Burning for You (Blackwater) (15 page)

“How did he stop you?” Ash asks
me.  “What did he do?”

“He played a song, actually,” I say,
feeling my heart ache as I think about it.  “Wild World, by Cat Stevens.  Have
you heard of it?”  He shakes his head.  “It’s old.  It’s like something from
the 60’s or 70’s.  It’s basically about a woman about to walk out on a man and
it’s devastating.”

“So he played you a song and you
stayed?”

“It sounds dumb, but yes, he played
a song and I stayed.”  I feel like an idiot and put my face in my hands.  Ash
rubs my back.

“Hey, sometimes we don’t know why
we do what we do,” he says comfortingly.

I shrug and finish my drink and
hand him my glass, indicating silently that I could use another.  He complies
and strides over to the mini bar to fill my glass with about four fingers of bourbon. 
My eyes rake over him approvingly but I realize that ship has sailed for the
moment.  “It was also the thought of me coming home.  I think he knew that I
didn’t want to come back.  I moved to Chicago because I thought my dad had gone
there.  He’d left that impression when he left us.  My mother continued to give
me that impression.  After speaking with my mother when I came back to
Blackwater, it seems like he was trying to shake whoever was after him off of
his trail.”

“To protect the Legend,” Ash says,
nodding.  “And maybe to protect you.”

I sigh.  “Why does everyone know
about the Legend except for me?”

“Because I grew up in this world,
while you were shielded from it,” he explains.  “There are things you will
learn, and things I still need to learn.  Now that we’re ignited, we’ll learn
them together.”  I lean back to rest between his legs, settling my head back
against his chest.  His fingers trace the sides of my breasts.  I feel like we
were always meant to be together, this comfortable with each other.  It just
seems like such a natural fit.  I rest my glass on the coffee table and put my
hands over his, lacing my fingers through his.  “So keep going,” Ash says,
pulling me back from my thoughts.  “You didn’t leave the bastard after he
cheated on you.”

“No, I stupidly stayed,” I
continue.  “And he did it again.  And again.  I started pretending not to know
or care.  I was lying to myself, telling myself I was just being paranoid after
the first time, but it kept happening.  It seemed like he was flaunting the
fact that he got away with it the first time.”

“He was trying to see how far he
could push you,” Ash suggests. 

I nod.  “He was, and then one day I
called in sick to work.  I think I finally grasped the idea that I was
depressed.  I hacked into his email and found all sorts of bullshit from
several women he was sleeping with.”

“Hacked into?” Ash asks.  “Are you
good at that sort of stuff?”

I shake my head.  “No, I’m awful
with technology, but it was easy.  On his email, you can click the ‘I forgot my
password’ button and it will ask you a security question.  I think they design
those so that any spouse can figure out the password of their cheating spouse’s
email account.  Mother’s maiden name?  Green.  Name of favorite pet?  Tiger. 
City you were born in?  Evanston.  In the years we’d been together, I’d learned
enough to be able to answer three basic questions.” 

“Clever girl,” Ash says.  “By the
way, mine would have been ‘Sargent’, ‘Cookie’ and ‘Blackwater’.”

“Cookie?”

“We had a cockatiel named Cookie,”
Ash explains.  “We were never allowed any pets other than birds, which Maman
loves.  Cookie was great because Aspen and I taught him to swear.”

I laugh.  “Aspen is a brother?”  Ash
nods.  “Your family confuses me.”

“I know nothing of yours,” he
says.  “You have a sister, right?  She is not a crafter?”

“Heidi,” I reply.  “No, she isn’t
one.  My mother says she isn’t.  Her husband Jack is as straight and narrow as
they come.  They seem to belong together.”

“I see,” Ash replies.  “So you
broke into his email.  Messages from women.  So what then?”

“I confronted him,” I say.  “He
came home from work late.  He’d been drinking, and I confronted him.  I told
him I’d forwarded every email of his to my own and I had everything I needed to
get a divorce and use the emails as evidence of adultery.  It also would have
incriminated some of the women.  I knew some of them personally and some of
them were married.”

“I see,” Ash says.  “So he didn’t
like that, I take it?”  I shake my head, swallowing hard.  “Did he hurt you?”

