Calling Me Away (16 page)

She cried out, my name amongst words that didn’t seem to fit together. The power of being able to make her lose her mind was what I needed. I had to know I could do these things to her.

My tongue trailed lower, between her folds. She was soft and hot and oh-so-wet. Jesus, I couldn’t wait to feel her clenched around my cock. It wouldn’t be long. Her hands pushed violently through my hair and her feet rested on my hips as if she were climbing my body. I started a rhythm, sliding up and down her slit, rounding her clit each time I reached the top. Her breath got shorter and shorter, her sounds louder and louder until her body went rigid and her back arched. The power I felt at being able to do that to her was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. I reduced the pressure of my tongue, but kept up my rhythm until her body went limp, her knees closing around my shoulders.

“I’m going to give up my job and make you come for a living,” I said as I crawled up her body, my cock making her shiver as it trailed up her legs. “It’s the most satisfying thing I could ever do.” I licked my lips, tasting her on me. She grasped my neck and pulled me toward her, unashamedly licking herself off my mouth. Fuck, she was the hottest thing I’d ever known.

“I want you inside me, Luke.”

She didn’t have to ask me twice. I positioned myself at her entrance, checking her reaction. Her lips were open, her eyes wide as she twisted beneath me, trying to get closer, trying to draw me in. I loved seeing the desperation in her eyes, the desire, the need. For me. My heart clenched with the knowledge that I hadn’t lost her. That she was mine.

“You feel this?” I pressed forward. “This is what you’re going to feel for the rest of your life.” I pushed into her in one swift movement, and she let out a deafening cry.

It was as though she was made for me. Her muscles gripped me as if they didn’t want to let go. I dropped my head to her shoulder, growling against her skin. She felt so good. The smell of summer, sex and softness that was unmistakably Ashleigh hit me.

I started to thrust, knowing I was going to have to concentrate if I was going to last longer than fifteen seconds.

“Oh God,” she whispered. I tried to block out the perfect pressure on my cock, her arms gripping my shoulders, her skin beneath my lips, and focus on her words. This. Yes. There. Oh. God. Yes. Oh. Oh. Oh. All that mattered was that she felt good. That I made her feel good. Her nails dug into my flesh, and she thrust her pelvis toward me, calling my name over and over before going limp. I was done for. I picked up my pace, chasing the white light in front of me. How had I waited as long as I had to feel this again? I lifted my head, my eyes meeting hers. In an instant, my orgasm barreled up my spine and split me in half.

I collapsed on top of her, my head in her neck, my body pressing against her. I wanted to feel as much of my skin against hers as was possible. My heart pounded against my chest. I was sure she could feel it. I reached out and laced my fingers through hers, our arms outstretched.

I brushed my lips against her shoulder and was once again intoxicated by her scent. I worked my way to her mouth. “Am I crushing you?” I asked between kisses.

“I don’t know where I end and you begin,” she said.

The idea warmed me. We were inextricably linked.

Worried about my weight, I rolled us over so I was on my back but still inside her. I wasn’t sure if it was conscious, but her muscles continued to pulse around my cock. I started to stiffen.

“You feel so good,” I said, running my fingers up and down her back. “You’re going to have me hard again if you’re not careful.”

She pushed herself up, her hands pressing into my chest, her arms squeezing her tits together. Jesus, all these years and I’d never realized how incredible her tits were. There was so much about her I was still to learn. I shoved one hand behind my head, content just to watch her for the rest of the day, as she lay naked on top of me. She smiled at me and started to tilt her hips, rocking back and forth in tiny movements, maybe thinking I wouldn’t notice. I raised my eyebrows, silently asking what she was doing as her muscles gripped my dick, pulling it deeper into her.

“I need to come again, baby, are you with me? I need you to come again.” She seemed insatiable, and I was happy to spend however long it took quenching her thirst.

I grabbed hold of her hips, and pulled her roughly onto my hardened dick. “I want to know what you like. I want to give you everything you need.”

“I need you,” she said. “Just you.”

Words in bed had never been a particular turn on to me. Like most men, I concentrated on the visual stuff—a nice ass, a good mouth. Everything about Ashleigh was a turn on. But her words, that she needed me, and the way she said them, as if my body were pulling them from her—it was the most powerful aphrodisiac I’d ever experienced.

She continued to look at me as she rocked back and slowly heated the blood in my veins. I’d never felt so relaxed and at the same time so ready to explode.

My eyes kept dropping to her tits bouncing with her movements. “You’re a boob man,” she said as if she were taking note for later. I reached for them, grazing my thumbs over her hard nipples. Her head dropped back as she groaned.

“There’s nothing about your body I don’t worship.” I’d never felt so sure about anything. I’d missed just watching her, seeing every part of her.

She took one of my hands and moved it to where our bodies joined. I loved how she asked for what she wanted. I pressed lightly on her clit and her words got more fervent. I savored every yes, every more, every oh, every there, every please. I wanted every one of her words. I knew what it was not to have them—I’d never take them for granted.

A sheen of sweat coated her as my fingers became wetter and wetter, and her movements became faster and sharper.

“Luke,” she cried. I pulled her down, claiming her mouth and pushing my tongue against hers as I held her hips and thrust up into her. I took over, unable to hold back any longer. She whimpered into my mouth for just a few seconds before I felt her spasm around me, and I poured myself into her.

