Schooled

Stripped Excerpt! Chapter 1 - Ava

December

I fucking love New York.

The city streets might have been freezing, but inside it was hot.

The club was three stories. The top two had wraparound balconies overlooking a crowded dance floor. An enormous chandelier hung from the center, pulsing with light to the music.

"This place is unreal!" I shouted at my best friend, Lex.

We were dressed to the nines, two twenty-one-year-olds high on the city. We'd flown to the Big Apple over winter break to pitch our clothing designs to the magazine editor Lex interned with. But we were also there to celebrate the end of the fall semester at our San Diego college.

Right now, I needed to flirt.

Maybe more.

I was wearing my favorite dress, low-cut and fitted. It clearly supported my "no curve left behind" policy.

"Let's dance!" I dragged Lex onto the floor, an orgy of lights and skin and sparkles, and looked around at the sea of people fueled by ambition and Red Bull. Despite the four-inch heels, I was still hopelessly short in this crowd of adults-only. It didn't matter. Everyone was high on being young and alive.

A group of guys in suits standing at the nearest bar pulled my attention.

My type's always been surfer, not banker. Blame it on my Cali roots, but I'm a sucker for messy hair, washboard abs, and an easy-breezy "I've got all the time in the world" attitude. But when one of the guys by the bar turned his head toward me, I had to force myself to keep dancing.

He would send easy breezy running for cover.

The vibe went past his tailored suit. It was in all of him—how he held his shoulders. The tilt of his head.

I knew what lust looked like. Heat, sex, flirtation—they were easy. Guys had looked at me like that, and I knew what to do with it. If I was feeling it and if I wasn't.

But this guy wasn't flirting. His gaze was pure intensity, ocean deep. And maybe just as soulless.

Where the hell did that thought come from?

"Hello? New York calling Ava?" My best friend yanked my mind back to the dance floor, wiggling her eyebrows. I loved her in all her forms, but tipsy Lex was especially fun. She bottled up everything she was feeling, working her butt off during the school year, but once in a while a little crazy would leak out. "Need a wing woman? I know you've been dying to check out the New York manscape."

I smothered a laugh. "Thanks, hon. I do like a good ... manscape."

"I'm going to pee," she said solemnly. "You want to come?"

"If you want me to." I glanced back toward the guy who was staring holes in me. My breath caught. "Or I can get us another drink."

"Deal." Lex cut a determined path through the crowd. When my eyes found the bar again, the guy was gone.

Disappointment crept in. Which was crazy. Sure, he was hot, but hot guys were a dime a dozen, especially here.

I approached the bar. My hips swayed absently to the music while l leaned over the counter to grab the bartender's attention. A short man with dark hair appeared at my elbow and grinned drunkenly, eyes moving from my face to my chest.

"Hey baby," he slurred. "I coulda bought you that," he added as the bartender passed me two cocktails.

"It's OK, I'm with a friend," I said automatically. I didn't need to lay into him. We all get a little drunk sometimes, and he'd probably be embarrassed in the morning.