by Thayer King
His eyes, so filled with desire that they were practically black, held hers in the mirror. “Tell me you want me.”
“I want you.”
“Beg me for my cock.”
“Please, Stephen. Please, fuck me.”
Between one breath and the next, he was thrusting into her, causing her to gasp and cry out. He groaned into her neck. After aligning her hips with his, he folded one arm around her ribs and placed the other next to hers, bracing himself on the mirror, his spread fingers touching hers as he leaned forward and began a slow rocking rhythm. Each gentle motion pushed him deeper and deeper into her core but he was moving so slowly.
“Stephen, please,” she pleaded and canted back against him, hoping to entice him.
He nipped the back of her neck. “Show some patience,” he admonished, but he increased his pace slightly. “I just want to enjoy watching you. Watching your beautiful breasts bounce.” The hand at her side moved upwards, splayed over her breasts, and then teasing the tight tips before pinching them each in turn. Her breasts did indeed bounce with every heavy thrust of his body into hers. “I want to see your pussy stretched around my cock.” He plunged particularly deep and her eyes dropped to where their bodies were joined. A strangled moan escaped her lips. “Oh, yeah,” he groaned, rubbing his bristled jaw over her neck and shoulder. “That’s hot as fuck.” His hand slid lower, spread over her belly once more, this time bracing her for his rough fucking. He was moving faster now. Faster and harder. He bent her farther forward and crowded her until she was so close to the glass that her panting breaths began to fog the mirror. He grabbed her hip with one large hand, angling her so that he could plunge his deepest. His other hand cupped her mound once more, manipulating her clit from the outside even as he pounded against her g-spot internally.
Ashley threw her head back and cried out. Her pussy closed over his dick like a vice. Stephen growled and seemed to lose all control behind her. He lost his rhythm, plunging and jerking sporadically. Finally he stilled with his cock buried as far into her pussy as it would go. She could feel him swelling and pumping her full of his liquid heat so strongly that it felt almost as though she were coming again herself. He dropped his head onto her back. They were both slick with sweat and breathing heavily.
Stephen gave her a quick hug. “Take a shower with me?”
She nodded. They didn’t tarry long in the shower. They washed and dried quickly before snuggling together in bed. No more words were exchanged. He didn’t declare his love for her nor did he express any promises to take her back. Patience was not one of her strengths. But for Stephen, she would wait for as long as it took. Ashley fell asleep in his arms, content for the moment simply to be with the man that she loved.
Chapter Six
“What was his name?”
Ashley paused with her hand suspended in the air above his head where she had been running her fingers through his curls. When he woke with her staring down at him, her brown eyes brimming with love, it had felt like old times. He’d worn his hair longer then—mostly because of how much Ashley had liked stroking it. But before he could become overcome with the bliss of being with her again in his just woken fuzzy haze, the memory of her betrayal came rushing back and nearly took his breath away with the remembered pain.
“Who?” she asked, appearing genuinely puzzled.
“The man you almost married.”
“I did not almost marry him. I told you, I turned down his proposal.” She shifted until she was lying on her back next to him and stared up at the ceiling. “His name was Shane.”
“Tell me about him,” he said before he could think better of it. He didn’t want to know anything about the other man, while simultaneously, he wanted to know everything.
Her head swiveled his way and she frowned. “Really? I don’t want a dossier on all the women you’ve been with since I.…”
His lips tightened. “But there’s a difference, isn’t there? You could have come back at any time. I didn’t have that option.”
Her face twisted with guilt and pain. After a moment, she inhaled deeply. “His name was Shane Boldin. I met him at a seminar I attended to learn more about creating educational apps. He’s a math teacher at a private school.”
“How long were the two of you together?”
“Almost a year—eight or nine months.”
“He must have been very smitten to ask you to marry him so quickly.” He could certainly understand the sentiment. He’d known after only a few dates that he was willing to spend a lifetime with her.
She shrugged. “Look, you should know that he was the only one. I-I tried dating some about a year after I left you, but it was too hard.” She fisted her hands in the sheets and let them go. “No one seemed to fit.”
“But this Shane fit?” He tried to suppress the jealous rage that threatened to possess him.
“He reminded me of you. I didn’t realize the resemblance until we’d been out a couple of times. When I did, I explained to him and tried to break it off, but he was really kind about it. He said he wanted to keep seeing me. Since he was nice, I thought we could make a go of it. It wasn’t until he proposed that I realized that I’d never gotten beyond like with him.”
“But you slept with him?” he persisted, unable to hide the angry edge from creeping into his voice.
Ashley frowned and bit her lip. “You have nothing to be jealous about. I couldn’t…he didn’t…” She closed her eyes. “It only happened a few times and I didn’t enjoy it. It felt unnatural and wrong. And even though we’d been apart for years, it still felt like.…”
“Like you were betraying me?” he supplied. He knew that feeling all too well. He’d suffered through it for the first couple of years after she left him even though he’d had no realistic expectations of ever seeing Ashley again.
