by Karin, Anya
"Stop. Scars aren't ugly. They're the past. They're how you got where you are. Don't be afraid of them and don't feel bad for them. They're part of you, but they aren't you."
"If anyone else said that, I wouldn't believe them." He lowered his head. "But you..."
She hooked her finger back underneath it and pulled the silk away from his face. From his lip, where she could see the bottom of the scar, a long, jagged mark stretched to above Preston's other eye. Alyssa ran the back of her finger from the top to the bottom.
Preston noticed that she never looked away from his eyes. She didn't gawk. She didn't have one of those pity looks, or anything but the same look she'd always given him.
"You have the most beautiful eyes I think I've ever seen."
They glittered when she looked at them, at him. The scar was there, but like she said, it wasn't him. It was part of his story, not his soul.
Without a word, he kissed down her body, between her breasts and back down between her legs. Warm, prickling energy crawled up her belly as he kissed along one side of her sex and up the other. His fingers went back to her, played between and then inside her folds, and drew a long, contented groan from Alyssa's barely-opened mouth.
"Don't make me wait anymore," she said. "Please?"
Preston sat up on his knees and pulled her panties slowly down, then off, tossing them off the side of the bed.
"Are you sure?" He said.
"Never more than I am right now. Come here."
Down on top of her body, his weight felt secure and safe. As his tip pushed against her, she wrapped her legs gently around Preston's hips and invited him inside. Slow, and deep and gentle, he pushed himself, sending warm waves all through Alyssa's body that forced her head back against the pillow.
She rolled her head left and then right, and reached up to grip the blanket as his thickness filled her, and the world melted away. Her body stretched around him, each tiny bit he moved chilling and warming her core until she could barely stand how exquisitely he pleased.
Alyssa gripped his shoulders, and then halfway down Preston's back, kneading the muscles and pulling him against her, further in, deeper and sweeter, with each passing second. He pulled back for the first time and as he left, she felt a void open within her that yearned for him to return, to push back in and give her another filling, warm, aching stretch.
"Yes, yes," she moaned, "I can't...yes..."
His strokes, long, full, gentle and slow, were enough to prickle the whole front of Alyssa's body, and the way he squeezed her hips with this powerful hands was enough to warm the back. A ref flush crept up her chest as her nipples pebbled and stiffened, thrills crawling across each time the short hair on Preston's chest brushed against them, or he lowered his head to kiss one or the other.
"Don't... don't stop," she said. "Just like that, keep going. I can't believe..."
"Give me your hand," he whispered, sitting up again after kissing her behind the ear. "I want to watch your face. God, you feel so good." He pushed another long, thick stroke inside her and took one hand, then the other.
Interweaving his fingers with hers, he pumped a little faster, a little deeper, and she pulled him down so that his face and those beautiful eyes weren't more than a few inches from hers.
She tried not to closer her eyes, to keep them open and watching, but the longer he went, the closer she got to a cliff she never thought to cross, it became harder and harder to keep them open, until finally it proved impossible.
"Don't...stop..." she whispered, her breath hitching in her chest.
Preston sucked another kiss on her neck and squeezed her hands, never once stopping his increasingly urgent, powerful movements. He felt her grip him, her body beginning to convulse around his shaft, pulling him deeper inside her.
"I can't...mmm...I can't stop myself, Preston," she said. "Keep...going..."
Suddenly, he stopped and pulled himself gently out of her.
"Not yet," he said. "I want you on top. You feel so good," he grinned. "Come on."
He lay back and stretched himself out, never letting go of Alyssa's hands.
She put one leg on either side of him and relaxed backwards, until she felt his tip against her entrance. Shaking her hand free of his for a moment, she reached back and guided him in. Immediately, her eyes closed, she found his hand again, and rocked backward, then forward, pushing him in and out, all the way in then out so far that she felt the line around his tip almost leaving.
One time, she opened her eyes and looked down at Preston to find him staring at her, lips open, breathing hard.
"I can't last much longer," he said between breaths, "you feel too good. Just too good."
"Me...too," she let out in a soft little moan. "Mmm..."
Preston squeezed her hands, and then moved them around to the small of her back, making her lean backwards just a little.
"God you're beautiful," he whispered, "I could watch you do this forever. Feel you right here, forever."
Again she shook her hands free of his and leaned back, propping herself up with her hands right above his knees. Deep, hard strokes filled her. Each one left her empty and yearning to have him back before another one filled her up. Faster, faster she pushed down on his girth, the naughty, thrilling sounds filling her ears as his cock stretched the deepest parts of her body around him.
"I can't... Oh my God," she moaned out, "I can't stop myself."
"Don't," he said, "do it with me."
She felt him jump inside her, his member swelling and relaxing in time with her clenching muscles. All the way up her body, she gripped hard on him, her teeth clenching, her fists balling up on his legs.
Harder and harder, faster and faster, she drove herself against Preston as he groaned her name, then yes, then her name again. She felt his pulse, his heart. She felt his breath. And then she fell forward, collapsing against his chest and crying out "Preston! Yes!" as her entire being squeezed him.
