Hot to Touch

by Valentine, Layla

  I flicked the side of my thumb tip fast over her clit as she arched under me, and she gasped hoarsely, pumping her hips harder with each one. I fit the tip of my bare dick into her and bore down, letting her work herself up onto me—and went rigid at once.

  “Oh!”

  I almost came right then, the feeling of her hot, slick flesh parting for me driving me wild. I crouched over her, panting, shaking, while she shimmied her way up onto me in response to being fingered. She was on the edge, eyes rolled closed, and when I thrust in all the way suddenly, it set her off completely, and her screams stung my ear.

  Her writhing and clenching drove me into even more of a frenzy; as she cried out again, I started pounding into her, completely giving in. Her body caressed my aching cock in ways I had never felt, and as she took all of me, she smiled and shook and came again, crooning my name.

  I climaxed so hard it almost hurt…

  …and woke from a doze, so relaxed I could barely move, with my head nestled against Naomi’s shoulder and my dick still inside of her.

  Oh. Wow.

  I didn’t want to let her go…and right now, I didn’t have to.

  No need to run off to the bathroom—or for her to run off to the airport. We had the whole weekend.

  I rolled her over so that she nestled on my chest, pulled the comforter over us both, and let myself drift off again.

  I could really get used to this.

  Chapter 11

  Naomi

  “Kelly?” Ace said.

  I lay back, staring at the ceiling, the warm air blowing in through the open window and cooling my sweaty body. It smelled like pine, mixing with the smell of sex.

  “Nah,” I said, still catching my breath.

  Ace leaned up on one elbow beside me, tracing his finger down my damp belly. We had been in the middle of this conversation when he had pounced on me again. If anything, he was thirstier for me now that he knew about the pregnancy than he had been before.

  “Bella?”

  As a result, I was getting almost enough action to make up for the last two sexless months. The man was tireless…and I was exhausted, in the best of all possible ways. He was treating the news of a baby as something to celebrate…especially in bed.

  Unfortunately, that was starting to get in the way of actually preparing to be parents.

  “Closer.”

  I wanted something elegant, something the billionaire heir to an engineering fortune could use with pride. Ace, meanwhile, was offering ideas, but mostly seemed to want to play with my breasts.

  “Ace, you’re totally distracting me.”

  “Well…we do have seven months to sort all of this out. Why are you so hyper-focused on getting it all done now?”

  I frowned, lying back to look out the window. The sun was moving in the pine boughs, throwing dapples of sunlight across the steep slope directly across from me. He actually had a point. “I’m kind of a workaholic, I guess. Once I have things figured out, I feel better about them.”

  “I guess that’s understandable. But really…we have time, sweetheart. Let’s just enjoy our first full weekend together.” He kissed my chin softly.

  I closed my eyes. “Okay, but I think I’m still stuck on the name thing.”

  “Okay, well, that’s low-stress at least. How about Naomi Junior?”

  I rolled my eyes and covered my face with a hand. “Ace.”

  He chuckled and pulled my hand away so that he could kiss me again.

  Ace seemed determined to help me relax in spite of the daunting tasks ahead. Now I had to not only deal with my workplace’s insane politics and my debate over a possible exit strategy, but also planning for a baby…and figuring out what exactly he and I would be to each other. But he was right—I didn’t have to do it all that weekend, or do it all alone. So slowly, gradually, I relaxed and let him distract me.

  We didn’t spend the whole weekend in bed, on his couch, or on his floor, though we probably would have if he’d gotten his way. Instead, he took me on a tour of his current hometown, and we spent time really getting to know each other.

  Aspen was beautiful, picturesque, full of wonderful little shops—and so overrun with tourists even in summer that I instantly understood why Ace wanted to leave. Even from his secluded house, you could hear the constant roar of the highway, the rumble of recreational vehicles, the rattle of trailers. Car radios blaring out-of-town music. Aspen didn’t feel like it belonged to the people who actually lived there.

