by J. J. Bella
A bit more time passed, and Ashley felt the need to get some fresh air. She left Scott to his networking with Michael and some other men and women, and walked up the spiraling staircase to the less-populated second floor. She found a quiet balcony, and stepping out, was presented with a beautiful, sweeping view of the western half of the city. She stayed out here for a time, sipping her wine, listening to the soft strains of the Christmas music, the air cool on her skin.
Time passed, and checking her watch, she was surprised to find that a half an hour had slipped by.
Scott must be wondering just where the hell I went off to, she thought, making her way back into the house. She took position on the stairs that allowed her to overlook the majority of the first floor and scanned the crowd. But she couldn't find Scott.
Heading back down into the crowd, she found Michael and asked him where Scott went off to.
"Oh, that girl…the redhead. She pulled him away from us, said she had something important to talk to him about. Somewhere on the second floor, I think."
Ashley's eyes went wide.
Regina! What's she trying to pull?
Ashley downed her champagne and made a hurried dash towards the stairs, her face hot with anxiety. She weaved through the smattering of people and, after a time reached the end of the hallway. There were a dozen doors, and as Ashley looked them over, she realized she had no idea which one Scott and Regina were behind, if they were even still up here.
Then, she heard a lilting laughter, that same laughter she'd heard dozens of times before; it was the soft laugh that Regina employed when making her move. And it was coming from behind the door to her right.
"Hey," she heard Scott say through the door.
Ashley approached the door with trepidation. Reaching for the handle, she felt her stomach tense at the thought of what might lie behind it.
More laughter sounded.
Taking the cool, metal knob into her hand, she opened the door carefully and quietly.
She couldn't believe what she saw next.
It was Scott and Regina, alright. Scott was sitting on a chair across from the bed, and Regina was sitting on his lap, her legs open on top of him.
"I think I know how to make you feel better," Ashley watched her say, her slim finger moving through Scott's blond locks.
It was all Ashley needed to see. Her vision a blur, she made her way back down to the first floor, and, snatching a glass of wine off of a server's tray, rushed out of the house. All she wanted in that moment was to make her escape before anyone could see her cry.
16
"Regina!" said Scott, his voice now stern and commanding.
"Come ooon," she said, her voice slithery and seductive. "Just a quick little fuck for old time's sake."
"Get off me. Now," said Scott, Regina body wrapping tightly around him.
"Why?" she asked, dragging her finger up his chest. "Ashley will never find out. Just a quick one. I promise you won't regret it."
"Regina, this is the last warning," Scott said. "Get off me, now."
"Or else what?" she said, her hand slipping down his leg and squeezing his inner thigh.
"OK, that's enough," he said.
Placing his hands on Regina's hips, he hoisted her off of him.
"Oh!" she said, thrilled to be lifted into the air so effortlessly. "I miss these hands."
Scott marched her over to the bed and set her down. Regina leaned back, resting her weight on her hands, her face in a come-hither expression.
"You know I love it when you manhandle me," she said, narrowing her eyes. "I wanted to ride you on the chair, but the bed'll be just fine."
"I can't believe you got me alone just to make a move," said Scott, his hands on his hips. "I thought trying to seduce me was beneath you, but I forgot what type of person you really were."
"Oh, please," said Regina. "Stop being such a little boy scout."
"I hope you've said all you wanted to say," said Scott, adjusting his tie in the mirror, "because this will be the last time you and I speak alone."
"Wait a minute, are you serious?" asked Regina, her voice taking an edge.
"Serious as it gets," he said.
With that, he turned and began walking towards the door.
"Hey. Hey!" she shouted. "No one just walks away from me like that!"
Scott opened the door and turned.
"Have a nice life, Regina," he said, casting a final look back over his shoulder as he left.
"Get back here right now, you asshole!" Regina shouted.
But Scott paid her no heed, and shut the door behind him.
What was I thinking? he asked himself as he made his way back down the stairs. "Important information about Michael;" how did I fall for that? Guess that's what I get for trusting a girl like her to be truthful.
Scott reached the main floor and scanned the crowd for Ashley, but she wasn't anywhere to be found.
"Hey, Scott!" said Michael, trotting over to Scott. "Is Ashley doing alright?"
"What do you mean?" asked Scott.
"I just saw her rush out the front door; she looked like she was upset about something.
Oh, no, thought Scott. She couldn't have…
"Thanks, Michael," said Scott, already halfway turned towards the front door. "I'll be back in a bit."
Before Michael could respond, Scott was already on his way out. Rushing out of the house, Scott stepped into the cool evening air and looked around. Aside from the lights of the front porch and the line of cars currently being dropped off, the expanse of the lawn was dark. Scott moved past the activity out front and, his heart racing. Stepping onto the lawn, he scanned the dim darkness of the long stretch of grass before him. Then, just when he thought he wouldn't be able to find her, Scott spotted Ashley sitting next to one of the tall Azores trees a few dozen feet away, her body shaded by the thick branches above.
He made his way over to her, his steps soft upon the grass.
