All Right Now

by Madelynne Ellis

  Maybe in the short term, but long term he’d hopefully thank her. “Seriously, you don’t want to go getting a black mark for being naughty, now do you?”

  He actually considered. “What happens if I do? Do I have to forfeit watching Danger Mouse for a week?”

  “Ash.” She scurried out of reach and threw one of the balled-up stockings at him. “Just do the task. And by the way, the timer resets at midnight.”

  “You’re no fun at all.” He retrieved both fishnet stockings. “Fine, let’s do this. You sit your dainty butt back up there.”

  Ginny resumed her former perch upon the bed. “Just remember, no twists or tears.”

  He nodded. “Babe, I’m going to ace this. Just get ready to be pounded.”

  “My rules, tiger. I get to decide when the pounding happens, and I reckon three completed tasks is the minimum required to earn a shag.”

  He cast her some serious side-eye from under his fringe, made a noise low down in his throat, then plastered on a beatific grin. “Okay. Fine. Right foot, please. Not that I see how shagging has anything to do with fixing me.”

  It might shore up his mental reserves, and restore his self-esteem.

  Ginny held her foot up and let him work on his task. The key was to gather the stocking up so that you could slip on the toe part, and then gradually pull the rest up the leg without snagging your fingers in the holes. The pair he was working with were at least fairly finely woven. Some of her others had larger holes and were a real bugger to put on even if you were well practised.

  Ash managed to secure a fairly speedy victory with the first stocking. He grinned smugly at her as he clipped the top of the stocking to her suspenders. He attacked the second with too much cocky zeal, and hit a snag halfway up when he got the nylon twisted, and then put his fingers through the holes right after he’d straightened it out. The result was a ten-inch ladder.

  “Shit!”

  “Oh no, such bad luck. Looks as if nookie is off the agenda.” She crossed her legs.

  Ash pulled at her knees until he was able to wriggle between her thighs again. “We’re not done yet. There were boxes for up to five challenges a day on your chart, and you said passing three of them would get me laid. That means I just need to secure victories on two of the remaining three.”

  “I wasn’t going to give you five every day, and definitely not today. I thought I’d break you in gently.”

  “Gently.” He rolled the word from his tongue riddled with scorn. “Fuck that. Give me it all. Come on, Ginny. What’s the next one? If I’m gonna do this, then it’s better to go all in.”

  “It’s never a good idea to push too hard.”

  “I’ll let you know if it gets too tough.”

  Chances were that the stubborn bastard wouldn’t, but when he pleaded like this, with his big blue eyes peeping at her through the strands of his hair, and his expression filled with eagerness, she was powerless to resist. The truth was that she didn’t want to resist. Shagging until they were both senseless sounded pretty great, actually.

  “What do you wish of me, O’ great and glorious mistress?”

  “Jenga.”

  “What?” His nose wrinkled as if she’d told him he had to scoop dog poop for the next hour.

  “The game, Jenga. That’s the third challenge for today.”

  She stood and offered him her hand so that he could also rise.

  Ash clasped her hand, but didn’t immediately stand. His mouth remained set in a sour pout. “Do I have to win?”

  “No. You only have to take part and take it seriously.”

  “So, I have to attempt to win.”

  “We are doing it for a reason, Ash.” It wasn’t as if she was Jenga obsessive or anything. Board games weren’t exactly her thing, though she didn’t mind the occasional pub quiz. This was about him practising those all-important fine motor skills, just in ways that weren’t quite as obvious as sitting down with his sheet of physiotherapist prescribed exercises.

  “Are you sure you wouldn’t prefer me to practise hooking and unhooking your corset? It has a ton of tiny hooks, right? ’Cause that sounds like it’d be far more fun.”

  “We’ll stick to Jenga for now,” she insisted, though she filed away his suggestion for another time. Those hooks could be tricky, and alternatively, she could have him thread and unthread the ribbon fastening at the back. “Let’s play on the table in the lounge.”

