by Aria Ford
I sighed. “Thanks,” I said quietly. “You've made it easier for me to raise it. Allie, I have to tell you. There isn't anyone in my life besides you. Do you believe that – please say you do?”
She frowned. “Depends,” she said. “For someone with a suspicious mind, I could wonder how you think I think that. And I could wonder what all that was about, if that's the wrong reason.”
“It is,” I said. “Allie, this is something I should have told you about six years ago. Should we go and sit down and talk? I think we have an hour before the guests start to arrive.”
Allie stared at me. “Guests?”
“I took the liberty of inviting some people you know in the area,” I said. “You'll have to forgive me but I looked on your Facebook page for that. If there's anyone on there who lives in a twenty-mile radius and is your worst enemy, you might just be mad about that now...”
Allie started to laugh. “You sneaky man!”
I felt my heart glow with pride. “I guess I am, yes.”
She laughed at me. “I can't believe it! Well, no enemies on there, so you're safe in that respect. But now, let's go and sit down.”
I nodded. I walked with her to a table. She pulled out a chair, then paused.
“Marcelle?” She called. I noticed a woman standing by the trestles, unobtrusively rearranging a tray. She was a classically-elegant African-American woman and I remembered her from the bakery.
“Yes?”
“I need to take some time here. And I think there's a lot of explaining to do, but...will you stay here? And maybe call Kelsey?” I smiled. “I think we're invited.”
“Yes,” Drew nodded. “We are.”
The woman, Marcelle, looked surprised. But she kept a cool head. I think she recognized me from the bakery and guessed. “Sure,” she said. “I'll call Kelsey and tell her to meet us in...?”
“An hour,” Allie said, looking to me and I nodded.
She waited until Marcelle was outside the hall, phone held to her ear, and then turned to me.
“Okay,” she said. “Let's talk.”
I went with her to the table and sat down. I felt as if I was standing in front of the boardroom for the first time, fighting with my too-tight suit collar and wishing I would be turned invisible. This was hard.
“Allie, I should have told you this six years ago. It would have saved us all pain. But, remember my uncle?”
“Uncle Rowell? Scary guy, gray eyes? Thin face?”
I laughed at the accurate description. “That uncle.”
“Yes,” she said. Her voice was very quiet and I guessed she remembered that day when she'd met my family and they had been...well...less than obliging.
“Well, after, um...after that. The day you met him, and the day he saw how close we were, he...he started putting pressure on me. Pressure he hadn't put on me before.”
“Like what?” she asked. She seemed caught up in what I was saying and I cleared my throat, feeling more comfortable with her now.
“Well, he put pressure on me to break it off. See someone else.”
“What?” She stared at me. “But why? Who…?”
“Carrie Bronson. A daughter of a business-associate.”
“Why her? Was it for the business? Some kind of dynasty?” She asked. She was staring at me.
“Uh huh,” I nodded. I would have smiled except that it was kind of crazy when she put it like that. “Like that.”
“So you...?” She was looking at me with a mix of horror and amazement and I looked down, feeling like the worst kind of ass.
“So I did what he told me. I was scared that, if I didn't, he'd be mad at me. He could take my career away, without trying.”
“Oh, Drew.”
When she looked up at me, her eyes were tender with understanding and I coughed, amazed. It was the last thing I was expecting.
“Allie?”
She shook her head. Her hands covered mine gently. “Drew, I... I'm sorry that happened. But why didn't you tell me? I would have understood.”
I closed my eyes. I should have told her. It was stupid of me not to. Stupid and because I was a coward.
“I didn't want to admit I was so easily-swayed. You would have thought I was weak. I didn't want to admit to you I was scared to stand up to Uncle Rowell.”
“Oh, Drew.”
We didn't say anything for a long while. I held her hands, and looked down at her fingers, slim and neat, outlined on the bleached linen.
After a moment, I felt her stir. I looked up into her brown eyes.
“So, now I know what that was about. But now...earlier...last week?” she asked. “Who called you? I need to know.”
“Okay,” I said. My voice was tight and I coughed, clearing it. I was going to be honest. “That was Carrie's father. Carrie Bronson? You know...”
“The girl Uncle supported?”
“Yes,” I said, chuckling at the description. Not that Carrie would have agreed. “That one. It was her father. He called to tell me she was very sick.”
“Oh! What happened?” Allie asked. Her eyes were tender and I was amazed that she was so compassionate for someone she had never met before. Anyone else would probably have been justifiably mad.
“She had a kidney infection,” I said. “I think it was stress and a self-destructive lifestyle mainly. But she's okay now.”
“Oh. Oh, good.” I felt her hands relax on mine. She looked up into my eyes. “But Drew?”
“Yes, Allie?”
“If that was what it was, why couldn't you tell me? I would have understood. You could have just told me your friend was sick.”
