Oceanside

by Michelle Mankin

  I rolled it on quickly, smoothed my hand over my length to make certain it was properly applied, and suddenly her hands were there, too.

  “Hurry,” she urged me, her fingers frantic.

  Dropping one hand to the bed, I found her with the other. She was soaked, her clit taut. We aligned my cock together. Her hips lifted, and I surged inside her. Sheathed, blunt tip to hilt, she took all of me.

  “Look at me, little rose.” She opened her eyes. The candles flickered on her face. “We’re joined now. We’re one. You’re so beautiful,” I praised, stroking shallow and plunging in deep, gliding along the gloss of her palpable desire with the steely edge my own.

  “You’re so,” she trailed off. “So…mmm.” Her lids fluttered half-closed while I stroked in and out of her, ecstasy clawing at me already desperate to be released. “So perfect.”

  “Grab my ass, gypsy.”

  She grabbed. I started to move faster, lust tearing through me, my shallow strokes shallower and my deep ones deeper.

  Feeling her slick heat clenching around me, I groaned.

  She gripped me tighter, her channel tightening rhythmically around me. “Ash,” she panted, her nails digging into my ass

  “Fanny,” I praised. She started to tremble, lifting her hips, seeking more, giving me more even as she received. I started pounding inside her. Deep so deep.

  “Fanny,” I groaned, my cock swelling inside of her.

  “Ash,” she praised, and I felt it hit her. Her nails tight on my ass. Her cunt tighter around my engorged cock. “Oh, Ash. Oh, Ash.” Her eyes fluttering closed. Shudders racked my body as she gave it all to me. Everything. And I gave it back to her, all of me in return, wave after wave filling the condom as I thrust deep inside her.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Fanny

  Sitting up in the bed, I watched him go into the bathroom to dispose of the condom. Ash in a towel had been one thing. Ash with his powerful masculine body totally nude was a mind-blowing experience.

  Oh and then there was the sex…

  I collapsed back into the bed, totally sated. Gathering the top sheet we had rumpled to my nose, I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Ash asked. “Are you sniffing the sheets?”

  “Your scent. Yours and mine mixed together.

  “For real?” He rolled his eyes as he climbed back into bed. Whipping the sheet up and getting under it with me, he grabbed me and drew me into his side.

  “Yours is divine. All sea air and citrus.” I curled in closer. Throwing my arm around his lean waist and my thigh over his strong legs, I melded myself to him and his warmth. “If only I could duplicate it and put it in a bottle. Lotion, shampoo, the works. I’d make a fortune.”

  On his back, he draped his arm around me and drew my body more firmly into his. My breasts were crushed into his solid side. I was already clinging to him my pussy smashed against his hard thigh, wrapped around him without any space between us. But apparently all that melding I had been doing hadn’t been close enough.

  “You been thinking about your business?”

  “Um, no, not really. I mean, how could I? I just had the best sex of my entire life with the man I… with the one I…”

  Too soon Fanny, I cautioned myself. It was too soon to make a declaration.

  “Best I ever had,” I concluded lamely.

  “What we did just now wasn’t sex, Fanny.” He turned to look at me, his expression hard. “Or fucking. Or fooling around. I’ve had enough experience with those lesser things to know the difference. I was making love to you just then. Another first for me.”

  “Ash, I…”

  “It’s ok,” he interrupted, the stroking motion of his fingers on my skin stilling then starting again. “I’ll go slower this next time to be sure you don’t fail to notice the difference.” The soft up and down motion of his caress on my arm was making my nipples points and me shivery and all turned on again.

  “I’ve only been with you once,” I defended myself. How was I supposed to make a comparison?

  “Don’t worry, little one. You’ll get plenty more opportunities to clarify things in your mind.”

  “Oh?”

  “Definitely. And as long as we’re clearing things up. It’s only you and me from now on. No one else. I realize circumstances were such that you couldn’t contact your boyfriend while we were seeing what happened between us. But circumstances have definitely changed. And we’ve certainly seen what’s between us. I want you to let that country singer know as soon as possible that it’s over between you two.”