She lay in my arms, panting and relaxed. I couldn’t imagine being any happier than I was at that exact moment.

Ashleigh

I woke so hot I thought I had a fever. As I opened my eyes, the brightness surprised me. I lay facing the window—my curtains were open. Realization crept up on me. Luke. I must have fallen asleep after . . . Oh, yes, the sex. I could still feel the shadows of him between my legs and over my skin. Right now his arm was across my shoulder, his leg over mine as if he were trying to climb me, capture me. I grinned and cupped my hand over my mouth. No, no grinning. I had to figure out what this meant. It had all been so sudden. Well, maybe not sudden, but the timing was unexpected. He’d been resolute, decisive. His words replayed in my head.

There will never be anyone else for me but you.

I knew that was how I felt about him. But could it really be how he felt about me? I grinned to myself again. Maybe it could. He and Emma had been apart for months now, and as he’d told me, he had an opportunity to choose someone else and hadn’t. Time had helped me as well. Luke was laid back enough that he wanted an easy life, but not so much so that he’d risk the bond Haven, he and I shared if he wasn’t serious about me, about us. I was able to see that more clearly now.

I shifted under his limbs, needing to think when he wasn’t touching me, when I couldn’t smell him, us. Carefully, I slid out from his grasp and padded into the bathroom.

My hair stuck up as though it had regressed to the eighties. I took out a brush from the cabinet and began to take out the tangles.

There will never be anyone else for me but you.

My stomach flipped over. Was this it? Was this the beginning of Luke and me? It felt like it. I knew that if I ever lost him, it might just kill me. I had to get this right. Being apart from him had been so painful, I’d felt the loss of him so viscerally—I couldn’t let it happen again. We needed to be cautious, not run before we could walk.

There was no way I was going to Haven’s smelling of sex. And anyway, he and I needed to talk before we went anywhere. It was almost midday and we were both expected for Sunday dinner, so I texted Haven and showered quickly, drying myself off and pulling on the jeans and shirt I’d had on before Luke had arrived.

Sleeping Luke was one of my favorite sights in the world. I had no idea how a body that big could look so completely relaxed and vulnerable. I sat next to him on the bed, close so I could feel his warmth against me, and began to turn on the alarm on my phone to wake him. He opened his eyes before I’d finished.

“Hey,” I said.

He went from sleepy to wide-awake when he saw me.

“What?” He jerked upright. “Ashleigh, what’s the matter?”

“Shhhh.” I stroked his face, trying to smooth the panic away. This wasn’t like the last time when I’d woken him and told him it wasn’t our time.

He clasped his hands around my waist and pulled us both back onto the mattress.

“We do need to talk.”

“I’m not letting you go, Ashleigh. You’re not pushing me away.” His words were clipped.

“I don’t want to.” I swiveled in his arms, and he gave me some room to turn. As I faced him, I brought my fingers to his face, trying to reassure him. “I just think—”

“I don’t want to hear any ifs or buts. This is it. We’re together now. Nothing else makes sense.”

I lifted my chin and pressed my lips to his. “I know.”

“You do?” he asked.

I nodded. “I want this to work.”

“It is going to work.” I could hear the tightness in his throat.

“But—”

“I said no buts.”

He was cute when he was argumentative.

“I want this to happen and you have to admit that it is complicated because of our history and what’s at stake.”

“But nothing we can’t handle. We got this. You have to trust me.”

I loved hearing his reassurance, his certainty. Everything he was saying made me feel better and better, more and more relaxed. Maybe this would be okay.

“I do trust you. More than anyone. But can I make a suggestion that I think might be good for both of us?”

He let out a short burst of breath like a sulky toddler, and I couldn’t help but giggle.

“Just hear me out. I was thinking that maybe we should date.”

He didn’t respond, instead waiting for me to elaborate.

“What do you think?” I asked.

“I don’t understand what you’re asking me. What do you mean ‘date’?”

“I mean, I think we should go out to dinner and talk, and you can walk me home and maybe kiss me and then we can talk on the phone and flirt and do all those things that people do when they’re dating.”

“Okay.” He eyed me suspiciously.

“So you agree?”

“I guess. Honestly, I think you’re trying to say something, and you’re handing it to me in a box marked ‘let’s date.’ Can you just spit it out? What are you trying to say?”

Of course he was right, he knew me so well.

“I think that last time we did this thing where we kind of went from naught to sixty in three seconds. I think this time we should give ourselves a bit more time to adjust. I mean, I know we just—”

“Had mind-blowing sex.”

I giggled. “Yes, and I’m not trying to put the genie back in the lamp. I’m just saying let’s give ourselves some time to get to know each other like this. As a couple.” I ran my fingers up his arms, unable to resist. “Maybe we shouldn’t spend every second together straight away. I don’t want to put more pressure on this situation in the short term, because I want it to work in the long run. Let’s take things slow.”

“Okay, well thank you for translating Ashleigh language into something I can just about comprehend.”

I kicked him in the calf and he grinned.

“So you want to date me?” he asked. He flipped me over onto my back and propped himself up above me before I had the chance to answer.

“Maybe.”

“Well, I’m having dinner with my sister and her husband later. Wanna be my date?”

I grinned at him. “Maybe.”

He dipped his head and trapped my bottom lip between his teeth and sucked. “I can live with us taking things slow. For now.”