I closed my eyes. “I'm stupid,” I said honestly. I felt like an idiot. A total fool.
She chuckled a little sadly. “No, you're not. That's not the explanation, because it's not true. Why didn't you say something, then?”
I sighed. “I guess I didn't trust you. I thought if I mentioned Carrie you'd be mad at me – ruining our weekend because some other woman needed me. I guess I thought you'd be jealous and resentful and then I'd have to explain the whole story. And then what would happen?”
“You thought I... Oh!” Allie shook her head, shoulders shaking though it seemed it was with laughter and with tears. “How could you even think that? I have friends, for Pete's sake! I would understand something like that.”
I chuckled. “I know. I was an idiot. I was scared, Allie. Scared of upsetting you, in case I lost you.”
She stared at me. “Oh, Drew,” she said after a long minute. “I don't know what to say. But that makes me want to forgive you. It's easily the sweetest thing ever.”
I felt my heart melt. “Oh, Allie,” I said. My throat was closing up and I cleared it, feeling impatient with myself. “I... I don't think I deserve that. But thanks. Really. Thank you.”
She giggled. “I reckon you deserve it,” she said shakily. “And besides. I don't like being mad at you. It makes me sad.”
I felt as if spring had visited my heart. I beamed.
“Well, then. We agree that you're not mad at me. It's official.”
She laughed. “Agreed. I don't like being sad.”
“I should hope you're not sad,” I said. “This isn't the right day for it.”
“No,” she said, smiling slowly. “No, it's not.”
Her hand moved over mine and squeezed it gently. I held her fingers in mine.
We stood up slowly. I leaned in just as she did. Our lips met and I held her in my arms and we kissed.
The past was over between us. We were free to love.
As I stepped back I heard someone come into the hall. It was the events-coordinator. She looked at me with mild surprise, but managed to contain that.
“Mr. Liston? Ah...”
“What is it, Mrs. Halley?” I asked quickly.
“The guests. Sorry to disturb you, but they're here in the lobby.”
“Oh!”
Allie said it, her cheeks bright red. I looked at her and gri
nned. She smiled back.
“Of course, Mrs. Halley. Send them in.”
When she was gone, Allie and I looked at each other. She gave me a grin that made my body warm up from my toes to my hair and promised me everything.
“Well,” I said, turning to her. “A happy birthday.”
She smiled at me again. “Thank you, Drew.”
We kissed.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Allie
I shivered as I led Drew through the living room and to my bed. He turned and looked down at me, the muted lamplight from the bedside table making his eyes glow softly.
“Alexandra,” he murmured.
I felt my toes curl with the love he inflected into my name. I was shivering as he held me close, his body pressed to mine. I could feel how aroused he was and it was making me want him more.
“I don't think I'm going to wait,” I said wickedly as I reached up and started to unbutton his shirt. He chuckled and I let my fingers stroke his chest, loving the feeling of that hard muscled body under my fingertips.
“Good,” he whispered into my hair. “That means I don't have to wait either.”
He stroked the back of my hair and then strayed to my neck, his long fingers working their way down the skin and into the collar of my shirt. I gave a little gasp of surprise as he moved to the front buttons, starting to undress me even as I finished with his shirt.
“I see you're better at this than I am.”
He chuckled. “I have more to make me get good at it. More temptation,” he whispered, reaching in to stroke the satin of my bra. I shivered and pressed against him.
“Oh, Drew,” I murmured.
Then we were kissing and collapsing back onto the bed and the sweet slowness was giving way to a passionate urgency. He pulled off my shirt and unfastened my bra and pushed me back on the pillows, his mouth opening and closing over my nipple as I shut my eyes and let him stroke me and take me to a place of unimagined pleasure.
I was shivering as he started to unfasten my slacks and slide them off my legs. When he started stroking me through my undies I wanted to groan – it was almost painful it was so good.
“Baby,” he murmured. “I want you.”
I tried to respond but the part of my brain that could frame logical sentences was already gone, drifting on cloud of bliss as he pulled down my panties and gently fingered me.
I shook as he worked my clit between finger and thumb and then I was crying out as he brought me so close to peak that I thought I would actually dissolve.
He was stroking me and touching me, moaning and I was sighing and shivering.
He sat back and pulled off his trousers and then I was lost in bliss as he entered me. I was shaking and gasping as he thrust in me again and again and again...
He grunted and exploded even as I fell off the precipice of longing. I felt as if I was falling through endless warmth, body floating on an island of bliss in a calm sea.
We lay together, our arms round each other. It should have been exactly as it always was. But it was better. Closer.
There were no barriers between us.
***
I looked down at Allie and felt like my heart was melting. I stroked her face gently. Her eyes focused.
“Mm?” she murmured. She nestled closer to me, her hand between my pecs. I sighed and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, kissing her hair.
“Didn't mean to wake you,” I whispered softly.
