“Not yet.” Could he read my mind? “I want to. But I know I need more than an hour to devote to those enticing lips of yours.” He released my mouth and took a step back. I swayed toward him need and disappointment making me unsteady. He held the cure to what ailed me. He pinned me with his gaze.
“Why are you moving away?”
“Fanny. You know I like control, yeah?”
I nodded.
“So let me have the control, darlin’. I wanna play a bit. Explore. I’ll make it good for you. For both of us. But no more questions or I’ll take my sweet time getting there. Understand me?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” He took a seat on the edge of his bed. The covers had been stripped, new sheets replacing the old. I’d had a lot of extra energy this morning. After we had talked last night, I’d barely slept. Arms spread at the sides, his biceps even not fully flexed bulged impressively. “You like to look at me.”
I lifted my gaze. “Yes.”
“I like to look at you, too. Not just naked from the shower. When you were playing Ramon’s guitar. And at night when you’re sleeping.”
I pulled in a quick breath.
“I thought maybe you knew. I’ve been there. Every night since you came here. Checking on you. Counting my good fortune that you’re here. That nothing more happened to you than what did. Only last night you came to me before I could go to you.”
“Oh, Ash.”
“It begins,” he stated arrogantly. His lips curled. He leaned back slightly. “Take the robe off,” he ordered.
“Ok.” I undid the tie. The two sides of the robe separated and swung open, a swish of cool silk against my skin.
“Hold on,” he added when I started to shrug out of the rest of it. “Let me look at you a moment first.”
Oh my gosh. I stood still hands at my sides as he scanned me. Awareness prickled my skin.
“I like that robe on you,” he decided. “But I’d like it better off of you.”
I dipped a shoulder, one side sliding down to the crook in my arm while he watched it fall, then I shrugged the other. The robe fluttered to the hardwood floor, a puddle of emerald green at my feet.
“Nicely done.” A platinum brow rose. “You’ve done something like this before.”
“Not really. I just thought you’d like it if I did it that way.”
“You thought right. You anticipate and take the initiative. You’re perfect, you know.”
“I’m not, Ash,” I protested. “I haven’t, we haven’t…”
“You are,” he interrupted. “You’re beautiful. You make me crazy. I’ll let you see in a moment. For now do something for me.”
“Yes.”
“Slide your hands over your body. Like you think I would do if I were touching you.”
“Alright.” I started with my face and he smiled as I smoothed my hand down my cheek.
“You’re right. I would do that first. I love your skin. Soft as a fuckin’ rose.”
“Thank you.”
“What does it feel like to you? Touching your own skin with me watching?”
“Like…” I trailed off, considering his questions as I glided my palm lower over the swell of my breast. I gasped when the tips of my fingers skimmed my nipple. “Like a dream.” I lifted my gaze from watching my own fingers travel across my flesh to look at him. “A naughty one.”
“Go lower.” His voice had dropped. It made me feel things I didn’t mention. I skimmed my hand to the hollow of my abdomen stopping just before the swell of my mound. “Anything else?”
“Like what?” Did he know? Could he see the tension in my body like a guitar too tightly strung?
“Touch your pussy, Fanny. Middle finger leading the way. Straight down the center of it. Apply a little pressure where it aches the most then stop.”
“Yes,” I gasped doing just what he said. “Mmm.” I licked my lips. “It feels good,” I told him though I think he knew.
“Do you know how it feels for me to watch you pleasure yourself?”
I shook my head. I couldn’t think straight. He was so handsome. So everything I wanted. So sexy. So frustratingly everything I needed but so far away.
“Remove your hand, Fanny.”
“Ok.” I slid it across my thigh and let it fall to my side.
“You wanna know what I see?”
I nodded.
“Beauty. Nipples begging to be plucked and sucked. Hips to hold so I can sink my cock deep into you. Sexy legs to wrap around me and hold me tight. Would you do that for me, gypsy rose? Would you take me like that?”
