by Flint, Ember
Aston’s hand dives between my legs, but I lock them closed.
“Love, please: no more teasing. I need you!” I almost growl, my hands clasping his muscular arms.
He grasps my hips and turns us over again, until I’m on top; the brushing of my extended nipples with the coarse hair on his chest makes a frisson run through me and my pussy dampens further against his well-toned abdomen.
Soon I am guiding his pulsing, hot hardness into my depths, gently rocking and moving my hips in a slow circular motion; my hands on his chest.
Aston abruptly sits up, leaning back with one hand on the bed, his other hand clutching me closer than I thought could be possible, holding my lower body to his.
I wrap my arms around his neck and my legs around his back, the pleasure of him filling me so deeply, almost painful in its intensity; my body writhes against his, my skin glued to his.
Our mouths meet in a never-ending kiss, one of the other pausing occasionally to gasp or groan in delight while our bodies dance together, seeking the ultimate gratification.
As our movements become more frantic, our bodies begging for release, Aston throws his head back and I can see he is holding on to make sure I come as well.
The knowledge that he cares for my pleasure so much that he would withhold his own is enough to drive me to my climax.
He gasps my name softly.
I nip at his earlobe making him tense, I want him to lose control with me.
“Aston!” I scream in pleasure. “I love you, oh! Love… come… come with me. Now! Now…”
He lets out a growl that makes my toes curl and my core clench even more and I feel him come inside me, the sounds of our happiness filling the room as I climax again.
We cling to each other, heads resting on the other’s shoulder, calming our hearts and breathing as we lay down, side-by-side now, holding hands.
I kiss his chest, feeling his heartbeat thumping madly and I smile.
“What now, love?” I ask after a while.
I know life is going to intrude on us sooner or later —we can’t spend all our time immersed in each other. We may as well cut to the chase.
“What do we do now?”
Aston doesn’t answer and kisses the top of my head, smoothing my waves with one hand.
He chuckles. “You had to be rational… could not wait any longer, could you?” he murmurs, almost reading my mind.
I smile at him and kiss his jaw. “I know we both would love to stay in our little lust-bubble, trust me, but… but if we want to make this work, we have to go on with everything else.”
“Keep a balance?” he asks, kissing my cheek.
I nod. “Exactly…”
Aston sighs, sitting up again and clasping me to his side. “But we can put one or two lust-bubbles here and there, right?”
I laugh and kiss him. “Absolutely…”
He kisses me back and stands up in all his marvelous glory. “Well then, let’s get going.”
I frown. “Going? Going where, Aston?”
He bends to pick me up as if I weight nothing and lifts me to my feet.
“Like you said, baby: we have to get on with everything else. I have a couple of meetings on Monday and I have some work to do. Not much, but I will need my laptop and I have to call Chuck… he is probably wondering where the bloody hell I am, so pack a bag, love.”
My eyebrows fly up my forehead. “What?”
Aston puts his large hands on my hips. “I can’t just go and leave you behind… unless you want me to?”
Surprisingly I find myself shaking my head. “No.”
He hugs and kisses me briefly. “I want for us to always stay together.”
“I feel the same, Aston, but—”
He kisses me again, cutting my sentence short.
“I know what you are going to say: it’s not going to be always possible, but right now it’s…”
I see him frown, trying to find the perfect word, but I know it and I say it before he can.
“Now it’s necessary…”
He beams, showing me those amazingly adorable dimples. “Yes, necessary. Necessary to my breathing.”
I nod and kiss him. “And to mine…”
“So start packing, baby. I’ll call my driver.”
I stay rooted to the spot for a minute longer. Am I really going to do this?
“Come on, my sweet. We’ll smooth the details over later. We have time and if we don’t, we’ll make it. I love you.”
I smile. Ok, I’m doing it: I’m crazy maybe, I don’t care. “I love you too, give me ten minutes…”
—*—
I stare around with my mouth slightly agape as the reality of what I got myself into starts to sink in.
In the last two days my world has tilted backward and in the last two hours it has started to spin madly and out of my control.
At Aston's insistence, I packed a bag with enough stuff for at least a week, then a man in a suit, arrived at my place, in perfect timing with our exit from my building, driving a freaking Lexus that probably is worth three years of my salary.
An hour later we were speeding through one of the glitziest part of the priciest neighborhoods of Manhattan, until we stopped in front of this elegant, huge skyscraper.
Inside, everybody seemed to be almost reverential in their treatment of Mr. Henley. My Aston.
I stood in the elevator in silence, clutching his hand in mine and when we finally reached the last story, I asked Aston which number was his flat, only to find out that the lift —a private lift actually— opened straight in the middle of his penthouse.
A penthouse that spans the entire gigantic floor with ceilings so high I’ve never seen the like in a place as crowded as New York.
He owns the entire freaking floor!
Oh, God. I knew he is a successful man, I could tell just by looking at him, at the self-assured way he carries himself. By the way he has spoken about his work, about us being together, about him being able to move Stateside so easily, I could tell money were not a concern for him, but this…
This is too much!