“I was awake,” she said unconvincingly. “Almost,” she added as she opened an eye and caught the movement of my grin.
“You look so lovely when you sleep,” I said. “But then, you look lovely when you're awake too,” I added, feeling my body respond again as I rolled over to lie beside her.
“You look lovely too,” she murmured. She gently kissed my chin and I smiled, drawing her into my arms. Her breasts were bare and firm and they felt warm on me. I drew her closer, loving the feel of her curvy, gentle body pressed against mine. I felt safe and cared for and aroused all at once.
“You know,” I whispered as I gently rolled her over again, so that sweet ass was facing me, “I think I might just be needing some help here?”
“Oh?” she frowned, squinting at me in the tentative lamp's light.
“I think I am in danger of being far too aroused,” I murmured. “I need someone to help me relieve that.”
“Oh.” She reached out and played with me, making me wince with longing as her fingers massaged me. “Well, I think I might be able to help you.”
“Oh?” I asked playfully, feeling my poor cock aching with its need for her.
“I think I have the perfect solution for that. But you might need to roll me over,” she added. “I feel like being taken from behind.”
My cock throbbed with longing when she said that and I gritted my teeth painfully. Hell, she knew just what I liked.
“Good,” I whispered.
I rolled her onto her front and I knelt between her thighs and then slid into her. It always amazed me that it felt different from this side than from the other side, but it did. I felt my poor body take over, pulsing inside her in a way that was making the blood rush in me and making me...
I yelled as my climax almost came over me then held back, working into her until I heard her gasping and knew she was just about to come too. Then I finally, in a surging gasp, let it all out. She cried out and I collapsed.
We lay like that, her sweet ass-cheeks pressing up against me as I lay over her back. Then we rolled over and lay with her beside me.
I took a long while coming back from that drifting, sleepy place where the climax had taken me. Where she had helped me to go. It was weird, but there was something really special about being with Allie. Some kind of closeness we shared that affected me the way no other person did.
I kissed her hair.
“Baby, you make me crazy,” I murmured.
She giggled. “I could say the same thing.”
“Good,” I whispered into her hair. We lay together silently. I dozed, because when I woke up again someone had covered me with a duvet. I sighed and held Allie and went back to sleep.
Later, in the morning, we woke up with a rainy sky. I sat up, blinking.
“I suppose I should make coffee?” I asked. I kissed her hair.
“Mm. It is Monday,” she agreed. She nestled next to me and I guessed she was as reluctant to leave bed as me.
“I suppose it's only seven-thirty,” I whispered.
“I should be at work at eight-thirty. Remember?” she asked.
I nodded. “Okay, okay. I'll go and put the coffee on.”
When we were sitting in the kitchen, later, my heart in a place of peace I had never known before, I cleared my throat.
“Allie, I...” I paused. “I wanted to ask you something. It's just a plan...”
“Yes?” she frowned. She had a coffee mug between her hands, brown eyes wide.
“I wanted to ask if you...would it be possible to start a franchise, maybe?”
“A franchise?” she frowned. She hadn't expected me to say that, clearly. “Well...now that you mention it, I did think about it. A long time ago, though. I wasn't sure then if it was possible for me. If the business would work. Now I think maybe...Why?” she paused, asking me a question.
“Well,” I frowned. I wasn't sure how to put this so she wouldn't take my interest as interference. “because I want to, well, invest in something. Something outside of Bradford Transport. And I think small businesses are growing at the moment,” I said with a grin. Hell! I sounded like Reese now, or one of my uncle's other business-associates. “I wanted to ask you if...if you'd let me buy you a premises in San Diego.”
“What!” she set the coffee down so fast it splashed up, and clasped her hands to her mouth. I had never seen such excitement in anyone. She laughed.
“What?” I asked, feeling a bit confused. Well, it was nice. But it wasn't that exciting, surely?
“You.
..” she stood up and came around the table, and to my astonishment gave me a hug, embracing my shoulders where I sat at the kitchen-table. She gave me a big smacking kiss on my left-eyebrow. “You wonderful man! If...” She stopped.
“What?” I asked again. She looked stunned.
“I couldn't have asked for something that would be more special,” she said. She sounded choked. “You see...I wished I could come back. Be closer to you. But when I thought about leaving the bakery...it broke my heart. It means the world to me, this place. It's my own – I built it up. Now you find a way forward? A way I can have both?” She stopped, sobbing.
I felt myself grin.
She came over and kissed me again and I stood up and hugged her tight.
“Oh, sweetie,” I said. I didn't know what else to say. She hugged me and I hugged her and it seemed like the whole world stopped, held back by the safe, warm circle of our arms.
We were so happy.
EPILOGUE
I rolled over, feeling content. I smiled at Drew. He chuckled.
“Time to get up, eh?”
“Drew, it's Sunday,” I said. I pulled a face at him and he shook his head, grinning sleepily.