“Yes,” I panted, watching him move his hand beneath the flap if the towel. Seeing him grab his shaft and pump it made me moan. “Oh my gosh, Ash.”
“Cup your tits, Fanny.”
I did.
“Lift them like you were offering them to me.”
“Yes.”
“I’d draw them deep into my mouth. I’d swirl my tongue. Would you like that?”
“Yes.”
“Let them go.”
“Ok, but…”
“Grab your hem. Skim that pussy that we both know is wet and remove the chemise. Now,” he barked, and I jumped doing it quickly.
Cold air rushed over my fevered skin.
“Fanny. Shit.” I lifted my gaze and looked directly into his piercing blue but dark as my desire eyes. “You’re freaking phenomenal. The inside of your thighs glistening already. No, don’t cover yourself. Please. But look at me.” I relinquished his gaze, dipping mine as he opened the towel. His cock sprang free. He stroked it. The hollow ache between my legs began to throb incessantly needing to be filled. He was thick and hard and huge. “I’m wet, too, because of you.”
“Ash, please. This…it’s too much…can we…”
“Do you want to come, Fanny?”
“Yes.”
“Grab your nipple between your first finger and thumb.”
“Ok.”
“Pull. While I pull my cock.”
“Oh, shit.”
“Twist it now.”
I moaned.
“Pull and twist the other one and watch me. What I do to my shaft. Look how hard I’m fisting my cock. I’m on fire for you, Fanny. About to explode.”
“Me, too. My legs are so shaky. I…”
“Arrow that hand down again. Yes. All the way. Feel your clit?”
“Yes,” I gasped.
“It’s wet, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Swirl your fingertips around it.” I did. “Yeah, baby like that. Feel good?”
“So good,” I panted.
“Do it faster.”
“Yes.”
“Harder. Put pressure where your body wants it, baby. Watch me. Come with me. Let it go, baby. Let it fucking go.”
And I did shivering and coming apart while he erupted hot streams of himself all over his hands.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Ashland
“Fanny?” her sister yelled, and my naked gypsy rose’s cheeks flamed brighter than her hair. I bent, snagged her robe and threw it at her. “Fanny?” Hollie yelled again, her footsteps coming closer. “I’m hungry. “Where are…oh.” She stuttered to a stop inside the doorframe to my bedroom. Fanny had her robe on, and I had yanked her backward to cover myself. Hey don’t judge. The towel might have been the more obvious choice, but I preferred warm, soft, squirming-her-sexy-ass-in-my-lap, embarrassed Fanny.
“It’s about damn time.” Hollie grinned at us.
Fanny dropped her chin.
“I know, right?” I grinned back at Hollie and kissed Fanny’s bent head. “But can you give us a minute? We just…”
“Hey, don’t TMI me. I get it.” She started to walk backward. “Called it, though. Told you he’s a good guy. Thumbs up, sis.”
“Out, Hols!”
“See you in in the kitchen.” Hollie ducked out of sight.
“Gah.” Fanny swiveled and ducked her face into my shoulder.
“I’m sorry. That was so humiliating.”
“Hardly.” I had been on countless world tours with a bunch of rowdy guys. And I had the proclivities I had. I definitely wasn’t embarrassed. I ran my hand over the red fuzz on her head. Her hair was coming back in. Such a beautiful ruby color and silky soft like the rest of her. “But it’s adorable as hell that you’re embarrassed, Fanny Bay.” I moved my hand under her chin and gently lifted it. Searching her eyes, I saw what I needed to see in them. She was with me after the scene which was good because I was so into her. “Can we do something like that again later?”
She smiled, blushed some more and nodded her head.
“You were awesome by the way.”
“Ditto to you.”
“Oh my Ash awesome?”
“Stop fishing for compliments. You saw what you did to me without even really touching me except at the beginning,” she huffed with mock indignation. “Do you have to work today? You said something about a meeting before you went to take a shower.”
