Sweet Tooth: A Second Chance Romance

by Aria Ford

  The buzzer let me in and I headed up to the lift. “Forty-two,” I said aloud, stabbing the number into the keypad. Then I closed my eyes and tried to relax. I scratched around the white collar of my shirt, feeling sweaty and nervous. Dammit – do I smell? I hope not. I breathed in experimentally, but all I could smell was Brut cologne. Good.

  She opened the door to me. I stared at her. “Uh, hi,” I said.

  In a knee-length dress of lace or crochet – how would I know – with that lovely blonde hair loose about her shoulders and a pair of subtle gold earrings, she looked stunning. I found my eye drawn to the square of cleavage at her neck and took a deep, shuddering breath.

  “Hi,” she said shyly. “Shall we go?”

  “If you're ready,” I shrugged. Dammit – I felt like I was breathing through treacle and, as she turned, dainty on those little high-heels, I felt my cock start to swell.

  I cleared my throat and waited for her to appear, a brief cardigan slung over one arm, small handbag hung stylishly off the other shoulder.

  “Let's go,” I said.

  She giggled and smiled up at me, her lips pale pink and wet with some sort of gloss that made my poor dick ache just looking at her little pink tongue lapping out against them.

  “Let's,” she said.

  We headed into the lift.

  When the door closed I leaned back on the wall. I was aching to touch her, to pull that sweetly-rounded body into my arms and push those lips apart with my tongue. But I couldn't. She didn't want me to. Not yet.

  I coughed and focused on the wall of the lift opposite. It seemed to take far too long to go down but eventually we reached the bottom and the doors opened. Ping. We went out.

  “Wow,” she said, looking at my car. She looked at me and raised a brow. “Great wheels.”

  I blushed, feeling at once proud and vaguely embarrassed. “Company car,” I managed in a strangled voice. “Not mine.”

  “Well, it's nice, anyway,” she said. She let me open the door for her and slid in. I fought not to stare at her long, smooth leg as she showed all the way to her thigh climbing in, then swiveled, arranging her skirts carefully over her knees.

  “Thanks,” I managed.

  I slid in beside her. In close confines, I could smell the herbal scent of her shampoo and the sweet smell of her perfume, something light and floral that I associated with her. I clenched the wheel with my fists, resisting the urge to reach across and slide my hand along that pale thigh.

  We reached the restaurant in silence, more or less. Besides pleasantries about the weather, I couldn't really think of anything to say. My mind was a wasteland, all thoughts driven out of it by my immense desire and rapidly erecting cock.

  In the restaurant, we were led to the table I'd booked. The Drover was the restaurant on the second floor of a particularly posh hotel, and I'd chosen it to be impressive, let's face it. All the same I felt a mix of pride and nervousness as Ainsley walked in beside me. Would she like it?

  She looked around and looked at me. “Wow. Stylish,” she said. “You've upgraded a lot since I last saw you.”

  I chuckled. “I was a student then,” I excused myself reasonably. “I think I always wanted to be able to take you places like this.”

  She gave me a smile laced with melancholic sweetness. I felt my heart turn over.

  “Thanks,” she said. She swallowed and I watched her blink those beautiful soulful eyes. Then I was pulling out the chair for her and she was lowering that pert, sweet backside to the seat opposite me.

  “Great,” I said, taking a seat and lifting the wine-list. “Shall we see what's on offer?”

  She grinned. “Sure.”

  We perused the menu. There was, fortunately, a selection of vegetarian dishes. I made my choices absently, my whole mind and body focused on the five-foot-ten of lovely curvaceous-ness sitting in the seat opposite.

  “You had a good day?” I asked.

  “Mm,” she nodded. “Productive. Yours?”

  I chuckled. “I try not to think about work on the weekends,” I said. “Gives me nightmares.”

  She smiled. “What is it you do, exactly?”

  “Well...” I closed my eyes a moment, thinking about what to say. This was the first time we'd addressed my job, besides when she seemed so disgusted by my sudden transformation over to the dark side of corporate law. “I just look after the legal side of big companies,” I explained. “Consult with them on their legal issues. Not just Steelcore, obviously. But several big companies.”

  “Oh.”

  She was looking at the pitcher of water in the center of the table with its small arrangement of flowers. I tried to fathom what the “oh” was about, but couldn't guess. She didn't seem cross, but she didn't seem too impressed either.

  “I never asked you about your work, either,” I said, carefully changing the subject. “You say you translate books now?”

  “Uh-huh,” she said, reaching for the wine-list and having a look through it as we spoke. “I like the work. It's always bringing me new challenges.”

  “I'm sure,” I said. “Not that I know anything about translating books, mind you.”

  She chuckled. “It can be tricky. Sometimes I feel like my brain's splitting in half – a French half and an English half. I don't know what language I think in sometimes. Though I guess you know what it feels like to live a double life?”

  I stared and put down the menu. How the hell did she know that? “I'm sorry?” I asked.

