Aric leaned forward, closing his eyes. His forehead met the cool surface of the mirror. The reality of the past two nights sank in. Dear God. He’d made love to Ainsley Connor. Touched her naked breasts and the satin skin of her inner thighs. He’d tasted her, feasting on her cream until his head buzzed like a drunk’s. He didn’t dare think about her lying naked in his bed. His body hurt. At thirty-two, he couldn’t spend two nights fucking more than a half dozen times without paying the price. His price had turned out to be groin muscles that complained when he walked, balls that felt tender to the touch and a cock that hesitated at the notion of another erection. Still, despite their abused state, his genitalia stirred at the thought of what he’d done to her. Apparently, even weakened by last night’s orgasms, his body couldn’t get enough of Ainsley.
But it was Sunday and Aric had limited time left with her. He still hadn’t figured out what to do. Obviously they needed to talk but he didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t even sure what he wanted, except that he didn’t want to lose his best friend—nor did he want to lose the most incredible lover he’d ever had. The thought of her going home and finding another man filled him with panic and possessiveness. She belonged to him now, and he wouldn’t stand for her dating or sleeping with another man. Hell. He wouldn’t stand for her even looking at one.
He froze as he realized he’d been so good at keeping people at arm’s length that even with the his best friend, the woman he’d known most of his life, he barely knew the first thing about her personal life. He had no idea if Ainsley was seeing someone. She could already have a lover in her life, a boyfriend, and he’d never know it. They didn’t talk about such personal things. The notion that she might already be involved with someone and he was just an itch she needed to scratch sent his thoughts spiraling into a dark pain he’d never known before.
Geez. He backed away from the mirror, running his hand over his face and around the back of his neck. He had somehow become a total basket case in the space of forty-eight hours. He had no idea one woman could wear out his body, twist his guts into knots, turn his brain to mush, screw with his carefully ordered life and fill him with aching confusion and emotional pain the likes of which he’d never known. Of course he should have known that if any woman could do that, it would be Ainsley.
He stalked softly into the bedroom. She lay facedown on the mattress. Her hair spilled across the pillows, one arm hung over the side of the bed. The sheet covered one leg and the curve of her buttocks. His gaze roamed the creamy expanse of her skin. He saw a couple of small bruises on her hip. Her skin was so delicate, the marks could have been made by the flogger or even his fingers. He’d had difficulty containing himself with her. He’d never seen a woman be so wanton and it called to a primitive part of him.
Aric opened a drawer silently and pulled out a soft, worn pair of jeans, buttoning himself into them before slipping out of the room. Standing in front of the coffeepot, watching it drip, he asked himself what would be acceptable. Let her go home? He didn’t want to but he could do that. Let her go to another man? No. Fucking. Way. Every cell in his body protested at that thought. His heart thudded painfully at the very idea.
He poured the coffee into a mug and blew on the surface to cool it, acknowledging that he had a very big problem. He didn’t want her to be involved with anyone else. He didn’t want the weekend to end. He didn’t want Ainsley to leave. To leave him. At the same time, his head was so mixed-up and his feelings so confused that he didn’t know what to say to her when it came time for her to leave. He’d never in his life felt such primal emotions. If he acted on them, he’d walk into his bedroom, take the cuffs out, chain her to the headboard and flush the key down the drain. The thought scared him shitless.
“I smell coffee.”
She stood in the bedroom doorway wearing his silk robe, her chocolate hair a wild, tumbled mess and her peridot eyes fixed downward, her lush lashes concealing their expression.
The husky tone of her voice stroked his libido, sending his aching groin into full alert. His entire body came alive with sensation at her nearness. To cover his undeniable reaction to her, he reached into a cupboard and took down a mug, filling it with the fragrant brew. He heard her soft footfalls on the carpet and then the wood floor as she came closer. Drawing a slight breath and holding it, he turned and held the cup out to her. Wary eyes met his as she took the cup, her fingertips brushing his briefly. Electricity crackled within him, his awareness of her arcing higher.