  “A little possessive, are you?”

  “Oh yeah. Another first. A very important one. Just you. Just me. No sharing. Ever.” He shifted, climbed up over me, caging me in between his arms. I saw that flicker of light in his eyes again. The one I’d seen when I had told him that he had given me more than just the kiss to treasure. “With you everything is different, Fanny. Let me show you what I mean.”

  And he proceeded to do just that.

  Lowering his head, he kissed me long and slow. His firm lips suctioned mine. He glided his tongue in and out until I was drunk on his taste, sucking each time he plunged it inside my mouth. I slid my hand up his sinewy arms, clinging to him, his skin heated and the muscles beneath it steel. Even though I was lying flat on my back on the bed, his considerable weight pinning me beneath him, I found I needed something to hold on. He made me lightheaded. He made me hot. He made me want. And very quickly his kisses weren’t enough.

  “Ash.” I tore my mouth from his somehow. I mean for a guy who’d only had the one kiss. He was really, really good at it.

  “What do you want, little one.” He stared down at me, his features tight, his eyes gleaming with masculine satisfaction. “You’re squirming.”

  I was actually.

  I arched again, rubbing my hard nipples against the smooth skin of his harder chest. “You know what I want.”

  His brow rose. “Not what you just said.”

  “I want…” I wiggled trying to reposition. I could feel his cock thick and hot against my trembling thigh. “I want you to make love to me.”

  His eyes flared. “My pleasure to do so.” Contrary to his words he eased back. “Open your legs.” I did so immediately, and he slid down, the tempered strength of his body gliding over the ripening curves of mine my nipples scoring his perspiration slick skin. On his knees now his hard thighs wedged between my spread legs, he placed his palm between my breasts to hold me in place while he reached for another condom. Grabbing one, he brought it to his own mouth this time, put the edge of the packet between his sculpted lips and ripped it open with his perfect white teeth. He rolled it on his long thick throbbing length while I watched him, enraptured. His gaze was dark when he lifted it, his lids heavy as were my own. My lips were parted to allow for my rapid breaths.

  “You want me again?”

  “Yes.” I nodded.

  He lowered his gaze and ran his middle finger through my wetness. One long, slow, leisurely swipe. From the base of my pussy to my throbbing clit.

  I moaned, lifting my hips wantonly.

  “You’re ready,” he confirmed.

  He removed his palm from my chest, planting it in the bed beside my head instead. The mattress dipping, his biceps flexed as he balanced his weight on one arm and drove his hot cock into me.

  “Ash,” I moaned, staring up at him. “You feel so good.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed, his gaze on where we were joined. “A perfect fit.” He lifted his gaze. His expression intense, his eyes darkly possessive, he brought his free hand toward my mouth. I lifted my hands, fastened my fingers around his wrist guessing his intention and guided him. He pressed his fingers to my mouth and dipped his middle finger inside. I tasted myself, a tangy flavor that burst on my tongue. “Suck me while I make love to you,” he told me.

  And I did. He plunged his finger in between my lips slowly. He pumped his cock inside o
f me in the same easy rhythm. Long wet and beguilingly slow. Over. And over. And over again. It felt so good I started to whimper around his finger. Each plunge in my mouth, each time his cock sank deep inside me made me shiver and tremble. I was so close. I turned my head to the side, his finger dragging wetness across my cheek.

  “Ash, please.” I couldn’t articulate. “I need…I’m almost.” I blew out a breath.

  “I know.” He planted his other hand in the bed and used the additional leverage to root his cock deeper inside me.

  “Yes,” I said, and grabbed his ass, my nails imprinting half-moon crescents into his taut skin. “So good.” He thrust in and out, his stiff cock sawing pleasure over my pulsing clit. Then he did it again, accelerating his thrusts, filling me again, and again with so much heat. I couldn’t maintain his gaze. I squeezed my eyes shut straining for it. My climax like a dark celestial star inside of me threatened to implode. Hard. Relentless. Need. It spiraled as he speared his cock into me. Again. High. Then again. Higher. And then I was there. We both were.

