by HELEN HARDT
I lick her from her clit downward, savoring the juiciness that coats her inner thighs as well as her folds.
That squeaky sigh leaves her throat once more, and it spurs me on. I want to give her the intense pleasure she gave me. Want to feel her shudder beneath my tongue, around my fingers.
I close my lips around her clit and give it a good suck.
“Oh!” she gasps.
Good. Very good. I give it a tug again, and then slide my lips and tongue downward, over her folds, until I thrust into her hot pussy.
She gasps again, then softly sighs, no squeak this time. “You taste like apples,” I rasp against her wetness. “So sweet.”
“Mmm,” she says. “Eat me. Please.”
She doesn’t have to say please. I plan to feast on her. I grab my bulge and adjust it, hoping to ease its ache. It doesn’t work. How can I be ready again? So soon?
I tug on her labia with my lips and teeth, continue to fuck her with my tongue. Then back to her clit, urging her on with first soft nibbles and then a good sucking.
“God, Dale. I want to come. Make me come.”
I continue to eat her, loving every minute. She gyrates against me, grinding her pussy into my face, her wetness a nectar more appetizing than the finest Syrah.
“Please, Dale.”
I eat her harder, faster…
“Please. Your finger. I need your finger.”
Right. I’m so enthralled with her taste and texture I forgot to finger her. Shit. I know better. I slide one finger inside her, rubbing the anterior of her walls.
“God, yes.” She leans back until she’s lying on my desk. “Now suck on my clit. Hard.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Ashley
The climax surrounds me with the dark red of Dale’s voice. He’s not speaking, but he’s growling low, vibrating against my flesh, and as he massages my G-spot and sucks on my clit, I sizzle all over. Syrah-colored flashes nearly blind me, take away my vision of all else in the room. Everything except Dale’s blond head between my legs as he gives me the most rapturous pleasure I’ve ever experienced.
Don’t end. Please. Don’t want it to end.
A dreamy haze envelops me, coils into me, breaking out emotions I swear I’ve never felt before. This is so beyond the physical. So beyond…
All thought ceases.
Only feeling. Only color. Only Dale.
Dale and me and the colors and sensations and feelings.
My orgasm slows.
No. Please. I force it further. I grab his head and pull him closer, closer, until I’m no doubt suffocating him. But still he licks, sucks, fingers.
And still, I come.
And come…
Words and sounds leave me, but I have no idea what they are. All my senses are tied up in this climax. This ultimate climax that has become a shade of red I can’t even describe.
And though I wish it could last forever…
It doesn’t.
I come down, and I’m sitting on the edge of Dale’s desk, his face between my legs. He’s no longer sucking me, but he slides his finger in and out slowly. So slowly, as he milks the last traces of orgasm out of me.
His chin and mouth are glistening, his green eyes clear and vibrant, and he meets my gaze. He doesn’t smile. Simply removes his finger from me and then he stands.
So much emotion. So much vibrant sensation.
And I have no idea what to say to him.
Sadly, I made a deal. I can get out of it on a technicality, of course. We didn’t actually make love. No cock in hole.
Except what I just experienced with Dale Steel was better than any sex I’ve had in my life. Like a hundred times better.
I bite my lower lip. I have to hold up my end of the bargain.
I’m leaving tomorrow. Going back to LA to enroll in a few courses to make up for the credit I’ll lose for the internship.
Dale pulls a red bandana out of his pocket and hands it to me. I take care of myself and then stand. The desk is wet, so I wipe it with the bandana and then hand it back to him.
He still hasn’t spoken.
I still haven’t spoken.
I’m not usually shy with words after being with a man. I’m usually full of compliments—whether or not they’re true—about how amazing he was, how good he made me feel.
Dale made me feel more pleasure than I’ve ever felt in my twenty-five years…yet I seem to have nothing to say to him.
Images, feelings, colors all swirl in my mind, but somehow I can’t form them into words to tell this man how much he moved me.
I adjust my tank top and cover my breasts. My shorts… Right. They’re in the hallway, where I first took them off. Do I say something?
Turns out I don’t have to. Dale leaves his office for a few seconds, returns with them, and hands them to me, still saying nothing.
I hastily put them on. Then he gives me my sandals. I slide into them.
We’re both fully dressed now, and we’re still acting as if nothing just happened between us. As if Dale Steel didn’t just give me the most amazing orgasm of my life. Did I do the same for him?
Guess I’ll never know.
Finally, I clear my throat. “I guess…we should get back.”
He inhales. Exhales. “I guess so.”
Okay, then.
I follow him out of the office and to the elevator. Next thing I know we’re in his truck. Still, silence looms between us.
A half hour later, he drives up to the main house. I get out of the truck, still nothing said. He drives away.
I walk into the house. “Hello? Dee? Anyone?”
Talon and Brianna are in the orchard today. I remember that from breakfast. I don’t even have a clue what time it is. I pull out my phone. Damn. Eleven. We were gone that long? How long were we…?
I sigh. Doesn’t matter. I wanted Dale, and I got him. Now I have to pay the price.
I have to leave.
