His Forbidden Love (Manhattan Billionaires #2) - Ava Ryan Page 0,35

butt-ass naked. Pumping my rock-hard dick like my life depends on it.

Our gazes connect in the mirror.

I freeze.

She freezes.

Actually, her lower jaw hits the floor. Then she freezes.

An awkward eternity passes, completing my humiliation.

“I just needed to use…” She trails off, her face flooding with vivid color as she gives me a swift once-over that encompasses everything. If I’ve got a zit on my left butt cheek, I’m guessing she sees it. “The, ah, bathroom.”

“It’s not exactly a good time.” I hastily snatch the towel from my neck, sling it around my hips and secure it. The best I can do, but not the ideal disguise for a throbbing and insistent erection that seems determined to reach her from all the way across the room. “Go somewhere else.”

“I didn’t think anyone was here,” she continues, flustered. “Why didn’t you lock the—”

“Harlow. Get. The. Fuck. Out.”

My booming voice galvanizes her. Thank God.

“Sorry,” she cries, backing out and slamming the door behind her.

Leaving me to call myself every name in the book and wonder how the hell I think I’m ever going to look her in the eye again.

10

Ally

“I need you. Where the hell are you?” I ask Kelly a little while later when I video-call her from the packed bar. After grabbing my forgotten phone from my desk drawer and trying to use the bathroom at the office, I checked on a couple more patients before heading straight here. I found an empty table by some miracle. Now I’m starting on my second margarita, grateful that she and I had the foresight to schedule another girls’ night ahead of time. It’s not like her to be late, and my frazzled nerves can’t tolerate anything else going sideways on me tonight. Then I get a closer look at her. “Hang on. What’s with the mask?”

“I’m obviously minimizing my pores,” she says, gingerly touching the edge of the white tissue mask covering her face. She’s also wearing a fluffy spa robe and hair towel, I realize. My heart sinks. Meeting me for drinks is clearly the last thing on her mind. “What’s the problem?”

“We’re supposed to be having girls’ night,” I say, rising impatience and frustration making me shrill. “How could you blow me off like this?”

“I’m not blowing you off, dingbat. It’s tomorrow.”

“It is not tomorrow.” My looming personal crisis does not prevent me from quickly scrolling through our texts so I can prove her wrong and gloat. I never make airheaded mistakes like this. “It says right here that we’re meeting…tomorrow night. Oh my God.”

Deflated, I put the phone down and slump over the table with my head in my hands.

“Did someone die?” she says, sounding bemused. “I can de-mask and get over there, but it’ll take a while.”

“It’s fine.” I straighten again and glumly reach for my margarita. “I’ll survive.”

“What happened? Don’t keep me in suspense.” The mask ruins the effect of the stern look she tries to give me, but I get what she’s going for. “And I’m telling you right now—if it has anything to do with the Sphinx, prepare for me to reach through the phone and kick your butt.”

My morale plummets even further. The situation is truly dire if I’m desperate enough to submit to another lecture about the evils of my sexy boss.

“It’s not that big a deal. It’s just that I saw him naked a little while ago. He was coming out of the shower at the office.” I decide to leave out the part about him jacking off. No need to share all the gory details. “Now my brain is poisoned by the image.”

“Oh my God,” she cries, appropriately scandalized. “Why wouldn’t he lock the door?”

“I know! That’s what I said! No idea. I guess he forgot.”

“And…?”

I open my mouth and try to throw together a sentence or two to describe him, but the English language only has two hundred thousand words or so. It’s just not equipped to do justice to a man like Dr. Jamison.

Let’s just say that I couldn’t believe it when I walked into the bathroom and saw him in all his glory. I feel like I double-dipped because I came up behind him but was still able to see his front in the mirror. What can I say? I’m a lucky girl. I’ve never swooned before in my life, but I came close at the sight of him. The toned calves. The powerful thighs. The round ass. I’m not an ass-biter under normal conditions, but I’d absolutely make