  Ace, meanwhile, was exactly the same as his first impression: bluntly honest, brave, playful, a free spirit, with the kind of confidence I could only muster when not dealing with corporate politics. He impressed me, and not just in bed. He wasn’t in my tax bracket, but he lived his life according to his own will, and nobody else’s.

  And for some reason, he seemed to really like me. And he had taken the news of his impending parenthood with way more grace than I had. Could things really be this easy? Could they click this well, in spite of our differences and how fast things were going?

  I keep feeling like I’m going to blink and find out that I dozed off on the plane, and that none of this has happened. Not the Big Talk, not the sex, not even that wild conversation with the resort owners. But it hadn’t happened, and as time went on, I realized that it wasn’t going to.

  But I still kept looking for the catch in all of this, besides the commute. The one, single, deal-breaking problem that could trip up everything if we didn’t figure out a way to work it out.

  Every relationship had at least one, from what I had gathered from the confidences of friends and schoolmates. There was always something about you that got to them. There was always something about them that got to you. Or some big screw-up, some betrayal to get past…some challenge you either faced or you broke up over. Ace wasn’t flawless…but that important other shoe was still due to drop.

  Meanwhile, though, I was really enjoying myself.

  Ace took me to some of his favorite places in and around town: a hiking trail at the resort, a coffee shop downtown, a second-hand record store with prints from local artists for sale on the walls.

  He told me about the others that had been here not too long ago, before Aspen had lost most of its identity as anything but a vacation spot. His favorite restaurant was now a chain bagel place. The movie theater where he had seen Rocky Horror with a live troupe now showed only art-house experimental crap for coastal tourists who considered themselves cultured. The best burger place he had found had gone vegan keto and tormented him with the least satisfying milkshake of his life.

  There was still a lot of good to go around in Aspen, though. We found a cozy Mexican place and munched twin steak burritos as we talked about our lives and our plans. It turned out we had a lot in common—and some intriguing differences.

  “Yeah, my dad was never around either. His business was just smaller, and he had more sons than he knew what to do with. Literally.” He laughed and took an enormous bite that barely put a dent in the burrito. “God, these things are huge. I’ll have a ton of leftovers.”

  “Your dad was super busy then?” I tried to ignore the gleeful way he watched me struggle to get my mouth around any part of the giant burrito.

  “Yeah. I mean…he wasn’t cold like yours. He did it all to provide for us. But he never had any energy left for us when he finally got home.” He took a swallow of his beer.

  I wrinkled my nose at the smell. Just as I had started getting weird cravings, certain foods and drinks repulsed me. The warm smell of hops now made me nauseous. Meanwhile, I was already on my second refill of orange soda. Pregnancy is weird.

  “I wish it was just wanting to provide for us that had my dad hyper-focused on his business. But he was just that selfish. He was at home at Archimedes Gears, not with his wife or daughter.”

  And I had wanted so badly to join him there. I sighed and took another drink of the cloying soda.

  “Yeah, he sounds like an asshole. Sorry, but
…when you talk about him, I kind of want to punch him.” The irritation in his deep voice fascinated me. He noticed me staring and smiled awkwardly. “Hope that doesn’t freak you out.”

  “I’m just not used to it. But God knows I had wanted to shake him myself more than once.” I was shocked, but that wasn’t a bad thing. I knew that proper fathers, like proper boyfriends, were supposed to be protective of their girls. But nobody had ever done that for me before. It was like the conversation with the Orloffs: completely new to me, and somewhat hard to understand.

  “Better not to anyway,” he sighed. “Guys like him always come armed with lawyers I couldn’t afford.”

  “I know. But it gets tempting, especially with guys like my dad around. And Ian,” I added as an afterthought.

  “Our fathers were both from another time, really. They both wanted to keep hold of parts of it that were bad for them—and us.” He took another bite of burrito and chewed thoughtfully. “I don’t want our kid to end up missing one of us all the time because of overwork.”

