A smile spread across his lips. “That sounds like the past eight years for me.”
I laughed and took a sip of my coffee. “I don’t think anyone would compare my tiny flower shop to Warlack Investments.”
He shrugged and pushed the plate away. “I wouldn’t say that. We both knew what we wanted, and we went after it.”
“I don’t think my flower shop has anything on your multi-million dollar business.”
“I assume you own the building if you live upstairs?”
I nodded. “Yup. I live in one half, and Melonie and Corey live in the other half.”
He looked up and tilted his head. “That has to be convenient.”
“Convenient and a curse. I always seem to be working.”
A handsome smile spread across his lips. “We really have more in common than I thought we would.”
A laughed bubbled from my lips. “We had nothing in common eight years ago. I find it hard to believe that after you moving to L.A. and all this time, we suddenly have things in common.”
“Opposites attracted, Lee. You and I were good together.”
“Were, is the key word in that sentence. Although, it must not have been that good since you left.” I wish I could have blamed my blunt words on too much booze, or hell, even insanity, but I couldn’t. Silas had hurt me all those years ago, and with him sitting next to me, all the feelings I had buried, surfaced.
“It was good, Lee. Better than good, it was fucking fantastic. We just didn’t know it.”
“Speak for yourself,” I mumbled. I had known Silas and I were good. My heart fell in love with the man after our second date, and I was only seventeen. Back then, I knew what love was, and still felt the same.
“I am, Lee. I left, but you didn’t try to stop me.”
I gasped and slapped my hand down on the counter. “I didn’t stop you?” I screeched. “What was I supposed to do? Lay down in the middle of the road in front of your car?”
“It would have been better than you not saying anything at all.”
“So it’s all on me then? You left because I didn’t stop you.” Fucking asshole. I pushed away from the table and snatched up my coffee cup.
Silas grabbed my arm as he stood and pulled me to him. “No, that’s not what I meant, Ainsley.”
“Well, that’s what you just said.”
“I just…I would have…Son of a bitch, this shit is still hard after eight years,” he sighed.
“Well, let me make it easier for you by telling you to get out.”
“No,” he thundered. “We’re not doing that again.”
I pulled my arm out of his hold and crossed them over my chest. I tilted my head back and looked up at him. “Then you better tell me what the hell it is we’re actually doing here.”
“I’m here to tell you sorry, dammit. I was a downright fool to leave you. Even though we both had different dreams, I should have fought for you. Fought for us.” He hung his head and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I’m just sorry, Ainsley.”
“Well…that’s not at all what I thought you were going to say.” I figured he was going to spew some more bullshit about me not asking him to stay. I cleared my throat and sat back down. “I suppose you don’t have to leave now.”
“Well, that’s good to hear. My apologizing has gained me a few more minutes in your presence.”
I looked up at him and smiled. “It wasn’t your entire fault, Silas. I mean, the majority of it was your fault, but I will take a little sliver of the blame.”
“You were always the humble one,” he chuckled.
“I didn’t ask you to stay or to go with you, because I didn’t want to hold you back. I never wanted to leave, but I knew you did. If I would have went with you, I would have been miserable. And if you would have stayed, then you would have been miserable. There was no winning back then.”
“So instead, we both had to be miserable? That first year was so goddamn hard, Lee. I can’t tell you how many times I looked up plane tickets to fly back to you. All I wanted was to come home and be with you.” He stepped forward and cupped my cheek.
I tilted my head back and looked up at him. “I thought about you all the time. After you left, all I did was work and sleep. I didn’t want to do anything at all. Your mom and dad were the ones to help snap me out of it and made me realize, even though you were gone, it didn’t mean I had to fade away.”
“We were both fools. I threw myself into work so I wouldn’t think about you.”
A sad smile crossed my lips. “At least something good came out of us breaking up. We both had our dreams come true.”
He shook his head. “Not my full dream. I wanted you by my side when I made my first million. I wanted you to be there when I built my first building. I wanted you to be the one I came home to at night. I just wanted you to be there. That was the one part of my dream I never got.”
“Oh, Silas. We’re both pathetic,” I laughed. “We wanted each other, but we were both too stubborn to say anything.”
“Then let’s fix this. Tell me what you want right now, right here. No filter, no worrying about what the other will think. I just want to know what you want.”
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “I want you to kiss me.”
*
Silas
You know when you get sucker punched, and you can’t breathe?
Ainsley sucker punched me right in the gut. I had expected her to say anything else but that.
“Lee, I don’t…I just…” Yup, the woman I loved eight years ago, and still loved, asked me to kiss her and I’m a stuttering jackass trying to talk her out of it.
She slowly opened her eyes. “I’m not going to make the same mistakes we did before. You asked me what I wanted, and I told you. Now, are you going to give me what I want, or am I going to have to take it?”
“So if I don’t kiss you, you’re going to tackle me and take your kiss?”
She tilted her head to the right and smiled. “I hadn’t planned on tackling you, but if that’s what you want, I’m not opposed to it.”
