Page 72 of Use Me

“Yeah, so did you dress warmly?”

“Even put my thermal underwear on.” I winked.

Ashtyn pulled away from the curb. “Me too.”

I looked down to see she was wearing jeans and not the dress she’d reported the news in. “Are you going to tell me now where we’re going?”

“Nope.”

“Will there be booze?”

“Nope.”

“Music?”

“Nope.”

“Food?”

“Nope.”

“Sex?”

She looked away from the road and over at me as we waited at a light. “If you’re good.”

I grinned. “Pretty sure I’m on the nice list.”

“Yeah, you are. Just don’t screw it up in the next hour and you’ll get sex when we get home.”

I bobbed my head in approval. I could totally be good. Especially if sex was on the table. Or on the couch. Or on the kitchen counter. Or in the shower. I wasn’t picky.

Ashtyn drove us toward Grant Park. “Cupcake, I hate to burst your bubble, but the park is closed.”

“I know,” she replied and drove right down to the parking garage.

There was an attendant at the gate, and I expected him to tell us they were closed, but instead he nodded to Ashtyn and opened the gate. I turned to look at her, confused. She shrugged. “Perks of the job.”

“Okay …” I hesitated as she drove and parked the car. “So, what are we going to do here?”

“Still a surprise.”

Seeing as we were about to go frolic in the fucking park, my long johns were definitely the right decision.

After we parked and got out of the car, we grabbed our gloves, and Ashtyn took my hand and led me toward the section of Grant Park that was by the mini-golf course. “We’re going to play mini-golf?”

“Nope.” She shook her head and kept walking.

As we walked, I spotted the ice skating rink in the distance. It wasn’t your typical ice skating rink. In fact, it was called a skating ribbon because the rink was interwoven into the terrain of the ground it sat on. You didn’t just skate around and around in a circle. It had slight inclines and declines and followed a shape like a ribbon around the two rock climbing walls.

“We’re going ice skating?”

“Kinda,” she replied and tugged me until we were standing in front of the ice skate rental building. Another man opened the door, and as we passed, Ashtyn greeted him by name and thanked him.

“So, you just slip these guys some money, and they let you in?” I teased.

“I told you that I get perks.”

“Do I want to know how?”