She nodded. “I don’t want to talk about him because he’s the past, but I don’t want to keep things from you.”
He didn’t enjoy hearing about the other man but her answers had given him some respite from the questions that had been banging around in his head. He’d wondered if she’d loved this other man, if she’d been as open and responsive to him in bed as she was with him. Thinking of the two of them together intimately had been killing him. For that reason, he’d felt the need to claim her in such a visceral way that she couldn’t deny who was giving her pleasure, who she belonged to. It appeased him to discover that she hadn’t been able to forget him even when in the arms of another.
“I never stopped loving you, Stephen. I tried so hard to put you behind me. I told myself that I couldn’t come back. I even tried to convince myself that I was exaggerating how good it was between us. In the end, I couldn’t stay away anymore.” She touched his jaw, skating her fingers over his morning stubble. “I love you so much.”
Her large brown eyes were full of hope and tender emotion. He wanted to say yes, tell her he loved her, and give her anything she desired. He exhaled and closed his eyes. This woman had nearly destroyed him. He would be a fool to give her the opportunity to do it again. He needed to keep his plan in mind and not allow her to derail him with beauty and sex.
Clutching her fingers, he brought them to his lips and kissed them. “What would you like to do today?” he asked before rolling out of bed.
She bit her lip. “We could go for a ride like we used to do,” she suggested softly.
He should say no to her blatant attempt to manipulate his emotions, but when he opened his mouth, he found himself agreeing. “Okay.”
***
Ashley glanced over at Stephen and couldn’t stop the grin that curled her lips upward. The beautiful countryside passed by their windows unnoticed by her. She was happy just to be with Stephen. R&B music played softly from the radio as she admired Stephen’s driving style. He shifted gears with a confidence that was reflective of his personality. From the first, she’d been attracted to him. He was naturally charismatic and confident without being cocky or abrasiv
e. And he was sensitive to the feelings of others in a way that she never would have associated with the playboy type. Falling in love with him had been inevitable.
Seven years ago when she left him, she’d known that she could have turned to him for help and he would have done everything within his power for her. But she hadn’t wanted to put him in the position of asking his father for money. Besides, Denton never would have given Stephen the money if he’d known it was for her.
“What are you thinking about that’s made you so happy?”
She sighed and snuggled deeper into his leather seats. “I’m just happy to be with you.”
His eyes flickered over her before returning to the road. “Any idea what you’d like to have for lunch?”
“Whatever you want will be fine with me,” she said. Of the two of them, Stephen was the pickier eater. She’d once posited that he would be content to eat steak and potatoes for dinner every night. Stephen had only grinned, not contradicting her. So when they pulled into a steakhouse a half hour later, she was not at all surprised.
Fortunately, they arrived during the lull between lunch and dinner so they were quickly seated. Ashley could tell right away that their waitress was immediately smitten with Stephen. She recognized the signs. The young girl hung on his every word and touched his shoulder several times. Despite the fact that he wasn’t traditionally handsome, he had that knee-weakening, heart-throbbing effect on women of all ages. There was a confidence in his walk and the way he held himself that said he knew how to handle himself in and out of the bedroom. Though, she reflected somewhat morosely, he used to smile and laugh more seven years ago.
“I see you’ve still got it,” she commented casually, scanning her menu and deciding she’d have the salmon.
“It?” he asked with raised eyebrows even as he perused the menu as well.
“Sex appeal.”
He grunted and placed his menu to the side of his water glass. “Is that what this is about for you? Sex? You said that the other guy didn’t do it for you. So is that why you came back? So that I could give you a fix?”
Men, she thought. They so often wanted to reduce everything to the simplest answer. Great sex could only take you so far. She needed more than that. “No. I’m here because I love you. I’ve never stopped loving you. I’ll say it as many times as you need to hear it.”
Before he could reply, their waitress came to take their orders. Ashley gave Stephen a pointed look as the girl fawned over him. To his credit, Stephen did nothing to encourage her.
“It’s embarrassing, really,” she said as the girl walked away.
Stephen sipped his water. “Jealous?”
“If you’d flirted back, I would have been. But I would have also felt hurt and disrespected because I know that that sort of behavior isn’t you.” He’d been a player, not an asshole.
“That’s not the old me. For all you know, I could be that sort of man now.”
“Are you?”
He paused, eyes narrowing and lips thinning. “No, I’m not.”
“Thank you for your honesty.” Stephen cleared his throat and shifted in his seat, no longer able to hold her gaze. Ashley immediately felt uneasy. Was he concealing something from her? “Stephen-”
“I can’t believe you ordered seafood at a steakhouse,” he interrupted.
She bit her lip, debating about whether to allow him to change the subject or to question him. In the end, she decided to let it drop. She didn’t want to hear any bad news. Besides, he hadn’t lied to her. He’d made it clear that she was on a probationary period. Though he was filled with doubts, she was not. She was certain that the two of them were destined for one another.
