The Apartment: The Complete Affair (58 page)

“What are you talking about? I was laughing through the whole thing with you; it was hilarious. It’s one of the few movies I really remember seeing this week,” he smirked at her, waggling his eyebrows suggestively. “Great soundtrack, too. I recognized a lot of those songs from your Kiwi playlist.”

“You remember that?” she gasped.

Ethan reached over and grabbed her hand, glancing away from the road momentarily so that he could look her in the eye when he kissed the back of her fingers. “I remember everything, Lily. Everything.”

After that, neither one of them cared much about playing car games anymore. Lily scooted as close to him as possible, putting her head on his shoulder, each of them listening to the music without saying a word.

When they reached Emma’s condo, Ethan parked long enough to walk Lily upstairs and deposit her and her luggage in the middle of the living room. He promised Lily that he would be back for her no later than 6:30 to take her to dinner, kissed his sister on the cheek after whispering something conspiratorially in her ear, then disappeared out the door like a phantom.

“Well, so much for our weekend away together,” Lily pouted.

“Hey, none of that!” Emma chimed in, grabbing her bag off the floor and carrying it to the guest room. “He’s just got a lot of things to get done before tonight, and so do we!”

“What do you mean? I thought we were just going shopping for a little bit.”

“Please, sweetie, this isn’t amateur hour. We’ve got to find you the perfect dress and shoes for tonight before our salon appointment at four. Now, Maggie is going to meet us at the department store by noon, so we need to get a move on if you don’t want to face her wrath.”

They hurried across town, beating Maggie by a few minutes and teasing her mercilessly for it. As soon as they were all together, Emma barked out orders like a general, sending them each in different directions to cover more ground at once. When they reconvened about forty minutes later in the dressing rooms, there were nearly two full racks of outfits for Lily to try on: sixteen versions of the little black dress.

After a marathon changing session, they found the perfect one. It was simple and elegant, yet made Lily appear very sexy and sophisticated. A quick trip through the shoe department merited a sinful new pair of high heels, and their final stop before leaving ended with Lily agreeing to pick out a new set of lingerie after all.

The girls insisted she model a few different choices for them, and when she came out in the black satin corset and garter set with the delicate blue ribbon trim, both of them applauded loudly.

“Are you sure this is the one?” Lily called out, turning a deep shade of red as she ducked behind the changing room door to avoid any extra onlookers getting a peep.

Maggie merely cackled in response. “Girl, that’s it! If you’re giving
me
a lady boner already, I can’t imagine what that thing is going to do to my pent-up brother.”

“I agree,” Emma giggled. “I sort of want to smack your ass a bit now. You’ve been hiding the goods, girlie.”

“I don’t know,” Lily bit her lip in concern, joining them once she had gotten dressed. “Is this sending the wrong message, though?”

“What do you mean?” Maggie asked. She pointed at the item in question. “That sends out the message that you want to get fucked cross-eyed. That’s the truth, isn’t it?”

“Well… yeah,” she fought back another blush as she spoke, still adjusting to being so open about her private life with other people. “But I get the impression that he wants this to be deep and meaningful tonight. How deep and meaningful can it be if he’s got me bent over the end of the sofa within five seconds flat?”

“Damn, now you’re talking my language!” Maggie laughed.

“Lily, sweetie,” Emma explained, “these kinds of things are romantic because of who we do them with, not what we do. Brandon and I go away on romantic trips all the time, but I would rarely call the nasty things we do to each other romantic. It’s about sharing the passion together as much as the love.”

“Exactly,” Maggie nodded. “There are so many ways to have sex. Sometimes it’s rough and dirty; sometimes it’s gentle and tender. As long as you love your partner, it’s all meaningful.”

“I get it, I really do. It’s just that… I don’t want Ethan to think that I’m trying to derail his special night by tempting him too much. Does that make sense?”

“Lily, from what you’ve told me about your little agreement and how he’s been acting lately, it sounds like he has gotten lost in his own sappiness. If you ask me, it sounds like that boy could use a good old dose of temptation to remind him that he’s not a twelve-year-old girl and you’re not some delicate flower.” Maggie looked pointedly at the lingerie in her hand before arching her eyebrow in challenge. “Am I right?”