  It was a dig at me, and I took it in stride; he was right, after all. I worked hard, no matter what I was doing, but my dad’s biggest mistake in his life had been putting business and money over people.

  “I don’t want that either,” I reassured at once.

  “You still want to work, though?” He was watching my face.

  It was the first time he had brought up something to do with our child spontaneously. Maybe I hadn’t given him room to do so before.

  “I do. But not…like I have been. I feel like I’ve been pushing myself as hard as I could, not for a personal best or to accomplish concrete goals, but because I have something to prove.”

  He looked up at me. “You’re biting your lip again, sweetheart.”

  “Thanks,” I said. I kept having to reapply my lower lipstick thanks to that nervous tic, and had asked Ace to tell me when he saw me doing it. “Point is, I plan to be way better at work–life balance than my dad.”

  My phone rang suddenly, startling me. I set my drink down and checked it. “It’s Ian on the office line.” I was immediately suspicious. “Every time he’s in on a Saturday, either something’s super wrong or he has an axe to grind.”

  Ace nodded and sat back, focusing on his meal as I walked out under the tiled awning to take the call.

  Clouds were rolling in, offering a promise of drought-breaking rain, but I couldn’t appreciate the sight or the breeze. Ian was horning in on my life again.

  “Yes, Ian, what is it?” I asked briskly.

  “You didn’t check in after your follow-up in Aspen. I was wondering if you even made the appointment.” His voice sounded clipped and snide, like a babysitter threatening to tell my parents I had gotten into their booze.

  “I spent an hour with the general manager and his team yesterday,” I confirmed, cool as a cucumber. I had wanted to tell him about the Orloffs, which would have scared him more, but they had made it clear that they wanted me to be discreet.

  “…Oh.” He hesitated. “An hour?”

  “A bit more,” I admitted. “They had a lot of procedural questions for me.”

  You know, I thought but couldn’t tell him: “Who’s responsible for the mess you just cleaned up?” and “Are the board members at Archimedes Gears still a bunch of troublesome dinosaurs?” and “What will it take for you to turn your back on your father’s company and walk away while we sue them into the ground?” You know, nothing too serious.

  “Procedural questions?” Now he sounded nervous. Good.

  “Yeah, you know, the background to the breakdown that happened the day we were supposed to hand them the keys?” I let a little edge creep into my voice. “The precise nature of the failure, the precise nature of the repair, the missing batteries…you know, things like that.”

  He swallowed hard enough for me to hear. “Oh. That sounds…stressful. What did you tell them?”

  “Only what I was contractually and legally obligated to,” I replied mildly. “Unfortunately, as you would know if you read our client contracts, it was a lot.”

  I heard him pull the phone away from his mouth and curse softly.

  “Why didn’t you call immediately after?” he demanded.

  I hesitated. The truth was that I had been too wrapped up in Ace to think about anything else. Ace, the baby, the Orloffs, the Hawaii job, and my whole future.

  “There was no reason to have everyone in the office sweating this out when the board won’t even meet until mid-Monday, and won’t be reading messages until ten minutes before that. Besides, I have no idea yet what the resort owners are planning.”

  He sighed. “I smell a lawsuit. Don’t you?”

  “I honestly don’t know,” I lied through my teeth. “I put a lot into making sure the contract was satisfied, even if it was a little late. They even acknowledged that. It may be enough to cover us.”

  Silence for a while.

  “Well, at least you remembered to do your job,” he said snippily.

  I snorted. “Why are you calling me about all of this on a Saturday? You know everyone on the board was out on the links by noon yesterday. We couldn’t have reached them even if I had called.”

  “Yes, well, with your erratic behavior lately, someone around here has to take charge.”

  I couldn’t understand the venom in his voice.

  “You mean putting up with your garbage even less than usual?”

  “You know what I mean!” he snarled suddenly, startling me.

  “I’m sorry, no, I don’t.” I kept my voice even, finding myself getting calmer the more that he flew off the handle. But I really was baffled as to how I had pissed him off this time. Ever since the day I had booked my flight, he had been like this.