She sipped from the cup and his hungry eyes feasted on the movement of her lush lips, his own coffee forgotten. He stood staring, blood rushing in his veins, his heart racing as her scent—that tart citrus aroma overlaid with the smell of sex—filled his nostrils. She was undeniably marked with his scent just as her body bore the physical marks of his possession. Unable to suppress his reaction to the sight and smell of her, he shuddered.
“Aric?”
The soft sound of his name on her lips shattered his control. Reaching out, he took the mug from her and set it on the counter. He wrapped one hand around the back of her neck, his body beginning to shake as his bare palm touched her nape. Pulling her against his chest, he bent his head and took her mouth with his. Contentment laced with an all-consuming fire took hold of him. He wound his arms around her slender form, holding her possessively. His brain couldn’t function. He operated solely on instinct and at the moment, those instincts told him to take Ainsley into the shower and show her just what she would miss if—when—she went home.
A rough sound filled Aric’s ears as he kissed her, twining his tongue with hers. It took a few moments before he realized the sound was him, growling. She brought out every primal urge inside him and he longed to revel in them but feared scaring her off. He’d always known the caveman gene resided within him. He’d just never realized it would take two nights of sex with Ainsley to release it.
Tearing his mouth from hers, he turned her within the circle of his arms. “Bathroom. Now,” he whispered roughly in her ear as he nipped her lobe.
Ainsley moaned but her body moved to do his bidding. In the bathroom, he stripped off the silk robe she wore and ripped open the buttons on his jeans. The denim fell to the floor beside the robe. Once they both were naked, Aric pulled her over to the shower and turned it on. Water cascaded from two showerheads and steam began to fill the room.
“I love the smell of sex on your skin, the smell of me on your body,” he said softly, his hands stroking over her smooth flesh.
“I smell like cum.” Her eyes twinkled with amusement.
Emotions ripped through him, the primary one triumph. “My cum,” he agreed. “You belong to me now, Ainsley.”
She blinked and confusion clouded her pale-green eyes. “Aric, am I supposed to keep my eyes lowered now? I mean, when we’re not… Uh…” She broke off and a slight tinge of pink stained her cheekbones with embarrassment.
He should have known that his laxness with regard to how he’d treated her offer of submission would lead to such confusion. Hell, he was just as confused, but in a much bigger, long-term way. She was confused about how to behave. He was confused about his life.
He put two fingers beneath her chin and angled her head up so that she could see his face, his expression. “Every Dom is different, Ains. Each has their own requirements. Between you and me, because of our long-standing history with one another, unless I specifically tell you to lower your eyes or unless we are in a scene where I expect that from you… No.” He brushed a quick kiss across her lips. “I would be a fool to think that you could be anything other than the forceful personality you’ve always been.”
Her eyes darkened with some unnamed emotion. “If you asked me to, I would do it. I would do anything for you, Aric. Don’t you know that?”
Elation stabbed him, letting rays of blinding sunshine into his soul. He knew her words were important, that they meant something special, but he shoved them aside to concentrate on the moment. “You’ve al
ways been your own person, Ains. I can’t take that away from you. It’s one of the things I lo—admire the most about you.”
Surprised at how easily the L-word had nearly slipped from him, Aric turned away, adjusting the water and stepping into the shower. His heart thundered at his slip and his mind swirled around the word that had almost left his mouth. He couldn’t go there yet. He needed time to think and he couldn’t think with Ainsley’s naked body so close to his.
Again he shoved his thoughts and emotions aside. He drew a deep breath and turned to her, holding out his hand. She placed hers in it, letting him draw her into the warm water. As he washed her body, watching the soap suds glide down her skin, he couldn’t help but think about her words.
Ainsley wasn’t the type of woman who gave herself lightly. It had taken a lot for her to ask him for this and to give herself to him, let alone submit to what he’d asked of her. He stared down into her beautiful face, feelings he couldn’t label tugging at his heart. Cupping her head in his hands, Aric kissed her again. He took his time, letting his mouth move on hers slowly, building the heat between them deliberately. She watched him as he kissed her, eyes wide open, her expression moving from caution to passion.
