Garrett

With one elbow on the bar, I held a drink in my other hand and forced myself to stop looking at the entrance to the ballroom. The party had barely started, and Lexi texted twenty minutes ago that they were running late. No amount of staring would make them get here any faster, but I was ready to see Ivy again.

A few colleagues swung by to make small talk, most of them pre-congratulating me on winning the pitch. I somehow remembered to smile politely and act modest when all I really wanted to do was storm out of here, drag Ivy back to our hotel room, and spend the rest of the night making her call out my name.

This wasn't about scratching an itch. There were half a dozen women in this room who had suggested they would be interested in a horizontal after party, and a few weeks ago, I might have taken them up on the offer to get a little relief. Now, only Ivy would do, and it wasn't going to just be about finding pleasure. It was going to be a claiming.

"That's the face of a man who has blue balls," Parker said, coming up beside me and ordering a drink.

"Don't start."

He held up his hands, palms facing outward. "I apologized in the park."

"Then why are you starting shit now?"

Ice crunched beneath my teeth as I glared at my old friend and business partner. After the women left to get dressed, we had shared a few tense words. Apparently, he had taken my decision to fuck Ivy in stride, but he wasn't completely on board with me pursuing anything else with her.

"Fuck." He snorted and knocked back his drink. Raising a finger for another, he said, "Because now I'm worried. I know Ivy's type. She goes through men like my old man used to go through packs of cigarettes. You're the flavor of the week."

Parker wasn't saying anything I hadn't worried over already. They were all the reasons I'd never bothered looking twice at her in the first place, but I had to let them go.

"That's sexist nonsense. When was the last time you slept with a woman more than once?"

"No, no." He swirled his drink, rattling the ice against the glass. "We're not talking about me, and how do you think I recognize what kind of woman Ivy is? She's me. But you're not."

"I'm not a fucking monk. I've slept around."

"That's cute that you think that. You have a carefully selected roster of women you call when you have to scratch an itch. You don't do spontaneous, and you don't do connections with women who have histories like hers."

"Listen—"

"Hey man. I'm not saying she's a bad person. I'm just saying she's not your person."

Parker waved to a couple across the room and darted away before I could come up with a response. Irritation made my skin crawl, and the lust that had heated my veins for the last hours—days really—fizzled out, leaving me uncomfortable. Like a frayed rope.

And that was far too similar to the way I used to feel in high school before I got a hold of my temper. I didn't want to go back to living like that, and a couple of rounds in bed weren't worth it. Not even for a woman like Ivy.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Paul and Howard exchanging heated words, and poor Paul was getting the worst of it. Seeing him was a pleasant distraction, and I considered a half dozen ways to irritate him throughout the night. But before I could enact my first plan of attack, Paul's gaze shifted to the entrance and his mouth opened comically wide.

Ivy.

She entered the room, her shoulders rolled forward like she was nervous, while her eyes bounced over the crowds, stopping only when she found me. Anxiety melted away, and she lifted her chin, pushed out her chest, and walked toward me.

"Hi," she whispered when she reached me.

I said nothing because my lungs wouldn't expand. Not while she stood before me in a silk gown that hugged every curve of her body. My eyes couldn't decide where to settle. When she inhaled, her breasts strained against the corset style bodice, and when she shifted her feet, the slit in her dress fell open over her leg, exposing the entire golden length of the limb.

"This is the dress you picked?" I choked out at last. Dear god...had she dusted something on her cleavage? The skin there shimmered in the chandelier lights.

"Do you like it?"

She asked so innocently. Like she truly believed she didn't look like a goddess in it. If she was the kind of woman Parker and so many others said she was, she would wear that dress like a weapon, but while she waited for my response, I could see that there was only one person's opinion that she cared about.

Mine.

"You're breathtaking."

Ivy beamed at me, sliding her hands over the material to smooth it. "I was afraid it was too much."

"It is too much."

"Oh." Disappointment dragged down her delicate features. She turned to face the bar.

I might have kissed her in the park today, but no matter how glamorous this party was, it was still a professional function. So instead of grabbing her by the back of her neck while I whispered all the dirty things this dress made me want to do to her, I crossed behind her and caged her in with my arm.

To anyone watching, I had simply moved and whispered something to a colleague. They couldn't see how her round ass ground into my crotch, or hear her intake of breath when she felt how hard she made me.

"Do you understand now?" I asked.

"Yes."

"I think, though," I continued, shifting my stance, so we were at a more respectable distance from one another. "You knew exactly what that dress would do to me. To everyone with a fucking pulse."

Ivy blushed. She shook her head. "No..."

"No." I laughed. It was short and bitter, my ragged emotions from earlier stirring up anger at the thought of her wearing that to get attention from other men. "You mean to tell me the thought didn't cross your mind once when you tried it on? That you might make every cock in this room hard?"

"No. I only wanted to make one cock hard," she said, licking her painted lips and glancing down at my dick. "And it looks like I succeeded."

"Ivy," I growled, fingers flexing as I fought the urge to reach for her.

"Alright ladies and gentleman," someone called out from the back of the room. "Dinner is being served, and we will announce the winner during the meal."

"Garrett, we need to go," she said.

Hand on her back, I nodded. "Make sure you eat well, because you're going to need it later."