Darla bustles out of the kitchen. “Miss Ashley, you’re back already? We all thought Mr. Dale would keep you busy all day.”
He kept me busy all right.
“I guess we’re done. Is Diana around?”
“She’s in her room, packing.”
“Thanks.”
I head to Dee’s room and knock on the door. “It’s me.”
“Come on in, Ash.”
I enter. Diana is folding clothes into a large suitcase.
I sit down on the edge of her bed. “Hey.”
“Darla said you were working with Dale today.”
“We’re done. I guess.”
“You guess?”
“Your brother is…”
She waits a few seconds. “Yeah?”
I sigh. “I’ve never met anyone like him.”
“He’s one in a million. Both my brothers are.”
She doesn’t have a clue what I’m saying. “I’m sure.”
“I know he’s hard to take at first, but you’ll learn a ton from him.”
I already have learned quite a bit, but my lessons are over. “I’m afraid I won’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m not staying, Dee.”
She stops folding a blouse. “What the hell are you talking about? We went through all this last night. Of course you’re staying. My internship doesn’t mean the end of yours.”
“It doesn’t. I just can’t stay for other reasons.”
“What other reasons?”
I made a deal with your brother, the devil.
Nope. Can’t say that.
“Personal reasons.”
“Hey.” She reaches out and touches my forearm. “You can tell me anything.”
“We haven’t known each other that long.”
Her mouth drops into a slight frown. “I suppose you’re right. But Ash, I invited you to my home. To stay with my family.”
She’s right. I should tell her. Except I can’t. Dale is her brother. She adores him.
Bigger problem?
I adore him. He’s a jerk eighty percent of the time. But that other twenty percent? He’s amazing. Thought-provoking. Brilliant. And he eats pussy like a champ.
Leaving him will kill me. Never mind that I met the man a mere twenty-four hours ago. He’s touched something inside me that I didn’t even know existed.
“You haven’t even begun,” Diana says. “Give this a chance. A week. If it’s too much to handle after a week, leave then.”
“I can’t.”
Finally, she sighs. “What did he do?”
“Who?”
“You know very well who. My brother.”
“He didn’t do anything.” Except make me feel like I entered paradise.
“I’m not an idiot, Ash. I know my brother. I know he’s a little…harsh sometimes.”
Harsh? Try asshole extraordinaire. Then try world’s best pussy eater.
So not going there.
“He’s fine.” No lie there. Fine is an understatement, but not what I actually mean to convey to Diana.
She lets out a long breath. “Tell me what to do. How can I get you to stay?”
I glide my fingers over the hard shell of Diana’s suitcase. “You can’t get me to stay. Only one person can, and he has to ask me.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Dale
I’m getting into my truck to head into town for those groceries when Hurricane Diana storms toward me.
Already I know I’m in for it. Bree is kind of a hurricane all the time, but when Diana gets going, something’s really bugging her.
And I have a sneaking suspicion what it is.
Ashley told her.
She fucking told her. I’m not sure who I’m angrier with—Ashley or myself.
I crossed a line this morning—a line I had no right to cross.
“We need to talk,” my sister says, hands firmly on hips.
“Actually, we don’t. I’m heading into town for groceries. I don’t have anything in my house for lunch.”
“Fine.” She steps into the passenger side of the truck. “I’ll go with you. We can talk on the way.”
I’m not getting out of this, clearly. I hop into the driver’s side and start the engine. I don’t speak.
If I know Diana, she won’t be able to take my silence for long. She’ll start yammering. I glance at the clock on the dash. Eleven forty-five.
“What the hell did you do to Ashley?”
Still eleven forty-five. “Less than a minute. A record even for you, Sis.”
“Don’t start, Dale. I get that you’re not a people person. We all accept you for who you are. That doesn’t give you the right to treat others like shit.”
Hmm. Maybe Ashley didn’t spill the beans after all. I’m impressed. Why did I expect her to tattle to my little sister about me?
Why do I always expect the worst out of new people?
“Exactly what did she tell you?” I ask.
“Nothing. She told me a big fat load of nothing. Except that she’s leaving.”
Leaving? After our incredible morning? It won’t happen again, of course, but—
“Oh.” The words she spoke before we… She said she’d give up the internship if I…
“Oh? That’s all you have to say? Oh?”
“She has the right to leave if she wants to, Dee.”
“Except that she decided to stay…until she spent the morning with you. What the hell happened?”
She gave me the world’s best blow job.
Yeah, that. And I ate her pussy until she screamed.
“I showed her the office.”
“And…?”
“And…I showed her the office. Then I drove her back here.”
“Sometime between then and now, she decided to pack up and go home.”
“Then let her pack up and go home. This isn’t my problem.”
“Hell yes, it is your problem, Dale. She’s my friend and—”
“Friend? You’ve known her for a month.”
“Closer to two, but what does that matter?”
“She’s not your type. You’re so much more…cerebral.”
“We both have to be nerds for us to be friends?”
“You’re not a nerd, Dee.”
“That’s pretty much what you just said.”
“Fuck.” I rake my fingers through my hair. “You know I didn’t mean it that way. You’re studious. Cerebral. Ashley is…”
“What? Exactly what is she?”