Lily took a deep breath and smiled. “Ring it up.”

After shopping, the girls took her to their favorite salon for a bit of pampering, and when they got there she was surprised to find that all three of them had appointments at the same time. Emma simply shrugged off her questioning gaze, saying that it was all about feminine solidarity, to which Lily rolled her eyes and told her to remember that when it came time for the bikini wax.

By 6 p.m., Lily was standing in front of the full-length mirror in Emma’s bedroom, trying to recognize the sexy, confident woman looking back at her through the smoky eye makeup. Her hair was piled loosely on her head in some form of constructed chaos that looked effortless, but had taken nearly an hour to style, and she still had no idea how there weren’t streaks of burgundy lipstick on her teeth when she smiled.

Lily couldn’t believe that she actually looked like a grown up. She glanced down at the large amount of cleavage that her corset created and giggled to herself. Perhaps she was a slightly slutty grown up.

“Hey guys?” she called out to the other room, still looking at the stranger in the mirror. “Are you sure this isn’t going overboard? I don’t think I put this much effort into prom.”

“Isn’t Ethan worth a little effort?” Emma smiled as she walked through the door, handing her a glass of champagne.

“What’s this for?”

“Celebration.”

“What are we celebrating?” Lily asked, holding out her glass to clink it against Emma’s.

“The fact that you’re finally getting some tonight!” Maggie laughed, coming through the door with her own glass raised. “Perhaps we can all go back to our normal lives now that balance will be returned to the sexual force.”

“Oh ha-ha, Obi-Wan. Very cute.” Lily tried to shoot her a menacing glare, but it was ruined when her laughter broke through. She sipped at her drink for a moment as she looked at her two dear friends, slowly realizing that they were dressed just as formally as she was. “Hey, I thought I was the one trying to sexy it up tonight. You both look gorgeous! What’s up? Are you coming to dinner, too?”

“Uh, well—” Emma looked caught off guard for a second until Maggie jumped in.

“Hell no! We’ve got no interest in watching you two moon over each other all night, do we?” She looked at Emma pointedly until she shook her head in reply. “Besides, we are much too hot tonight to waste all this sexiness on you. We plan on grabbing our menfolk the second they walk in the door and taking them out on the town.”

“Yeah, Brandon and Eric won’t know what hit them,” Emma added, rubbing her hands together as if she were an evil mastermind.

“Well, whatever amazing things you do tonight, it’s not half of what you deserve.” Lily stepped closer and hugged them both to her, all of them trying to avoid spilling their drinks. “I can’t thank you enough for everything.”

“Please,” Emma sighed. “Like we need a reason to shop!”

“Not just the shopping. Everything. You two have been there for me so much lately. I can’t imagine what the last few months of my life would have been like without you.”

“Ugh, bitch… stop it before you make me cry and ruin my makeup!” Maggie huffed, wiping at the corner of her eye.

Just then there was a light knocking at the front door. Emma excused herself to answer it, only to call out from the hallway in a singsong voice less than a minute later. “Oh, Lily… I do believe your date has arrived.”

Swallowing down the butterflies that threatened to fly right out of her mouth, Lily took one last look in the mirror and steeled herself for her night of mystery with the man of her dreams.

Or so she thought she had, but she was still blown away when she got a good look at him in his midnight blue Gucci suit. He was absolutely breathtaking to behold, like some sort of majestic, fantastical creature.

As she slowly walked toward him, Lily started to worry that when she was finally standing next to him she might look like some sort of troll who crawled out from under a bridge for the night. However, once she saw the shock and desire on his face as he stared back at her, she realized that there might actually be a chance that she could hold her own.

Without a word, Ethan grabbed her hand and pulled it to his lips. The heat in his gaze as he looked up at her over her knuckles was enough to make small beads of sweat stand out on her forehead.

“Stunning,” he whispered, kissing her fingers again lightly before letting them go. “My beautiful girl, you are nothing short of stunning tonight.”

“I was just thinking the same thing about you.”