“Fuck it,” I growled. I wasn’t going to be a fool anymore. I grabbed her around the waist and pulled her to me. She wound her arms around my neck, and I couldn’t help feel like the clueless seventeen year old who wanted everything the world had to give, including this girl. “If I kiss you, I can’t promise I’ll let you go. Ever.”
“Then it’s a good thing I like being in your arms,” she whispered against my lips.
I kissed her. I kissed her with everything I had been hiding for the past eight years. Her soft lips beneath mine yielded to my need and gave, while all I could do was take. Her hands delved into my hair, holding me close with the unspoken promise she wasn’t going to let me go either.
“Holy crap,” she gasped. Her deep brown eyes looked up at me, and she sighed. “That was way better than I remembered.”
I brushed her hair back from her face and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I think that had something to do with the fact that neither of us are inexperienced teenagers anymore.”
“Thank God for that,” she giggled.
I glanced at the clock on the wall. “So how long are you supposed to wait for your flowers and shit to show up?” It was half past nine, and as nice as the flower shop was, I was hoping that we would be able to move our reunion upstairs.
She sighed and rested her head on my shoulder. “Ugh, I’m pretty sure my flowers aren’t going to show up tonight. I’m going to need a Christmas miracle for those damn things to make it here before Melonie’s wedding tomorrow.”
“Is there anything I can do?” I asked. I would move Heaven and Earth at this point just to make her happy.
“Unless you have a semi in your pocket, nothing is going to help.”
“Well, that is one thing I don’t have. Can you make it work with the flowers and trees that you dropped off today?” If you asked me, there was more than enough plants at Mother’s for a wedding,
but I wasn’t a florist like Ainsley, who actually knew what she was doing.
“Yeah, but Melonie’s bouquet was on there, along with all the boutonnieres.”
I looked around. “You don’t have stuff around here that could work?”
“Yeah, but it’s nothing like Melonie wanted.”
“What time is the wedding tomorrow?”
“Six. She wants it to be dark, so all the lights twinkle and shine.”
“How long is it going to take for you to make all that stuff?”
She tilted her head back and looked up at me. “A few hours. What’s with all the questions?”
“I’m doing what I’ve become good at, solving problems. I think you should call it a night and start fresh in the morning. You’ll have more than enough time to get everything done and still be over to Mother’s before the wedding starts.”
She leaned back in my arms and looked up at me. “Is that what you think?” she laughed. “And just what am I going to be doing for the rest of the night?”
“I thought maybe you and I could finish catching up.”
She rested her arms on my shoulders. “You did, huh? And just what did you have in mind?”
“You’ll just have to invite me upstairs, so I can show you.”
*
Chapter 8
Ainsley
Silas’ hand slowly crept under my shirt and rested on my ribcage.
We were sprawled out on my couch, Silas with his back against the couch, and my back was pressed to his front. We were halfway through whatever movie was playing on Hallmark, except neither one of us cared about what was going on.
“You still feel like Heaven,” he whispered in my ear. “I could never erase you from my memory.” His lips grazed my ear, and a tremor rocked my body.
“It was always you, Silas,” I moaned as his lips pressed against my neck, leaving a trail of hot and wet kisses in their wake. Every man who I had dated after Silas vanished as soon as his lips had touched mine.
“God, I missed you.” His hand slid to the waistband of my pants, and he chuckled. “I have to say, I’m a fan of these pants. Much easier to deal with than jeans.”
“I’m glad you approve of my casual attire.”
He slipped his hand inside and caresses my thigh. “If this is too much, Lee, just tell me to stop.”
I shook my head. “Is it weird to say it feels just right? I know it’s been years, but it feels like you never left now.” I was so weak when it came to this man. He had hurt me before, but I couldn’t help but not forgive him.
“Not weird at all, because I feel the same way.”
His hand cupped my mound, and I pressed into his hand, needing more. I rolled over, needing to feel his lips against mine. “Kiss me, Silas,” I whispered.
“God dammit, Ainsley. How the hell do you make me feel like a horny sixteen-year-old with just three words is beyond me, but I’m not going to fight it.”
His lips crashed down on mine, and his hand moved to my butt, pressing me tight against him. My hands slid under his sweater, pulling it up to expose his chest. The feel of his bare skin under my hands drove me insane, feeding my need to be with him.
We both sat up in sync and pulled our shirts over our heads. They sailed through the air and landed in a pile by the TV. He pulled me onto his lap, my thighs straddling his waist. “I have to say, Lee, you definitely became one hell of a woman.” His hands kneaded my breasts through my bra, and his eyes darkened with lust.
I reached behind me and unhooked my bra, letting it slide down my arms, and dropped it on the floor with our shirts. “I think maybe you need to see just how much I’ve grown up in a more hands-on approach.”
His hands squeezed my breasts, and his thumbs flicked my hard nipples. “Fuck me,” he growled.
“You always were a boob man,” I laughed.
He leaned forward and sucked my nipple into his mouth. My back bowed, pressing closer to him.
“God damn, you are perfect,” he mumbled against my breast. “Makes me wonder if the rest of you is as perfect.” His hands went to the waistband of my pants, and he worked them over my butt and down my thighs. I lifted up, and he pulled them off one leg at a time and tossed them on the floor.