“There’s nothing wrong with ordering seafood in a steakhouse. I’m sure it will be fine.”
“But wouldn’t you rather have a steak?”
“Nope.”
He grinned at her. “I’m not letting you sample mine,” he warned.
She leaned forward so that he had a good view down the top of her blouse. “If you let me taste yours, I’ll let you taste mine.”
“Haven’t we done that already in my office? Of all the possible romantic locations, you chose that one.”
“You didn’t put up too much of a fight.”
He sighed. “I’d have to be dead not to respond to you, Ash.”
“I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me since I came back.”
Their food arrived and they both dug in. “This is really good,” she said with a mischievous smile. She forked a bite of salmon and waved it around. “Sure you don’t want to give it a try?”
He cut into his steak and held up a chunk of meat. “Nope.” He popped it into his mouth and chewed.
“Oh, that’s just mean.”
He shrugged his shoulders, drawing her attention to how broad they were. He chewed slowly and made exaggerated moans of pleasure. “Um, that’s damn delicious.”
“So is this,” she said and popped her salmon in her mouth. She didn’t really want any of his steak. She just really enjoyed teasing him and having him react.
Stephen wiped his mouth with his napkin. “Did your parents know where you got the money? How you got the money?”
Ashley sipped her water and swallowed. She flattened her hands on the table. “Not at first. My mom wouldn’t have taken the money if she’d known.”
“Then where did they think you came up with that kind of money?”
“I told them you gave it to me. They believed it for a while, but I could only fool my mom for so long. She realized how unhappy I was and I told her the truth. She was angry and she ordered me to find you and confess. But I couldn’t do that.”
“Because my father was still alive,” he stated.
She shook her head. “I wasn’t waiting for your father to die,” she insisted. “The timing is purely coincidental.”
He nodded. “Your father is fully recovered?”
“He’s…frailer than he used to be, but that’s as much about his age as it is about recovering from cancer. The cancer is gone and so far, he’s come up negative at each screening. Mom constantly has to remind him to slow down and not to overdo it.”
“I’m glad that he’s doing well.”
“Thank you.” She paused. “And how is your mother?”
“She’s doing well. She’s doing what she loves best—travelling and shopping. She drops in on me for special occasions or when the mood strikes her.”
Ashley frowned. “But she wasn’t here for the dedication-”
“She couldn’t make it out because of a tropical storm.”
“Will the two of you be having dessert today?” Their waitress smiled flirtatiously at Stephen. Ashley was more amazed than upset. It did not seem to occur to the girl that she and Stephen were romantically involved.
Ashley shook her head and patted her stomach. “I’m full. Plus, I’m watching my figure.”
Stephen grinned. “None for me either. I’m also watching her figure,” he said with such a lascivious look in her direction that his meaning could not be mistaken.
“Oh,” the waitress said. “Okay. Um, I guess I’ll bring your check.”
“You’re a bad boy, Stephen,” she leaned forward to whisper. “I think you just broke her heart.”
He rolled his eyes. “Hopefully she learns her lesson from this. Besides, her behavior was totally disrespectful to you.”
Ashley’s hands fisted in the sheets as her orgasm whipped through her core and limbs on a tidal wave of pleasure. Stephen gasped out her name and bit into her shoulder, his hips still slamming into hers even as he filled her with liquid heat. His rough and choppy breaths fanned over her neck as he collapsed onto her back. Ashley hummed in pleasure, loving the feel of being surrounded by him.
“I agree,” Stephen growled. “Damn, you feel good.” He ground his hips into hers as though trying to get as deep into her as possible.
Her eyes fluttered closed on a sigh. “I love you
.”
Stephen stiffened before withdrawing from her and rolling onto his back. A tense silence followed. She couldn’t help tensing as well. She didn’t expect him to reciprocate. It was too early for that, but any sort of acknowledgement would be welcome. She ruthlessly pushed down her disappointment. She’d believed they’d made so much progress today. They hadn’t actually reminisced over old times, but they’d made new memories.
Stephen cleared his throat. “What will you do tomorrow while I’m at work?”
She buried her face in a pillow and squeezed her eyes closed to blink away irrational tears. He still loved her, she told herself. And one day soon, she would hear him say the words. He just needed more time. “I don’t know.” Her voice was muffled enough that she hoped he couldn’t hear the hint of tears. “Maybe shop?”
“You sound like my mother and Aster. Shouldn’t you be looking for another job?”
She was too choked up at the moment to explain to him why she didn’t need another job. So instead of speaking, she shook her head.
Stephen trailed a finger down her spine. “Maybe you could bring me lunch again?”
She giggled. “No.”
“Not even if I say please?” He cupped her butt cheek and squeezed.
“No.”
He leaned over her, his lips tickling the sensitive skin of her neck. His voice was husky and deep as he murmured, “How about if I promise to push up your skirt, push aside your panties, and-”