by Gephart, T
The relief and thanks had been premature however, as my phone once again illuminated with that taunting image. Fuck. Dan was calling me.
“Hey,” I answered, trying to sound casual but ended up sounding like an airhead.
“Ashyln?” Dan’s voice flowed from the speaker. “Did you just call me and hang up?”
He sounded good, his voice husky from sleep. My call had obviously woken him.
“Oh. Yeah. It’s my bedtime routine. I pick a random number to prank. Must be your lucky night.”
“Yeah, I’ll say.” A low chuckle filled my ear and vibrated through my body. “Are you just going to bed now?”
“Yeah, I just got home. Sorry. Honestly. I didn’t mean to wake you.” I pulled the phone closer, hearing the distinct sound of sheets rustling. I liked that we were both in bed, together, even though we really weren’t.
“Babe, you can call me anytime. I hope you weren’t terrorizing some other band in a club, ’cause I kind of thought that was our thing.” The smile in his voice was unmistakable.
“I was working, Dan, and we don’t really have a thing.”
“So you get drunk and hassle other guys?”
“No, of course not.”
“See. Just reserved for me. Our thing.”
I sighed, surprisingly he was so easy to talk to. “Whatever, Dan, it’s too late to argue with you.”
“So where do you work that gets you home at this hour? Have you been holding out on me and you are really a stripper?”
“Dan, there are lots of jobs that have night shift. Most of them don’t involve removing my clothes. I could be a nurse, or a gas station attendant.” I pretended to sound annoyed.
“I prefer stripper.” He laughed, indulging his fantasy a little longer.
“I work in a bar, Dan, serving assholes beer and nachos. Sorry, there is no pole involved.”
“Why you working in a bar? Is this like Good Will Hunting where Matt Damon was working as a janitor but was a genius at night?”
“Sadly, I’m neither a genius nor doing this by choice. It’s the only job I could get. Not a lot of brokerage firms were hiring commerce majors who had less than four years of experience.”
“Wow, Ash, I’m sorry. That kind of sucks.”
“Yeah, well it is what it is. No point bitching about, so I guess I’ll just pour beers until I find something else.”
“But you went for the interview with Lexi, she’s bound to hire you. Why wouldn’t she?”
“I don’t think so. I’m not really assistant material so I don’t blame her if she doesn’t. I only wanted the job as a way out and I think she knows I probably won’t stick around. Anyway, let’s change the subject. It feels weird talking about it with you.”
“It’s okay, babe, you like weird with me.”
“Don’t flatter yourself, Dan, I never said anything about liking you.”
Dan laughed, the ease in his voice warm. “So if you were slaving away all night serving assholes why didn’t you collapse into bed the minute you got home?”
“I’m in bed, I just couldn’t sleep.”
“Hmm, so what are you wearing?”
“Dan.”
“I’m sorry, babe, you want me to talk dirty while you touch yourself?”
“Um, no.”
“I’ll touch myself too, just so you don’t feel like a pervert.”
“I’m still going to decline. We’re not having phone sex.”
“Suit yourself, but I’m just putting it out there that I would be okay with it.”
“Yeah well, I wouldn’t so don’t hold your breath.”
My stomach picked the exact moment that neither of us were talking to break the silence with a very loud and aggressive rumble. Reminding me that in addition to the arousal I was now feeling, I still hadn’t dealt with the other primal need, hunger.
“Holy shit. What was that?” His voice became more serious, obviously having heard the rumble through the phone.
“It was my stomach.” I laughed, clutching it and silently willing it to shut up.
“It sounded like a fucking animal, you sure there isn’t a rabid puma hiding under your bed?”
I felt my cheeks flush as I hid my face. “No, it’s just me. I’m going to go now and be mortified by myself.”
“Don’t be mortified. It’s no big deal, just eat something. I don’t think that sound is normal.”
“Okay. I’m going to hang up now. I’ll talk to you later.” I stupidly kept my face hidden even though he couldn’t see me.
“Night, Ash. Eat something.”
“Night, Dan.”
