She was usually pretty resistant to the idea of a knight in shining armor, she had never wanted to be a damsel in distress.
But there he was, in all his shining glory.
“I don’t like to depend on men,” Aullie blurted, suddenly, breaking the silence and startling them both.
“You’re not depending on me, I’m simply an interested collector with loud opinions. Plus, the gallery owner is a woman, and you all seem to have a thing for these British accents,” he said with a wink.
“It definitely doesn’t hurt,” Aullie agreed. “You could probably have any woman you wanted.”
“Actually,” he said, “I can’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you see, the only woman I want, blocked my number. I can’t seem to get ahold of her to ask her out again.”
With that, Aullie blushed. Her behavior was embarrassing and she just had such a hard time believing he wanted her that badly.
“Well, he might have bought enough of her art to warrant an un-blocking,” she said, with an amused shrug.
“You think so?” he asked, beaming.
“Yeah,” she said, keeping her eyes low. “I do.”
With a gentle hand, he brought Aullie’s chin up, forcing her to look into his golden eyes and she felt as though she were falling into them. He was just so beautiful, not only on the outside but the inside as well.
They may have their differences, but it seemed like a stupid choice to keep running from someone who so badly wanted to support her and help her make her dreams come true.
When he kissed her, gently, she kissed him back hard. The same electricity that had crackled between them before, was back and stronger than ever.
Aullie was finally ready to give in to the gorgeous, mysterious, confusing man and see where the sparks between them could really go.
When they broke apart, Weston kept his face close to hers and his arms around her waist, whispering in her ear, “You look amazing in that dress by the way.”
“Thank you,” she giggle-whispered.
“You have no idea how beautiful you are,” he said, beaming down at her. There were smudged traces of Aullie’s dark lipstick on his mouth and he didn’t seem to have any motivation to wipe them away.
It’s almost like I’ve claimed him, she thought. It was kind of sexy, knowing that this man wanted to be hers, and wanted everyone else to know it too.
Aullie realized in that one, beautiful moment that she was ready.
She was ready to see what it meant to fall in love.
Rich in Love: Part four
The air was freezing as she went out the door on Weston’s arm. Her nose automatically crinkled when the air hit it. She snuggled deep into his side as he pulled her in close, wrapping his arm around her.
“You’ve had a bit to drink, haven’t you?” he asked her as he led her to his Aston Martin.
She nodded as she eyed the car. The ostentatious vehicle which had triggered such a bad reaction from her at the beginning of what would’ve been their second date. “You drove that one, did you?”
“I did and you will get into the damn car and do whatever you have to do to make this work. I have money, deal with it!” He opened the door for her and helped her to slide into the passenger seat. “By the way, you look fantastic in this car. And you could look at it as you would any work of art. A lot of care and planning went into this awesome machine. You, as an artist, should admire such a thing.”
She sat back and put on her seatbelt as his words sank into her tenacious head. Wealth was a thing she’d grown to hate. Distrust, doubt, and fear filled her when she thought about her father. The first man to ever leave her, and he left her and her poor mother, high and dry.
She had carried his last name. His name was on her birth certificate. Charles Worhl was her father in name only. Once, what seemed so long ago, he’d been more of a father to her.
She’d thought her parents loved one another. Aullie wondered how someone could suddenly change the love in their heart so quickly. She also wondered if she could’ve inherited that terrible trait from her father.
She had to admit to herself that she’d never let anyone get close enough to hurt her. Keeping men at a distance was a dance she was good at. Until Weston came along, that is. Where he was concerned, she was nearly defenseless against the chemistry which surrounded them.
As Weston got into the driver’s seat, she leaned her head on the headrest and gazed at him. He was one beautiful man. A real Adonis. And he wanted her. He wanted her for more than just sex. He really wanted her.
But did Aulora Greene, really Worhl, even know who she was?
“I’m going to grab us something to eat then take you home,” he let her know, using a tone that inferred he wasn’t asking, he was telling her what he was going to do.
No ire ran through her. No incensed emotion pounded at her brain, telling her not to let him tell her what he was going to do. Instead, she felt taken care of and mumbled, “Okay.” She watched a smile move over his plump and recently kissed lips and one found her lips too.
She nibbled on her lower lip, recalling the kiss that went from sweet to intense in record time. His hand moved over her upper thigh as he pulled out of the parking garage. “I suppose you’re pretty excited about having a place to permanently sell your art, Aulora.” His hand drifted back and forth over her dress covered thigh, making little blasts of heat tap at her inner depths.
When a red light had him stopping the car, she leaned forward. Brazenly, she took his handsome face in her hands and kissed him again with warmth and a promise of things to come, later. She eyed him when their mouths parted as the car behind them blasted its horn when the light turned to green. Neither seemed to care too much.
Weston shook his head to clear it, then stepped on the gas. “Aulora, can I take you to my place for the night?”
“I hoped you would.” She ran her hand over his broad shoulder then down to his bicep that bulged, straining the black material of his tux. “Weston, why the tux? You’re a bit over-dressed for such an art exhibit.”