When he deepened the kiss, his tongue sweeping into her mouth to flick over her teeth and tangle with her tongue, she shivered. Her diamond-hard nipples grazed his chest, sending little zings of lust through him. With one arm lodged comfortably around her waist, he let the other hand explore. He stroked his palm over the elegant lines of her back, then his fingertips skated along the taut curve of her buttocks and finally he dragged his palm over the sensitive curve of her ass.
“Oh Aric.”
Her whispered moan pushed him over the edge. Angling her against the side of the shower, he palmed one thigh, lifting her leg up over his hip. He slipped his hand down to tease the swollen flesh between her legs. The feel of her slick heat on his fingertips had his semi-erect cock hard in moments. His earlier soreness seemed a thing of the past as his body reacted to her arousal. His heart contracted painfully on a rush of emotion and his body surrendered to the lure of her flesh.
With a wriggle of his hips, Aric positioned his cock at her entrance. An onslaught of feelings swamped him, confusing him at the same time that it fueled his need to make love to her without all the trappings of his dominance. Just the two of them, their bodies engaged in a sexual act driven by affection, passion and an unbelievable level of lust. He wanted it more than he wanted his next breath. Had the end of the world threatened in that moment, he would not have cared. He rocked his hips, pressing his cock deep within her tight channel, her body clasping him so tightly that he could barely move. With Ainsley in his arms, her pussy wrapped around his cock like wet satin, he didn’t care about anything else. The sum total of his existence had become centered on the woman he held and who held him.
Thrusting into her, he broke their kiss and nipped and sucked at her neck, throat and shoulders. The urge to mark her as his drove him to suck on her soft skin harder than he normally would have. Water fell gently on them, steam rising in fine clouds from the showerheads. Aric pushed her against the side of the shower and hitched her leg up higher so that his cock slid deeper within her.
Ainsley’s hands clutched at his shoulders and she clung to him, her body rocking into his rhythm. She trembled in his clasp, quivering with each of his thrusts. The flush that rose to her chest and the little gasps that escaped her lips tripped his sensual radar and pointed to her imminent orgasm. He lifted her feet from the floor with the increased tempo of his thrusts, the uncontrolled clenching of her thighs around his hips indicating that her ecstasy was within his grasp.
Locking his arm around her to hold her weight steady, he slipped his other hand down between their bodies. Ainsley’s breath hitched. Her eyes met his, their gazes locked.
“Aric,” she whispered hoarsely.
His balls drew tight to his body and the familiar spiraling tension uncoiled from the base of his spine, heat spreading throughout his lower body as his pleasure rushed toward completion. Aric pressed his forehead to Ainsley’s, his breath sounding loud and harsh in the small space.
“Now, Ains. Come for me,” he grunted and pinched her swollen clit between his thumb and forefinger.
Her eyes widened as her body convulsed. A squeak of sound emerged from her mouth and she slid her arms around his shoulders, clinging tightly to him. She took his mouth in an aggressive kiss that had his eyelids slamming down, stars spinning against their darkness. The explosion of his orgasm centered within his cock and balls, the reverberations rippling outward and making him shake with reaction. His cum spurted endlessly, or so it seemed, within the tight clasp of Ainsley’s pussy.
Aric’s mind spun as again he experienced one of the strongest orgasms of his life. His knees felt weak and his breath burned in his chest. The taste of Ainsley’s kiss was sweeter and hotter than any he’d received in twenty years of kissing girls. And it left him totally wrecked.
They leaned against each other until they could breathe easily once more. Then they washed each other leisurely. Once dried and dressed in jeans and t-shirts, they made brunch together, falling into their old familiar friendly ways. Aric needed the space the mundane tasks provided. The enormity of what had happened between them and what that meant for the future sat like a specter in a shadowy corner of the room where he refused to look. He felt confused and completely out of his element.
