All Right Now

by Madelynne Ellis

“Take him to bed, Dani, before I’m tempted to take a bite.”

  “Ginny!” her friend screeched. She hopped up off the sofa and grabbed hold of Xane’s hand.

  “Sorry, but it’s right there and I know for a fact he knows what to do with it, and I haven’t had a shag in weeks.” Xane’s tool was near prodding her in the face.

  Dani tugged on his hand, and started dragging him from the room.

  Result! Now she could do what she’d wanted to do twenty minutes ago.

  “Watch Ash doesn’t hear you talking like that,” Xane laughed.

  “He knows I’m all bluster, and in any case from what I’ve heard, he’s already way ahead of me.”

  One of the things that had rolled off Ash’s tongue when he’d been rambling during the first few days in hospital was a lot of garbled emotions about Xane. There were wounds there that had barely scabbed over. She hadn’t deliberately meant to pick at them. She hadn’t even had a chance to properly talk to Ash about them. There was something of a list of things they hadn’t talked about.

  Xane shrugged. Dani, on the other hand, turned ashen.

  “You’ve done more than just kiss him.” She stared open-mouthed at her boyfriend.

  “Babe, it’s hardly a revelation.” He patted her on the arse, to hurry her along towards their bedroom while he lingered a moment, a thoughtful pucker narrowing his face. “I don’t know what you think you know, but he’s never gone down on me. It was the other way around.”

  “You blew him?”

  Xane inclined his head a fraction. “One time. We’ve all done things that were ill considered.”

  Wasn’t there a world of truth in that statement.

  “The past is the past.”

  If only that were genuinely the case, but as she was learning, things had a way of rearing their ugly heads. Her phone vibrated inside her pocket.

  She waited until Xane had gone before looking at it.

  Change of plan? I was expecting your call today.

  No, there was no change of plan. She was just wary of sticking her head above the ramparts after remaining in the shadows so long. So, sure, maybe she was dithering a bit. Tomorrow, she’d definitely take the next step, but Ash was her priority now.

  Danger dude was flat out on his back on the day bed in their room. The soft whisper of his breathing persuaded her that he was genuinely asleep. She’d spent enough hours by his bedside to know when he was faking it in order to win some peace.

  Ash, there’s something I need to tell you.

  How many times now had she begun this conversation in her head?

  I know I should have told you sooner, but I never imagined it would become so serious between us so fast.

  That was a lie. She’d known after the very first night they’d spent together things were going to get complicated between them. Perhaps not this complicated this fast, but then their whole relationship had caught them both off guard.

  Ash was a rock star with a reputation, and she a groupie. They weren’t supposed to forge the sort of relationship that ended with a wedding and domestic bliss, only to party hard, shag a lot, until one day it was over. The short term leaseholds they’d taken out on one another’s affections would have ended and that would be it.

  Reality wasn’t even remotely like that. They’d signed a lifetime contract the night they met.

  Shit! He was going to hate her when he found out.

  Hate her, and quite possibly leave her.

  She should have told him right at the beginning. The moment it became more than a one night stand, but it’d been kind of difficult to discuss serious topics when their relationship had revolved around secret rendezvous and midnight booty calls.

  “I can’t lose you, Ash.”

  The threatening sting of tears set her blinking desperately. Ginny turned away from his bedside and pattered over to the window, blindly feeling her way past the furniture. The sun had finally disappeared over the horizon, but the night sky was clear, and hundreds of stars glittered overhead.

  The scent of salt and pine wafted in through an open sash. Although the smell was soothing, she didn’t want to end up as a picnic for the night time bugs, which meant leveraging herself up on the windowsill in order to reach the lock.

  The window closed with a thump.

  “Ginny, is that you?”

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”

  “Wasn’t asleep.”

  He had been, but she didn’t quibble. She climbed down from her perch and watched Ash’s fuzzy double rise and pad towards her in the glass. He was stripped down to a pair of skimpy boxer briefs.

