“She’s very strict and very socially conscious, but she’s always been kind to me. Dad dotes on her, which she adores.”
“Does she work at your dad’s company too?”
“No.” I shook my head. “She does a lot of volunteer stuff and hosts a lot of social events, but she’s never had a traditional job. Before she married my dad, she trained horses at her family ranch. I suppose that counts as a job.”
“Horses are cool,” Ethan said. “Did you ever ride them?”
“She took me there a few times when I was younger. I find horses rather intimidating though it was fun to ride. I just didn’t like riding fast.”
“No sense of adventure?” Ethan grinned at me.
“I don’t know about that, but they’re so big!”
“I thought you rather liked big.” Ethan threw his head back and laughed loudly.
“That’s not the same!” I slapped his shoulder playfully.
My phone beeped. The screen showed a message from Presley, but I was more concerned with the time display.
“Shit!” I said. “I need to get going. Class starts in an hour, and I need to run home first.”
“If you lived here, you wouldn’t have to make the extra stop.” Ethan grinned.
I shook my head, pushed myself up off his lap, and began to gather up my things.
“Will you come back after your classes?” Ethan asked as I put my shoes on.
“I have a lot of work to do to finish my thesis,” I said. “It’s mostly the conclusion I have left, but it’s barely started.”
“You could work on it here.”
“You are far too distracting.”
Ethan looked at the floor, his lips pressed together.
“I’ll call you later,” I said. “If I can get enough done, I’ll come by tonight.”
“Take the key back, at least?” he asked hopefully.
“All right.”
His expression brightened slightly, and he gave me a long kiss before I headed out the door and down the elevator to my car.
As I drove home, I thought about what it might be like to live with Ethan. A little fantasy played in my head briefly before I came to my senses.
“Get a grip, Ashlyn,” I said to myself. My mind had been jumping back and forth the entire drive back. Move in with someone I just met? Not a chance. Aside from the flack I would get from my family and friends, it was just a completely stupid move. There were at least a thousand reasons not to do it—the first three being D-A-D—and the only reason I could think of to go ahead with it was because the sex was fantabulous. I started mumbling to myself as I unlocked my apartment door. “Mind-blowing sex is not a valid reason to move in together.”
I wrapped the strap to my bag around the hook by the door and stomped into the kitchen to get myself a glass of water. My cell phone buzzed in my purse, and I realized I didn’t want to talk to anyone who might be calling, even if it was Ethan. Talking to him was just far too…
Dangerous?
Tempting?
I didn’t know, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know right at that moment. One thing I did know was that I would have rather stayed at his place another night, but I really needed to get some schoolwork done, and that just wasn’t going to happen if I were there. I downed my glass of water quickly and then poured another, wondering if I was dehydrated from last night’s antics.
I yanked some books out of my bag and gathered up everything I would need for today’s classes. I’d have to finish some editing before I could work on the conclusion to my thesis, which would also require a trip to the actual library. Professor Lamon had a bug up his ass when it came to online articles and insisted on a certain percentage of research cited from an actual book.
After a big sigh and another glass of water, I finally opened up my phone to check my messages. It had been Presley who tried to call, and I remembered I had never read the text message she had sent earlier.