“Nonsense,” he scoffed, sliding his hand to the small of her back and leading her toward the door. “I pale in comparison to this goddess on my arm.”

Lily was flattered by what she thought were only pretty words, but Ethan meant every one of them.

After a scorching round of eyefuckery in the elevator that Ethan clearly won, he led her across the parking garage to his waiting car. He was smiling as he held open the door for her, and his beautiful face distracted Lily so much that she nearly didn’t notice that something was different.

“Wait a minute,” she said, one foot already inside the car. “Where’s your rental?”

“What are you talking about?” he smiled again playfully.

“We arrived here in a blue Nissan. This is a black Audi.”

“Hmm… well that’s odd, isn’t it?” He motioned for her to sit down and he closed the door quickly, jumping in the driver’s seat and revving the engine.

“It’s also the same model Audi that you were renting a few months ago,” she continued as they drove across town.

“Imagine the coincidence,” he smirked.

“Did you exchange your rental?”

“Nope.”

“Then what? How did you get this particular car?”

“I bought it.”

“You
bought
it?” she gasped.

“Mmhmm,” he replied nonchalantly as he looked out the side window, as if it were nothing more than buying a cup of coffee.

“But… why?”

Ethan pulled into the lot of an elegant seafood restaurant and parked the car. When he turned to look at her again, his face had become very serious. “Because I’ve never owned my own car. I’ve gotten by on rentals and taxis and even on foot, but I never wanted any ties to anything before… I didn’t want any attachments. Just like I’ve always stayed in hotels or rented space to paint. I always wanted to be able to pack up and take off at a moment’s notice without worrying about making arrangements.”

“And now?” she whispered.

“And now… I think I could use a few attachments in my life.”

“So you bought your very first car?” She looked around the interior before smiling hugely. “Then, congratulations!” Leaning over, she kissed him loudly on the cheek. “I’m proud of you. But why this exact same car when you could have your pick of anything?”

He slowly reached up to cup her face. “Do you really need to ask?” Lowering his head, he covered her mouth with his own, telling her with the slightest pressure of his lips how important their shared memories were to him. As he pulled away, he left a trail of gentle kisses on her face, over her cheeks and nose, ending with soft pecks to the fragile skin of her eyelids when they fluttered closed. “Come on, beautiful,” he said against her flesh. “Let’s get you inside before I have second thoughts and drive straight to the hotel.”

“Fine by me,” she exhaled, feeling lightheaded at how closely he hovered over her.

“Don’t tempt me,” he laughed lightly, his sweet breath tickling her. Planting one more kiss on the center of her forehead, he sat back and shoved a hand through his hair. “Seriously, you don’t know how close I am to throwing all of my plans out the window. All it took was one look at you in that dress.”

“Well in that case,” she smiled tauntingly, “I wouldn’t dare waste the opportunity to make you squirm all night. Let’s eat. I want to enjoy sitting across from you, knowing that the entire time you’re eating, you are really imagining how quickly you could have me undressed.”

“Who says I would bother undressing you first? I bet that skirt flips up fairly easily.”

“That’s very true. But then you wouldn’t get to see what I have on underneath, now would you?” She laughed playfully, climbing out of the car and strutting toward the restaurant. One look at the seductive sway of her hips as she walked told Ethan that he was in for a very long night.

Their dinner was perfect. They ordered different items from the menu, sharing bites of their meal with each other. The evening was full of laughter and lighthearted conversation, and when it came time for dessert they split a decadent slice of cheesecake. Lily allowed him to feed her large forkfuls, taking particular care to wrap her lips and tongue slowly around the delicious treat.

“You’re not playing fair,” he gritted through his teeth, his eyes never leaving her luscious mouth.

“Who said I was playing?” she returned quickly, her tongue flicking against the tines of the fork before she closed her eyes and moaned at the taste.

“Check, please!” Ethan called out, forcing himself to break her gaze. He knew he needed to get moving if he was going to get her to the gallery on time, and sitting around staring at her while she ate was only serving as a distraction.

A few minutes later he was pulling out of the parking lot and heading towards Halsted, the center of the arts district in the city.