, had a few too many, and ended up at herplace.”