Every single muscle in Alyssa's body pulsed. Tight and loose, tension and release. Over and over, relentlessly, tirelessly, her body gripped and released, until finally, all the tightness erupted into wave after wave of pure, total, completely release.
His arms wrapped around her waist, his body pulsing with hers, she felt Preston relax just as she did. When he slid his hand down to pull himself free, she rolled off of him and closed her eyes, warmth caressing her, holding her, and refusing to let go.
When next she opened her eyes, it was to a steaming towel that smelled of roses.
"What's that?" She said, rubbing her sleepy eyes.
"A towel," Preston whispered. "I thought you might like a little steam on those sore spots."
"Where did you come from?" She said, letting her whole body relax as the towel slid up her legs and around her sex, then down the other.
"Texas," he said and chuckled softly. Alyssa grinned.
"How did I find you?"
"I keep asking myself the same thing. It seems like it's always been supposed to happen, I guess." He said. "I don't know. I think it's better to just accept some things instead of questioning them."
"I think you might be right." She smiled up at him, still keeping her eyes closed, holding the image of him with his head tilted back in ecstasy tight behind her lids.
He stood, and shuffled around near her feet.
"Is everything okay?" She said.
"Yeah. Better than okay. Everything is perfect. There's only one thing bothering me."
"What's that?" Worry tinged her voice. "Is it something I did?"
Alyssa sat up and pulled the blanket around her shoulders.
"No, no, of course not. It's just... Well, to be honest, I'm a little nervous about taking you back to your father and explaining everything." Preston sat back down, then reclined against the head of his bed and pulled Alyssa onto his chest where he stroked her face with the back of his hand and played with a long curl of her hair. "He's not gonna shoot me, is he?"
"No!" Al
yssa barely stifled a giggle. "But he might just ask you about your intentions. They are pure, aren't they?"
She snuggled her head down against his chest and ran her finger along a scar. As she did, Preston's body rose and fell, slower and slower, in time with his slowing heartbeat. When next she looked up at him, both of his eyes were closed, and he was breathing softly in, softly out, with a little whistle on the end.
"Whatever they are, we'll find out. But later."
She curled her head up in the crook of his arm, pulled the blanket over both of them, and let sleep come over her.
"Let me get this straight," Ryan Barton said. Then instead of continuing, he sat down and poured out his old coffee, then got another one and took a surprisingly large drink for how hot it was. "Alyssa – her, right there – she was held captive in your house for almost a week?"
"It was, well, in a word, yes." Preston rubbed the end of his scar that was right below his nose. "I'm trying to think of a different way to put it that makes the whole thing sound better, but I suppose that's about the short of it."
"Could you, then, in form me as to why I shouldn't call the police? Because it sounds to me like you're kidnapper."
"Daddy," she broke in, "it wasn't him. Not really. It was a series of admittedly strange coincidences and miscommunications that got me there in the first place, but it was Gadsen that kept me held there. Really, he was keeping both of us captive."
Alyssa looked at Preston and moved closer to him, their hands intertwined.
"I know it sounds insane, Mr. Barton. I really do. And I can't tell you how sorry I am that this all happened. I know it put you in a horrible position, to say nothing of how much I worried you. I just don't know what to say."
Alyssa's dad dragged his teething along his upper lip, and gnawed the hair on his moustache between his teeth.
"Panic? Panic? I spent four days trying to get the police to look for my daughter, with them telling me she was safe the whole time but that they couldn't tell me where. And now, I'm just supposed to take your apology and say 'oh, ho ho, that's fine, don't worry about it'?"
"No, I don't expect that at all." Preston sat up and leaned on the table with his elbows. "Not at all."
"Well I don't know how to take this. I mean, I just-"
"Let me make it up to you. Anything you want. I mean it. With Gadsen off in the lockup, the board has voted me head of the company even without the trust's strange terms being fulfilled. There's some question as to the authenticity of the document anyway. One of them said that a complicated trust with all these stipulations just wasn't like dad. Another one of them said what everyone was thinking, and figured that Gadsen wrote the thing up in some insane attempt to keep control of both the company, and of me."
"You mean money?"
"Yes, or anything else. Place on the board, oil rights. I'm just horrified at all the trouble I've caused. Look, I meant to give this to you anyway." Preston fumbled in a pocket, pulled out a folded piece of paper and handed it to Ryan Barton.
"I'm curious," Ryan said. "I really don't see how you can think that giving me a check or an oil well is supposed to make me feel better about my daughter being kidnapped. Really just don't get it. What is this, anyway?"
"No, that's not what I meant, of course. I just don't know what I can do. That paper I just gave you is the contract between Webb Oilworks and the town council that, if signed, would force every property owner on this side of town to let a pipeline go under their property and probably ruin it forever. But there'd be an oil pipe, and a lot of pockets would be very full."
"Why are you giving this to me?"
"Because," Preston said, "you're a good man. A better one than anyone else I know. I trust you to keep it safe. If it gets around to either the board of the company, or the town council, they'll be after my head. Hang onto it, along with all those ledgers."
Ryan scratched his three-day growth of beard and stuck the paper in his back pocket.