  “The one with the wonky leg? Ooh, extra challenge.” He opened his eyes wide, aping excitement.

  “Let’s just play. Okay? If you pass this test, then I’ll make sure the next one is more to your tastes.”

  “It better involve tongues,” he said. “Just saying, ’cause I totally have issues with my speech to fix as well as my fingers, so you know, tongue exercises are going to be essential.”

  ***

  In the end, they played three rounds of Jenga. Ash won two, the last one as a result of her bumping the table and felling the tower. Having achieved her goal of making him work, there was no sense in over doing it, and while he’d not complained, it was clear that he was finding play increasingly difficult. He’d given his fingers more than one surreptitious rub under the table.

  “How about we take a break and I’ll fix us something to eat,” she said once the playing blocks were back in the box.

  “Do you want help?”

  “No, you can chill for a while.”

  Ash settled himself in front of the TV, and flicked channels until he found a film. He was asleep when she set the pasta medley she’d concocted before him. “Hey, sleepy head. Eat up.”

  Ash roused, and they ate. He insisted on opening a bottle of wine, but he stopped after one glass to prove he was a good boy.

  “Still want to go for today’s gold star?” Ginny asked. He’d worked so hard and had been so surprisingly amenable to her plans that she wanted to give him a reward. Actually, she relished the chance. He wasn’t the only one hungry for some action.

  Ash turned his gaze on her again. A wan smile played across his lips. “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but…” He covered his mouth with his curled fingertips and very slowly shook his head. “I just… Ginny, what if this is me from now on? What if there’s no getting better, no regaining my ability to play? What am I supposed to do?”

  Ginny wrapped her arm around his back and rested her head on his shoulder. “I don’t believe that’s going to happen. I genuinely believe you’ll get through this.” She caught hold of his hand and linked their fingers. “We’ll get through this.” She squeezed his hand tight. “Whatever happens, I’m here for you. I hope you know that. I’m not going anywhere, Ash. I know you have some weird ideas about me getting tired of you, and casting my lot in with someone else. It’s just not going to happen. I’d completely given up on the idea of ever having any sort of long-term relationship again before I met you.”

  He opened his mouth to say something, but she covered his lips with her fingertip, hushing him into silence. “Before you put yourself down. I know that’s what you mean to do. You’ve never disappointed me. You won’t. You’re too selfless for that.” She’d not forgotten how hard he worked to bring her pleasure, even at the expense of his own needs.

  “I’m going to disappoint you right now. I can’t face anything else tonight, I’m sorry.”

  “Not even a hand job?” She offered him a saucy smile.

  Ash shook his head. “Sorry.” He turned away from her.

  “We could cuddle instead. I could make us some hot drinks, and we could give that film from earlier another try.”

  “Cuddles are almost as good.”

  He must think she was blind and deaf if he thought she couldn’t see he was in pain. Tension riddled his whole body. He had his shoulders pulled in and up and the tendons in his jaw were pulled taut.

  “Ash, are you okay?” She rested her chin against his shoulder again.

  “Fine!”

  “I’m a girl. I know that f
ine doesn’t mean fine.” She got off the sofa so that she could walk around him to see his face. His teeth were gritted, and his eyes were narrowed to mere slits, courtesy of his intense grimace.

  “All right, no. It fucking wrecks!”

  “Has this been happening a lot?”

  He shook his head. Probably because the only thing likely to come out if he opened it was a scream or some serious blasphemy.

  “Do you ever think that maybe flushing your meds wasn’t such a hot plan? Yeah, I know why you did it, but putting yourself through this is nonsensical. I’m going to find you some painkillers.”

  “Don’t.”

  “We’re talking about a couple of paracetamol, Ash. Not a morphine shot.”

  He shook his head, which made him wince even more. “Don’t want it. It’ll be fine. It’ll pass in a moment. Just need to ride it out.”

  “I think you’re taking this a bit far. I’m sure you’ve downed plenty of Resolve after a heavy night on the tiles before. You were a student. Everyone has. And you’re not telling me you’ve never taken any painkillers to get you through a head cold or to sort you out so you could get on stage when your head’s been ready to explode.”

