“Was that your subtle way of telling me it was my turn to get the check?”
“We need to sleep together.”
His eyes widened. “Right now?”
“Yes. Tonight. Bring the car around and let’s go.”
“I thought we had rules. No kissing, no getting naked…”
“I’ve changed my mind.”
“Faith—”
“This is ridiculous,” I hissed, flapping my arms and nearly losing my balance thanks to my bum ankle. “This… chaos I’m feeling? It’s just my body telling me that I’m about to combust if I don’t have you, isn’t it? Isn’t that why I can’t stop thinking about you every minute of my life? I wake up from dreaming about you, spend all day with you in a ridiculous bliss, then go to sleep every night hoping to dream of you some more.” I pushed a finger into his chest. “You have completely infiltrated every part of me.”
His brown eyes flared and became hooded. “Good.”
Asher’s hand snaked out to grip me by the back of the head, under my hair, in a delicious tingle of shivers mixed with a twinge of pain. He pulled me commandingly to him, and I had just enough time to release a little moan of want before he crushed his mouth to mine.
Holy hell.
That lone thought drowned in a sea of sensation that crashed over me with Asher’s kiss. God, his mouth; the taste of him. I was overwhelmed with sensations: the brush of his stubble on my skin, the heat of his mouth taking mine, devouring me as if he’d been starving too.
He wrenched his mouth away, sucking in air, and released me.
“Feel better?” Asher said thickly, his breath coming hard like mine.
I nodded. “Yes… um. Yes, thanks. Much better.”
He didn’t let me go but pressed in closer. “Did you feel that?”
I nodded again.
“That’s what it will be like when you’re in my bed, Faith. Even while I’m fucking you, it’s going to feel like that.”
“Like everything?” I breathed. “All of you?”
“Yes. You have all of me.” His thumb brushing over my lip. “We can’t pretend we’re something we’re not.”
“What are we?”
“Don’t know,” he said. “But it scares me too.”
Because I was leaving in two weeks.
Let’s not think about that right now.
I didn’t want to think at all. I just wanted him.
Asher bent his head and kissed me again, sucking on my lower lip, then moved down to my neck. Everywhere he touched me sent licks of heat skimming over my skin, down my back, between my legs. I could only cling to him, my body loosening like sand under his touch, and then moaning into his mouth as he captured me in another searing kiss.
Finally, I pushed at his chest with both hands. “Car. Go. Now.”
“Your condo is thirty minutes away.”
“And your house is…?”
“Less than that.”
“Then we go there.”
• • •
The ride to Asher’s house went by in a blur. I’d never been to his place; I only had the vague idea he lived near Anini Beach. Night had fallen, and a panorama of diamonds smattered across the sky as he took the road east from Hanalei.
I could hardly look at Asher for wanting him so bad and took his hand that was on the gearshift. I’d only intended to hold it, but instead, I hiked up my dress and laid it on my thigh.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he said, his voice rough with want.
I moved his rough palm over my smooth skin, higher.
“I’ll miss my turn.”
Now I pressed his fingers against the dampness of my panties and bit back a cry at how good it felt. How right.
“Jesus, Faith…”
“Eyes on the road, firefighter.” I breathed, moving his fingers where I wanted them, and then he took over. His hand slipped under the silk of my underwear and I whimpered as his fingers found naked flesh.
Jaw clenched, eyes hard and facing straight ahead, Asher worked me over, his rough skin on my delicate, sensitive bud, moving in circles before plunging two fingers inside me.
“Ah, God, yes,” I cried out, arching off the seat.
For a few, ecstatic moments he was inside me, but he tore his hand away too soon, breathing hard, and muttering, “Going to have an accident.”
Thankfully, I only had to live in the torture for a few more minutes, as he turned onto Anini Street and a sign flashed by that said Private Drive.