“I told you, I wasn’t there for that. I had another occasion I’d been at where this attire was expected.” His fingertip trailed over her exposed collarbone, making her shiver with the idea of that finger finding every part of her body and soon.
“Care to elaborate?” she asked him as she took his hand and placed his finger in her mouth where she gently sucked it while pulling it back and forth.
When he moaned a bit, she moved her eyes from his gorgeous face to watch the rise in his trousers. It made her feel like a sexual goddess. Something she’d never experienced prior to that night.
“A wedding. A small family thing. My uncle married his fourth wife. I had to go date-free since you refused to talk to me. It would’ve been nice to have you there with me. I know your aversion to money, though. Maybe it wouldn’t have been a very good thing to take you to, anyway.”
“Probably not.” She pulled his wet finger out of her mouth and moved it to stroke the flesh between her breasts.
“Aulora, how much did you have to drink, peach?”
“I lost count.” She pulled his hand back up and ran her tongue over his palm.
“Aulora!” He pulled to the side of the busy street and looked her over. “This isn’t like you.”
She nodded. “You’re right, it’s not. I want to do this, Weston. I want to do it all. I don’t want to scare you off. I really don’t. But I want you. I want all of you. Every last bit. I want to taste every nook and cranny. I want to know your gorgeous body, intimately and I want you to know mine. I want to get in your head and find out what makes you tick.”
He stared at her in disbelief. Could she really have changed so very much since he’d seen her last? Could she really want to give them a shot?
“Aulora, if you stay with me tonight, there will be nothing but cuddles and maybe a bit of talking. Then off to bed, you’ll go to the guest room whil
e I go to sleep in mine. Tomorrow, when you’re sober, we’ll see if you still feel so free.” He gave her a firm look and moved his hand back to the steering wheel.
“Okay,” she said with a simple statement. “I can wait. And I’ll still have the same thing on my mind. Making this work. Really giving this a try. I’ve never even contemplated doing this with anyone before.”
“You’re a virgin?” he gasped as he looked her over.
A laugh erupted from her. “No! No, of course not. I mean a relationship. God, you’re funny, West.”
“West?” he asked as he pulled back onto the road.
“Yeah, you call me a name no one else does. I want to have a name I can call you. And you’ve called me peach twice.”
“You recall how many times I’ve done that?” he asked as he smiled with the thought.
“I pretty much recall every word you’ve said to me,” she said then put her hand over her mouth. “Damn! It seems champagne is a lot like truth serum.”
“With you, it seems to be. I’ll remember that for the future when I need to get something out of you,” he said with a chuckle.
“The future,” she muttered to herself. “I’ve never had a future with anyone. It’s weird. But a good weird. West, are you sure about this? I mean, I’m a poor, little, art student with an obvious penchant to be introverted and kind of closed off most of the time. And you, well, you’re cool, sexy, smart, funny, and most likely great at having sex. I’m not saying I’m bad at it but I can just tell that you’re great at it. I’m sure to disappoint you.”
“You won’t. And I don’t want you to sell yourself short about anything. You see yourself one way and I see you in this light. When I look at you, I see a gorgeous, yet she’s unaware of the fact, young woman with a talent that’s sure to see her make her dreams come true. If she can let the self-doubt go and see herself for who she truly is.”
“What am I, truly, West?” Her steely eyes bore into him as she thought he might have the answer she’d been looking for.
He took her hand as another red light had him stopping. His eyes held hers as he said, “You are a rare person, my little peach. You have the light of the world inside of you, fighting to get out and show you what it can do. Trust in yourself. There’s more to you than you can even comprehend. I see it. I see it right there, shining in your eyes. And I want to see it out in the open one day very soon. I want to see that light fill you and take you over. It will take you to heights you never knew of before. And I want to be there for every step of your amazing journey, Aulora.”
She breathed in and held the breath as she looked into his golden eyes. “Are you some kind of an angel, sent to help me, Weston Calloway?”
“I think that about you, Aulora.”
The way their eyes held told them both something magic could happen if they’d only allow it to.
Wearing one of Weston’s T-shirts, Aulora sat on the floor of the guestroom in the Upstate New York mansion Weston called his home. A piece of apple pie lay in a white Styrofoam box in front of her and she poised her plastic fork over it to take the first bite of it.
Dinner had been a cheeseburger and fries that she’d scarfed down while sipping on a chocolate shake as they watched some movie on the large flat screen in the giant bedroom.
She’d paid little attention to it as she and Weston joked and chatted lightly as they ate the food he’d bought just before they got to his place. Aullie tried not to get her panties in a wad over the many cars there were when they pulled into the garage. Mercedes, Porches, BMW’s were parked right alongside the beat up, orange bug he’d first picked her up in.
She’d told herself it wasn’t his fault he was born into wealth and his father actually loved him. Unlike hers. It wasn’t his fault that the entry floor was made out of marble and the giant staircase was made out of shiny mahogany wood. So similar to where she’d grown up.