I’m in way over my head.
What am I doing here?
What…
His kiss interrupts the thoughts running through my frazzled mind.
“What’s wrong, baby? Don’t you like it?” he asks, lowering my bag on the floor.
He nods to himself, biting his lip. “I know… I know it’s a bit…” a dissatisfied sigh leaves his mouth.
What is he talking about?
This place is gorgeous!
He thinks I don’t like it?
Aston takes my hand in both of his and brings it to his mouth for a kiss. “I’m aware of the fact that it’s a bit empty in here. I never felt the need to decorate beyond the strictly necessary for I usually don’t spend that much time in this city. It’s not at all nice and homey like your flat, I know, but it’s in a convenient location, my sweet, very close to our building…”
Our building? What is he talking about now?
He keeps going: “And there’s a lot of space. I’m sure you will make it look as exquisite as you are.”
“Aston? What? That’s not—”
I feel myself being moved toward the middle of the huge and sunny open-space and Aston makes us both sit on one corner of the long sofa running on one side of the room.
He flips his wallet open and picks up a shiny, black square of plastic, passing it to me. “No limit on this one, my love. Make this place a home as beautiful and warm as you are. I’ve got to step in the office for a sec to call Charlie and then I’ll give you the tour, okay?” he kisses me and I nod, completely flabbergasted by his words.
“Aston?” I try again.
His smile falters and he frowns when he catches my expression. “What’s wrong, baby?”
“This is… I had not expected— are… are you sure you want me to stay here with y
ou?”
Aston nods. “Am I sure? Why do you ask?”
I sigh. “It’s… this place, Aston.”
He groans. “You hate it, don’t you? We can go to a hotel if you'd rather or back to your place.”
I take his hand. “No, that’s not what I meant. This place is stunning, Aston. I mean, it could… it could use some more… personality maybe, but it’s lovely.”
Suddenly he looks troubled, like the mere idea of distressing me could be enough to make him sick. “Then what’s the matter, Lara?”
I look down. “I had no idea that… that you… had so much…?”
He rises one eyebrow, a little grin on his full lips. “Money?”
I blush. I’m mucking this up, but I have to tell him. He has to understand.
“I don’t… I don’t want you to think… I don’t care about it. I… I just love you.”
Aston hugs me, kissing my temple. “I know that, love.”
“But… it’s a bit… a bit overwhelming and now… now you want me to… what? Redecorate?”
He kisses me. “I want you to be happy. I want us to be happy… together and yes: I want you to make this place our home if you want to, Lara.”
My heart starts to race like mad. This is going even faster than I thought.
“You don’t want me to spend just the week here, do you?”
He kisses me again. “You know what I want, baby, but it doesn’t matter if you’re not ready. We’ll do whatever it is that you want, okay?”
I kiss him back. “You know what I want as well, Aston.”
He gives me a brilliant smile, dimples and all. “Then what are we talking about here?”
He stands up, kisses me again until I’m out of breath and taps a finger on the black Amex now laying on my knee.
“Like I said: no limit on this, baby… lots and lots of lusty bubbles gonna happen in here, so make it bloody comfy, love, all right? I won’t be ten minutes, start floating some ideas, will you, my sweet?”
How can he be so impossibly stubborn and yet so sweet at the same time?
He is driving me crazy, but I can’t resist him. I love him.
I look around and I sigh, smiling. Apparently now I have an anonymous space to turn into a home for us, might as well start working on it, before I talk myself out of it.
Chapter 11
ASTON
I close my eyes and slightly bend my head forward until my chin is touching the top of Lara’s soft, chestnut hair; the fruity scent of her shampoo surrounds me and I feel a big smile stretch my face. My arms tighten around her waist and she leans back even more, until my chest is glued to her back, one of her tiny, delicate hands, lightly grasping one of mine and almost disappearing in my fingers.
This is perfect.
“What are you smiling at?” she asks turning her head to the side and upward to look at me.
My smile only gets bigger when I realize she must have felt it against her hair.
“Us… this… this is…”
I lack the words to describe how I feel: everything I can think of seems but a paltry offer.
“Perfect,” she whispers softly, her lips against the side of my jaw. “Simply perfect. There’s no other way to detail it. There are no words…”
I nod. Of course she is right: we don’t need fancy words or convoluted explanations.
We have been sitting for the bigger part of an evening on the huge sofa in my once empty flat, talking and loving, without a care for the rest of the world.
I said once empty flat, but nothing has changed materially speaking in my apartment for now, yet her presence and the promise of the future we could have together, is enough to fill every corner of this dreary place with light, hope and love.
I kiss her head, the side of her face, her neck; my hands running up and down her arms, leaving goose-bumps on their wake on her beautiful porcelain skin.
“Call me crazy, but I could not imagine being anywhere else… doing anything else, but hold you like this, my love.”
She grins twisting a little in my embrace to look at me. “You are, baby… but that’s okay: I’m crazy too and feel exactly the same way. I can’t think of a single reason good enough to leave this spot.”