I was equal parts horrified and elated as I placed the phone back on my nightstand. Well now I definitely wasn’t going to be able to sleep. The sound of his voice was still ringing in my ear. The memory of his throaty laugh made parts of me tingle. Maybe I had been hasty in dismissing his suggestion of phone sex. Not that I had ever done it, no guy had ever asked. I’d touched myself before, lost in a fantasy while I brought myself to climax, but never with such premeditation. I chewed on my bottom lip as the frustration hummed through my body.
It had been a really long time since I’d had sex, at least seven months. Tim Reeves had been my last boyfriend, a law firm associate with a foot fetish. Of course I didn’t know about the fetish until I had been dating him for a while and it seemed logical to move it to the next level. So one night after dinner and heavy make-out session in his Buick Regal, I told him to take me back to his apartment. He was smart, sexy, and had a promising career, and most of all, he seemed really into me. Problem was, he was more into my toes than the rest of me, spending a solid hour sucking and licking them before he even removed his clothes. When he finally got down to the actual sex part, he had worked himself up so much he barely got the condom on and was inside me, and it was over. I had initially chalked it up to first-time nerves so we persisted. Correction, I persisted. Six months of overpriced pedicures and bad sex. I didn’t have even one orgasm that I hadn’t manufactured myself. I had even tried ribbed condoms and lube. Nothing. No spark. And if the only way I was going to get satisfaction was from masturbation, I might as well cut out the middleman. It seemed like double handling, no pun intended. So I decided it was time for Tim to move on, and while he was disappointed, I let him paint my toes before I kissed him goodbye.
Dan was nothing like Tim. I was already wet thinking about his dark brown eyes and his sexy grin. I allowed my hand to move slowly down my stomach, settling at the waistband of my cotton pajama pants. I scrunched my eyes tight, feeling a little stupid doing this but needing something to help release some of my pent-up need. I slipped my hand a little farther down, my heartbeat kicking up as I toyed at the edge of my underwear. My nipples puckered underneath my cotton tank as I loosened the reins on my inhibitions. Did you want me to talk dirty while you touch yourself? Dan’s words made me smile as I thought about what I was doing and how disappointed he would be if he knew he had missed it.
I was just about let my fingers slide into my underwear when I heard a thumping coming from my front door. What the hell? I sat up in bed and checked the time, four fifteen. This better be a pizza delivery boy with a prepaid order or someone trying to rob me because any other option was going to be met with grievous bodily harm. I kicked off my covers and jogged to my front door, greeted by a second round of thumping. I grabbed the baseball bat I kept in the hall closet for security and tentatively looked through the peephole.
“Dan!” I flicked open the lock and wrenched opened the door. “What the hell are you doing here at four in the morning? Have you completely lost your mind?” I stood in my doorway, the baseball bat still gripped in my hand. Honestly, I was still considering taking a swing.
“Oh easy there, slugger.” Dan help up his hands in surrender, a white paper bag in this right hand. He looked just as amazing as he had earlier in the day, wearing a pair of faded blue jeans and leather jacket.
“What are you doing here?”
I repeated, lowering the bat but not willing to relinquish it just yet.
“Well, you were hungry and I can always eat, so I went and snagged us a couple of hot dogs from Gray’s Papaya. I figured we were both awake so…” He shook the bag in his hand. He came all this way because I was hungry? Who does that? Why was he being so nice to me when I’d been so bitchy towards him? Who was this man? What happened to the asshole I met a few days ago?
“Fine, come in.” I stepped aside to allow him entry, resting the bat against the wall. “You can’t just show up here at this hour, what if I had been sleeping?”
“Were you?” He didn’t even try to hide the fact his eyes dipped down to my chest.
“No, not yet.” I hoped to god he couldn’t tell what I had been doing in the absence of sleep. Shit. Did I look guilty?
“So let’s eat then.” He strolled over to my couch and took a seat, ignoring the fact I hadn’t followed him. “I’m going to start without you.”
“Yes, we’ve already established you aren’t a gentleman.” I took a seat beside him and snatched the bag from his hands. “I’m starving.”