  She chuckled. “Don't look at me like that, Drake. I didn't mean to insult you. I just meant that...well...I never imagined you selling out to big business. It must be hard to keep that balanced with the “other” Drake. The caring one.”

  “Oh.” Whew. I tried not to look to relieved. That was all she meant! I had thought for one crazy minute that by some strange means my double life had become public knowledge and it was only a matter of time before people at work knew. Crazy. It's the stress getting to me. And Liam and his worrying. Calm down. “I guess it is hard,” I said tentatively.

  “I imagine,” Ainsley nodded. “You ready to order?” she asked.

  “I sure am,” I nodded. “I'll have a Neapolitan salad as a starter. Yourself?”

  “Um, the crostini.”

  “And to follow?”

  “I think the chicken risotto.”

  I grinned. “I'm stuck with the eggplant lasagna.”

  “I wouldn't pity myself if I were you,” Ainsley said wryly. “If that's what I can smell from over there, it's awesome.”

  I breathed in, noticing she was right – the diners at the next table had ordered the lasagna. Just seeing it made my mouth water. That, together with the stimulation of my other appetites, was making me profoundly restless.

  “So,” I commented, as the waiter came over to take our orders. “Had to do any interesting translating work lately?”

  She gave a big sigh. I gave our orders to the waiter as she explained. “I had a really tough author to please last week,” she explained. “A French lady, writing a book dealing with immigration and its impact on culture.”

  “Hell.” I raised a brow. “That sounds like heavy stuff.”

  “It was,” Ainsley agreed. She took a sip of water and licked wet lips and I coughed as my erection got bigger.

  “I don't have to do such demanding stuff,” I said, reaching for my own water and hoping it would be iced and able to cool me off.

  “I'm sure your work has different demands, though,” Ainsley commented.

  “Not really,” I smiled. “Mostly legal stuff is boring.” I let my foot move forward under the table and my ankle subtly rested against her leg. I watched her face and saw, with some delight, how her eyes went big and her lips parted, just a little. Then she settled herself, composing her face into a smooth neutrality.

  But her ankle stayed where it was.

  I drank water and tried to remember how to breathe. Suddenly, dinner seemed like a challenge in staying in m
y seat without leaping over the table and pushing my tongue into that sweet pink mouth. I drew a long breath. I could do it.

  We chatted idly about our colleagues, the football season, the décor. The first course soon arrived. As I crunched through my salad and tried not to watch her lips gently enfold a slice of toasted roll, incising it with small white teeth, I let my foot creep forward under the table, rubbing her ankle with mine.

  She swallowed her mouthful and her eyes met mine. She moved her foot, but forward, not backward and away, as I might have feared. Boldly, her knee pressed mine. I almost lost consciousness with the wave of longing that surged through me.

  Easy, Drake, I told myself. This is the challenge. Sit still.

  I managed to keep my hands at my side, my leg rigid, but remaining where it was, pressing gently against hers. She gave a little sigh and stretched, seeming full after her first course already. I watched the contented expression on her face and tried not to imagine it in my bed.

  The second course arrived as soon as the first had been cleared and I relished the soft, slightly-spicy lasagna. It was really good.

  “Mm,” I commented. “This is good. You're right.”

  She laughed. “I'm glad. So's mine.” She dabbed her pretty lips with a linen square before laying it in her lap again. I sighed.

  I wish I was that napkin. I wouldn't mind being on her lips or in her lap right now.

  I smiled at my wild imagination. She raised a brow at me.

  “What?”

  I looked steadily into her eyes.

  “Nothing,” I said.

  Her gaze held mine and it seemed like we both knew exactly what it was that neither of us would say. I felt my heart thump as she leaned forward and let her knee push, very gently, between mine. I gasped.

  “Should we stay for dessert?”

  “No,” I said in a husky whisper. “Let's take that home.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Drake

  I drove back to Ainsley's apartment building feeling like my whole body was in a vise. The tension was going to actually kill me. At the stoplight I let my hand rest on her thigh. It felt like silk. She tensed and I removed it almost faster than I believed possible.

  She sighed. “Don't move,” she murmured.

  I squeezed her knee and heard her gasp. Then, to my dismay, the light changed green and I had to pull off again.

  I drove the last mile or so with my lip clamped in my teeth, my whole body straining with longing. Eventually we reached the apartment block and I found a parking-space round the back.

  “Inside?” I asked, constricted.

  “Mm.”

  She slid out of the seat and I reached for her. My lips landed on hers and my tongue slid in between, pushing and probing. She tasted like mint and warmth and sweetness and my poor cock almost gave up right then, throbbing with longing.

  I kissed her passionately and she moaned, pushing her body against me as I wrapped my arms around her, holding her close. I was shaking now, my whole body shivering with the thought of having her beside me on the bed.

  “Upstairs?”

  “Let's.”

  She led the way into the elevator. As the doors closed I wrapped my arms round her again, pushing my tongue into her mouth. She was leaning against me, rubbing her body on mine in a way that was going to endanger my sanity. I could feel the slow tremor of need throbbing and swelling inside me and by the time we reached the sixth floor I thought I was going to die.