My eyes widened as we drove through a small neighborhood of not-so-small houses tucked into Kauai’s lush greenery. They all overlooked the ocean. Asher pulled into the drive of a very Hawaiian-looking two-story house, green with white trim, much of the ground floor elevated by wooden slats.
Asher caught my incredulous stare as he shut off the engine. “What?” he said with a knowing grin. “I left New York City. I never said I left all my money behind too.”
“I thought you gave most of it up to your family,” I said as he came around the passenger side.
“I did. I quit my job, but my investments didn’t quit.” He started to reach for me, then cocked his head. “Disappointed?”
“That you could live a life of leisure in early retirement and instead choose to work a grueling job, saving people’s lives?” I ringed my arms around his neck. “Everything you do and everything you are, Asher, just makes me want you more.”
He took my face in his hands and kissed me softly, then harder, and the flame that had been simmering flared hot again.
“Where was I?”
“Here,” I said and moved his hand between my legs.
A low sound issued deep in his chest. “I’m about ten seconds away from fucking you on the hood of my Jeep.”
“I can live with that.”
He shook his head, his eyes dark and hooded. “I want you in my bed. Now.”
Asher lifted me up and my legs went around his waist, and somehow, he managed to get us inside while kissing me, his hands cupping my ass. I was dimly aware of his house in the dark, lit only by moonlight. Tribal art that I didn’t recognize on the wall, a Maui hook carved from wood. Masculine décor that honored the place where he lived. I kissed him harder.
Finally, Asher brought me to his bedroom.
“Asher,” I whispered between kisses as he lay over me on the bed, our hips rising and falling together, frustrated by clothes. “Please…”
“Your ankle,” he said. “I should be careful.”
“Don’t you dare.”
Our kisses became frenzied then; releasing days’ worth of tension and pent-up need. I pushed him back so that I could sit up and get my dress off. Asher obliged by lifting it over my head, then tore off his own shirt and knelt in front of me.
His mouth moved over the bare skin of my chest, over my heart, his thick, soft hair brushing my chin. His hands unclasped my bra in the back, then slipped around to the front. My eyes nearly rolled back in my head to feel his rough hands caress my breasts, hefting their weight in his palms. He ran a calloused thumb over one nipple while his mouth found the other, biting and sucking. My hands sank into his hair, grazed over his scalp and then down his back, fingernails raking the smooth skin.
“We should have been doing this ages ago,” I whispered, and then cried out as Asher took one nipple between his teeth and sucked.
“Then it wouldn’t be this fucking perfect,” he growled. His hands went to my hips and hauled me forward, sending me sprawling on my back. With another feral sound of want, he tore off my thong panties. He stared down at me, naked and exposed and ready for him. “But fuck yes, I’ve been dreaming about tasting you.”
“Oh, God…”
My hands flailed and then gripped the bedspread to cling for dear life as Asher put his mouth on me, tongued me, nipped and sucked me. I stared at the ceiling, incoherent sounds pouring out of me as Asher went at me like a wild animal, sending wave after wave of pure sensation coursing through me
. Every cell in my body lit on fire and I arched off the bed, into him, wanting all of it. Even the twinge of pain in my ankle I relished and added to the tsunami of pleasure that took me higher, higher…and then Asher took my clit in his mouth the same way he had taken my nipple and sucked it between his teeth.
The wave crashed.
I clutched at the bed as if it could keep me from floating away or disintegrating into a million pieces. I screamed his name; it came pouring out of me on a tide of pleasure and heat that I’d never felt before with any man.
“Jesus Christ,” I panted. “How…did you? I can’t… move. Or think.”
“Don’t pass out on me.” Asher propped himself over me. “I’m not done with you yet.”
He kissed me, then stood and went to the nightstand for a condom. I hauled myself to sitting, watching him move—big, but graceful in the dark.
I wasn’t done with him, either. I hadn’t even started.
“Come here,” I said, when he had the condom in hand.