  “Ash?” I cried out his name, pleasure rushing over me taking me higher than I had ever been before. “I love you.”

  “Fanny,” he groaned, making my name beautiful, making us something that we hadn’t been before as he stiffened and released inside of me.

  I recognized the difference. I felt it inside my heart.

  Not just making love. Making me love him.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Ashland

  “What are you doing all the way over there?”

  “Watching the sunrise,” she answered without turning from the window. I saw our refection in the glass, as I slid my hands under the hem of the shirt she was wearing. My shirt, it gave me a surge of satisfaction to note. “Mmm.” She leaned her head back onto my shoulder as I glided my hands over her thighs and cupped her delectable heart shaped ass. I knew every contour because I had explored with my eyes and my hands many times throughout the night. During our last go round in the shower I’d even had a gentle nibble or two.

  “Did you sleep much?” I asked her. I had slept more soundly than I could ever remember. Dreaming I was floating on my board with her in my arms on calm waters in a safe lagoon until I had flipped over in my sleep and felt her absence.

  “Not really.”

  “Why not?” I turned her around. The backdrop of the ocean and the pink sky framed her face and her beautiful form.

  “Worrying, I guess.” She placed her delicate hands on my skin and spread them across my chest watching her own movements a long moment before she lifted her head. Her brow scrunched. “Last night was wonderful. Making love, falling asleep in your arms afterward, I want more of that, but…”

  “So do I. I told you.”

  “I know. It’s just that there’s a lot of practical stuff between wanting and having what we want. I think we both understand that.”

  “Yes.” My gut started to churn.

  “Ok. Well, one of the things that worries me is how public my life is going to be when I step out that door. There’s going to be a lot of questions about you and me, and I just wanted to be sure to answer them the way you want me to.”

  “Don’t answer them at all. It’s none of their business.”

  “That’s not realistic.” Her expression turned more melancholy. “Can we agree on something? An arrangement is fine. It might even be easier. People will believe that. It might make me look naive. But they’ll already think that. Like you said because you’re who you are, and I’m me. Not that it makes a difference. It’s just to the world looking in at us that’s what they’ll see.”

  “Fucking hell.”

  “Yeah.” She blew out a breath. “So arrangement it is. What about your sexual orientation? It’ll likely be one of the first things they hit me with.”

  “Again, none of their fucking business.”

  I took a step away from her, turning to the window, looking out and centering myself on the waves. Breathing in, breathing out.

  “I’m sorry. Sorry I brought this all raining down on you. I know you’re a very private person.”

  “I don’t want you to apologize, Fanny. You being in my life is the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” I stretched out my arm. She walked past it directly into my body and wrapped her arms around my waist. I laid my arm around her shoulder and dipped my head to kiss the top of hers. She smelled like the sun setting on a long winter. Like a field of flowers opening up to the first touch of the spring. Like hope. She was everything I wanted. But she was right. There was always a price to pay for getting what we want.

  “The idea of an arrangement as far as the public is concerned is fine. As long as you remember that it’s not the truth. Not even close. As far as my sexual orientation, I hate and I mean I truly loathe that term. In the past I fucked who I wanted to fuck. It was only about physical attraction. But I loved who I loved, meaning just Linc, because of the person he was inside. The body is just a shell. The essence is the spirit. That’s why I fell in love with him. If his soul had been inside a female body I would have loved him the same. Gender doesn’t factor for me. It’s not an orientation, it’s just me. It’s who I am.”

  “You’re the one with a beautiful soul.” She squeezed me tighter. “That’s an eloquent explanation but it’s all very personal. Is that what you want me to say?”

  “I want you to say no comment or refer them to me. And I’ll tell them the same thing. I’m not out to change the world, Fanny. Behind the scenes, I’m active with certain organizations. You know I don’t tolerate abuse, mistreatment or bullying behavior whatever the reason or form it may take. But I just want to be free to live my life as I see fit.”

