by Emerson Rose
“Please, Ashton, let me see him. He doesn’t have to see me. I just want to know what he looks like, that he’s happy.”
“You don’t have that right anymore. And he is beautiful and happy, take my word for it. Now, do I have to call security or will you be leaving on your own?”
“I’m prepared to go to court for visitation rights. I thought you should hear that from me instead of your lawyer. I don’t want it this way. I’d much rather figure it out between us, but if you’re not going to give me a second chance I’ll do what I have to.”
“Call your lawyer then, but remember who you’re dealing with, Abigail. I don’t know how you’re going to pay a lawyer. I don’t know how you’re earning a living these days, but my legal team will not back down from this. You can expect to be wiped out financially, not to mention my dad is running for Governor, and he has a lot of influence in the courts. Is this worth losing everything you have over?”
Squaring her shoulders, she slides her handbag out from under her arm and grips in both hands, “Yes, my son is that important to me.”
“You're too little, too late, honey, don't waste your time.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way. I’ll have my lawyer contact yours. I’m sorry I interrupted your day, thank you for seeing me, I'll see myself out. Have a nice day.”
She turns on her expensive heel, and Wesley, who has been standing behind her with his jaw hanging open listening to every word, opens the door for her.
Have a nice day? Have a fucking nice day? The woman who threw fuel on the fire of my abandonment issues five years ago is telling me to have a nice day? Okay, so I knew something was going to come along and give us some trouble since things were going so well, but this?
So my ex-fiancé wants to be a part of Cannon’s life, does she? I hope she’s got deep pockets and a lot of time on her hands because he will be eighteen years old before she can cut through all the red tape my lawyers are gonna throw her way.
“Ash? Are you coming or should we just start the movie without you?” Stella asks from the balcony on the second floor overlooking the foyer.
“No, no, I’m coming right now. I got distracted for a minute.”
“Who was that at the door?”
Shit, I was hoping she hadn’t seen Abigail. “It was a ghost from my past, don’t worry about it. We better get to the theater room before Cannon eats all the popcorn and spills his drink on the carpet.”
“That only happened once and it was because his cup was too big for his little hands.”
She’s always got his back. I love that about her. And she doesn't press about Abigail. She knows I’ll come to her when I’m ready to talk about it. But first I want to get my legal team on this, then when I mention it to Stella I’ll have a plan, and she won’t have to worry. And she would worry, a lot. Stella slipped into our lives and took on the role of wife and mother effortlessly, as if it were meant to be.
And it is meant to be. Someday I’m going to ask her to formally accept those positions in our lives and the only difference between then and now will be a sheet of paper that says we’re married.
“Yeah, you’re right, darlin’. I’ll be right there. I just have to take care of one thing first. Go ahead and start.”
She leans over with her arms crossed on the railing, “You sure? We can wait.”
“I’m sure. It’ll only be a minute.”
“Mm-hm, I’ve heard that before,” she says smiling. She knows a minute can easily turn into an hour or two, but I try not to let that happen very often.
Tucking my hands in the front pockets of my jeans, I pucker my lips and blow her a kiss, before heading to my office to alert my lawyers that we might have a problem. Scratch that, we do have a problem. Abigail wouldn’t show up out of the blue making threats unless she had some backing. Someone is helping her, and I'm going to find out who that someone is.
19
My perfect life
Stella
Clutching the sheets with my eyes rolled back in my head and my third orgasm building fast between my legs, I wasn't sure I heard it. With my legs hooked over his shoulders, Ash is thrusting in and out of me while working my clit with his thumb. I am right there hanging on the edge of release when I hear it again, and I'm sure this time.
I relax into the mattress and look up into his dark dilated eyes with alarm.
“What? What’s wrong?”
“Did you hear that?”
“You moaning my name ready to come on my aching cock? Yeah, I heard that Darlin’, don’t get distracted now.”
“Someone’s knocking on the door.” I stop talking and listen again. Now it sounds more like pounding, hammers maybe. “Or hammering, are you having work done in the house?”
“Not that I know of unless Ridge scheduled something and if he did, I’m going to kill him for taking your attention away from me. We don’t get to have nooners very often. I’ve been looking forward to this all morning. Now, eyes on me, if I have to I’ll stuff cotton in your ears to keep you focused.”
Cannon is with his grandpa today, he needed a boost in the polls and thought spending quality time with his grandson might help. He didn’t admit that in so many words, but we strongly suspected after checking a few poll tracking sites online.
It’s disgusting if you ask me, but Ash doesn’t want to isolate Cannon from his family since he has so little of it. I just hope he behaves. He’s been fine for me over the past few weeks, but he hasn’t had to deal with anyone outside his little world here at home.
And that brings us to our mid-day tryst that has been interrupted by a knocking or pounding sound that I cannot ignore.
After resuming his pace and kissing me until I can’t catch my breath, he stops again. He looks down at me with knowing eyes.
“I think I need that cotton,” I say.