  Ash was skinnier than when they’d first met, but in the gloom that meant the shadows loved him, emphasising his muscle tone, and making his whole abdomen seriously lickworthy. His little snake tattoo slithered above the top of his shorts. It made her smile, imagining tracing its length with her tongue, and getting him itching for her to venture lower.

  His musky scent arrived a second before he slid his arms around her from behind, and he nuzzled against the side of her neck.

  “Hey, pretty lady.”

  “Hey. How are you feeling? Better after your nap?”

  “Hmm.” His hands moved up from where they’d settled around her waist and encompassed her breasts. “What I’m feeling is really good. No bra, right?”

  Ginny’s teeth dug into the groove she’d already made in her lower lip, as she stifled the urge to groan when he caught her nipples and pinched.

  “Yeah, I know. It’s been too long for us both.” His breath was warm against her neck. The tug of his lips against her skin sent streamers of lust shooting down to her pussy. She might fight it, but she was weak to resist him. Ash had super powers when it came to knowing exactly which touch would drive her wild, and in fact, where to touch her.

  He skirted one hand down from her breast to just above her knee, and then dragged it up again, lifting her skirt and tickling the inside of her thigh.

  “You’re still supposed to be taking things easy,” she whispered.

  Ash ignored her words, and ran a fingertip along the seam of her panties. She was already dripping wet, and tingling from the anticipation of his touch, when his other hand left her breast and came upwards so it sat splayed across the front of her throat. His little finger circled upward to dust across her lips.

  “Ash, you need to recuperate your strength.”

  “Uh-huh.” His hot breath tickled her ear. “The best way to do that is with a work out.”

  The best way to do that was not to exert himself. “You’re not supposed to do anything strenuous, remember?”

  “I remember. Gentle, light exercise only, like finger twiddling and pilates.” He inhaled deeply and let the breath out slowly, while at the same time he slipped two fingers under the lacy edge of her knickers. “No acrobatics or high impact aerobics.” His digits fluttered against her intimate piercing, instantly making her clit swell. “I guess we’ll have to make this all tantric and subtle, except it’s been a while, so I don’t know how long I’m going to be able to hold out for you. I might just embarrass myself and come the moment I get inside you.”

  She plumped at the very thought of it, knowing his reputation for being able to go all night. Among the groupies that followed the band about, his stamina was legendary.

  “Ash,” she twisted around and in so doing managed to disentangle herself from his embrace. “Maybe it’s too soon. Your health, it’s important.”

  “Seriously?” He cocked up a brow. “It was bad enough being banned from touching you while in hospital. Don’t enact sanctions now that I’m free.”

  “I’m thinking of you. You’ve already pushed yourself today. Spook told me what happened.”

  “Did he?” Ash thumped the windowsill, making her jump. He sucked in a juddery breath. “What did he say? Did he let you know that I’m a washed up nobody who can’t play guitar anymore?”

  “No. Nobody thinks that about you.”
/>
  “They should. It’s the truth.”

  “He just said you’d had trouble with your hand.”

  “Which is a polite way of saying I’m fucked. Iain’s buggered me, Ginny. I’m not fit for anything.”

  “Hey,” she reached out to him and squeezed his upper arm. “You’ll get better.”

  Ash shook her off and paced over to the wall. “Don’t say that. You don’t know. It could be that this is the new reality.” He turned, hands raised and his face scrunched with anger. “Maybe I won’t ever be able to play guitar again.”

  All she could do was support him. Maybe that was reality and maybe it wasn’t. Ginny cut the distance between them and reached up to cup his face. Ash nuzzled against her hand. “We’ll get through this Ash. We will. I have faith even if you don’t.”

  “Do you?” He kissed the centre of her palm. “Then for God’s sakes allow me to live a little.” He captured her in his arms again, trapping her between his body and the window ledge. “Let me prove to myself there are at least a few things I’m still good at.”

  Ginny’s phone buzzed again inside her pocket. She clamped a hand over it. The timing on everything was shot to pieces today.

  “Ginny, I’m not made of fucking glass.”

