by Mika Lane
“Hey,” Hale said, leaning in to kiss her cheek. “It’s just me.”
Isabella and Boone both watched with great interest.
“Hi,” Aurora said softly. “Do you mind if we get out of here?”
“Sure. Where to?”
“My place okay? Can I put my bike in your car?”
“Of course.” He ran his hand up her back and she shivered to her core.
Hale extended his hand to Boone and then placed a kiss on Isabella’s cheek. “Next time, we’ll all enjoy a beer together.”
“Yeah, man,” Boone said, patting Hale on the back.
Once outside, Hale unlocked Aurora’s bike and removed the front wheel. After loading his car, he turned to her. “I was surprised to hear from you. But happy, too.”
“Oh good. I’m glad. I wasn’t sure.”
He slammed the trunk closed and pulled her toward him. “Baby, I’m always happy to hear from you.” His lips pressed into her hair and he inhaled her scent.
Okay, heart pounding full speed.
She gently pulled away from him. If they started now, they’d never get to her place.
On the short ride to her house, they held hands. It was delicious and comforting and safe, even if she had a conversation ahead that might be hard.
Once inside, Hale gravitated toward her sliding glass door that offered a view of the glittering lights of Marin and San Francisco. “I can see why you love this house.”
“I do love it.” She set a bottle of wine and two glasses on the coffee table. Hale got to work on the cork and then poured. His authority was mesmerizing.
“Organic wine? Where do you even find this?” he asked.
“Oh, it’s everywhere. You know how Marin County is. Land of the hot tubs and vegetarians.”
He laughed. “Yeah. I know it well.”
He must have noticed her wringing her hands. Setting down the wine, he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
Why does he do that? I can’t think straight.
She took a gulp of her wine and put her glass down. “I owe you an apology. I was a jerk to be so hard on you and not just appreciate that you were trying to—”
“Stop.” His finger pressed to her lips. “Don’t say anything else.”
“But, I—”
“Shhh. It’s all good. It really is.”
Aurora leaned back on the sofa. She tilted her head at him. Could he really forgive her that easily?
“I appreciate that Hale. But I need to explain myself.” She sipped her wine. “I haven’t done a good job of putting all that happened in New York behind me. I thought moving across the country would do it, but obviously, when push came to shove, I’d not made much progress at all.”
“Baby, I told you—“
“Wait. Let me speak. Please. I pushed you away because I couldn’t risk getting fucked over like that again. But then it sank into my stubborn little head that you are a different person. And you shouldn’t be judged by the actions of another. I want to say I’m sorry.”
“I get that,” he said. “And I made a mistake, too. You were right to get pissed. Let’s put it behind us now. Okay?”
She nodded slowly, and for the umpteenth time in a month, tried to swallow down the lump in her throat. But before she had another thought, Hale’s lips were on hers, and she melted into him, tingles firing through every pore.
“Mmmm, so beautiful,” he murmured, fingering her long curls. He kissed her forehead, nose, and returned to her lips.
As if he could sense her excitement, he sat up, slowly raising her dress, his gaze locked with hers. He hooked a finger into the waistband of her lacy panties and stopped. With a devilish grin, he asked, “May I?”
“Yes, you may, Mr. Saxon.”
With a small tug, her panties slipped over her ass and fell to the floor. Hale laid her back on the sofa. He ran his hands from her breasts down to her thighs and then held her knees. Pushing them up to her chest, he left her sex open and exposed. His fingers slid up and down between her lips, and her moans suggested approval. He got closer to draw in her aroma.
“God, baby, such a beautiful pussy.”
When she wiggled her hips to increase the pressure of his fingers against her sex, he withdrew. “Hey, hey. How about a little patience?”
“Don’t tease me, Hale,” she begged, adding a nice pout for effect.
“All right. I won’t.” And before she realized what he was doing, he dove between her legs, his tongue tormenting her so ferociously that she threw back her head and cried out.
She spoke in gasps. “Oh, god, Hale. I can’t take it.”