  “Which brings us back to us. How do you see us moving forward?”

  “Together. Whatever happens. I already talked some with Linc about it before I even kissed you.” I turned her toward me again. I needed to see her eyes. This was always the question for me with her. How to make two very different separate parts into a whole.

  The answer I had been searching for, it was in her gaze.

  And in the words she had spoken last night.

  But there was more to it, I realized. More to love than just knowing how you felt about someone and saying the words. There was so much more. Things we had just started to do. All those things she had noticed about me and her. Actions. Faith. Trust. Letting down your guard. And working out your problems together.

  “So,” I began.

  “Fanny!” Hollie yelled, banging on the door to the bedroom.

  “Just a sec, Hols.”

  “I’m so sorry I let him come up. I didn’t realize…”

  “Fanny.” A different voice. A male one. She stiffened, the eyes I had been staring into so intently widening as they slid to the side. “I need to see you. I want to know what’s going on. Right now.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Fanny

  “I know, Tristan. I’m sorry you came all this way, but it doesn’t change how things are.” I certainly had no clue how he had convinced Olivia to let him follow her down from LA but here he was with her. Here we all were with lots of angry vibes zapping, radiating between the two alpha males in the room.

  “I came because of what we have… had.” He ran his hands through his long brown hair. “And I wanted to see for myself that you were ok.” He leaned forward from his seat on the couch to me and where I sat on the nearby chair.

  “I am. I’m well.”

  “I’ll take your word for it. I can certainly see that things are different for us now. It’s just hard to accept.” I felt the intensity of Ash’s interest spike. He sat at the table with Hollie and her agent, eating breakfast, but since Tristan and I had started talking I hadn’t heard one fork clang or a single dish clank.

  “Yes, I understand. A lot’s changed. It’s abrupt and unsettling when you’re outside the process of that occurring.” I realized now looking back that I had never let Tristan in the way I should have. If I had tr
uly loved him the way he deserved, fully trusted him, I would have confided to him about Hollie’s circumstances before we had fled. “I’m sorry you had to find out this way.” My hands fluttered. If my sister and I hadn’t been in hiding I would have ended things with him before Ash had even kissed me. Tristan reached for me his fingers closing around my wrists.

  “Take your hands off her, Murphy.” Chair legs screeched across wood. Dishes rattled. “Or I’ll do it for you,” Ashland growled, his voice much closer. “Your choice.”

  “I can’t talk to you here.” Tristan chose to let them go. “I’ll come see you in LA after the press conference.”

  “Like hell you will.”

  “Ash,” I turned my head to find him standing right behind my chair, so of course I had to crane my neck back to look up at him. “I appreciate your concern.” Ash was a gorgeous Norse god towering over me, but more importantly than his looks, he held the key to my heart. Tristan was a handsome, boy next door type, a sweet, thoughtful guy I had hoped would help me forget about Ash. But seeing him today I realized that day would never have happened. Ash set too high a standard in my eyes for any guy to ever measure up. “But it’s ok. I’ve got this. I don’t need protection from Tristan. He’s not going to hurt me.”

  “Still, you keep your hands where I can see ‘em,” Ash insisted.

  “Fine. So Fanny,” he returned his gaze to me. “You’ve made your choice then?” Disbelief was evident in his tone. “You don’t even want to hear what I have to say?”

  “I’m sorry. I love him. It wasn’t anything I planned.” It was inevitable really, since I had never fully gotten over Ash in the first place. “I never meant to hurt you.”

  “Yeah you’ve said that already. It’s starting to hit me.” He gave me a wry look. “I really thought we had something special. Never considered moving in with anyone before. Definitely never considered getting married and the future and all. But seeing you with my little niece and nephew this Christmas, listening to you sing to them before I tucked them into bed, hearing your laughter as you played hide and seek with them, well it made me think about starting a family of my own and us giving the little house and white picket fence thing a try together.”