  “I know. I know that,” she said distractedly. She slipped free of his hold again and danced away from him on the tips of her toes. “Can you just give me a moment? There’s something I need to do.”

  Ash’s mouth dropped open. “It’s not that time of the month is it?” He looked positively aghast at the possibility.

  “It’s not. No.” Her tongue swept anxiously across her lips. She held up her phone. “There’s a message I need to send. It won’t take a minute.”

  “A message,” he called after her. “You need to send a message? I’m finally out of hospital after a three week nightmare and you have to send a message. What’s up, is the sky falling in? Did someone on the internet post a joke?”

  Despite his obvious irritation she dashed straight out the door. Even outside, the signal wasn’t great, but she managed to secure two bars by sitting on the log bench outside the boot room, and resting the phone on her leg. Yes, she was an idiot. Yes, she should have attended to this before now, but it wasn’t easy delving into a past life you’d prefer to leave buried, and nor had it been easy sitting by his bedside day in day out for the best part of a month. Also, while she knew this was the right decision, that didn’t make it an easy one.

  It took a couple of minutes to compose the message, and another few to read it over a time or two.

  The damn thing felt like a nuclear detonation code.

  “Ginny?” Ash came striding out of the house, still dressed in nothing but his briefs. Though he’d co-opted a pair of boots to protect his feet from the gravel, he hadn’t bothered to lace them.

  “By all means send your message, but I’ve something in need of urgent attention too.” He positioned himself right before her and peeled down the front of his shorts. Yeah, admittedly, his cock did look painfully in need of soothing, but he could cut the pissy attitude. So what if the moonlight favoured him, and there was a spark in his baby blues that she wanted to ignite. She hated being bossed around and bullied. She didn’t take this sort of shit from anybody anymore.

  “You do realise I’m not one of your groupies, right?”

  She wrapped her hand around his cock and squeezed him tight.

  “Gin,” he sang.

  “What? Wasn’t that what you were looking for? I said I was coming back. I said I’d only be a minute.”

  “You’ve been considerably more than that. What’s so flippin’ important anyway that it couldn’t wait?”

  Yeah, she could level that same accusation at him. If he needed to come that badly, then maybe he ought to go and take care of it himself, instead of virtually slapping her in the face with it. Only then she saw the clawed shape of his fist, and the roar in her veins quietened a bit. They loved one another, and she didn’t want to get into a row over this and risk blurting something that needed to be revealed in a calm, careful fashion.

  “Send your fucking message, eh?”

  Yeah… yeah, she was going to.

  “Ginny, please. I’m sorry I’m being pissy, but I can’t stomach any bullshit right now.”

  “All right.” She tapped her finger on the send envelope, and it was done, the message zapped into the ether. There was no going back. The rocket was launched. Her declaration made.

  She cringed inwardly, anticipating retaliation, but missiles didn’t rain down from the sky, nor did the nearby conifers burst into flames.

  “You done?” he asked.

  Yeah, she was done.

  “Does that mean you’re good to blow me now?”

  If he hadn’t winked at her and given her such a goofy grin, she might have hit him in the pods.

  “Pwweeze, Ginny. Please love me.”

  “Hm,” she scoffed. “It isn’t love you’re after.”

  “Isn’t it?”

  “Nope.” She slapped her hands upon either side of his firm butt. “Just some dirty nasty stuff.”

  “Do you need me to beg? ’Cause I will.”

  Ginny contemplated him, looking up the length of his body. The fall of his hair masked most of his expression, but the glitter of his eyes was unmistakable. “You do realise this is a very public place. Any one of your band mates could walk past.”

  “Let ’em.”

  “And what if there are spy drones?”

  “Spy drones,” he repeated sceptically.

  “Do you really want your naked arse on international TV?”

  Ash released the band holding her hair up in a messy knot, so that her dark tresses spilled around her shoulders. “It’s a risk I’m willing to take.” He shuffled forward a bit, so that his hard-on was only an inch shy of her face. He did smell good, of salt and musk and his unique spice. Maybe showing him a little glimpse of heaven would help remind him why it was so good to be alive.