He pulled back. “Can’t take what?”
“I want to come. I need to come.” Her own hand wandered down to her throbbing pussy, but he pushed it away.
He spread her folds to thumb her hard clit. “Baby needs to come?”
“Please, Hale.”
“All right, darling.” He reached in his back pocket and produced a condom. His boxers and jeans fell to the floor. He wrapped his hard length and was ready to go.
“One thing first. I’m gonna taste you some more.” His tongue flicked her clit as one of his fingers entered her hungry pussy.
She began to writhe. “Hale, Hale. I’m gonna come.”
He looked up from between her legs. “Yeah, baby? You close?”
“God, yeah.”
He positioned his erect cock at her opening and entered her a fraction of an inch. Her hunger for more overtook her every thought.
“Please, Hale. Give it to me.”
“Here it comes, baby.” With one thrust of his hips, he was balls-deep inside her.
Aurora’s head snapped back from the pleasure and pain of having been entered so ferociously. She screamed, “Yes! Fuck me, Hale,” until her voice was hoarse. Her pussy contracted around his cock, squeezing him as she came. Shudders took control of her body as she let go.
Gripping her, Hale gasped for air as he slammed her pussy over and over. With his cock buried to the hilt, and her legs tight around him, she knew her inner thighs would later ache. He growled deeply as he shot his load.
As she caught her breath, he kept pumping, hard enough for her to cry out in one last orgasm.
“God, Hale,” she whispered, as her pussy contracted around his hard cock.
He collapsed, aiming his weight next to her on the sofa.
As she stroked his hair, he burrowed his face in her neck and mumbled things she couldn’t make out. But it didn’t matter. She didn’t need to understand his words to know his meaning.
“Jesus,” he muttered when he could speak again.
“Hale?”
“Yeah, baby.”
“Why the hell is your license plate SPDRCR anyway? Speed Racer was such a dork,” Aurora said.
He pulled his face out of the sofa to look at her. “What! Speed Racer was not a dork. No way, absolutely not. I loved those reruns when I was a kid. Speed Racer was the man.”
“All right. But to put it on your license plate? That’s kind of dork—”
“Yeah, yeah. Enough of that, Miss Ball Buster.” He looked at her with a fake-stern frown. She stuck her tongue out at him, and he reach around to play-slap her ass.
Time for some serious.
“Hale, I want you to understand that I have plans. Plans to live a different life than I would have had in New York. I’m learning how to do that. And, as you’ve seen, I am still fumbling.”
He semi-sat up to look at her.
“I know, and I respect that about you.” Hale kissed her on the forehead. “I respect that a lot. In fact, I was wondering if I might fit into those plans.”
“In what way?”
“You know I have a house in Sonoma, and it’s kind of empty…”
Her heart jumped. In a matter of moments, she swung back and forth between fear and pure, unsullied happiness. She decided to stick with happiness.
To hell with you, fear.
One day, she knew,
her fear would be gone forever. Until then, she had Hale. And that was more than enough.
THE END
Devi’s Bliss continues in Gaia…
Devi’s Bliss: a story of Gaia
Book 5
Prologue
“Come with me,” Luke said, grabbing her hand.
She ran after him, laughing, her high heels clicking on the pavement. They ducked into a smaller alley between two buildings.
“I’ve wanted to kiss you since the moment you walked in,” he said, holding her face.
They stared at each other. And a sense of calm washed over her.
Everything’s going to be okay.
And when she accepted him, two years of pain and sadness found their place. They didn’t go away; she knew they never would. But they became part of her rather than defining her. Their suffocating weight was balanced with something new. She deserved this, this nice guy, and this happiness. She deserved to live.
Devi’s Bliss: a story of Gaia
Chapter 1
Fucking San Francisco. The town she loved. And the town she loved to bitch about.
Balenciaga. Hermes. Louis Vuitton.
Who in god’s name shopped in these places? Gaia Moon sure as hell didn’t.