  “I don’t want them now. This isn’t like that. This isn’t going away. It’ll be too easy to keep taking them and wanting more.”

  “Fine, tough it out, but I’m going to call Rock Giant tomorrow and ask him if he’s any thoughts about natural methods of pain relief.” He was bound to have some ideas. Some of them might even be good ones.

  “I don’t want you to tell any of them anything, and I already know what he’ll say—masturbation.” He huffed a ghost-like laugh. “Course, you’ll have to tug it for me, ’cause we both know how well my hands work.”

  “How about I stick to rubbing your big toes? That’s supposed to work for headaches.”

  “It isn’t my head that hurts.”

  “Okay, well maybe if you just rest.” She settled at one end of the big sofa, and tugged him against her, so that he was squeezed between her legs with his head resting on her chest. “Ash, this is madness.”

  “It’s not very often it happens now,” he whimpered, snuggling in to her body. “Probably over did it, but it was fun.”

  “Yeah.” Ginny gently brushed her fingers through the longer strands of his hair.

  He was asleep within five minutes.

  “I love you,” she muttered, kissing his brow. “It’ll be okay, Ash. We’re going to figure this out. And we can have mad sex tomorrow, all right?” She pulled a fleecy throw over the pair of them. Neither of them stirred from the sofa until the sun streamed through the window the next morning.

  -13-

  Ash woke surprisingly refreshed the next day, and devoid of the sub-machine gun nerve volleys firing in his arm. That night, they ate on the veranda overlooking the lake after a long day of pampering. Previously, Ash had no idea that girls spent so long on this stuff. One or two of Ginny’s nails even looked good, and he had freshly painted black fingernails of his own now, that Ginny had coated with a sort of metallic sheen. She’d helped him with his mousy brown roots too. Afterwards they lingered on the porch swing sipping no-alcohol punch and cuddling. He’d attempted everything she’d given him today, and while his success rate wasn’t exactly where he’d like it to be, he had to admit, he’d enjoyed the trying. They’d never been able to spend time together like this before, just doing their own thing with no one else around making demands on their time and generally interfering. Actually, he’d never spent this much quality time with someone he wasn’t in a band with since his student days.

  “Four stars so far today,” Ginny said. She’d disappeared to the loo and come back wearing a dressing gown. “Want to see if you can make it all the way to five?”

  “Hm, maybe. What are you hiding under this?” Ash tugged at the edge of the towelling robe.

  “Incentive,” she teased, slapping his hand away.

  Unrelenting, Ash tugged her onto his knee and trapped her there by entwining his arms around her waist. “So, what is it I have to do?”

  She wriggled around so that she could see his face.

  Ash ran his hand over her stocking covered legs. He’d taken extra care when he’d performed that particular task today. There weren’t any snags or twists, just two perfectly framed legs. “You should wear these always.”

  “If I did that, you wouldn’t appreciate them.”

  “Oh, I’d appreciate them. There’s no risk of that not ever being the case.” His fingers walked under the hem of the robe. “Am I correct in thinking there’s beautiful lingerie hiding underneath this horrid thing?”

  Her teeth raked over her red-stained lower lip. “What on earth gives you that idea?”

  “Call it male intuition. Is it pretty?”

  “It’s magenta.”

  “It sounds pretty.”

  “It’s probably more sleazy than pretty. If it was pastel pink it’d be pretty.”

  “Are there slits over your nipples?”

  “No,” she laughed.

  “Damn,” he drawled, but he was laughing too. “So, about getting this robe off you.”

  “I thought we should give your tongue a work out, like you suggested, seeing how it sometimes gets in a tangle.”

  He frowned. Honestly, the issues with his speech weren’t really an issue. They only reared when he got irate about stuff. “As long as we’re not doing tongue twisters.”

  “Imagine an imaginary ménage. Imagine managing an imaginary ménage.”