“Not that night,” I say quietly. 
“I moved out of the bedroom that night into our spare.  We had a two bedroom
apartment less than a mile from the office.  I woke up the next day and went to
work, and all day I was trying to figure out in my head how I was going to do
it.  I decided to call a lawyer and maybe find a friend to stay with.  Michael
and I had different schedules and I started and came home earlier than he did.” 
I tip the entire glass of bourbon back into my mouth, feeling the searing pain
of it burn the back of my throat comfortingly.  “I came home that night to find
three men waiting for me.  They were wearing masks and I thought they were
going to rob me.”

Ash breathes in sharply.  “What
happened?”

“They grabbed me by the mouth and
dragged me to our bedroom,” I say.  I sound very matter of fact as I talk, like
I’ve detached myself from what happened, yet I can see it all in my head, as if
I’m watching the whole event happen all over again.  “Two of them held my arms
and legs on either side of me while the other one…fucked me.  Then they
switched.  And again.  I’d passed out midway through, I guess, and came to and
it was still happening.  I closed my eyes because I couldn’t fight them, and it
was better to be detached from what was happening then to live through it.”  I
turn to face Ash, who is visibly shaking with what appears to be rage behind
me.  His hands clench into fists, letting his knuckles turn slowly white.  “I’m
sorry,” I say, noting his reaction.  “You wanted to know.”

“Why are you sorry?” he finally
says evenly. 

“He says he recorded the whole
thing,” I tell him.  “He could show it to my job.  He could show it to my
family.  You could see it.”

Ash is silent for a long moment. 
Finally, he says, “Michael is going to be the sorriest fuck there ever was when
I see him.  No one will ever see that video.”

“He’s gone,” I say.  I tell Ash
about the scene in my mother’s living room and the chandelier.  His face
darkens considerably. 

“Your mother invited him into her
house?” he asks incredulously.  “After what happened?”

“She didn’t know,” I tell him, but
there is doubt in my voice.  How could she not have known?  When has my mother
not known everything there is to know?  “She wants me to leave Blackwater.”

“Why?”

“Because of my father,” I reply. 
“And because of you.”

I wake up in Ash’s bed, not
recalling how I got there.  When I open my eyes, he’s lying down on his side,
facing me with his head propped up on one arm. 

“What are you doing?” I ask him.

“Watching you sleep,” he replies. 
“You wrinkle your nose a lot when you dream.”

“Funny,” I reply, rolling onto my
back and stretching my limbs.  “What time is it?”

“Just before six in the morning,” he
says.  “Somewhere you have to be?  Church?”

I laugh, knowing the ridiculous
nature of that question.  “Yeah, I need to go to mass.  Know of any?”

“Catholics in Blackwater fit in
about as well as a pork roast at synagogue,” Ash replies.  “So good luck with
that.”

“I’m going to sneak out and do the
walk of shame home in my flapper costume,” I say.  “Except it’s a long walk, so
can you give me a ride?”

“Why would you sneak out?” Ash
asks.  “There are at least twenty people living in this house at all times,
there’s no way you’ll manage to sneak out unnoticed.  Definitely not the
morning after a party.  For all I know, it’s still happening.”

“We kind of missed it, didn’t we?”
I say.  “Sorry about that.”  He leans over to kiss me, pulling me close to him
and I feel his hot skin against my own.  I’m still naked and I feel his
erection pressing against me, but I shrink back.  “Ash-“

“I’m not doing anything,” he says
softly, his lips moving against my own.  “But you’re making me crazy with
wanting you.”

“You’ll have me,” I say.  “I can
still make you happy, though.”  I reach down to take him in my hand.  The
moment I touch him, he drags my lower lip in between his own, sucking it in
gently.  His cock is hot and hard in my hand and I slowly rub the small wet
spot with my thumb.  I spread the moisture around until my hand can comfortably
glide over it.  “Feel good?”

“Very,” he whispers.  “But it’s
impossible not to touch you back.  To me, that’s like torture.”

“So touch me back,” I say.  In
response, his hands snake around my waist and run over my hips, making me
shiver and moan in anticipation.  I want him, want him to release everything
that’s building up inside of me, but every time he looms over me I picture a
man in a mask, and then another one, and then I can’t breathe.  Suddenly and
without warning, I sit up.

“What’s wrong?” he asks me. 