Despite the great living she made in sensual massage at the famed Devi’s Bliss spa, she still didn’t have, and probably never would, the budget for a three-thousand-dollar dress. Or a four-thousand-dollar handbag.
Sure, she enjoyed the occasional foray to Neiman Marcus, but only when they were having their huge semi-annual sales. Then, she could get her hands on something she’d been watching for weeks. Like that time she got the Jimmy Choo heels that’d been marked down four times. That felt good.
And then there was the Chanel boutique—where you had to be buzzed in. As she walked the last block to her sister’s shop, she spied a gaggle of Japanese tourists waiting at the Chanel boutique’s door. That’s who kept these businesses thriving, the tourists who descended on the city twelve months out of the year.
No way did San Franciscans shop at places like this. One, the city was already too damn expensive to shop anywhere other than GAP. And two, the whole Bay Area was so casual that it was the North Faces of the world that were raking it in, with their fleece jackets and down puffers. Unless of course, you were Danielle Steel. If you were Danielle Steel, you could live in a mansion on a hill—like she did—and shop at Chanel. She could manage both.
Gaia was almost at the end of Maiden Lane, one of the few pedestrian-only streets in the city. It, too, was lined with high-end stores. This was downtown San Francisco, after all. But these shops were a bit more geared toward mere mortals like herself. Not the uber-rich tourist. Or romance novelist.
The irony of Maiden Lane tickled her. The street, with its chic cashmere shops and ritzy home linen stores, was once one of the most notorious in all of San Francisco. Back in the gold rush days, it had earned its name for the maidens of the night who were available for the right price by the rough and tumble men building the burgeoning city.
But one-hundred-fifty years later, Maiden Lane was a different sort of place. And it had been good to her and her older sister, Tabitha, who owned the sexy little lingerie shop called Kiki’s. She was headed there now, to open shop.
She pushed her key into the large, French doors’ lock and stepped inside to disable the alarm. Flipping on the lights, she approached the wrap desk, where purchases were paid for and packaged, to find the to-do list her sister always left her.
Yes.
The number one thing Big Sis needed on this particular day was to have Gaia to unpack the new merchandise their hot UPS guy had delivered the day before. It didn’t get much better than that, opening boxes of beautiful silks and laces, delicate thongs, and revealing brassieres. Tabitha always saved that favored task for Gaia. Who didn’t love to pretend it was Christmas several times a month, year round?
After lighting scattered, scented candles and setting the shop’s Pandora station to French Café, Gaia got to work. She’d learned the hard way how to unpack, having once sliced several silk nighties with a box cutter in her eagerness to get inside a package. Ever since that time, when she’d ruined some very pricey merchandise, she’d opened each shipment slowly and gingerly, as if the contents were made of delicate glass.
The bell on the front door tinkled, breaking Gaia’s box-cutting concentration. A tall gentleman wandered in, taking in the beautiful merchandise and looking more than a bit overwhelmed. Gaia straightened her dress and walked a few steps toward him.
Get close enough to be helpful, but not close enough to chase them away.
“Good morning, sir. Please let me know if I can help you find anything.”
Startled, he looked around, as if to see where the greeting had come from. When he met her gaze, his head tilted politely, and he walked toward her.“I could use some help, if you don’t mind.”
Even in her heels, the five-foot-nine Gaia had to look up at him. Not that she minded. He was quite devastating in his dark-wash blue jeans and white, tucked-in shirt, not to mention his sexy, slightly askew mouth. Not unlike her late husband, Dan. But now was not the time for those thoughts.
The problem, not that it really was a problem, was that men who visited lingerie shops were usually there to shop for women. Unless they were shopping for themselves, which they never admitted. They just bought some of the largest sizes the shop carried. Not that anyone cared. A sale was a sale, and this was San Francisco, after all.
As Mr. Devastating approached her, she got a whiff of plain soap and deodorant.
Mmmm. Nothing better.
She was not a fan of men who wore cologne. It was trying too hard. And that was decisively not a turn on. Outward vanity in a man was, well, not manly.
“What are you looking for today?” she asked.
