“Can you feel me? I asked.
“Yes.” Her breathless reply made my cock even harder.
“Any more doubts about me wanting you?”
“No.”
“Good. You feel so good.” I groaned. “And you know I like touching you.” I skimmed my fingers up her arm, drawing back the silky sleeve and wondering when the hell Karen had started carrying sexy lingerie like Fanny was wearing at her surf shop.
She shivered. “I’m beginning to get the idea.”
“Never had a woman respond like you do to me.”
“But all the groupies.”
“They’re just turned on by the idea of sleeping with a rock star. They don’t know me. They don’t really want to know me.”
She nodded. “And in all those years you never kissed any of them?”
“I was never even tempted to.” I pulled in a breath and began. “The guys and I, we kinda went from being a bunch of nobodies to a bunch of somebodies really quickly. A dream come true professionally, for sure, but personally it was a nightmare. Everyone wanted a piece of us, and we gave it to them, losing ourselves in the process. One by one we became images, bad guys of rock ‘n’ roll, one dimensional caricatures of the guys we once had been. The only reality remaining was who we were to each other. And even with that there were big lies underneath the surface that made for a shaky foundation.”
“Ash, I’m sorry,” she breathed sympathetically.
I gave her a tight nod and continued. “With little to nothing and nearly no one I could truly trust or believe in, I pulled way inside myself. A matter of self-preservation, really.”
“I know, I get it.” She covered my lips with her thumb and just the gentle glide of it across my lips beneath made lust I had kept dampened until now roar to flame inside of me. I wanted to lift her off my lap and throw her down, climb on top of her before she could even catch her breath, and rip off that robe and show her how much I…no…not yet…not like this…I had plenty to scare her off. Coming on so strong right from the beginning was not the way for us to start. I jerked my head to the side shuddering as I yanked back on the reins that had nearly slipped from my fingers when she had touched me.
“It must have been a difficult time. You were younger than I was when I started touring with my song.” She was rambling. “And you loved her. You and Linc both did.” And then she wasn’t rambling but hitting the center of the target or pretty fucking close. I snapped my gaze back to her tethers trailing loose but at least back in my grip. “You still love her.” Another misread. A significant one. I saw tears forming in her eyes.
“I do, gypsy rose. But not the way you think. As a friend. As a possibility.” And because she was his and loving her was the closest I could get to him.
“I’m not trying to compete.” She swallowed. “I’m not trying to take that away.” She brought her fluttering hands up toward my face. I captured them before she could touch me. “But do you think there’s any way that in time that I might become a possibility for you, too?”
“Absolutely. If I didn’t believe that I wouldn’t have agreed to try for more.”
She exhaled a shaky breath. She was so brave to ask me a question that made her so vulnerable. And I was trying so hard to do this right. To do right by her. To mete out information about who I was, and why I was the way I was in a manner that wouldn’t overwhelm her with too much too quickly.
Once upon a time I had reserved a kiss for a day I knew now would never come. Linc would always be Simone’s. But what had been my greatest regret might now be redeemed in a most unexpected way. A first kiss could become a second chance for Fanny and me because I was free to give that gift to her.
Chapter Twenty-Five
* * *
Fanny
“We’re getting low on eggs,” I told Ash from the kitchen when he emerged from the guest bedroom.
Wearing nothing but a towel.
Damn.
“Just put what you need on a list.” His hand on the twist of white terrycloth at his trim waist, he gave me a smoldering side glance and a half-grin that would have ignited my panties if I’d been wearing any under my chemise and robe. “I’m out of clothes.” He stopped at the other side of the bar, and I stopped whisking eggs to stare at him.
“So it seems.”
His half-smile transformed into a blinding full-one that incinerated the rest of me. “Is Hollie still asleep” he asked. “I need to get into my closet.”
“Go right ahead. She’s up on the roof doing yoga. She’ll be there for an hour. Take your time.”
“An hour, huh?” He stalked closer, his gaze raking over me. “Forget the omelet.”
