by Aria Ford
“Oh.”
She was looking at the pitcher of water in the center of the table with its small arrangement of flowers. I tried to fathom what the “oh” was about, but couldn't guess. She didn't seem cross, but she didn't seem too impressed either.
“I never asked you about your work, either,” I said, carefully changing the subject. “You say you translate books now?”
“Uh-huh,” she said, reaching for the wine-list and having a look through it as we spoke. “I like the work. It's always bringing me new challenges.”
“I'm sure,” I said. “Not that I know anything about translating books, mind you.”
She chuckled. “It can be tricky. Sometimes I feel like my brain's splitting in half – a French half and an English half. I don't know what language I think in sometimes. Though I guess you know what it feels like to live a double life?”
I stared and put down the menu. How the hell did she know that? “I'm sorry?” I asked.
She chuckled. “Don't look at me like that, Drake. I didn't mean to insult you. I just meant that...well...I never imagined you selling out to big business. It must be hard to keep that balanced with the “other” Drake. The caring one.”
“Oh.” Whew. I tried not to look to relieved. That was all she meant! I had thought for one crazy minute that by some strange means my double life had become public knowledge and it was only a matter of time before people at work knew. Crazy. It's the stress getting to me. And Liam and his worrying. Calm down. “I guess it is hard,” I said tentatively.
“I imagine,” Ainsley nodded. “You ready to order?” she asked.
“I sure am,” I nodded. “I'll have a Neapolitan salad as a starter. Yourself?”
“Um, the crostini.”
“And to follow?”
“I think the chicken risotto.”
I grinned. “I'm stuck with the eggplant lasagna.”
“I wouldn't pity myself if I were you,” Ainsley said wryly. “If that's what I can smell from over there, it's awesome.”
I breathed in, noticing she was right – the diners at the next table had ordered the lasagna. Just seeing it made my mouth water. That, together with the stimulation of my other appetites, was making me profoundly restless.
“So,” I commented, as the waiter came over to take our orders. “Had to do any interesting translating work lately?”
She gave a big sigh. I gave our orders to the waiter as she explained. “I had a really tough author to please last week,” she explained. “A French lady, writing a book dealing with immigration and its impact on culture.”
“Hell.” I raised a brow. “That sounds like heavy stuff.”
“It was,” Ainsley agreed. She took a sip of water and licked wet lips and I coughed as my erection got bigger.
“I don't have to do such demanding stuff,” I said, reaching for my own water and hoping it would be iced and able to cool me off.
“I'm sure your work has different demands, though,” Ainsley commented.
“Not really,” I smiled. “Mostly legal stuff is boring.” I let my foot move forward under the table and my ankle subtly rested against her leg. I watched her face and saw, with some delight, how her eyes went big and her lips parted, just a little. Then she settled herself, composing her face into a smooth neutrality.
But her ankle stayed where it was.
I drank water and tried to remember how to breathe. Suddenly, dinner seemed like a challenge in staying in my seat without leaping over the table and pushing my tongue into that sweet pink mouth. I drew a long breath. I could do it.
We chatted idly about our colleagues, the football season, the décor. The first course soon arrived. As I crunched through my salad and tried not to watch her lips gently enfold a slice of toasted roll, incising it with small white teeth, I let my foot creep forward under the table, rubbing her ankle with mine.
She swallowed her mouthful and her eyes met mine. She moved her foot, but forward, not backward and away, as I might have feared. Boldly, her knee pressed mine. I almost lost consciousness with the wave of longing that surged through me.
Easy, Drake, I told myself. This is the challenge. Sit still.
I managed to keep my hands at my side, my leg rigid, but remaining where it was, pressing gently against hers. She gave a little sigh and stretched, seeming full after her first course already. I watched the contented expression on her face and tried not to imagine it in my bed.
The second course arrived as soon as the first had been cleared and I relished the soft, slightly-spicy lasagna. It was really good.
“Mm,” I commented. “This is good. You're right.”
She laughed. “I'm glad. So's mine.” She dabbed her pretty lips with a linen square before laying it in her lap again. I sighed.
I wish I was that napkin. I wouldn't mind being on her lips or in her lap right now.
I smiled at my wild imagination. She raised a brow at me.
“What?”
I looked steadily into her eyes.
“Nothing,” I said.
Her gaze held mine and it seemed like we both knew exactly what it was that neither of us would say. I felt my heart thump as she leaned forward and let her knee push, very gently, between mine. I gasped.
“Should we stay for dessert?”
“No,” I said in a husky whisper. “Let's take that home.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Drake
I drove back to Ainsley's apartment building feeling like my whole body was in a vise. The tension was going to actually kill me. At the stoplight I let my hand rest on her thigh. It felt like silk. She tensed and I removed it almost faster than I believed possible.