“I told you to eat. I knew you wouldn’t listen.” He smiled, satisfied he had been right.
“It was time for bed, I wasn’t going to go make something to eat.” I pulled out a hot dog and took a bite. It was still hot and tasted like heaven.
“So you’d just ignore a bodily need?” He raised an eyebrow, taking back the bag and pulling out a hotdog for himself.
“No, just wait until a more decent hour,” I explained in between chewing.
“That’s such bullshit. If you needed to take a piss would you just wait that out too?” He shoved more hotdog into his mouth.
“God, you are disgusting. Tell me again how you charmed your way into my bed last night?” I rolled my eyes. He was so direct but despite me feigning annoyance it was actually quite refreshing.
“Sorry, let me rephrase. If you needed to tinkle… Better?” He smirked before continuing, “And I keep telling you, last night…all you.”
“Tinkle? That was the best you could do?” I tried not to laugh. There was a strange innocence about him, he was kind of endearing.
“Says the woman who answered the door with a baseball bat. You either got lost on the way to Yankee Stadium or you were hoping to get a starring role in the next Pacino movie.” He pointed to the bat still leaning up against the wall.
“Dan, just shut up and eat.” I took another bite, wondering if there was another hotdog hiding in the paper bag.
“So…,” he took a bite out of his hotdog, “you work a lot of nights?”
“As many as I can. Minimum wage blows and the tips are better at night.” I placed the last bite into my mouth, savoring it.
“How do you get home?” Dan stopped chewing and looked at me seriously for the first time since I’d met him.
“I take the subway, sometimes a cab.” I grabbed a napkin out of the now empty bag and wiped off my hands. Damn, no more hot dogs.
“Okay, how about this? You give me a call when you’re working nights and I’ll pick you up.” He shoved the last of his dog into his mouth.
“What, you running a car service now? Don’t you have important rock star shit to do? Thanks for the offer but I’m okay.” I couldn’t help but laugh. The thought of Dan waiting for me at the end of my shift and wondering how that would fit into his touring schedule, not to mention the scores of other women I had no doubt he attracted. I handed him a napkin.
“Ash, I’m serious. Don’t take unnecessary risks. A friend of mine was hurt really badly not that long ago. Some asshole attacked her and she thought she was okay, too. I’m not saying that shit will happen, I’m just saying don’t give it a chance to happen.” He grabbed my arm, forcing me to look at him. “Call me. I will pick you up. I don’t give a fuck what time it is, it will save you pranking me when you get home.” His mouth curled slowly into a smile.
I knew what he was talking about. The friend in question had been Alex Stone’s wife and their PR manager, Lexi Reed. It had made news when an ex-boyfriend had apparently stalked her and raped her in her Australian apartment. She had been beaten pretty badly, too, spending a lot of time in the hospital. I hadn’t really given it much thought with celebrity news so far removed from my normal boring life. I guess you don’t ever really see the human side to those stories, it was just more headlines. I was ashamed to admit, I had actually forgotten. Her violent attack had been relegated to old news that no longer seemed relevant. Not that she would ever forget, even if the world had.
I was genuinely concerned but didn’t want to make him uncomfortable by talking about it. “I’m sorry, Dan. I hope your friend is okay.” I knew it was probably a no-go zone.
“She is. You going to call?” He leveled me with a stare, he wasn’t kidding.
“Fine, if it will make you happy.” It didn’t seem like he would be letting it go unless I agreed. I knew I probably wouldn’t call but it was easier to appease him than to tell him that. Strangely, it was touching he cared so much.
“It will. Are you done?” He tossed his napkin into the paper bag before angling it towards me.
“Yeah, thanks for the dog. I was actually pretty hungry.” I bunched up the napkin and threw it into the bag.
“I know, I think they heard the growl of the wildebeest in Queens.” He bit back a grin, instantly lightening the mood.
“Ass. I’m going to get some sleep now. Thanks again.” I stood up, ready to walk him to the front door.
“Yeah sleep sounds good.” He lifted himself off the coach and stretched, moving toward my bedroom door.