He stood in front of me while I sat on the edge of the bed. I undid the button on his jeans, then the zipper. I put my mouth on his stomach, kissed the warm skin, ran my tongue along the hard lines and ridges of his abdomen while I shoved his pants down. His erection strained against his boxer-briefs, and another flame of want began to burn in the center of me at the sight of it.
More. I need to see him.
I pushed his underwear off his hips, and the cut V of his abdomen led straight to his magnificent cock—huge and hard and perfect.
“Jesus, Asher…”
I stroked him once, experimentally, to feel the velvet of his skin over the hard length of him.
“Faith,” he said tightly. “Don’t fuck around.”
“Never,” I said. “Just getting acquainted.”
I took the condom packet from Asher, but instead of opening it, I sheathed his beautiful, huge cock with my mouth.
“Ah fuck,” Asher groaned, his hand landing heavily in my hair, gripping, and sending delicious licks down my spine.
Little sounds of want were issuing from my throat as I took him deep, then shallow, swirling my tongue and pumping him in my fist. Every sound he made, every muttered curse, every tightening of his hold on my hair spurred me on. He was holding himself back, trying not to fuck my mouth. I would have let him, except I needed him inside me so badly, I thought I’d die.
“Now,” I said, breathless, releasing him and rolling the condom down in record time. I scooted back on the bed and lay back, wanton and needy, my legs spread. “Right now, firefighter.”
He kicked off his jeans and underwear and moved swiftly over me, on top of me, his cock brushing against my warm wetness. He hooked one of my legs over the crook of his elbow, spreading me wider, and in one smooth, hard thrust, buried himself inside me.
Time stood still, allowing my delirious mind and body to savor the feel of him—heavy, thick, and so, so deep in me. A warm, aching pleasure was stoked at that first thrust, and grew heavier, stronger with every hard slam of Asher’s hips to mine.
I could not get enough of him, could not get him deep enough in me. I clawed his broad back, trying to keep him tight to me, to meld his body with mine. I lifted my hips in answer to his every move until he slipped one hand down to hold me into his thrusts.
All the while he kissed me when he could, when our frantic bodies allowed it—a wet mashing of teeth and tongue.
“I-I’m close…” I managed. “More.”
Asher released my hip and hooked my other leg on his elbow, bending me in half. He pressed himself up, palms flat on either side of me, over me, driving hard and fast. The sensation of him moving in me like this, so good and so right, sent me over the edge. I’d never had sex like this before—where I wanted the man as himself and not just his body. Where half of my pleasure came from his, which I was creating in him just as much as he was creating in me.
Give and take.
My orgasm erupted, wiping out all thought and leaving me tight and tensed as ribbons of white-hot pleasure coursed through me from my center where his cock still moved in me, drawing my release out longer, while taking him closer to his.
“Come, baby,” I breathed, my hands on his glorious forearms, nails digging in. “Come inside me, Asher.”
With a grunted cry and a last few earth-shattering thrusts, I felt his release rocket through him, abs tight, neck corded, his face a pained mask of ecstasy. Although he had on a condom, I imagined him spilling his release deep inside me, filling me with it, coating my insides with it.
Marking me as his.
This is new, I mused, examining my fevered thoughts, and a pang of unease lanced through the hot haze of my orgasm. I can’t feel like this about him. I’m leaving.
And then he was on top of me, skin to skin, warm and heavy, kissing me gently, thoroughly, reverently. So much so that tears sprang to my eyes, and that was definitely not allowed. I did not cry over men. Ever.
And yet, I kissed him back with just as much depth and care, not wanting to do anything else but hold him and kiss him and stay in this moment forever.
Finally, he broke away and gently pulled out of me to lie on his side beside me. “How’s your ankle?”
“I have ankles?” I said. “My entire body has become one pulsating orgasm.”
He grinned in the dimness. “Want some water? Food? A nap? But just a short one.”
“Because you’re still not done with me?”
“Not even close.”