I set the bowl on the counter so fast it clattered.
“A perfect time to get on with the more between you and me.” Eliminating the space between us, he leaned in and put his lips near my ear. “I wanna scramble something alright.” His sun, ocean, citrus and that additional musky scent of his hit me. “You,” he concluded, his warm breath and the anticipation of what that scrambling might entail raised bumps on my skin.
“Alright.” My legs quivered.
“Excellent.” His eyes broadcasting intent like a gathering thunderstorm before a lightning strike, he grabbed me and scooped me into his strong capable arms.
“Where are we going?” I asked, throwing my arms around his neck and sifting through the satiny strands of his hair while I had the opportunity. He touched me plenty, but he seemed to be stingy about letting me have freedom to do the same.
“To my bed.”
“Oh.” Heat hit my cheeks.
“Oh-my-Ash in a couple of minutes,” he warned, striding with me following out of the kitchen and into the hall. “I’ve got a few things I’ve been thinking about doing since I saw you naked.”
“Only a few?” I retorted as we passed through the threshold into his room.
“Time constraints.” The groove in his cheek appearing, he lowered me to the floor. My soft curves grazed warm chiseled granite before my bare feet hit the ground. He framed my face with his large hands. Mine went to his forearms finding the sinewy strength I needed. Already he had me feeling lightheaded. His gaze dipped. “Hard to decide what to do first. Those lips of yours have been driving me crazy.” My heart raced as he moved one of his hands to gently trace my lips with his thumb. “Lush. Soft. Sexy.”
“Ash,” my breath spilled onto his skin. “Whatever you decide I’m ready.”
“You just think you are.” He tagged my bottom lip pressing the rough pad of his thumb deeper into it to widen the separation of it from the top one. My breathing stopped. My fingers flexed on his arms. Was he going to kiss me?
“Not yet.” Could he read my mind? “I want to. But I know I need more than an hour to devote to those enticing lips of yours.” He released my mouth and took a step back. I swayed toward him need and disappointment making me unsteady. He held the cure to what ailed me. He pinned me with his gaze.
“Why are you moving away?”
“Fanny. You know I like control, yeah?”
I nodded.
“So let me have the control, darlin’. I wanna play a bit. Explore. I’ll make it good for you. For both of us. But no more questions or I’ll take my sweet time getting there. Understand me?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” He took a seat on the edge of his bed. The covers had been stripped, new sheets replacing the old. I’d had a lot of extra energy this morning. After we had talked last night, I’d barely slept. Arms spread at the sides, his biceps even not fully flexed bulged impressively. “You like to look at me.”
I lifted my gaze. “Yes.”
“I like to look at you, too. Not just naked from the shower. When you were playing Ramon’s guitar. And at night when you’re sleeping.”
I pulled in a quick breath.
“I thought maybe you knew. I’ve been there. Every night since you came here. Checking on you. Counting my good fortune that you’re here. That no
thing more happened to you than what did. Only last night you came to me before I could go to you.”
“Oh, Ash.”
“It begins,” he stated arrogantly. His lips curled. He leaned back slightly. “Take the robe off,” he ordered.
“Ok.” I undid the tie. The two sides of the robe separated and swung open, a swish of cool silk against my skin.
“Hold on,” he added when I started to shrug out of the rest of it. “Let me look at you a moment first.”
Oh my gosh. I stood still hands at my sides as he scanned me. Awareness prickled my skin.
“I like that robe on you,” he decided. “But I’d like it better off of you.”
I dipped a shoulder, one side sliding down to the crook in my arm while he watched it fall, then I shrugged the other. The robe fluttered to the hardwood floor, a puddle of emerald green at my feet.
“Nicely done.” A platinum brow rose. “You’ve done something like this before.”
“Not really. I just thought you’d like it if I did it that way.”
“You thought right. You anticipate and take the initiative. You’re perfect, you know.”