"There you are," he said, his voice low and calm. "I was worried you'd ran back home."
"What do you want?" Ashley asked, a sharp edge to her voice.
"Just joining you out here," said Scott.
"Who says I want the company?" Ashley shot over her shoulder.
Scott said nothing, instead simply walking over to where Ashley sat and taking a seat next to her, the grass cool beneath him. They sat in silence for moments,
"What the hell were you doing in there?" demanded Ashley, cutting through the still air of the evening. "You can't even pretend to be engaged?"
Scott took in a deep breath before speaking. "You misunderstood what was going on."
"Oh?" she demanded. "What exactly did I ‘misunderstand'? You two looked like you were getting pretty goddamn cozy."
"She led me to that room and pounced on me when we got there; I never would've gone if I would've thought that she was going to do that."
"She ‘led you to the room'? What did you think was going to happen in there?" Ashley's voice was rising in hurt and frustration.
She seems to be pretty upset for a fake fiancée, thought Scott.
"She told me that she had some important information about the upcoming investment with Michael. I suppose I was foolish in believing her. Maybe I just wanted to see if she could be honest with me when given the opportunity. I guess I got the answer to that question."
"Is that why you had your hands all over her?"
"I had my hands all over her because I was getting her away from me," he said. "Trust me; I want nothing to do with her like that. I was hoping that we'd be able to have a cordial relationship, but I see now that she's not mature enough to let that happen."
Ashley was quiet; it seemed to Scott that what he was saying was logical enough, but not satisfying to her on an emotional level. Her legs were tucked close to her body, her arms wrapped around them.
"And it's not simply a matter of not wanting to be with Regina."
"Oh?" asked Ashley.
"
Yes," said Scott, turning towards her. "It's…you."
Ashley turned to Scott, her eyes glossy with tears.
"I've been attracted to you since the moment I first saw you. But I thought my feelings were nothing more than physical attraction. In these last few weeks, I realized that they're more than that. I care for you, I love being in your company, I love the way you are with my daughter. And I can't remember the last time I've felt this way about a woman."
Ashley said nothing, a tear running down her cheek as Scott spoke.
"And the night that I kissed you…I think that's when I knew. But it took me time to understand this. And even now, with the way Regina is threatening to drive a wedge between us, I'm even more certain just how I feel towards you."
Ashley looked at Scott with her wide eyes, her lips wet and slightly parted. Scott began to feel that same pull towards Ashley that he felt that night, that magnetic energy that seemed to almost force their bodies to join together. He wiped away the tear from her face, her skin cool and wet.
Then, he leaned forward, wrapped his arm around her, pulled her close, and kissed her.
Heat rushed through his body as soon as their lips touched, and within moments, he felt himself begin to sink deeply into their kiss. He pulled her close and tight as he kissed her, his lips hard and firm against hers. And unlike before, Ashley fell into the kiss along with him. Her body melted in his as she allowed herself to meld into his embrace. Scott felt Ashley's lips part, her mouth opening to receive him, and he responded by moving his tongue past her lips, their kiss deepening and deepening. His hand moved down to her side, along the soft curves of her body. Ashley responded in kind, her hands searching over his chest, taking in the feel of his body through his suit.
After several moments, Scott pulled Ashley away.
"I think we should get out of here," he said.
"I definitely agree."
17
Ashley couldn't believe the way she was feeling. She felt something like a ravenous hunger, a deep need for Scott and his kiss. As they climbed into the back of his car, Scott closing the driver partition, she pounced on him- she couldn't help herself.
Scott fell backward as she clambered on top of him. Ashley needed his kiss, more and more. She needed to feel his lips on hers, his lips on her skin, his lips…everywhere. And Scott was more than happy to reciprocate. She pressed her body on top of him, kissing him deeply as the car engine revved and their driver took them on their way. She felt Scott's hands move up and down the curves of her body, the feeling of being held intoxicating to Ashley.
She stayed on top of him for a time, a feeling of tight arousal growing deep within her. Scott soon flipped the roles, moving her body beneath his and lavishing her face and neck with kisses.
We're like a couple of teenagers, thought Ashley, taking sweet pleasure in the giddy way the two kissed each other.
She felt Scott's hand grasp onto the soft flesh of her inner thigh, and a gasp slipped from her mouth as he touched her. The feeling of hot arousal increased, and the need for some kind of release built and built in her. He kissed her more and more, deeper and deeper, gasps escaping her lips as he drank her in, his cock, erect and thick, pressed against her through his pants.
Conflict raged through her body. The thought of taking his cock, holding it firm in her hand, feeling it against her skin, and slipping it into her, the length of it gliding into her with ease…it became all-consuming. But a voice still spoke to her, one that said that this wasn't yet the time, that it wasn't quite right.
But she needed something. She needed him.
"I want to touch you," he said, his voice hot on her skin.
It was like he was reading her mind.
"Do it," she said, her eyes closed tight. "Please."