“Oh, yeah. Fuck.” I lifted her from my lap, set her on the bed beside me, grabbed the towel and fastened it back around me.
“Do you have time for breakfast?” She tried not to show it, but I could tell she hoped I did.
“You cooking?”
“Yeah. The eggs have been sitting too long for the omelet to be fluffy, but I can probably do French toast instead.”
“I usually just do a protein shake for breakfast, but that sounds awesome. Get it started, little rose. I’ll redo my shower, and we’ll eat together. But can you do something for me later?”
“Sure. What?”
“Consider popping downstairs to the studio? I might have some news to share, and I’d like to show you around.”
“I’d love that, Ash.”
“Good.” I stood, started for the door, then stopped and turned back to her. “Everything that happened here. Every minute I have spent with you, whether here inside the apartment, eating dinner on the roof with my friends, talking on the pier, joking around on a walk through OB with you by my side. Those moments rank as some of the best ones I’ve ever had.”
~ ~ ~
Fanny
“Mine, too.” Happy tears filled my eyes as I watched him go. And yes, the backside view of Ashland Keys in only a towel was as damn fine as the front view.
“Fanny?” my sister called. Obviously she had seen him cross the apartment. He had moved his shampoo and shaving stuff over to the guest bathroom. He had welcomed Hollie and me into his home. He had given up his own bed and master bath. He had not just unlocked the door to his bedroom when he had thought I was hurt on the other side of it. He had completely busted it off its hinges like he had broken down the few remaining paltry defenses I had to resist falling for him. I hadn’t even slept with him properly. He had a first love that might always leave me in second place, but I was done resisting the inevitable with him. After those parting remarks I knew I was already completely and irrevocably there.
“Give me a minute, Hols.” My tone was roughened like I had swallowed a bunch of seawater. It’s only love, Fanny. The beginning stages. But I needed to get used to it. I had a feeling more of me was going underneath the waves Ashland Keys left behind in his wake. “I need to get some clothes on. And then I’ll be right out.”
“Don’t dress up on my account. Ash apparently likes you in next to nothing, and I certainly don’t care one way or another. Besides, I heard you say French toast is on the menu.” She peeked her head out into the hall from the kitchen. “I just checked. He’s woefully low on spices. No nutmeg at all, but there’s some cinnamon. So get your rear out here, naked or not.” She beckoned with her hand. “I’m hungry.”
“You sound like, Linc,” I returned, belting the robe tighter and shuffling toward her.
“‘Appetite is a universal wolf’ our favorite bard says.” She grinned. “He wasn’t really talking about food, but I think he would approve.” She yielded to me when I entered the kitchen. A quick scan revealed that she had everything laid out, including a bowl with the milk-egg wash already whisked together and the skillet on the burner with butter melting in it. “Good job sous chef.”
“You’re welcome.” From her new position on the barstool, she gave me a hat-tip salute.
“So you and Ash.” She put her elbows on the bar and her chin on the platform she made of her hands. “On a scale of one to ten, how hot was it?”
“Well, you know those guys who came up with the scale?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, they never met a guy like Ashland Keys.”
“Translation. You’re not gonna tell me anything. Are you?”
“Not about that, Hols.”
“Fair enough. Tell me what you can.”
“Well, he’s generous. He’s tender. He’s romantic. He’s protective.” I nodded, remembering everything he had said, and everything we had done. “He’s opening up to me, and I’m doing the same with him.” I dipped a slice of bread into the egg-bath then set it in the sizzling pan. “I honestly don’t know how it can get better.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Ashland
I stared out the window of my office waiting for the call to ring through and thinking about Fanny. Could I hold onto the good thing we had going between us?
I felt my lips curl. I would. I just had to keep everything under control.