  “Ask me nicely.”

  “Pretty, pretty, please, Ginny.”

  “Pretty, pretty, please what? You’d better give me explicit instructions.”

  “Take your top off so I can look at your tits while we do this?”

  Yeah, that wasn’t quite what she meant, but she couldn’t help grinning at his brazen cheek. Sod it. Why pretend this wasn’t what she wanted too? Ginny lifted her dress over her head and dropped it on the ground beside them. “That better?”

  His grin broadened so that it ate up half his face. “Fuck, you’re beautiful. I am one lucky, lucky bastard.” He reached out and palmed her breasts until her nipples were standing proud. She wasn’t particularly blessed in that department, but Ash had never seemed to mind that fact. “So perkily perfect.”

  Okay, so he was no poet, and he didn’t have Xane’s lyricism, but he made up for that in honesty. There wasn’t a thing that came out of his mouth that didn’t reflect exactly what he felt. “You’re the sexiest fucking nymph alive.”

  “Don’t think I don’t know you’re just buttering me up.”

  “Butter. No, I know that’s off limits. Bottom sex makes Ginny glower.”

  Damn right. She possessed too many bad memories associated with that act. Although if Ash ever did it, he’d probably find a way to make it sweet. The thought left her curiously squirmy.

  “Gin, are you going to make me beg?” he gasped, his voice all low and husky, like his vocal cords were being constricted. “I mean, I will. I’ll totally get down on my knees if that’s what it’ll take. I’ll prostate myself flat.”

  “No, Chief,” she hushed him. “I’m not going to make you beg. I’m gonna make you come.”

  She pushed her hair away from her face, and leaned into him, grazing his lower abs with her lips to begin. Ash’s cock bucked its eager approval.

  “Wait your turn,” she said to it. There were a couple of other places she intended to say hello to first. Like this bit here, and the c
rease at the top of his thigh, and that intriguing groove between his balls. He shivered over each touch, and his hands clasped and unclasped, first upon thin air, and then around the strands of her hair as he held onto her head.

  Ginny landed a kiss mid-way down his shaft, followed by another an inch higher, then one an inch higher than that. He was weeping copiously when she finally took him in her mouth. The taste of him hit her tongue, so familiar and damned inflammatory.

  Blowing him, hell yeah! She’d give him everything he needed, and more besides.

  So, separate beds… That was a stupid idea. She wanted to wrap herself around him so that their limbs were knotted together and it was hard to tell where each of them began and ended.

  It turned out that Ash wasn’t the only one in this relationship who needed reassuring that the bond between them was as strong as ever.

  -3-

  Ash held his breath as he waited for Ginny to soothe the ache in his balls. His cock bucked hard each time her lips met with his shaft. He didn’t know what the hell all that nonsense in the bedroom had been about, or why she thought it was so urgent to send a text message to someone this late at night while he was horny, but nor did it matter now. The text was sent and the only thing of importance was that he was about to get the release he’d been craving for weeks, from the woman who’d supported him through some pitifully dark nights.

  If he’d ever doubted her commitment, her loyalty, her love, then he was a fool. She’d proven herself a zillion times over.

  Ginny Walters loved him.

  There was no other explanation for why she’d put up with his crap. If she’d only been around for the thrills, she’d have bailed on him back in Karlstad. He forced his eyes open to look down on her and reassure himself this was in fact real and not some figment of his imagination. It wasn’t some random girl whose name he wouldn’t remember on her knees before him. Not so long ago, blowjobs had been synonymous with groupies. What’s more, it used to be that he’d hardly ever come when someone sucked him. With Ginny he always had to fight not to give into the roaring in his veins too soon.

  Ginny understood how to tease, and cared enough to do it. What you did with the body was secondary to how you engaged the mind. His toes curled as he anticipated the moment when her delicate, butterfly kisses would cease and she’d surround him again with wet heat.