“I’m shopping for my wife.” He fingered a blue silk nightgown. “This is pretty.”
Of course. They’re all shopping for their wives. Especially the ones who were shopping for girlfriends and mistresses. They always said wife.
“What do you think she’d like?”
“Well, it’s our anniversary. So, something special.”
“Of course. What a lucky lady. We have some amazing things to choose from. What does she look like?”
“Sexy. Beautiful.” He looked directly at her. “Like you.”
Oh, snap.
Heat splashed across Gaia’s face, and she knew it was followed by a blush of the hottest pink. Thanks to her redhead coloring, there was no hiding embarrassment or an assortment of other emotions. Particularly when she’d been complimented by the kind of man she’d like to take to the back of the store to show her appreciation. But she was nothing if not professional.
“Why, thank you. That’s very nice.” On shaking legs, she walked over to a display of sheer lace gowns, and took a moment to compose herself in light of the heat now building between her legs. After pretending to search the rack, she pulled a random nightie out and held it to him.“Something like this?”
He moved closer and fingered the lace, his hand brushing hers. Gaia’s heart pounded from the proximity. When he gazed at her, her heart skipped.
“This is perfect. Do you have it in a size six?”
She rustled through the garments and produced one. “Would you like to see a matching robe?”
“Great idea. Please.”
Gaia pulled out a second garment of the same exquisite lace, a robe with scalloped front edges and a big silk tie belt.
He nodded slowly. “Wow. That’s really something.”
She held the pieces side by side. “Amazing, aren’t they?”
He glanced at his watch. “I’ll take those. Could you wrap them for me?”
“Absolutely.”
She folded and wrapped, with one eye on Mr. Devastating, who leaned on the counter, scrolling through his phone. He handed over his credit card. “Is Kiki’s your place?”
; “No, it’s my sister’s. But I help her quite a bit.” In her nervousness, she fumbled with the tape dispenser. It went crashing to the floor, just missing her foot.
“Oh, yeah? What is it you do?”
“I’m a masseuse at Devi’s Bliss. Do you know it? The spa in Marin?” She squirmed discretely in her panties, which were growing quite wet.
He furrowed his brow. “No, I’ve never heard of it. I don’t get to Marin that often.”
Maybe you should.
She passed him a large shopping bag, hoping he wouldn’t notice her shaking hand.
“Thanks so much for your help. I’ll be back here for the next special occasion.”
“That would be lovely.”
Very, very lovely.
He was gone, and how the hell was she going to focus now?
She dashed to the front door and peeked out as Mr. Devastating disappeared down the block. It was early yet, and Maiden Lane’s sidewalks were still empty. It would be another forty-five minutes before the lunch crowd wandered out of their office buildings into the streets. Surely Tabitha wouldn’t mind her little sister taking a ten-minute break, would she? She locked the front door and hustled back to the dressing room.
Pulling aside the heavy curtain, she settled on a velvet settee. Situated just across from it was a glorious, floor-to-ceiling mirror, the elaborate rococo frame perfect for the boudoir feel of the shop. Leaning back into the soft cushions, she got comfy. Before she’d lost him, she and her husband had played in this very spot.
Looking into the mirror, she parted her knees until her dress rode up far enough to expose the nude, sheer lace of her panties, and beneath, the bare lips of her pussy. Lightly pressing her fingers into the wet fabric, she nearly exploded.
She hadn’t realized how freaking turned on she’d been by the hot guy shopping for his wife. There was no choice but to blow off some steam before she did anything else—even if it meant a delay in opening the shipment of what was sure to be some of the loveliest underpinnings she’d ever laid eyes on.
Not content to watch from across the dressing room, Gaia fell to her knees and inched closer to the mirror, close enough for her breath to fog the glass. She leaned her forehead on it for balance and let a hand wander over one breast. With the other, she hiked her dress and rubbed the outside of her panties again. Slickness coated the delicate fabric. When she was done, she’d have to get a new pair of panties to wear the rest of the day, courtesy of her Kiki’s discount.