Keeping things neutral seemed to be the best way to spend the day if they weren’t going to head back to the bedroom, so they ended up on the couch watching football. Aric sensed the tension lying just beneath the surface of Ainsley’s quiet demeanor. He felt the same tension within himself. More sex was out of the question. His body had pretty much given up the ghost in that department, demanding a respite. He could tell that Ainsley felt the same. They both sat limply on the couch, obviously satisfied but exhausted.
Aric’s base instincts hadn’t all been swamped by exhaustion, however. Ainsley’s scent teased his senses and he sat as close to her as he could without touching. By halftime, he couldn’t take it any longer and he stretched his arm along the back of the couch, his fingers tangling instantly in her hair. He rubbed the satiny strands between his fingertips, content to touch that little bit of her.
“My flight leaves in a couple of hours.”
The words crashed into his contentment, sending panic racing through him. Aric swallowed hard, his heart thudding erratically. Shit! He blinked his eyes closed and drew a deep breath before he reopened them. Ainsley stared at him warily.
“I’d almost forgotten,” he replied, trying to keep his voice neutral and even. “But I guess we could probably use some space to think about this thing between us.” He swallowed hard again. “You should go home.”
Aric was trying to convince himself more than Ainsley. His instincts set off alarm bells inside him. He didn’t want her to leave, but he couldn’t tell her to stay either. The specter of their changed relationship and clouded future left the shadowy corner and loomed over him. It reminded him of how much he enjoyed being with Ainsley, how intensely he wanted her to stay and how easy it had been for him to let go of his lifestyle.
“You want me to leave?” Ainsley’s incredulous tone shook him to the core.
“Yes. No! I— Geez, Ains,” he sputtered, feeling as if someone had just put his self-confidence in the paper shredder. “It’s just that I guess we need some space to think about this.”
Ainsley scooted away from him on the couch. She rose to her feet, her green eyes glittering. “Don’t include me in your ‘we’, Aric. I can think and speak for myself.” She frowned at him. Anger and something else, something that looked like pain, suffused her face. “What do you think is going to happen now? What do you want from me? From this? Tell me what you’re thinking!”
He knew that her exasperation was wholly warranted. He hadn’t dealt with any of it correctly.
“I don’t
know what to think, Ains. This weekend has been…weird. Strange. Unbelievable. God, I don’t know what to feel, let alone know what to do. You’ve turned me inside out, and I just want to toss you over my shoulder, carry you back to bed and chain you to it so no other man can ever have what you gave me.” His breath came out in frustrated puffs as he struggled to find the words to explain himself.
“What? First you tell me to go home, that we both need some space. Now you tell me you want to chain me to your bed. Just what the hell do you want, Aric?”
“I can’t answer that. I don’t know what I want,” he gritted out, fear and anger warring within him. “All I know is that you’ve seriously fucked with my head.”
“I see. I fucked with you.” Ainsley’s eyes dropped to the floor as she turned away. “I’ll just get my things. I have a flight to catch.”
Panic flooded Aric. He was so messed up inside his own head over her that nothing he said came out right. She took a few steps away from him and he lunged off the couch and caught her arm, spinning her around.
“No. You’re not going anywhere,” he growled, knowing he had probably bruised her arm with his grip and confused her with his contradictory words.
Ainsley’s eyes closed as if she couldn’t bear to see him. “Please, Aric. This is difficult enough. Please don’t make it harder,” she whispered.
“Why is it hard? I want to know, Ainsley. I felt all along that there was something behind you coming here and offering to be my sub. Tell me what’s going on.” The panic inside him raged, nibbling at his control until fear began to creep in too.
She hung her head, the sleek, dark hair spilling over her face. Beneath his hand, her body trembled. After a moment, she raised her head and Aric nearly gasped aloud. Pain darkened her eyes to forest green. A white line of tension encircled her full pink lips, making them pinched and paler than usual. He had the fleeting thought that this was the real Ainsley, this was the woman who’d been hiding inside his best friend for years.
Insolence Page 5