The Billion Dollar Girl

(Chapter 18)

Ͼ Ella Castillo Ͽ

I slid my key into keyhole, and slowly, agonizingly, I twisted my wrist. There was a satisfying click. I pushed against the tall, ornate door as slowly as possible. It opened. I tiptoed in, before turning around to slowly close the door. The door closed silently.

Slam.

I jumped, as a hand came from behind me, slapping the door. I turned around, and smiled.

“Ash, you scared me…don’t do that…” I said, putting a hand over my rapidly beating heat.

“Where did you go?” he asked, through tightly gritted teeth. He leaned in, his face only a few inches from mine. His light blue eyes, almost grey in the light, were seething with rage. I took a step back, but met nothing but door. He had me trapped.

“To…visit my parents,” I said, my voice very small. “It’s…uh, New Year’s Day.”

“Did I give you permission to go?”

I glared at him. “Do need your ‘permission’? You don’t own me, Ash.”

“There’s a paper in my lawyer’s office that says I do.”

“Why do you even care, Ash?” I yelled, putting two hands against his chest, and trying to push him away. He didn’t move. His close proximity was unnerving me…or rather my reaction was. When I was this close to him, when I was so close could smell his cologne, I imagined doing unimaginable things…

“You don’t like me anyway!” My tone was bitter.

“Who says I don’t?” He sounded as angry as me. He was such a good liar. I didn’t know what kind of stupid game he was playing now, but I didn’t want to get roped in. I can’t believe him. Even if he was telling the truth, it meant nothing to me. I hated him.

“It’s obvious you don’t!” I yelled. “If you did, would you treat me this way? If you did, would you be this obnoxious?” I glared into his eyes, and I blurted out, “If you did, why didn’t you spend Christmas with me?”

I covered my mouth quickly. What did I just say…?

“Did you… want to spend Christmas with me?” he asked, hesitantly.

“No…I just…”

“What do you want, Ella…?” He took step forward, so his body was literally millimeters away from mine. The heat from his body was making me delirious. “Because, I can give you anything, anything at all. Just promise me you won’t ever run away again.”

“I’ll go where I want, when I want,” I said, trying my best to sound outraged, but failing miserably. My eyes were focused on his lips. “You can’t bribe me.”

“Really?” Ash gave a small smirk, as he leaned in further. I could feel his hot breath against my parted lips, against my tongue. “Well, if bribery doesn’t work… Blackmail…”

My eyes fluttered shut, as Ash’s smirking lips moved closer, and hovered over my neck.

I knew I should stop him. In fact, my mind was screaming at my body, telling it to push him away. But the sweetest, most beautifully painful prickle of electricity ran through my skin as his soft lips touched my neck. My eyes flew open, and I bit back a moan. He was engulfing me, everything about him – his body, his touch and even his smell – it was making it so hard for me to say no.

His lips left a hot trail of kisses along my collarbone, his mouth never meeting mine. My fingernails cut into my own palms, as I fought back the urge to pull him closer.

One minute he was there, and then he was gone.

I opened my eyes, dazed. Now he wasn’t supporting me up and my knees were weak, I collapsed into an exhausted pile on the cold floor.