  We stumbled out of the lift together, arm in arm.

  She stopped at her door, fishing in her purse for the key. I couldn't resist. I wrapped my arms around her and pressed my turgid hardness against that pert backside, reveling in the way it felt against me.

  She gasped and giggled and then we fell through the door together.

  “Where's your bed?” I whispered.

  She giggled. “In here.”

  I let her lead me up the hallway and into a darkened room at the end. She switched on the light, revealing a place with a stark white-covered bed and charcoal-dark walls. I smiled as she dimmed the light and then I walked over, my body surging with excitement as she pressed against me again.

  We collapsed onto the bed together. It was hard and her body under me was soft and sweet and yielding.

  I reached up and put my finger under the strap of the dress. Then, frowning, I reached round behind her to find the zipper. She giggled.

  She rolled over a little, letting me unfasten the dress. I was trembling, trying to focus, as I worked the dress over those firm high breasts and to the floor.

  Then I sat back and just stared.

  In the soft gold light of the lamps with her shoulder-length blond hair loose about her shoulders, dressed in a lacy bra and brief frilly panties, she was stunning.

  My eyes lingered on the tight cleft between her breasts, working down lower over the gentle roundness of her belly and to the parting between her legs. I could see the soft shine of her satiny panties and I lost all control.

  I bent down to her, growling in my throat as I planted kisses down that ivory smooth neck. Then I worked lower, my hands grasping and clutching as I felt over her breasts and around her back to find where her bra fastened over those high, full breasts. It came undone, freeing them and I greedily sucked her nipples into my mouth, first one and then the other. They were small and hard, just like I remembered.

  “I want you,” I growled.

  She sighed contentedly, her fingers twined in my hair. It was a strange feeling. I was with her, but it was different to how it had been. We were both older, more experienced, more mature.

  I felt my body shudder with desire to find out more about this new Ainsley, this hot, experienced, not-shy Ainsley who was reaching for my tie and gently untying it.

  “Let me,” I murmured.

  “Why?” she said crossly.

  “Because I'm faster,” I said with a shaky chuckle. She giggled.

  Then I was undressing at lightning speed. I felt my clothes drop to the floor and joined her on the bed. I was shivering as I knelt between her thighs. I reached for the satiny panties and very gently dragged them off.

  I stared down at her. Naked, she was even more beautiful than when she was clothed. I loved every single curve of her. I reached forward with a groan and let my fingers gently touch her folds. She moaned, eyes open wide with surprise. I gave her an inquiring look. May I?

  She nodded and I bent down, parting her thighs.

  She smelled sweet and spicy and the scent of her alone almost made me come. I made myself bend lower, taking her in my mouth.

  She cried out loudly and I smiled to myself, loving the fact that I could make her moan and pant. I took her clit between my teeth, working it gently as she sobbed and moved, her motions having the effect of thrusting her clit against my mouth and making her shout even louder.

  When she was shaking and shuddering, almost at the limit, I knelt up and plunged inside her.

  She cried out and I groaned in sheer amazement. I had forgotten it felt so good.

  “Oh, man,” I sobbed aloud as I moved back and thrust all the way into her again. “Oh, man...”

  She was groaning incoherently and I pushed out and pushed back and pulled out and pushed back and my body was starting to throb and shiver and convulse...

  She screamed and sighed and I felt all the tension go out of her all of a sudden. Her eyes were closed, mouth fallen open partway with her full-on pleasure.

  I pushed in and out with complete release now, moving faster as I plunged in and out, in and out...then suddenly, my body was pulsing and I groaned aloud as a massive climax left me helpless and moaning, incoherent with wonder in her arms.

  I collapsed and we must have laid like that for quite some time because I woke, much later, which meant I must have slept quite heavily, and kissed her.

  I rolled off her and lay beside her and we slept like that the remainder of the night.

  MOUNTAIN MADE BABY
r />   PROLOGUE

  His eyes held mine as he pushed inside me. I saw the passion written in their depths as he filled me, moving slowly so I could take him all in. I sighed.

  “I…” I murmured.

  He held my shoulders as he moved, a low growl escaping his throat as he began to pulse in me, his climax slowly building.

  Mine was building, too, and I shook as we moved together, my entire body throbbing as all my pleasure places caught fire under his body. I had never had an experience like this until I met him.

  I shuddered and closed my eyes until I could bear it no more. I cried out, and then he was moving inside me, thrusting wildly until he too cried out.

  “Oh! Oh, baby! Oh man…”

  He collapsed on top of me and our bodies molded together as we dozed.

  As I lay there, my mind just returning from the place of intense wonder where it had been, I thought about how incredible it was to be here.

  I could so easily have lived my life without knowing such pleasure existed.

  If it hadn’t been for one letter, I would have been done.

  I smiled. In this day and age, one doesn’t even expect to get letters anymore, but that was how it had all started. Without that, I would never have left my home in LA and traveled up to wild Wyoming, to Sheridan, and settled down.