Page 16 of Ashley
Chapter 5
Later that day, after a filling breakfast and some logistical talks of the dance production both women were working on—Natasha as the principal and Ashley as the costumer—she returned home feeling more like herself than she had in quite some time, which was a blessing, considering her living situation wasn't currently the best. She sighed, shouldering open her door, and had to hold back her eye roll when she was hit by a blast of thumping music and one of her three roommates, Sarah, dancing around the living room with a beer in hand.
"Oh hey!" the smaller woman screeched in greeting, and Ashley gave her a quick nod. "Want a drink?"
"No, thank you," Ashley bit out with a grimace, because a second roommate, Xander, had practically collided with her on his way out of the kitchen.
"Looking good, baby." He leered, leaning close to her as she scooted past him, face averted, in an effort to escape the smell of stale alcohol and pot smoke that clung to him. "Where you been? It's been boring around here without you."
"Out," Ashley hedged, making a beeline for her room. She jumped back when her final roommate, Lily, all but sprinted out of the hallway and offered her a mumbled sorry and apologetic smile. Lily was quiet, polite, and nervous, and Ashley knew the fact that Sarah and Xander had taken to partying in their apartment mid-day had the smaller girl wanting to be anywhere but in the apartment.
"See ya," Ashley called after her. Lily paused at the front door and tossed Ashley a wan smile.
"See ya," she replied, voice still soft, and opened her mouth as if to say more, but a slimy smile from Xander sent the other woman hurrying out of the apartment as fast as she could. Ashley blew out a sigh and, taking a cue from Lily, turned on her heel and made her way down the hallway to her bedroom. As much as she wanted to not impose on Natasha and Silas' hospitality, she secretly wished she was back in their penthouse with them. She'd grown so accustomed to the peaceful vibe of the space and the creature comforts of a stocked fridge and sparkling clean apartment that coming back to her own life was jarring. Her roommates were slobs, save for Lily, but there was only so much the pair of them could do with Sarah and Xander on the loose.
"It's only for a little while longer," she reminded herself as she closed her door and locked it behind her. She sank against the door and closed her eyes briefly as she tried not to pay attention to the balmy temperature of her walk-up apartment. It was what she could afford while she saved her dollars and worked every job she could get her hands on. She was grateful the production,LaBayadère, was finally getting underway. It was one of the reasons she'd begged off from Natasha's little refuge in the sky. She had to get home, get herself sorted and ready for a full day of work tomorrow, which meant, regrettably, coming home.
A crash and a muffled curse from the living room had Ashley groaning and moving away from the door with a shake of her head. She didn't even want to imagine what had just happened in the living room.
"Not my monkeys, not my circus," she told herself while willing away thoughts of getting her portion of the security deposit returned. Though another bang from the living room tested her commitment to not worrying about her roommates' antics and subsequent damage to the house. Luckily, she was only a set of earbuds away from drowning out the noise and let out a relieved sigh when the raucous partying was replaced by the strains of her favorite music. Ashley was the lead costumer on the production which meant this was her big break. She'd worked with some of the best in the business but only as a helper or an assistant, but this one?La Bayadèrewas hers. Her moment to shine and show all of New York that she had arrived. It was a lot of pressure, but she was up to the task, hopefully.
She pulled her sketchpad out and let her fingers begin to work on the familiar sketches she'd already worked out for the ballet. Ashley wanted to do the famous ballet justice but also put her own stamp on it. If she could approach the most famous scene from it,The Kingdom of Shades, then she had a shot. She bit her bottom lip as the costume meant for Natasha underwent some changes. There needed to be drama and lots of it to showcase her friend's athletic grace and her return to the stage.
Ashley's fingers trembled at the thought. She had to do her very best to do right by Natasha. Turning her music up louder, Ashley flipped the page and began anew. It couldn't hurt to see what fresh silhouettes she might be able to pull together for Natasha's big number.
It never hurt to be over prepared, right?
Hunched over and eyes intent on her sketchpad, Ashley fell into a space that only consisted of her sketchpad and the lines she made changing this and that on a costume that went from pink to fire red and back again before it somehow was a deep royal purple with flowing sleeves that billowed like clouds. She blinked, staring at it, but a pleased smile appeared on her face. It was beautiful. Natasha would look like a goddess executing the choreography. There wouldn't be a soul capable of looking away from her. Stretching her arms overhead, Ashley set down her sketchpad and stood slowly from her seat on the little armchair she had managed to drag up to her apartment and shove beside her window. She liked to sit and sketch by the window as much as possible, the sunlight making her feel warm and happy while she worked with her music thrumming in her ears. She turned toward the window, hoping to see the last rays of sunshine, but she blinked in surprise when she saw nothing but a dark sky.