God, his smile—a gentle thing on his hard, granite features, made my pulse quicken even more than his words. The pang of unease turned dire. Sleeping with Asher hadn’t fixed anything. It had only made it worse. My body was satisfied—temporarily—but my heart was still clamoring for more.
“More,” I said, and fell into him, letting the sensations of him drown the unwanted thoughts.
I’ll just keep having sex with him until an hour before my flight leaves.
A solid plan in the heated dark of the night, but one that I knew would burn away with the first slivers of morning light.
FOUR
A SLANT OF light fell over me and I peeked an eye open at the woman lying next to me. A slow grin spread over my lips which had been everywhere on her body last night.
It wasn’t a fantasy. That happened.
Holy God, being with Faith—touching her, kissing her, being inside her all night… Fucking bliss. Waiting and getting to know her so well over the last few days had made every moment even more incredible. I felt as if she’d turned herself inside out for me, and I knew every inch of her, body and soul. And she knew me better than anyone. I never let anyone—not even my buddies at the station—get close to me.
I can’t give her up.
Quietly, so as not to wake her, I padded in my underwear to the bathroom to brush my teeth and try to get a grip on myself. In the mirror I watched Faith approach, naked but for her barely-there thong. Her breasts pressed against my back as she wrapped her arms around my waist.
“Mmm,” she sighed, her cheek on my back. “So warm. Like sunning myself on a rock.”
I spat the toothpaste out, rinsed, and then turned around to hold her.
“My shift starts at noon and I’m off at midnight.”
“Come over then,” she said.
“What are you going to do all day?”
She peered up to shoot me a dry grin. “You mean, however will I survive without you?”
“Yes, exactly.”
“Ha.” She slapped my ass and then went to the bathroom to pee, leaving the door open. “Don’t look so scandalized, Mackey,” she said to my amused look. “I sat on your face last night. You can handle some pee.”
A laugh burst out of me, even as her words instantly conjured the image of her silky thighs on either side of me, my hands on her hips, my mouth latched onto her sweet pussy, sucking her nectar as if I were dying of thirst…
I splashed cold water on my face to quell my hard-on
.
“But for real, I’ll be fine,” she said, and nudged me aside with her hip to wash her hands. “I’m going to head to the Hindu temple and maybe make a stab at meditating.” She looped her hands around my waist. “Will you be hungry after your shift?” she purred.
“Starved.” I bit the slope of her neck and then ran my tongue over it.
She moaned and sagged against me. “Then I’ll have dinner waiting for you.” She craned up to kiss me. “I’m going to take care of you for a change.”
I nearly told her not to bother; I’d been on my own for years. My parents were hands-off with my brother Sam and me. No one took care of me. I’d been working since I was fourteen. But the idea that Faith could give me as much as she was taking had caught hold in her.
I should’ve told her she gave me more just by being alive and in my life, but…
She’s leaving.
Faith, still distractingly topless, hopped up to perch on the sink.
“Be safe out there,” she said smoothing the front of my shirt, her smile dimmer than her usual million-watt beam.
I wondered if she was having second thoughts about last night. Or if she was feeling what I was feeling: that spending the night together had finally unleashed the unacknowledged feelings between us.
Because there’re so many.
And she was leaving.
“I’ll be safe,” I said, kissing her forehead. “You be safe. No hiking.”
“Nope. My hiking days are over. I told you, I have a whole bunch of personal growth-enhancing activities planned out.”
“Should I call you before I come over tonight?”
Because we need to talk about…us.
Faith’s expression dimmed again, and thoughts played behind her eyes. Then she shook her head and smiled brightly. “No. Just come over.”
And so that’s how it went for the next few days. We didn’t talk about how her departure date was fast approaching. Instead, we tried to cram as much as we could into the time we had left together, and spent the night in heated frenzies, driving out the need to talk.
Before we knew what hit us, the day before Faith was set to go back to Seattle arrived. I had plans to take her to a luau that night as a final Hawaiian party goodbye. I arrived at her condo to find her sitting on the lanai, staring at the ocean.
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