“What are you smiling about cousin?” Linc had opened the office door with my name etched into the glass. Pretentious maybe, but we’d worked hard to get where we were and anyway appearances were part of the game. I didn’t care for all of that any more than Fanny did. I had been mulling over her words on the pier. A happy for now seemed to be within my reach. Maybe I needed to consider that there might be something to the glitzed and glamorized endings the entertainment industry churned out. Long shots maybe for most of us, but those happy endings gave us something to strive for, didn’t they?
“Uh-um, earth to Ash. Can you read me?”
“I read you.” I covered the receiver with my hand. “But I’m waiting for the attorney to click on.”
“Andrew Hart?”
I nodded. He was our top choice. I’d put feelers out with a couple of Hollywood power lawyers as soon as Fanny had leveled with me. Hart had a history of litigating and winning multimillion dollar infringement and copyright type cases. I wanted him to go after Samuel Lesowski, to make it so he no longer posed a threat to either Fanny or Hollie. But I also wanted him to get Fanny’s rights back to ‘Tomorrow Today’.
“K. I’ll catch you later. I’m heading over to your place to help Simone keep an eye on Hollie. But I wanted to be sure you remembered that Diesel’s flying in this morning.”
“To put the finishing touches on Ramon’s album.” Yeah, I remembered. “I’ve got a car service picking him up.”
“Great.” He ran a hand over his chin. And I knew before he said it that he was going to bring up Fanny. “With you smiling the way you are, is there anything I should know about you and your other houseguest?” He was the one grinning so big his sun-creased eyes crinkled. “Like are you gonna ask her to stay on after this trouble with her and her sister is over?”
My smile flattened. It had been a leap for me to get from satisfied with my solitary existence to a happy for now state. Expecting Fanny to stay longer? I shook my head. Might as well think I could lasso the moon and drag it down to earth. I just couldn’t go there. “We still have a shit ton of stuff to work out, Linc. I’m not asking her to move in.”
“How else you gonna work out those details, Ash?”
“I dunno. Some over weekend dinners in San Bernardino where she lives and some with her coming to visit here I guess.”
“A long-distance relationship?”
“Yeah, I guess. Sure.” I didn’t point out that the ‘r’ word hadn’t been broached. He and Ramon had probably already talked about me and Fanny with their women. In other words, everyone knew practically everything abou
t everyone in our tight knit group.
“You’re letting her go with a boyfriend living close by?”
“Not letting her go.” Something swift and fierce sliced me in half at the mere thought. But I also knew you had to have someone, really have them first in order to let them go. I didn’t have Fanny, did I? What about what we had done before the French toast? In my bedroom, she had been with me. What about how she felt in my arms? How she had burrowed into them, inhaling me like I was a fine Bordeaux and messing with my hair like she was my personal stylist? And what about the things I had told her before I had showered the second time? True every word. She had liked what I had said definitely. Her flame had been bright all throughout breakfast.
“Good. Glad to hear it. Bring her down to the pier later. The swelling in her face has gone down too much for her to go out without a disguise. But she can be the Lakers Girl. Wear her beanie and shades. I guarantee no one will recognize her. She’ll be safe, too, with all of us around her. We need to see if she can surf, dude.”
I nodded absently watching him leave the office through the glass wall. I swallowed hard around the lump in my throat. I suddenly wasn’t looking forward to potentially turning the issue of Samuel Lesowski over to Andrew Hart. If things went well Fanny might be leaving soon. My happy for now might already be running out.
“Ashland Keys?” a booming authoritative voice through the phone overrode my morose thoughts.
“That’s me.”
“Andrew Hart. Listen, I’ve looked over the information you shared with my partner. And then I did a little preliminary investigating of my own.”
“Oh yeah? What’d you find out?”
“A lot of interesting things. I’m not going to risk sharing them over the phone, though.”
“Understandable, I guess.”
“This is going to be a high-profile case. Samuel Lesowski will have some formidable representation I’m certain. And finding an impartial judge in LA is going to be a miraculous feat in and of itself. We’ll probably have to petition the court for a different venue.”
Oceanside Page 19