She sighed. “Don't move,” she murmured.
I squeezed her knee and heard her gasp. Then, to my dismay, the light changed green and I had to pull off again.
I drove the last mile or so with my lip clamped in my teeth, my whole body straining with longing. Eventually we reached the apartment block and I found a parking-space round the back.
“Inside?” I asked, constricted.
“Mm.”
She slid out of the seat and I reached for her. My lips landed on hers and my tongue slid in between, pushing and probing. She tasted like mint and warmth and sweetness and my poor cock almost gave up right then, throbbing with longing.
I kissed her passionately and she moaned, pushing her body against me as I wrapped my arms around her, holding her close. I was shaking now, my whole body shivering with the thought of having her beside me on the bed.
“Upstairs?”
“Let's.”
She led the way into the elevator. As the doors closed I wrapped my arms round her again, pushing my tongue into her mouth. She was leaning against me, rubbing her body on mine in a way that was going to endanger my sanity. I could feel the slow tremor of need throbbing and swelling inside me and by the time we reached the sixth floor I thought I was going to die.
We stumbled out of the lift together, arm in arm.
She stopped at her door, fishing in her purse for the key. I couldn't resist. I wrapped my arms around her and pressed my turgid hardness against that pert backside, reveling in the way it felt against me.
She gasped and giggled and then we fell through the door together.
“Where's your bed?” I whispered.
She giggled. “In here.”
I let her lead me up the hallway and into a darkened room at the end. She switched on the light, revealing a place with a stark white-covered bed and charcoal-dark walls. I smiled as she dimmed the light and then I walked over, my body surging with excitement as she pressed against me again.
We collapsed onto the bed together. It was hard and her body under me was soft and sweet and yielding.
I reached up and put my finger under the strap of the dress. Then, frowning, I reached round behind her to find the zipper. She giggled.
She rolled over a little, letting me unfasten the dress. I was trembling, trying to
focus, as I worked the dress over those firm high breasts and to the floor.
Then I sat back and just stared.
In the soft gold light of the lamps with her shoulder-length blond hair loose about her shoulders, dressed in a lacy bra and brief frilly panties, she was stunning.
My eyes lingered on the tight cleft between her breasts, working down lower over the gentle roundness of her belly and to the parting between her legs. I could see the soft shine of her satiny panties and I lost all control.
I bent down to her, growling in my throat as I planted kisses down that ivory smooth neck. Then I worked lower, my hands grasping and clutching as I felt over her breasts and around her back to find where her bra fastened over those high, full breasts. It came undone, freeing them and I greedily sucked her nipples into my mouth, first one and then the other. They were small and hard, just like I remembered.
“I want you,” I growled.
She sighed contentedly, her fingers twined in my hair. It was a strange feeling. I was with her, but it was different to how it had been. We were both older, more experienced, more mature.
I felt my body shudder with desire to find out more about this new Ainsley, this hot, experienced, not-shy Ainsley who was reaching for my tie and gently untying it.
“Let me,” I murmured.
“Why?” she said crossly.
“Because I'm faster,” I said with a shaky chuckle. She giggled.
Then I was undressing at lightning speed. I felt my clothes drop to the floor and joined her on the bed. I was shivering as I knelt between her thighs. I reached for the satiny panties and very gently dragged them off.
I stared down at her. Naked, she was even more beautiful than when she was clothed. I loved every single curve of her. I reached forward with a groan and let my fingers gently touch her folds. She moaned, eyes open wide with surprise. I gave her an inquiring look. May I?
She nodded and I bent down, parting her thighs.
She smelled sweet and spicy and the scent of her alone almost made me come. I made myself bend lower, taking her in my mouth.
She cried out loudly and I smiled to myself, loving the fact that I could make her moan and pant. I took her clit between my teeth, working it gently as she sobbed and moved, her motions having the effect of thrusting her clit against my mouth and making her shout even louder.
When she was shaking and shuddering, almost at the limit, I knelt up and plunged inside her.
She cried out and I groaned in sheer amazement. I had forgotten it felt so good.
“Oh, man,” I sobbed aloud as I moved back and thrust all the way into her again. “Oh, man...”
She was groaning incoherently and I pushed out and pushed back and pulled out and pushed back and my body was starting to throb and shiver and convulse...
She screamed and sighed and I felt all the tension go out of her all of a sudden. Her eyes were closed, mouth fallen open partway with her full-on pleasure.
I pushed in and out with complete release now, moving faster as I plunged in and out, in and out...then suddenly, my body was pulsing and I groaned aloud as a massive climax left me helpless and moaning, incoherent with wonder in her arms.
I collapsed and we must have laid like that for quite some time because I woke, much later, which meant I must have slept quite heavily, and kissed her.
I rolled off her and lay beside her and we slept like that the remainder of the night.