“I’m not, Ash,” I protested. “I haven’t, we haven’t…”
“You are,” he interrupted. “You’re beautiful. You make me crazy. I’ll let you see in a moment. For now do something for me.”
“Yes.”
“Slide your hands over your body. Like you think I would do if I were touching you.”
“Alright.” I started with my face and he smiled as I smoothed my hand down my cheek.
“You’re right. I would do that first. I love your skin. Soft as a fuckin’ rose.”
“Thank you.”
“What does it feel like to you? Touching your own skin with me watching?”
“Like…” I trailed off, considering his questions as I glided my palm lower over the swell of my breast. I gasped when the tips of my fingers skimmed my nipple. “Like a dream.” I lifted my gaze from watching my own fingers travel across my flesh to look at him. “A naughty one.”
“Go lower.” His voice had dropped. It made me feel things I didn’t mention. I skimmed my hand to the hollow of my abdomen stopping just before the swell of my mound. “Anything else?”
“Like what?” Did he know? Could he see the tension in my body like a guitar too tightly strung?
“Touch your pussy, Fanny. Middle finger leading the way. Straight down the center of it. Apply a little pressure where it aches the most then stop.”
“Yes,” I gasped doing just what he said. “Mmm.” I licked my lips. “It feels good,” I told him though I think he knew.
“Do you know how it feels for me to watch you pleasure yourself?”
I shook my head. I couldn’t think straight. He was so handsome. So everything I wanted. So sexy. So frustratingly everything I needed but so far away.
“Remove your hand, Fanny.”
“Ok.” I slid it across my thigh and let it fall to my side.
“You wanna know what I see?”
I nodded.
“Beauty. Nipples begging to be plucked and sucked. Hips to hold so I can sink my cock deep into you. Sexy legs to wrap around me and hold me tight. Would you do that for me, gypsy rose? Would you take me like that?”
“Yes,” I panted, watching him move his hand beneath the flap if the towel. Seeing him grab his shaft and pump it made me moan. “Oh my gosh, Ash.”
“Cup your tits, Fanny.”
I did.
“Lift them like you were offering them to me.”
“Yes.”
“I’d draw them deep into my mouth. I’d swirl my tongue. Would you like that?”
“Yes.”
“Let them go.”
“Ok, but…”
“Grab your hem. Skim that pussy that we both know is wet and remove the chemise. Now,” he barked, and I jumped doing it quickly.
Cold air rushed over my fevered skin.
“Fanny. Shit.” I lifted my gaze and looked directly into his piercing blue but dark as my desire eyes. “You’re freaking phenomenal. The inside of your thighs glistening already. No, don’t cover yourself. Please. But look at me.” I relinquished his gaze, dipping mine as he opened the towel. His cock sprang free. He stroked it. The hollow ache between my legs began to throb incessantly needing to be filled. He was thick and hard and huge. “I’m wet, too, because of you.”
“Ash, please. This…it’s too much…can we…”
“Do you want to come, Fanny?”
“Yes.”
“Grab your nipple between your first finger and thumb.”
“Ok.”
“Pull. While I pull my cock.”
“Oh, shit.”
“Twist it now.”
I moaned.
“Pull and twist the other one and watch me. What I do to my shaft. Look how hard I’m fisting my cock. I’m on fire for you, Fanny. About to explode.”
“Me, too. My legs are so shaky. I…”
“Arrow that hand down again. Yes. All the way. Feel your clit?”
“Yes,” I gasped.
“It’s wet, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Swirl your fingertips around it.” I did. “Yeah, baby like that. Feel good?”
“So good,” I panted.
“Do it faster.”
“Yes.”
“Harder. Put pressure where your body wants it, baby. Watch me. Come with me. Let it go, baby. Let it fucking go.”
And I did shivering and coming apart while he erupted hot streams of himself all over his hands.