I sat back down and looked into his eyes. “I think you have the advantage right now.” Resting my hands on the bulge in his pants. He bucked his hips at my touch and laid his head back.
“Pretty sure you always have the advantage, Lee, because all you need to do is touch me, and I’m yours.”
“Then we better get these pants off.” I shimmed off his lap and stood up.
His eyes traveled the length of my body, and he slightly shook his head. “This is not how I imagined this night going, but I am not going to complain one bit.”
I shimmied my panties down my legs, then cupped my breasts with my hands, and bit my lip. “Smart man,” I whispered.
He shot up from the couch and yanked his pants and boxers off in record time. “Come here,” he growled. “It’s been way too long.”
My body molded against his, and I wrapped my arms around his neck. His arms circled my waist, and he lifted me up as my legs wrapped around his waist, and he walked to my bed at the other end of the apartment. “I have to say, I like that you don’t have any walls,” he mumbled.
I laughed and delved my fingers into his hair. “It’s a bit awkward when people are over when they have to use the bathroom, but I make it work.” The bathroom was in the corner, and while there were walls around it, they didn’t go all the way to the ceiling. It was open concept on a whole new level.
“I like it, Lee. Your apartment screams you.”
“What, like I’m open?”
Silas threw me on the bed and shook his head. “No, I mean all the small touches you did to make it yours. It’s warm and inviting, just like you.”
I leaned up and rested on my elbows. “I guess I’ll accept that. Now, are you going to join me, or are you just going to stare down at me all night?”
He put one knee on the bed. “Impatient,” he tsked.
I rubbed my legs together and sighed. He grasped his rock hard dick and stroked slowly. “I could help you with that, if you want.”
“Oh, Ainsley, I’ve got lots of ways for you to help me. Right now, I’ve got my eye on that sweet pussy of yours.”
And that, right there, is when my body went up in flames, and I knew I was never letting this man go. I would follow him to the ends of the Earth because I knew I wouldn’t be able to live without him again.
He crawled onto the bed and rested his hand on my knees. I slowly parted my legs, and he laid down on his stomach. His lips were directly above my pussy, and my body hummed with anticipation.
His fingers parted my lips, and he gently blew on my clit. “You’re so wet, Lee.”
I looked down at him, and our eyes locked. “Pretty sure, that’s all your doing.”
“Then I guess I better be the one to fix it,” he rumbled. His head ducked, and the next thing I knew, my head flew back as his tongue flicked my clit, and my hands gripped the blanket beneath us.
“Oh, my God,” I gasped. Silas licked, sucked, and nibbled me all the way to the edge of my orgasm, and then the fucker stopped.
He looked up at me, a smile on his face. “Jesus Christ, Ainsley. Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to stop?” he panted.
I bucked my hips and threw my hands in the air. “No one asked you to stop.” I closed my eyes, and tried not to knee him in the head for not finishing.
“I know, Lee, but I want you coming around my dick the first time.”
Cracking one eye open and looking down at him I sassed, “First time? Does that imply there will be a second?”
“Oh yeah, baby. I can even guarantee a third.” He worked his way up my body, trailing kisses the whole way. “But that first time? That first time is my dick buried deep inside you so you know who you belong to.”
I moaned as his hand slid
down between us, and his dick nudged its way into me. “I accept that,” I gasped.
“Good girl,” he whispered in my ear. He leaned back, grabbed my legs, and spread me wide as he plunged deep inside me. “I dreamed of this, Lee. I dreamed of your sweet, lush body beneath mine. Even a thousand miles apart, I needed you.”
I closed my eyes and enjoyed the feel of his body. “I think we were having the same dream.” I lost track of the times I would wake up missing having him next to me.
He fell on top of me, his arms braced on the bed, caging me in, while he pounded into me. “My Lee,” he chanted. “You’ve always been mine.”
I wrapped my arms around his waist and scraped my nails up and down his back. “Yes,” I cried.
All the years of Silas being gone melted away in those moments. He may have left, but he was back now. “Silas, please,” I cried.
His hand snaked down between us and found my clit. “Come for me, Lee. Come all over my dick.”
I threw my head back as he stroked my clit, and stars exploded behind my eyes.
“Yes,” he groaned. I opened my eyes, knowing I needed to see all of the gorgeousness that was Silas Warlack.
My pussy milked his dick, squeezing every last drop of cum from him. A low groan came from his lips, and his eyes connected with mine. “I love you,” he gasped.
My heart soared, and tears rushed to my eyes. The man who had broken my heart and left me alone, was back. “I love you, too.”
*
Chapter 9
Ainsley
“Holy crap. You are downright amazing,” Melonie gasped.
I looked around the Warlack’s living room and had to agree. I had transformed their large living and dining room into a winter wonderland with small potted trees and gorgeous poinsettias. Not to mention the twenty other arrangements scattered around the room and house.
“Yeah, even with that missing delivery truck, everything still turned out pretty awesome.”
Melonie held her bouquet out to me and slightly bowed. “I have no idea how you made this, but I know you are the master. I won’t even start gushing about how perfect the boutonnieres turned out.”
Silas: A Scrooged Christmas Page 4