"I'll tell you what, Mr. Webb. You truck yourself back to that house, and pretend like you've never seen me or met my daughter. You do that, and just leave us alone, and we'll call it even."
Preston looked back and forth from Alyssa to her dad. "If that's what you want," he said to both of them. "If that's what will make this right, I'll do anything you want."
"Now will both of you wait a second? I'm the one who was in the middle of all this."
They both turned to her.
"Uh..." Alyssa shifted her eyes back and forth. "Well, I hadn't actually expected it to feel that formal." After a nervous laugh, she said, "for everything that happened, and all the stuff we went through, I've never felt closer to anyone than I do him." She reached for Preston's hand again, like it was an anchor holding her safe. "I think I'm in love with him."
"What?" Ryan said.
"What was that?" said Preston with wide open eyes.
"I don't know. I really don't. But I think my strong feelings turned from 'I'm really into this guy' to 'I love him...I think' when you took that thing off your face and I saw you – the real you – without any hiding or covers or masks. I knew you were real, right then."
"Are you sure what you're saying, Lyssie?"
"As crazy as it sounds, I think I am. Yeah." She looked down for a second, and nodded. "Yeah, I mean, it's insane and I can't believe what I'm saying, but the whole time we were in the house dealing with all the stuff we were dealing with, all I could think is that I wanted you to come and find me and take me away. At first, I was pretty sure it was just shell-shock or whatever you call it these days, but even after everything calmed down, I..."
Preston took her hand and wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
"And you?" Her dad said. "What about you? What kind of made up feelings do you have for my daughter?"
"Dad!"
"Sorry. I'm sorry, Mr. Webb. I'm just on edge."
"I completely understand. And, call me Preston. I think I'm finished with all the Mr. this and Mr. that business. It's just not me."
Ryan Barton's stare could have killed a goat. "Your feelings for my daughter?" he said.
"Wow, this is harder for me than I thought. This has been an education harder than any of the tutors I had, that's for sure. Before her – before you, Alyssa – I never had anyone to talk to. Not really. My dad was always busy, mom was gone, but you know how that goes."
Both Lys and Ryan nodded, not taking their eyes off the scarred man with the tears in his eyes.
"But, no, with you, I feel... Well, you keep saying how it felt 'real' when I took my silk off and let you see," he slid the back of a finger down his scar. "Well, when I hold your hands, or feel your warmth beside me, or see your eyes or your smile or hear your laugh, I just kind of go to pieces."
When Ryan looked back to his daughter, tears were streaming down her face and she put her hands on either of Preston's cheeks. "Me too," she said, sniffing. "Me too. I still can't believe this is real."
Hands on hers, Preston kissed Alyssa lightly once, then harder, both of them shaking, just a little bit.
"Well, if that's what the both of you want, I'll figure out some way to get ahold of myself." Ryan stood up and couldn't help but smile at the two of them, so obviously perfect for each other, each having come to their own peace.
"That's something I always envied in your mother, Alyssa." He said.
"What's that, dad?" She replied, not taking her eyes off Preston.
"She was always able to do what she felt was the right thing to do. Even if it was scary, or dangerous, or didn't make a damn lick of sense to anyone else on the face of the planet, she was able to tell the world to go to Hell and buckle down and do it."
"Really?" She said, turning to face him.
"Yeah." He said, smiling at the two of them. "And the two of you remind of something as well."
"What's that, Mr. Barton?" Preston said.
"Her and I." Ryan Barton's voice cracked just a little. "The two of us. Her full of passion and li
fe and everything else, and me scared and worried, but with all the same stuff right under the surface, just waiting to come out."
"If she wants you, so do I, Preston." Alyssa's dad stuck out his hand, Preston shook it. "So do I."
As soon as he left the room, the two of them stood up, Preston looking down at Alyssa, she looking up at him. Her arms around his waist, his around her shoulders, he pulled her close and their lips touched, then parted, then he kissed her deep, sweet, long and soft.
Nothing, not a single thing, Alyssa thought, in her whole life, had ever felt so good, or taken so long to come.
When Preston pulled away, he stared straight into her eyes, his emerald and sapphire burning into her soul.
"I... I love you, Alyssa. I know that now."
Shaking, she let her head collapse to his chest, feeling his heart beat softly in her ear.
"Me too, Preston, I love you too."
Another kiss, another long stare, and then she broke away.
"Where are you going?" He said after her.
"There's...there's someone I promised to call as soon as anything incredible happened. I think this qualifies."
Thank you so much for reading – I hope you enjoyed reading Preston and Alyssa as much as I did writing them. See you soon!
Also by Anya Karin
The Unmasked Series
Unmasked (New Adult Romance)
About the Author
Romance, suspense, thrills and chills are Anya Karin's favorite things to write and to read.
She lives for complex plots, characters that come to life, and maybe even a little bit of spice. So, that's exactly what she writes!
She lives in Pheonix with two dogs, a spouse and a pair of sprouts who are listed in the reverse order of the messes they make!
Table of Contents
Cover Page
Also By Anya Karin
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six