  “Ginny,” he groaned.

  She grinned and kissed the tip of his nose. “Actually, I was hoping you’d twist your tongue into a place or two.”

  “Oh, really?”

  “Yes, really! Are you game, or do you have a headache again?”

  He waggled a finger at her. Crashing out last night certainly hadn’t been the plan.

  “Seriously, you have another headache,” she mock moaned.

  Ash cuddled her closer. “No, I’m game.”

  ***

  “Thank heaven and hell for that!” Ginny was seriously looking forward to this task.

  Her exclamation raised a smile from Ash, one that stretched right into his eyes, and lit them up from within. Damn he was pretty, even still hiding behind all that fuzz on his cheeks and chin. He’d mumbled something about shaving it off while she’d had him bent over the sink washing black dye from his hair, but they still had an experiment to conduct before it bit the dust.

  “Ginny Bear, am I correct in thinking you’re suggesting I perform oral sex?”

  Damn, it gave her a thrill when he got coy. She walked her painted nails down his thigh. “I think I possibly could be.”

  “So, my final star for today, the one before I get my super-duper big reward, involves me going down on you?”

  “Would you? That’d be awful sweet.”

  “Jeez, Ginny, you should know I’m always happy to do that.” He gave her a push so that she slid off his lap. When she turned around, Ash was on his feet. “Let’s take this inside.” He grabbed her hand, and led the way, but stopped them at the door, where he stripped off her dressing gown and threw it across the decking. “Much better.” He did another take. “Fuck, yeah!” That grin he’d already been sporting ate up the whole of his face. “You have the sexiest undies.”

  “Yours are pretty sexy too,” she said, slipping her hand into the back of his jeans. “Are you going to come for me later, babes?”

  A chuckle rumbled through his chest. “I think there’s a good chance I might come in my pants while I’m sucking you off. It’s been a while. I’m on a hair trigger here.”

  She leaned in and teased the shell of his ear with her teeth. “I like the idea of you being that horny for me.”

  “I’ll bet you do.”

  “You’ve no idea how much I want to see you leant against a wall with your jeans around your thighs stroking it. Mm…mm, I could lick your dirty abs afterwards. Ha
ve I mentioned how much I like licking your abs?”

  “Not recently.”

  “I like licking them.” She licked the side of his throat. “And I like rubbing myself up against you, especially bare. I’m very fond of you bare.” She dragged his T-shirt off and chucked it to one side, then rubbed herself against him. Plenty of good old-fashioned skin on skin contact, that’s what they needed.

  Ash certainly didn’t seem to object.

  “How about some tongue on skin contact?” He led her through the lounge, but not to the bedroom. Instead, they ended up in the kitchen. Ash lifted her up onto the worktop, so their heads were on a level. “Kiss me, babe,” he drawled exactly like Jim Morrison.

  Ginny kissed him like he was the only source of water in the desert, like he was the only means of securing the oxygen she needed to breathe. If she was gasping and wet and crazy horny by the time their tongues stopped tangoing, then that just made his descent down her body all the more natural, as if star charts and targets were no longer a thing, and this was just them doing what came natural.

  Hell, it was just them doing exactly that.

  ***

  Ash had stopped thinking about the whys of how he’d arrived in this position some time ago. The important part was that he was getting his sexy on with the woman he loved. He could still hardly credit his luck that he got to call this much lithe, luscious awesomeness his. He trailed his lips down her body. His goal might be lower down, but that didn’t mean he intended to skimp on the journey. Her breasts were cradled to perfection by her bra. He kissed their fullness, even managed to wriggle his tongue deep inside one cup to secure himself a go at her nipple.

  Fuck, nipples were amazing. Ginny’s especially had this way of steepling up and pointing at him like an accusation—you made me all horny, you naughty, naughty man!—She was wearing silk and lace shorts. Ash pulled them down only so far as he needed to expose her sex. She had his favourite piece of jewellery in. It glinted at him in the half-light, catching the rays of the setting sun penetrating the kitchen window.