A pain ran through her heart when she went into the bathroom attached to the guest room he’d put her in when he gave her the T-shirt and told her to change while he went to change too and that he’d join her in the guest room shortly. The Italian tile that was used in the bathroom was the same tile that was used in her parents’ bathroom back in the mansion they’d lived in before her father sent them to live in a small apartment in Queens.
She choked back the lump that had risen in her throat and looked at her reflection.
“It’s not West’s fault the same tile has been used in the bathroom of the guest room he decided to put you in, Aullie. Get over yourself. Yes, you had money once. More money than you knew what to do with. But that’s gone now and Weston Calloway is not to blame for that. Charles Wohrl is.”
She’d washed the heavy makeup off her face and brushed her hair out then went back into the bedroom that was larger than her entire studio apartment. There she found Weston, wearing a T-shirt that matched the one he’d given her to wear and a thin set of pajama pants.
His feet were bare and even they were perfect. She’d pranced up to where he’d made a carpet picnic and sat, Indian style, next to him. He’d turned on the television and put on some movie, she paid no attention to.
“I think you’ll like the burger. They use real, one hundred percent pure beef.” He placed the burger on top of the brown paper bag it had come in and emptied the container of fries on the opposite side. “Ketchup?”
She nodded and before she knew it, they’d eaten everything up, except the one slice of pie he’d bought for them to share. Even though it was a million-dollar mansion they were in, it felt like an intimate place where money didn’t matter.
Their plastic forks collided when they both went for the pie at the same time. They laughed and had a small fork fight before he let her win. She stabbed the first bite then held it to his lips. “You get this bite.”
His golden eyes sparkled as he opened his mouth and took the bite she’d offered him. Then he stabbed the next bite and fed it to her. Bite by bite, they fed one another until there was no more pie and no longer was he worried that alcohol was ruling over Aulora’s brain. Pushing her shoulders, gently, he eased her to lie back on the soft carpet.
Brushing her raven hair back, he gazed at her as she did him. “You’re beautiful.” He kissed her shoulder after he pushed the T-shirt away from it.
“As are you,” she whispered as she ran her hands over his shoulders and then down his arms.
His lips were warm upon her skin, her body was filling with desire, the playfulness was long gone and a heat was beginning to creep into places it hadn’t been before.
As he kissed trails over her skin, up her shoulder to her neck, his hands moved over her body, caressing her with a softness she’d never known. He was great at that. Better than anyone else had ever been. She knew he’d be great at sex. And she was less worried about how she’d be at it with him.
When his lips pressed against her ear, she felt the warmth as he whispered, “Can you feel it, Aulora?”
Her heart was beating in a way it never had before. It felt different. Not rushed. Not heated so much there was no room to think. It was different than anything she’d felt before. “I feel more than I have with anyone else.”
“Me too. And I want this to be special. So, you’ll understand when I don’t take you, entirely this first time?” His words stopped her and she pulled him to look at her.
“West, why are you so set on waiting to do this?” she asked him as she really had no clue.
The way his hand moved over her cheek as he looked deeply into her eyes made her feel good, and dare she think it, loved?
“I want you to know you’re special. I want you and I both to know that there’s real love between us when we fully give ourselves to the other one. I want you to be certain, Aulora. If we are intimate, I won’t let you run away from me again. That space I’ve been affording you will not exist any longer.”
His words should frighten her, she knew they should. That bit of dominating nature she’d witnessed
between him and the other man at the museum moved through her memory. The man who hovered over her was sweet, endearing, and honest. But he could also be dominating. Could she accept that?
“Perhaps we should get to know more about each other.”
He smiled and pulled her up. They sat alongside each other, facing each other as their hands still moved over the other’s body. Arms, legs, stomachs. “Ask me anything you want to.”
She dipped her head, shyly. “I saw you talking to a man earlier this evening.”
The look of surprise on his face was quickly followed by a frown. “You saw me and didn’t say hello?”
She nodded. “Anyway, like I said, I saw you talking to a man. I overheard some of what you said to him. You were mean to him, West. Is dominance a thing you’re known for?”
“Mean? To Him? Oh, peach if you only knew. That man is a petulance to society. He was given a job to do. One, I’m not at liberty to discuss. With people like him, you have to be dominating or they will run all over you. It’s kind of an act. One I won’t be doing with you.” His finger trailed lightly over her lips. “Never with you. I see you as my equal. In all ways.”
She breathed out a sigh of relief but wondered if she should believe him. Her father had been dominating. He took care of her and her mother. He took such complete care of them it was a struggle when he left them so abruptly.
“I don’t want you to take care of me.”
“Then I won’t.”
“You already kind of do.”
“Perhaps you’re confusing taking care of with caring for you.”
Was she confusing the two? Was she being foolish? Was she going to really be able to give herself so completely to the man who sat, facing her, stroking her with deft fingers that told her they alone could bring intense pleasure to her the likes of which she’d never known?
But sex with him would mean she was giving up her independence, in a way. If she ran away from him again, he wouldn’t exactly let her go.
“Are there circumstances you’d accept if I found it necessary to end this thing between us?” she asked then thought about it and added, “After we have sex.”
Dr. Orgasm (A Holiday Romance Collection Book 2) Page 50