Chapter Twenty-Six
* * *
Ashland
“Fanny?” her sister yelled, and my naked gypsy rose’s cheeks flamed brighter than her hair. I bent, snagged her robe and threw it at her. “Fanny?” Hollie yelled again, her footsteps coming closer. “I’m hungry. “Where are…oh.” She stuttered to a stop inside the doorframe to my bedroom. Fanny had her robe on, and I had yanked her backward to cover myself. Hey don’t judge. The towel might have been the more obvious choice, but I preferred warm, soft, squirming-her-sexy-ass-in-my-lap, embarrassed Fanny.
“It’s about damn time.” Hollie grinned at us.
Fanny dropped her chin.
“I know, right?” I grinned back at Hollie and kissed Fanny’s bent head. “But can you give us a minute? We just…”
“Hey, don’t TMI me. I get it.” She started to walk backward. “Called it, though. Told you he’s a good guy. Thumbs up, sis.”
“Out, Hols!”
“See you in in the kitchen.” Hollie ducked out of sight.
“Gah.” Fanny swiveled and ducked her face into my shoulder. “I’m sorry. That was so humiliating.”
“Hardly.” I had been on countless world tours with a bunch of rowdy guys. And I had the proclivities I had. I definitely wasn’t embarrassed. I ran my hand over the red fuzz on her head. Her hair was coming back in. Such a beautiful ruby color and silky soft like the rest of her. “But it’s adorable as hell that you’re embarrassed, Fanny Bay.” I moved my hand under her chin and gently lifted it. Searching her eyes, I saw what I needed to see in them. She was with me after the scene which was good because I was so into her. “Can we do something like that again later?”
She smiled, blushed some more and nodded her head.
“You were awesome by the way.”
“Ditto to you.”
“Oh my Ash awesome?”
“Stop fishing for compliments. You saw what you did to me without even really touching me except at the beginning,” she huffed with mock indignation. “Do you have to work today? You said something about a meeting before you went to take a shower.”
“Oh, yeah. Fuck.” I lifted her from my lap, set her on the bed beside me, grabbed the towel and fastened it back around me.
“Do you have time for breakfast?” She tried not to show it, but I could tell she hoped I did.
“You cooking?”
&nbs
p; “Yeah. The eggs have been sitting too long for the omelet to be fluffy, but I can probably do French toast instead.”
“I usually just do a protein shake for breakfast, but that sounds awesome. Get it started, little rose. I’ll redo my shower, and we’ll eat together. But can you do something for me later?”
“Sure. What?”
“Consider popping downstairs to the studio? I might have some news to share, and I’d like to show you around.”
“I’d love that, Ash.”
“Good.” I stood, started for the door, then stopped and turned back to her. “Everything that happened here. Every minute I have spent with you, whether here inside the apartment, eating dinner on the roof with my friends, talking on the pier, joking around on a walk through OB with you by my side. Those moments rank as some of the best ones I’ve ever had.”
• • •
Fanny
“Mine, too.” Happy tears filled my eyes as I watched him go. And yes, the backside view of Ashland Keys in only a towel was as damn fine as the front view.
“Fanny?” my sister called. Obviously she had seen him cross the apartment. He had moved his shampoo and shaving stuff over to the guest bathroom. He had welcomed Hollie and me into his home. He had given up his own bed and master bath. He had not just unlocked the door to his bedroom when he had thought I was hurt on the other side of it. He had completely busted it off its hinges like he had broken down the few remaining paltry defenses I had to resist falling for him. I hadn’t even slept with him properly. He had a first love that might always leave me in second place, but I was done resisting the inevitable with him. After those parting remarks I knew I was already completely and irrevocably there.
“Give me a minute, Hols.” My tone was roughened like I had swallowed a bunch of seawater. It’s only love, Fanny. The beginning stages. But I needed to get used to it. I had a feeling more of me was going underneath the waves Ashland Keys left behind in his wake. “I need to get some clothes on. And then I’ll be right out.”
(Complete Rock Stars, Surf and Second Chances #1-5) Page 74