“Sit up,” I tell him.  He looks
confused but does as he’s told.  I straddle him and take his cock in my hand. 
“I want you so much,” I tell him.  “And it’s going to happen.”  I move him
until the head of his cock is resting against me, then I push.  I feel his
hardness plunge inside of me, making my lower belly burn with pleasure.  “Yes,”
I whisper.  “That’s better.”

“You’re sure?” he asks me, and I
nod.  We sit as close as we possibly can, our arms each pressing each other
closer, foreheads touching.  He begins to kiss me with such ardor and I kiss
back with the same intensity, as though we’ve waited our entire lives to become
one.  We have waited our entire lives, in fact.  I rock my hips against his and
his hands grip my behind, directing my motions gently.  I entwine my hands in
his hair, pulling his face down to kiss my neck and my shoulders.  His hand
comes between us and I feel his thumb pressing on my clit, rubbing softly, but
hard enough to bring me closer and closer.  Finally, I let myself cry out as he
brings me to orgasm.  I feel him bite gently down on my shoulder as I come,
pressing my body against his.  He follows seconds later, pulsing inside of me,
not making any noise but showing with his face that he feels just as he made me
feel seconds before. 

We sit pressed and locked together
for what seems like forever and no time at all.  Outside of this room, there is
nothing, and I wish I could stay inside of Ash’s room forever, making love to
him all day long.  “Why not?” I find myself saying out loud.

“Why not what?” he asks, lifting
his head and looking at me curiously with those blazing black eyes. 

“Aren’t you supposed to be able to
read my mind?” I ask him, teasingly.

He shakes his head.  “I’m not a
water elemental.  That’s never something I’ll be able to do.”

I smile and push that damned lock
of loose hair away from his eyes.  “I was just thinking about how I want to
stay in this room with you forever.”

He grins and takes my hair and
tucks it behind my ears on both sides.  “That might have to happen, considering
you have nothing to wear other than that damned costume that drove me insane
last night.”

“Well with twenty people living in
this house,” I say, “I’m sure we could scrounge up something.” 

“Sure,” Ash agrees.  “Just let me
know what you’d like and we can have it sent in, along with breakfast.”

“Oh, it’s like a hotel here,” I
exclaim, clapping my hands together.  He laughs and pulls me down so we are
laying side by side against the pillows.  He hasn’t pulled out of me yet.  “Can
we order anything we want?”

“Sure,” Ash nods, pressing his hips
against mine one more time, making me inhale sharply.  He grins and then pulls
out, leaving me empty and feeling his seed leaking out of me and onto my
thigh.  I don’t care, though, because it’s from him.  “But order within
reason,” he tells me.  “If you want an abalone stuffed duck, you might need to
wait a few hours.”

“Yuck,” I say.  “How about crepes? 
And some running clothes so we can tour the vineyards?”

“Easy,” Ash says.  He picks up the
phone next to his bed.  “Hi James.  Can you have Michelle bring up some crepes
and some running clothes that are weather appropriate to fit Miss Holt?  Thank
you.”  He hangs up the phone, leaving me speechless and impressed.

Twenty minutes later, I’m sitting
in bed wearing one of Ash’s t-shirts and boxer briefs and eating crepes
smothered in crème fraise and strawberries and powdered sugar.  “I think I’ve
died and gone to heaven.”

“I think we’re going to need to run
a few extra miles just to work these carbs off,” Ash says.  “Or we could work
it off another way.”

“We’ll do both,” I say, leaning
over the lap tray and kissing him, hard.  His hands cup my face and his lips
trace my jaw, sending shivers of pleasure through me. 

“I have a feeling we’re never
getting out of this bed today,” Ash says, tracing his fingers down and over my
breast.  My phone rings in my purse, making me groan with annoyance. 

“It’s probably my mother, finding
out why I didn’t come home last night,” I say, breaking away from Ash and
heading over to my clutch on the coffee table.  I feel like I’m a kid again,
living at home with my mother and breaking curfew.  I slide my phone out of my
purse and see it is indeed my mother.  “It’s her,” I confirm, rolling my eyes. 
Ash is lying back against the pillows laughing at my antics.  “Hello Mother,
I’m fine,” is how I answer.

“I knew you were fine,” she says. 
Of course she would know.  “Leah, I got a call from Heidi.  The adoption went
through and she is en route to meet her new baby.”