"Holy crap," she whispered, pulling the headphones off. "How long have I been working?" Tilting her head to the side, the sounds of partying she'd blocked out earlier had gone quiet, and she rubbed her back with a groan. She was stiff all over. Her eyes landed on the clock beside her bed and she blanched—it was 10:00 pm, she'd been drawing for hours.
"Way to go, Ash," she muttered, hurriedly yanking off her clothes and getting ready for bed. She'd meant to be sound asleep by now, but her ability to zone out when she worked had backfired, with her staying up far later than she'd meant to. It would make the early morning she had scheduled difficult, but if she went to sleep now, she'd be rested enough for the 6:00 am initial fittings that were expected, except that when Ashley yanked the covers over her head, she found that sleep was the last thing on her mind. Even after so many hours of brain work, hers was anything but exhausted. Instead, it was humming with energy and skipped to the phone number she had programmed into her phone before leaving Natasha's that afternoon. She sighed from where she lay, the covers pulled up to her neck, and lasted all of a minute before she was reaching for her phone and accessing her contacts.
James. There it was, his name. She rubbed a finger across the contact and sighed into her pillow at her own girlish reaction to just the man's name. It wasn't even a photo of him. Just a name and some numbers, but her fingertips tingled as if she were about to touch him. She licked her lips and turned onto her side. The only thought going through her head was what it would be like to touch James again, to give in to what Natasha had described as permanent. Asmore.Right now, alone in her bed, Ashley wanted more, and she wanted it with James.
Her heartbeat sped up at that, veins humming with a want that she couldn't describe as anything but desire. He was beautiful; his type of beauty wasn't refined or golden like she saw in so many All-American models or even the severe elegance of popular dancers the world over. James' beauty was a wild thing that excited her more than it should. Everything about him, from his shoulder length tresses she longed to touch again, his full pillow lips, sharp jaw, and those eyes—his gray eyes saw right through her. The scar on his face added just the right amount of rough to his looks, otherwise, she would be convinced he wasn't real. Something to mar all the untamed strength of the man was necessary for her to function in his presence. For all her posturing and insisting that she was unaffected by him outside of relishing his caregiving, she was one touch away from catching fire for the man.
And oh, how he'd touched her, his rough hands dragging up her sides in a gentle caress that had left her gasping and writhing beneath him, the full weight of him pinning her to the bed while she arched ever closer to him. That mouth had painted her skin with kisses, teeth scraping against that sensitive place behind her ear while his hands had slipped between her thighs and touched her clit in feather-light brushes at odds with the brute strength of the muscles she felt rippling beneath her hands.
"What are you doing?" she whisper-screamed at herself in the dark. With a sigh, Ashley shoved her phone back under her pillow. She needed sleep, not errant thoughts of James filling her imagination.
Turning onto her back, she sighed and closed her eyes. She would sleep if it killed her. Taking in a deep breath, Ashley concentrated on slowing her breathing and counting back from one hundred, but by the time she reached zero, she was still wide awake. Mercifully, the second time she attempted to count her way to sleep, she lost consciousness somewhere around the mid-thirties.
Ashley wished the sleep she had achieved, however small it was, had been restful, but when she awoke, she felt the farthest thing from refreshed as possible. Frowning, she pawed at her trilling alarm and sat up with a deep sigh. Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, she forced herself to get out of bed and slowly shuffled toward her closet. If she got moving, then she knew she would be set, plus there was plenty of coffee waiting for her at the production theater. Ashley dressed quickly and silently made her way through the dark apartment. The sight of Sarah and Xander passed out on the couch and living room floor, respectively, didn't surprise her any. Tip toeing around the pair, she slipped out of the apartment and breathed a sigh of relief when she was out the door without incident. Having to handle her still drunk roommates never ranked high on her list of things she wanted to do first thing in the morning, but it had happened before. Hitching her bag higher on her shoulder, she hoped Lily also managed to avoid the two snoring figures.
The trip into the production hall passed in an uneventful blur, and soon enough, Ashley was stepping inside the building and following her nose to the freshly brewed coffee that was being served in the back of the hall. She smiled, waving at her friend, Wendy, and the production assistant who was still laying out snacks in preparation of the day.
"Hey, missy," Wendy greeted her, holding out a cup of coffee to Ashley. "How was your week off?
Ashley took a hasty sip of coffee and offered her friend a blasé shrug. "It was okay. Slept a lot," she replied, keeping her voice even. Nothing in her stance alluded to the fact that she'd learned so much about herself or spent days in a hungover state from her first experience with submission.
Wendy's mouth went into a thin line. "Please don't tell me all you did was sleep."
Ashley shook her head and dropped her bag back by her design table. "No, that's not all I did."
"Thank God," Wendy sighed, bouncing up and down. "Please tell me you went out on a date and had a wild night."
"Not necessarily."