“Not studious, for sure.”
“Bullshit. She’s in a doctorate program. Not many non-studious people become doctors, Dale.”
She has me there. But Ashley’s not like Diana. I know this instinctively. She’s more jovial, for one. More…
More…what?
More…
Fun.
She’s more fun. A lot more fun than my sister and I am. She’s more along the personalities of Donny and Bree.
Certainly not Diana.
And most definitely not me.
She makes me…
Damn. She makes me want things I have no business wanting. Makes me do things I have no business doing.
She’s trouble.
Trouble for me, and if I let her in, I’ll be more than trouble for her.
“I don’t ask you for much, Dale.”
“I’ll give you that. You don’t.”
“I’m asking now. I need you to do something for me.”
I sigh. Whatever it is, it’s something to do with Ashley. “What?”
“Ask her to stay.”
“Are you nuts?”
“She’ll stay if you ask her.”
“And you know this how?”
“Because she told me.”
“I didn’t ask her to leave, Dee.”
“But then why—”
“Do you think I know?”
“Yeah.” She nods voraciously. “I think you do know, Dale. I think you absolutely know.”
“I didn’t ask her to leave.”
My sister waits a few seconds, staring ahead at the road. Then, “I believe you. You wouldn’t be so rude.”
I would be, but this time, I wasn’t.
“But something made her think you want her to leave. You know I love you, but you can be…well…mean sometimes.”
I don’t try to deny her words. I’m no liar. I was mean to Ashley. I was also really nice to her. Mostly I was a big mess around her—a mass of feelings I don’t know how to handle.
Diana doesn’t know my secrets. Our parents decided long ago that Diana and Brianna didn’t need to know how Donny and I came to be Steels. It would be too much for them. Diana might understand me a bit better if she knew, but I can’t do that to her. She doesn’t deserve that burden.
I pull into the tiny parking lot in back of the small town grocery store. “I’ve got shopping to do.”
“Shopping can wait. I’m starved. You’re taking me to lunch.”
“So you can continue to yell at me?”
“Yes, exactly.”
I roll my eyes. I’ll do it. I can’t ever deny Diana. She’s an angel. She came along only months after Donny and I moved to the ranch. She was a beautiful baby. A ray of sunshine we all needed.
“Fine. We’ll walk over to Ava’s.”
Ava Steel—yeah, the one with pink hair—is my kindred spirit in a way. The firstborn of Uncle Ryan and Aunt Ruby, she’s the only other Steel cousin besides me who didn’t complete college. A devotee of Aunt Marj, she wanted to cook, so she and I spent a lot of time together in the kitchen when she was still not much more than a toddler. Ava turned out to be a gifted baker, so now, at the young age of twenty-four, no less, she owns the Steel Bakery in Snow Creek. The biggest thing? She did it herself. She refused to take any Steel money for her venture. She lives the boho life now in her small apartment above the bakery. Her sandwiches are legendary.
“Hey, goofballs!” she says when we walk in, the bell on the door tinkling.
“Hey, Aves,” Diana says.
“Sit anywhere. Maya will be with you in a minute.”
We grab a table by the window and sit. Maya—one of Ava’s two employees—scurries over to us. “Hi, guys. The usual?”
“Yup.” My usual is the Dale. Carved Steel beef on pumpernickel with a seasoning blend I created myself. “Change the cheddar to provolone, today. And add some avocado.”
“You got it.” Maya scribbles on her pad. “Diana for you, Dee?”
Diana shakes her head. “Nope. Give me the same as Dale. I’m feeling feisty.”
Feisty? Roast beef on pumpernickel equates to feisty? News to me.
All Ava’s sandwiches are named after our family members. The Talon, named after my Dad, is my other favorite. Beef on sourdough with caramelized onions, lettuce, tomato, and mayo. Simple but delicious. The Jade, named after my mom, is grilled cheddar and tomato on a simple white bread. Apparently that was the only thing my mom knew how to cook when she met my dad. It’s actually one of Ava’s most popular sandwiches.
Ava does most of her business with baked goods. She opened the deli on a whim, and it turned out to be wildly successful.
To look at her, though, you’d never know Ava came from Steel money. She’s not even slightly pretentious.
She bustles back in, her black apron streaked with flour and her pink hair tied up in a net. She plunks down at our table. “Tell me the good news, cousins.”
“Nothing new,” Dee says. “I’m just trying to talk my big brother here out of being a dickhead.”
Ava erupts in laughter and turns to me. “What are you up to now?”
“Nothing,” I say innocently.
Ava laughs again. “We all know that’s not true.”
“He did something to my friend Ashley.”
Gave her a damned good tongue lashing, but no way am I saying that.
“Ashley?”
“The new intern.”
“Oh, right. Dad told me about her. What’d you do to her, Dale?”
“Nothing. Why do you automatically assume I did something to her?”
“I’m not—”
Maya interrupts. “Ava, Luke needs you in the back.”
Ava stands. “Duty calls. I’ll catch you guys later.”
Thank God. I love my cousin, but I don’t need to rehash the whole Ashley thing. It’s bad enough dealing with Diana.