“Babe, I can’t pull out and walk to the bathroom and back like this. I need to come, and I need you to come with me.” He lowers my legs off of his shoulders and begins to rotate his hips each time sinking deeper into my soaking wet pussy. “You like that? I know you do. You want me to go deeper, will that make you pay attention to me?” he says thrusting into me hard and fast. I gasp and grip the sheets.
“Yeah, that’s my girl, I’m gonna give it to you hard and fast, and when you come I want you to scream my name, understand?”
“Uh huh.” The smell of his earthy cologne mixed with our sweat fills my head, and the sound of our slapping bodies drowns out whatever noise I heard before.”
“You feel so fucking good, Stella. I want to hear you say my name. I want you to come with me, are you ready?”
“Yes, God, yes, Ash, please don’t stop.”
“You like it fast?”
“Yes, faster, fuck me, fuck me harder.”
He increases the pace to a punishing rate, and we come at the same time. I arch my back so hard it’ll hurt tomorrow and scream his name the way he asked me to even though he never has to ask me to. He has taught me to be vocal during sex. I tell him exactly what I want and he gives it to me, anything, anytime, anywhere, and I do the same for him.
Sex with Ash is phenomenal, and I’m sure there isn’t a man alive who could satisfy me the way he does. I wish I had known him before People magazine put him on the cover of their magazine. I would have offered to do an entire exposé on just exactly how sexy Ash Pride can be. I’d make mouths water all over the world describing his expert tongue skills and how he can give me forever orgasms, as I like to call them. There are times when he makes me come with his mouth, and the orgasm goes on and on, so long I feel like it will never stop.
He. Is. Amazing.
“Fuck, that was perfect, I knew you had it in you to block out the hammering.”
He rolls us onto our sides facing each other and pushes his still semi-erect cock deep inside of me when he hooks his leg over mine.
“So, you do know what’s going on?”
His smile is mischievous when he an
swers. “Darlin’, I always know what’s going on, especially in my own house.”
“So tell me, are you remodeling? Everything here is so beautiful, I can’t imagine what you would want to change.”
“Kind of, it’s a surprise. You let me give you a bath and I’ll show you what it is.”
“Okay, that sounds fair enough.”
“Wait here.” He slides out of me and rolls away and off the side of the bed. I watch his perfect ass and muscular, although very scratched up, back walk away toward the en suite bathroom.
Every day I pinch myself to prove that my new life is real. I thought it would be harder to distance myself from my parents and my little brother a month ago, but it wasn't.
Everything worked out for my parents when one hundred acres of land unexpectedly fell into their laps. The Hills filed an insurance claim for a roof that had been torn off of a house built on one hundred acres of land that our families have been feuding over forever. When the insurance company looked into the claim, they discovered that the land and everything on it, is Deardon land, not Hill land. My parents wasted no time moving into the house. Two days after the discovery they were no longer homeless.
Charlotte went back to school and Jack Jr. moved in with his girlfriend leaving me with no residual guilt for moving away.
“Water’s running,” he says startling me from my thoughts. “You okay?”
“Hmm? Oh, yeah, just thinking about my family.”
His arms are around me, one under my knees the other around my back, but he stops when I answer his question.
“Are you having regrets? We can go visit if you want to, I’m sure we can get additional security detail to make the trip unnoticeable to the public.”
He has worried more about my relationship with my parents than I have since we left. He thinks it’s important to keep in touch even though my feelings are still raw and vulnerable.
“No, no regrets. I wouldn’t change a thing about my life now. I was just thinking about the way everything turned out.”
He lifts me up and carries me into the bathroom where he lowers me into his giant copper clawfoot tub. He loves this tub, and he uses it every chance he gets. I haven’t had so many baths since I was a toddler.
“You mean how the deed to that land conveniently turned up with their name on it?” he asks. I reach up and wrap my hand around the back of his neck narrowing my eyes. “Did you have something to do with that?”
He snorts and covers my hand with his, “No, darlin’, I told you I’d help but they didn’t want me to so I didn't.”
“Exactly, it’s like someone knew my daddy was too proud and fixed the deed so it would look like it had been theirs all along. You have endless connections. I can see you doing something like that.”
He squats down next to the tub crossing his arms on the edge. “Honey, I haven’t told you this yet because I didn’t want to scare you away, but more and more I’m thinking it needs to be said, so I’m gonna say it. I love you. I love every single thing about you inside and out. I love your caring, compassionate nature, your quick wit and willingness to put others first. I love your sexy ass, and I love that you have no idea you have such a sexy fucking ass. I love the dimple in your right cheek, and I don’t mean the one on your face. I love the scar on your belly, the cluster of three moles on the inside of your left knee and the side grin you give me when you want something you can’t ask for in front of Cannon. And I love the way you unconditionally love my son. Knowing that the people who brought you into this world and raised you didn’t have much faith in you tears me up. You think I’m a good guy, and I am for the most part, but I have to admit, I wouldn’t lift a finger to help your parents after the way they treated you. I know that sounds shitty, but it’s true.”
Whoa, he loves me, and he even said it out loud. He loves me, holy shit. The rest of his speech is a little foggy, but I get the gist, he doesn’t like my parents, and he wasn’t the one who helped them.
