“Great,” she said, shrugging. “Let’s go.”
“Wait.” David caught my forearm gently. “Ishegoing?”
“Who?” Gretchen looked in the direction David jutted his chin. She grinned. “You mean Steve? Why, yes, it’shisroom.”
David blinked slowly and released my arm. With another glance at Steve, he said, “You want a view? I can take you to the roof.”
“Great! Even better,” Gretchen squealed and ran off.
“Mercurial much?” I muttered to myself as I trailed David out of the lounge.
David and I piled into one elevator with Gretchen’s co-workers while she hung back to wait for Steve. The girls had been rowdy in the elevator bank, but now they went silent.
Perfume filled the tiny space, and one girl flipped her hair over her shoulder. “You’re David Dylan, right?”
He nodded.
“The place looks so good. I was just telling my friend that it’s going to bethehottest hotel in Chicago.”
I was about to smirk when he gave her a prize grin. “Just Chicago?” he asked. “What about the country?”
She giggled nervously with some whispering from the back of the elevator. “Well, that too.”
I looked away. The whispers stopped when I felt David clear some of my hair from my neck. I whipped my eyes back to him, and he smiled barely. Just the ghost of his reassuring touch, forbidden as it was, sent chills over my skin.
The elevatordinged, and everyone waited as he and I held each other’s gaze.
I blinked and stepped out when one of the women cleared her throat. The girls tore across the hall to the penthouse suite. Despite their excitement, David was calm as he extracted the key from his pocket and opened the door. We all walked in. I glanced up and around the large, dimly-lit space. When I looked back, the girls had scurried into the next room, leaving David and me alone in the foyer.
“Flirt,” I accused.
“You know I don’t give a fuck about them,” he replied without missing a beat, his voice low with bass.
I bit the inside of my lip. “I thought you were leaving.”
“Not whileSteveis around.”
With a thunderous knock on the door behind us, David let in the next group, and they flew by me. Gretchen appeared and grabbed my hand. “This is bananas,” she said.
My eyes scanned the expansive suite as I let her drag me out to the rooftop patio. Outside, an elongated swimming pool ran the length of the deck, glowing turquoise on the otherwise dark roof. Glass partitions edged the perimeter, allowing for an unobstructed panoramic view.
“Look,” someone called, “you can swim out over the city!”
Gretchen dropped my hand and rushed off, giving me a chance to admire my surroundings. What I’d seen with David on our previous trip to the roof was nothing compared to now. The pool jutted off the side of the building, hovering over the world below. As if floating. The opposite end of the pool showcased the first floor of the suite.
“Beer?” David asked from next to me.
I glanced over. In one hand, he held two bottles by their necks, already opened. “Where’d you get those?” I asked.
“My secret.” He handed me one before taking a swig from his own bottle. “Cheers.”
“Thanks,” I said hesitantly, trying to read his fluctuating mood.
We slowly followed the edge of the pool toward the group, as if we didn’t actually want to get there. He looked into his beer bottle. “My family, they really liked you. Jessa especially. She says you have an amazing energy or something.”
“I liked her also. A lot. Too much.”
“And that means . . . ?”