CHAPTER NINE
Ainsley
I woke the next morning warm and contented. Dreams like cotton candy parted sweetly, letting me emerge into sunlight and warmth.
And the feeling of an arm wrapped round my waist.
It wasn't a dream, I thought with some wonder. I really was lying here in Drake's arms. I moved back and heard him breathe out, feeling him stir against me, drawing me tight against his body.
“Good morning,” he murmured. Kissing my hair like he always had, he ran a hand down my flank. I sighed.
“Good morning.”
I rolled over, switching position in his arms so that I was looking into his eyes. I sighed and gently let my tongue glide over his lips, exploring his mouth.
Murmuring, he drew me into his embrace. His dick was hard and I could feel it pressing, probing against me. I smiled and ran a hand down, touching it.
“Oh.” He sighed, eyes opening and then shutting as he gave me a big, contented smile. “Well?”
“Well what?” I asked. I left my hand exactly where it was. He grinned and moved so he lay beside me, his cock resting warmly on my upper leg.
“Well,” he murmured, gently twisting me so that I lay with my back to him. “What should we do this morning?”
I sighed and let my body move back against his where he held me so tight and warm and safe in his arms.
“I have some ideas,” I murmured.
“Oh.” He nibbled my neck naughtily. “You have ideas.”
“I do,” I said, wriggling out of his embrace and sitting up to look down at him, moving my hair off my shoulders with a hand as I did so. “Ideas like this.”
I pushed him onto his back and straddled him. I could feel his dick probing at my entrance as I spread my thighs over him, moving back and forth to make myself comfortable.
He gasped as I lowered myself onto him and I cried out too. I had already forgotten how great it was. I rocked back and forth, riding him slowly and then fast as he grunted and shut his eyes, the corners creasing as he frowned in concentration that looked more like agony.
He was rocking and shaking under me and I could feel him pulsing inside me and he came. I came a second later, the feeling sending me flat into his arms so that we clung together, both satisfied.
Later, when my mind returned from the haze where our lovemaking had taken it, he stroked my hair and kissed me on the forehead
“Ainsley,” he murmured. “That was...incredible.”
I rolled over and smiled at him. “Thank you. You too.”
My heart glowed. That was one of the things I loved about him – the way he was always so sweet and polite about these things. I never knew him not to thank me for our lovemaking, and I always thanked him too, a sweet tradition that had grown up when we first met and we'd kept ever since.
I smiled and lay there, feeling a glow spread through me from my abdomen and flooding through my whole body. I kissed his chin and he sighed and nestled closer, rolling over to hold me close to him.
“Ainsley?” he whispered. He shifted in the bed so he was propped against the pillow. I snuggled closer, my head on his shoulder in another of our traditions.
“Mm?” I asked. I felt so comfortable. I could have stayed right where I was forever.
“I guess,” he said, bending to kiss my hair, “I should go to work.”
“Oh.” I made a face. It was Monday. I knew that. I looked at the clock by the bed. It was eight o' clock in the morning. He was right.
“I know,” he sighed. “I'd much rather stay here. But I must.”
I chuckled. “I know. Me too. I should go.”
I sat up and kissed him, then slid out of bed. “Race you to the shower?”
He laughed. “You're always faster than me. In you go.”
I chuckled and sprinted across the bedroom to the en-suite bathroom, feeling like I'd just come back to life as I let the warm water sluice down over my body and melt what was left of my insides. Most of those had melted during the night – or so it felt – and I was relaxed and pliant with my release.
I washed my hair and towel-dried it, then slid out into the bedroom. He was organizing his clothes. I smiled.
“Your turn.”
“Yes, milady.”
He was still laughing as he went into the shower and shut the door. I resisted the temptation to freeze him by running the kitchen tap, and settled on getting dressed. I chose a blue skirt and white blouse and a pastel blue leather jacket I'd bought ages ago and not had the courage to wear. I looked at myself in the mirro
r. I could see a new tranquility in my eyes.
You look happy, I told myself with some surprise.
I was just finishing my makeup when Drake came out of the shower, a towel wrapped fastidiously around his loins. I laughed.
“I guess you have to hide that from me,” I commented, looking at the towel, making him flush crimson. “If you didn't, I'd want it again.”
He laughed. “Oh, Ainsley,” he said, shaking his head. “I want you.”
“I want you too, big man,” I chuckled, wrapping my arms around his muscled, stunning body and breathing in the warm minty smell of shower-gel. “But I gotta work.”
“Me too,” he admitted, those molded lips twisting ruefully in a big smile. “See you later?”
“Maybe,” I said, my eyes growing suddenly big with that thought. I hadn't considered it. Weirdly, the future was something that was only peripheral in my mind right now. I just wanted to stay with this moment, with how happy I was.