  I wondered, for a split second, if Ian suspected something between Ace and me. He had seen us talking on the cable car ride down off the mountain, and the way we had shaken hands, and probably how I had stared after Ace afterward, eyes drawn to the play of muscle across his broad back. Is that it, you little turd? Are you jealous?

  “All right,” he said, settling down with a weird, nervous little titter. “Play it that way. When do you get back?”

  “My flight leaves here Monday at ten, so after lunch. I’ll call ahead to the board about all the unexpected questions from Aspen.” And they would probably ignore it, and keep ignoring it until the lawsuit actually hit. That was what they did every damned time—pretend there wasn’t a problem until they couldn’t anymore.

  “After lunch,” he echoed in a low, thoughtful voice. “All right, thank you. I’ll discuss these matters with you then.”

  He hung up just as suddenly as he had called, leaving me shaking my head as I tucked my phone back in my pocket.

  “What was that about?” Ace asked, then hesitated as he saw my face. “Trouble?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe just Ian being weird again. Which is more of a pain in the neck than anything. Anyway, he mostly asked about the meeting yesterday. I didn’t check in beyond leaving a cursory message with the board.”

  “Did you tell them about the Orloffs and how they’re probably going to sue?”

  I grinned as I settled back into my seat and picked up my burrito. “Nope.”

  He laughed at my expression. “Good girl. Now eat up. You’re gonna need a lot of energy soon enough.”

  I lifted an eyebrow. “Got plans for me?”

  “Yup.”

  He drove us home with our bellies full of burrito and two boxes of leftovers that were still heavy with food. Benny was back from doggie daycare and danced happily for us when we got back. Ace gave him lots of scratches, time in the yard, and a few bites of his burrito, which I scoffed at.

  “He’s going to have gas all night,” I tutted.

  He laughed. “He’s a dog, that’s every night.”

  We left him slurping the remnants out of his bowl as we retreated to Ace’s bedroom. He had that sexy gleam in his eye again, and I wondered what I
was in for.

  He threw himself at me as soon as the door was closed, cupping my face and capturing my mouth with his.

  We ended up making out all over the room, interrupting kisses and nibbles and sucking of pulse points with the impatient fumbling off of clothes. He teased me, pinning me against the wall with his mouth around my nipple, sucking roughly while one hand held my crossed wrists above my head and his body pinned me. His free hand was busy against my groin, teasing me through my panties until I couldn’t do anything but whimper for more.

  When we finally tumbled onto the bed, I was fumbling with his belt buckle, hands shaking. He reached down to help. When his dick sprang out against my belly, I grabbed it thirstily and bent down over it, rubbing it between my breasts until he was lying back and panting through his teeth.

  “Ride me,” he groaned, half order and half plea.

  I did.

  The feel of his bare dick was still a new thing, silky-skinned and already shedding a few drops from sheer excitement. The way Ace reacted when I mounted it and slid down its length turned me on all by itself. His head fell back and he moaned, twisting and bucking under me as he dug his fingertips into my hips and urged me downward.

  “Oh God, you feel so fucking good,” he panted as he arched up to push in deeper.

  I smiled, enjoying the power of being able to make him shudder and gasp with just a little circle of my pelvis.

  I gathered my legs under me, on either side of his surging hips, and started to move, rocking against him while he rolled his head on the pillow, lips parted with bliss.

  “Oh, yeah,” he moaned as I bounced my hips over him, grinding up to meet me when I pushed down on him. “Yeah, yeah…oh…don’t stop, baby…”

  He circled his hips, pubic bone rubbing against me and sending little rushes of pleasure through my clit. The faster and harder we went, the better it felt; I whimpered and rode him more and more roughly.

  He had lost control of his sounds. Most men I knew were very quiet, and even Ace usually kept it in until he got so hot that he forgot himself. Right now, as he shook and thrust up under me, he didn’t seem to care.