I kiss her temple, marveling at the smoothness of her skin. “I love you, Lara.”
Her face lights up as it does every time I say those words and I feel her fingers interweave with mine once again.
“I love you too, Aston… we are so very lucky, aren’t we?”
I smile even more because it is the absolute truth. I have struck million-dollars deals in more than one occasion and never felt half as lucky or as rich as I feel now. “We are, my love…”
My mind momentarily wanders to the conversation I had early with Charles.
It took him less than a minute to figure out where I had been or why, I could feel the bastard’s cocky smile through the line, but I could also feel something else in his voice: tiredness, exasperation and a hint of longing. I can’t help but worry for my best friend.
I literally stumbled on the love of my life when I wasn't looking —I did not even believe there was such a thing as the love I have for Lara—, but Charles, he is different: he has been looking for so long.
I sigh, stroking Lara’s nape, my hand tickled by her shiny waves.
“What is it, Aston? Where did you go just now?” she asks, turning completely in my arms to face me.
I slowly shake my head. “I was thinking that… that it would be great if everyone else would be as happy as we are right now, my sweet.”
She kisses me soundly. “Everyone… meaning Charles?”
I nod once. She already knows me so well.
“He will be… once he lets himself, sweetie.”
I know she’s right of course. “He certainly will be if not happy at least more… content and stress-free once he gets rid of Lulu, for sure. If she’ll let him escape that is.”
Lara’s full laughter tinkles in the room, her eyes alight with mischief.
“What?” I ask, one eyebrow arched in question.
“Sorry, love. It’s just… the way you said that… it was so… serious, ominous. It almost looks like you are a little scared of this lady and big as you are, it just struck me as funny.”
I chuckle. “Oh, I am… and with good cause, I assure you. You have not seen her tantrums. She is completely crackers.”
Lara laughs even more at that and I love the sound.
She can tease me as much as she wants as long as she laughs like that.
I find myself joining in her mirth, while I hold her shaking body to mine.
“You make her sound like a lunatic.”
“Because she is and not only that: she is a gold-digger and a social climber, besides being as stimulating as a grey wall, only with less style.”
Lara laughs even more. “Your friend really needs a good girl in his life.”
I nod. “We should really go ahead and introduce him to your sister. Based on what you told me, there’s a good chance they really could hit it off.”
“Well, she’s not a fan of blind dates and she definitely hates anyone trying to play matchmaker with her, but I don’t think she will hold a grudge when she sees how hot Charles is.”
I scowl. I can’t help it.
Lara giggles. “Don’t worry, sweetie: he is not half as hot as you are. It seems I have a thing for dark, freaking giant and handsome and you fit the bill perfectly.”
We both laugh at that and I kiss her again, this time on her full, lush lips.
“Maybe we could introduce them tomorrow morning. We could have a coffee all together. What do you say?”
Lara smiles. “It could work. Besides, I really want for Jess to meet you. She will freak out when I tell her about us.”
“Great, then. I’ll let Chuck know.”
She nods once, but then huffs.
“What, love?�
��
“I forgot she has a job interview tomorrow at half past nine. Don’t know how long will it last… maybe we can meet up for dinner instead if you and Charles are free.”
I nod, moving her waves away from her face and twisting a strand of hair around one of my fingers.
“If we make it a very late dinner, then yes. As I told you, we will be tied up in meetings for the best part of the day, starting with a business lunch with a couple of potential partners and our friend Sterling, but I’m sure we will be done by ten.”
She kisses my chin and the side of my mouth. “Perfect.”
I move my hands around her back, pressing her against me. “With whom is she interviewing?” I ask distractedly.
She shrugs. “I’m not sure… some big shot company… Hemmey and something… hmm… Hemmey and Spade.”
I sit up, eyes wide open. “Hemmey and Spade?”
She nods. “Or something…”
I start laughing. I can’t believe this.
It’s like it was all always meant to be one way or another.
“Definitely or something, baby: there’s no company by the name Hemmey and Spade in New York City, but I certainly know of one firm called Henley and Spade. It’s a hedge fund corporation based here in Manhattan and I happen to own half of it. I also know that of all the resumes Charles had submitted to him by our hiring manager last week only three actually qualified. Just yesterday, while flying in with my friend Sterling, I gave my approval for two of these three candidates and tomorrow morning at half past nine, my partner and I are going to interview the one who topped that list.”
Lara looks momentarily too stunned to speak and then she starts laughing as well.
“This is amazing. There’s a good chance we would have met in the future, no matter what and tomorrow they are going to meet as well. It’s like it is…”
“Meant to be. I know, love, and it is.”
She throws her arms around me. “You do say the sweetest things, Mr. Henley.”
I kiss the top of her head. “Only to you, my love.”
We meet in the most satisfying kiss possible, but after a little while I pull away. “Should we warn them, do you think?”
“Not for the world… baby, not for the world…” she says with a mock-serious expression and tone and then she bursts into giggles.