She felt Scott's hand move up, further up her leg, until his fingertips were on the edge of her panties. His fingers moved up to the waistband, and with a slow pull, he brought her panties down, exposing her. His hand moved closer to her sex, tantalizingly close. She brought in a deep pull of air as the anticipation built within her to a fevered pitch.
Scott's fingers were so close to her, the tips brushing against her. Ashley wanted him inside of her, right then and there. But she knew that he knew this well, and the only reason that he wasn't pleasuring her in the way she so desperately needed at that moment was that he was teasing her, building the anticipation.
"Please," she breathed. "Please."
Thankfully, for Ashley, Scott realized that the time for toying with her was over. In a slow, fluid motion, he slipped his finger into her, entering her body with the fluidity that she hoped it would. She gasped, never before having felt a man inside of her.
It's…unbelievable, she thought, the pleasure radiating out like shock waves from below.
Scott started slowly, sliding his finger in and out of her, the slick wetness of her allowing him to move in and out of her with ease. Ashley breathed in deeply, focusing on the feeling of him moving within her. Soon, he began to stimulate her clitoris with another finger, her eyes going wide at the unimaginable feeling of pleasure that this afforded.
"More," she said, her voice heavy.
Scott continued, his other hand braced against her lower back, holding her steady as he moved in and out of her, his thumb pressing against her clitoris in a way that caused her legs to go tight, the muscles twitching with the waves of pleasure.
"Don't stop; don't stop," she said, realizing that an orgasm was building within her
She'd never had a man please her like this before. The way he stimulated her was expert; she knew that at any moment he'd make her cum hard. Noticing how wet she was, and how hard she bucked against his hand, Scott slid another finger into her. Now he his index and middle finger slid in and out of her as thumb continued to stimulate her clitoris.
God, she thought, her mind barely able to hold a single thought, he really knows what he's doing.
But before she could think another word, the dual sensations that Scott provided began to swirl together in a sense of pleasure that instilled in Ashley a feeling that her body might come apart at the seams at any moment.
"Oh God," she said, her hips rocking back and forth as Scott moved in and out of her. "I'm gonna…"
Then, she came. The pleasure from Scott stimulating her erupted through her body like a bomb, the shock of the ecstasy coursing through her, causing her limbs to jerk and twitch, her breaths to take on a sharp rhythm, her eyes to wince shut in an expression of pained pleasure. The feeling continued, Scott not ceasing touching her.
Soon, the orgasm subsided, and Scott slowed down the pace in which he slid in and out of her. Soon, as Ashley's body calmed, he stopped, and Ashley slumped over limp, as though she'd just been injected with some wonderful, stupefying drug.
And just at that moment, the car slid to a stop in front of the house. Her legs limp and loose below her, she wondered with a wicked smile if she'd even be able to stand up.
18
"You know," said Scott the next day as he was preparing a breakfast of pancakes and sausage, "I never properly congratulated you on your graduation."
"Well," said Ashley, her hands wrapped around a coffee mug that she was in the process of slowly lifting to her mouth, ‘I don't know about that."
Scott's mouth twisted into a wry smile as he shot an eye at Olivia, who was totally concentrated on her iPad game.
"I meant something a little more…traditional."
"Traditional, huh?" she asked. "And what sort of traditional ‘thank-you' did you have in mind?"
"Dinner out, possibly. Some place nice."
Ashley considered the thought, and decided that being shown an evening out on the town by a man like Scott would be far from the worst way to spend her Saturday night.
"That sounds great," said Ashley.
"Wonderful," said Scott. "You and Olivia can go out for some more shopping if you'd like to pick out something new to wear- my treat of course. You guys c
an grab some lunch while you're out."
"Why does Ashley need a new dress for tonight?" asked Ashley, setting down her iPad in preparation of pancakes. "Are you guys going out on a date?"
"Just a little thank-you for her hard work these last few months," said Scott, flipping her pancakes on the griddle and closely inspecting their golden-brown exteriors for any flaws before scooping them onto a plate next to the stove. "I think she's earned it, right?"
"Uh huh," said Olivia, her attention distracted by the nearly-done pancakes.
"Thanks again," said Ashley.
"Think nothing of it," said Scott, portioning out a few cakes on each of their plates. "An assistant like you? Worth your weight in gold."
Ashley returned from the shopping trip with Olivia feeling drained. Olivia was in an especially enthusiastic mood, and, as far as Ashley could tell, was beginning to get to the point in a young girl's life when clothes and fashion become a major priority. Olivia asked all throughout the trip for fashion advice about what goes with that, what's in style, and how to pick out items that look, as Olivia said, "hot."
But if Ashley was being honest with herself, she didn't really have much of a fashion sense. She found herself thinking back to her high school days, when she'd be happy putting on nothing fancier than a pair of slim cut jeans and a frumpy t-shirt, a pair of worn-out Chuck Taylors completing the look. In college the look largely remained the same, the only difference being the two or three college hoodies that she cycled through throughout the week. It was only in these last few years, when she began to "finally blossom," as her dad put it in awkward terms over dinner one family visit, that she started paying attention to fashion.