“Where are you going?” I grabbed his arm stopping him from going any farther.
“I’m coming to bed,” he explained, clearly puzzled as to why it was a discussion.
My eyes widened from hearing his plan. “You are not coming to bed with me.” He couldn’t come to bed with me, could he? No. He shouldn’t. I shouldn’t. We should definitely not do that.
“Why, I swear I won’t touch you. Even if you beg me like you did last night.” He honestly seemed perplexed as to why it was an issue, like it hadn’t occurred to him what might actually happen if we were in bed together. Obviously I was the only one thinking about it, and here I was thinking he was the one with the dirty mind.
“Dan, you can’t just show up here and climb into my bed.” I tried to rationalize, my resolve waning. I wanted him in bed with me, I did. I just didn’t want to have to admit it. Not to myself and least of all not to him.
“Listen, Ash, we can argue about it for the next hour but we are both tired and I proved to you last night I’m not a scumbag. Just sleep. I promise.” He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me down the hallway. He wasn’t going to let up and I knew he probably would stand there and argue until he finally wore me down. One thing I’d learned about Dan, when he felt strongly about something he didn’t budge, and I knew the only way I was going to be getting any sleep tonight would be with him beside me.
“I’m bringing the bat,” I warned, though I left it safely leaning up against the wall as I allowed him to drag me into my bedroom.
“Okay, slugger, whatever gets your rocks off, but if it’s a homerun you’re looking for I think I’m probably better equipped.”
“Do those lines ever work?” I shook my head, not believing he actually said stuff like that. I released myself from his grasp and slid into bed.
“Ninety percent of the time. You’d be surprised actually.” He toed off his boots and pulled off his jacket.
“Hold on a second. What are you doing?” I sat up, watching wide-eyed as he continued his strip show, peeling off his T-shirt before moving to his socks.
“Getting undressed, I can’t sleep in my clothes.” His hands moved to his belt before unbuttoning his jeans, letting them fall to the floor.
I heard my voice waver as I stared at him, all that sexy inked skin on display throwing off my game. “Don�
��t even think about taking off the boxers.”
“Relax. You talk too much.” He slid into bed beside me, thankfully leaving his boxers on. I couldn’t help but want to see what was underneath.
I turned onto my side, knowing there was no way I was going to be able to sleep if I kept looking at him. I felt the mattress compress as he nestled beside me. His arms wrapped around me and pulled me closer.
“Dan,” I whispered. “Your hand is on my ass.”
“Old habits.” He chuckled as his mouth pressed up against my neck. He slowly moved his hand to my hip. “Shhh. Go to sleep.”
I allowed him to hold me, feeling his warmth and his scent as my eyelids started to droop. Instinctively I moved closer against him so our bodies were pressed against each other. My thoughts floated back to what I had been doing before Dan had interrupted me. The need had not gone away. If anything, with this new development, it had intensified. I tried to ignore the throbbing between my legs by squeezing my eyes shut and trying to think about something else. Anything other than the hardening length that was poking me in the ass.
I turned, knowing it was not only a bad idea but that his erection would now be poking in an entirely different area. I shouldn’t have turned. What I should have done was go to sleep. But I didn’t and now it was too late.
“Ash?” Dan’s hooded eyes opened slightly wider as I wrapped my arms around him.
“Shhh. Go to sleep.” I pressed my mouth against his, my tongue teasing the seam of his lips.
“I can’t, if you keep doing that.” He moved his hands back down to my ass. “Ash, what are we doing here?”
“I just want to kiss you.” My lips traveled down his neck, as my hands moved along his strong, corded arms. If my body had a game plan it hadn’t bothered to share it with my brain. I was winging it and had no idea on how far I was willing to let this go.
I slowly kissed my way back up to Dan’s lips, and he seized the opportunity intensifying the kiss. “Ashlyn.” He moaned as his tongue swirled inside my mouth. He rolled onto his back and pulled me on top of him. We continued to kiss, as frenzied hands pushed and pulled as we rocked against each other. I felt his cock lengthen as he moved me up against it. Its hardness giving me the sweet friction I craved.