“Come in here,” I say pulling at his elbow. He stands and slides into the tub behind me, but I turn around to face him. I place my hands on his cheeks and fix him with my gaze. “I love you, too.”
“I know.” I jerk my head back and drop my hands into the water with a splash. “You know? That’s presumptuous, isn’t it? I return your proclamation of love, and you say I know.”
He rolls his lips in the way he does when he’s suppressing a smile. “You’re adorable when you’re feisty.”
I frown and push out my bottom lip in a pout. “I’m not trying to be adorable or feisty.” He slides me forward and wraps my legs around his waist. “I know you love me because you told me a month ago when you were drunk.”
I suck in a surprised breath. Oh God, I’ve been known to blabber my feelings when I’ve had too much to drink, but I don’t remember saying I love you that night at all.
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry? For what, loving me?”
“No, for telling you something so important when I was stinking like whiskey and throw up.”
He chuckles and kisses my swollen lips. “I loved you then, too, even when you smelled like whiskey and barf, but I love you more every day we spend together.” He stops speaking and looks down at the water between us for a moment before looking back up with a determined expression. “Stella Marie Deardon, marry me.”
My mouth falls open, and a whoosh of air escapes my lungs. Did he just ask me, no tell me, to marry him?
“Um…” I can’t make words. I want to scream yes, yes, yes, but all I can come up with is um.
“I know this is kind of out of the blue, I wasn’t planning to ask you like this, but I’ve never felt so right about something in my life. You’re the only woman I’ll ever want, so please, Stella, say you’ll be my wife and Cannon’s mama.”
I can’t see him through the tears welling up in my eyes, and I have to push my answer past a lump in my throat, but I get it done, “Yes.”
When I blink, two giant tears roll down my cheeks and I watch a satisfied grin spread across his face.
“Whew, thought you might turn me down for a second there.” He brushes the tears off of my cheeks with his thumbs and guides my mouth to his, where he seals his proposal with a kiss to end all kisses.
I, Stella Deardon, am going to be Mrs. Stella Pride, wife of the sexiest man alive! My life is officially perfect.
20
Never letting you go
Ash
“Tip your head back a little more, that’s it, almost done.” Stella, my fiancé, is sitting between my legs facing away from me while I rinse conditioner from her hair. Her knees are pulled up with her arms wrapped around them, her head is back and her eyes closed.
I’ve never taken baths with women, a hard fuck against the wall in a Vegas hotel shower maybe, but sitting down and washing her skin, shampooing her hair, never. There are a lot of things that are different about my relationship with this gorgeous woman who has agreed to be mine forever. And all of them are good.
“Are you ready to see your surprise?”
“It’s for me?”
“Yep, well, you can share it with Cannon and me if you want, but I did it for you.”
Her arms stretch out to the sides of the tub, and she twists to look at me over her shoulder with excitement twinkling in her eyes. “Are we done?”
“Yeah, come on.” I stand and offer her my hand. When we are both out of the tub, I wrap a towel around my waist and dry her hair with another.
“I’m excited, hurry.”
I laugh at her enthusiasm. She’s almost as excited as Cannon is on Christmas morning, almost. “Okay, throw on some clothes and let’s go see it.”
“Okay.” She skips out of the bathroom with her hair still dripping wet. I pull on some jeans and a T-shirt and sit down on the edge of the bed to wait for her.
“Hey, darlin’, can I ask you something?”
“Yeah, what?” she calls from the walk in closet.
�
��Since we’re getting hitched and all, I thought maybe you could tell me about that scar on your belly.”
The rummaging for clothes stops and starts again. A minute later she emerges from the closet in a pair of soft shorts and a tank top with her bottom lip between her teeth.
“It’s okay if you’re not ready, but someday I’d like to know how you got it.”
“I’ll tell you but will you tell me something, too?”
I lean back on the bed propping myself up with my hands, “Sure, what do you wanna know?”
“Who was the woman at the front door a few weeks ago? The pretty blonde.”
Shit, I didn’t think she would ask that but I’ve never kept secrets from her, and I’m not about to start now. “It was Abigail, Cannon’s biological…” I struggle with the word mother.
“Mama,” she finished for me.
“Yeah.”
“What did she want?”
“She had some crazy notion that she could waltz back in here and be a part of Cannon’s life, just because she got herself cleaned up off drugs and booze.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, I was speechless, too.”
“What did you tell her?”
“Told her there’s no fucking way she’s seeing that boy after she abandoned him for five years.”
“And she accepted that?”
“No, not exactly. She told me she was gonna sic some lawyers on me, but I never heard a word from her.”
She wrinkles her forehead and worries her lip some more. “What?”
“Well, that’s weird, don't you think? I mean showing up and asking to see him because she got cleaned up sort of makes sense but why would she drop it so easily?”
“She doesn’t have money. All that lawyer talk was bullshit. She’s still as broke as the day she was when I met her. She’s working in a little grocery store as a clerk and living in a rented room in some old lady’s house in Pinewood.”
“So you keep tabs on her?”
“Didn’t until she showed up asking for Cannon. I knew where she went and who she saw for a couple of months after she took off but after that, I figured good riddance.”