He continued to thrust into her while she pressed back into him, her pace increasing.
“Alex.” Ashleigh was looking for a lifeline because the friction was sweeter than she expected, and her body was beginning to tremble with the first signs of her orgasm. “Please, Alex.”
Her body was coated in perspiration, her arms beginning to slip on the leather as she leaned forward, Alex kneading her butt cheeks as he fucked his fingers into her slowly, shallowly, over and over.
“That’s it, baby.” Alex groaned.
Ashleigh could feel him moving behind her, his fingers slowing until he retreated fully, leaving her feeling empty. He’d teased her for long minutes, her body confused on what it wanted and what it needed, her orgasm having built numerous times only to be doused repeatedly.
Then his hands were on her hips, and she felt the wide crest of his penis pressing against her puckered hole, the pressure more than she expected, more than she thought she could bare.
“Play with your clit.” Alex ordered as he leaned around her, using one hand to spread her bare pussy lips, the heat of his fingers a welcome sensation when otherwise there would have only been pressure and pain.
Doing as he said, Ashleigh used her fingers to touch herself, stroking her clit with rough, hurried movements, trying to make her body react to the erotic stimulation and praying her brain would shut off momentarily.
“Alex, it hurts.” She admitted, ducking her head against the cushion, fear making her body tremble.
“Push against me, Ashleigh. Bear down on my dick.”
Ashleigh didn’t know what he wanted, but she did as she was told, pushing her hips into his, the wide girth of his cock pressing into her, pushing past the tight muscles painfully until...
“Oh, God!” The pain disappeared and she was left with only an overwhelming sensation of being full. Her hand resumed its torturous pace on her clit while Alex began increasing his pace, shallowly thrusting into her ass.
When his hand took over, his mouth hot on her back, she knew he wasn’t going to last, and she prayed he’d hurry. Her body was having a hard time keeping up with itself, and this was erotic as hell.
“That’s it, Ash. Ride my cock, baby.” His voice was gruff, strained as he began ramming into her, his strokes going deeper, his pace quickening.
“Fuck me, Alex! Please fuck me.” She begged, needing something more to push her to the edge.
When Alex’s finger delved into her pussy, she squirmed against the invasion, shocked by the intensity and for a brief second, she wondered if this is what it felt like for Sam and Sierra. The mental imaged flashed through her mind as her orgasm erupted, and she bit her cheek to keep from screaming out.
“Fuck. Baby, I’m going to come. Ashleigh! It’s too good.”
Ashleigh held on as Alex followed her over the edge with blinding, intense fury.
In that moment, Ashleigh knew two things: One, she was quickly falling for this man and the ramifications of that scared her half out of her mind. And two, there was no way that Ashleigh would ever find another man who could sate her the way Alex could.
In the end, she knew the devastation would be abysmal, and she promised that no matter the outcome, she’d walk away with the memories of this moment right here, when she had given in to the fact that Alex McDermott owned her – mind, body, and soul.
Chapter Sixteen
*** ~~ *** ~~ *** ~~ ***
Alex had no sooner walked in his back door when Jessie came walking out of the guest bedroom. “How are you feeling?” He asked as he passed through the living room on his way to the kitchen.
He needed a beer and he needed one bad. After that long ass drive to Austin and back, Alex wanted nothing more than to sit back and relax. The only thing that would make it better was if Ashleigh was there with him. Since he’d been busy with work and she busy with a deadline, he hadn’t gotten to see her in two days now – not since that smoking hot scene in his office. The mere thought made his blood pressure soar.
But, instead of sneaking off to Ashleigh’s, he’d be sitting at home with his ex-wife, hoping she would get well enough to go home. He had made a point not to spend the night at Ashleigh’s since Jessie had been released from the hospital, and it wasn’t because he didn’t want to. No, he’d much rather be with Ashleigh, but truth be told, he was worried about Jessie, but more than that, he didn’t trust her.
Not a good place to be, honestly.
“A little better. My arm hurts, but the Advil is helping.” Jessie said softly as she curled up on his couch.
The doctor had offered pain meds, but after a brief chat with him, they opted not to go that route. Jessie was a recovering addict, and the last thing she needed was something to entice her.
“Thanks for letting me stay here. I’m just scared to go back home.” She said when he took a seat on the empty couch across from her.
“Well, Jeff’s in jail for a little while, so I think it would be safe for you to go home if you wanted to.” He wasn’t trying to push her out the door, but a gentle nudge wasn’t going to hurt.
It’s not that he didn’t like Jessie because he did. Hell, he’d been married to the woman. Although that little sham of a marriage was for entirely different reasons, but for some reason, Alex felt like he’d been here before.
Different man, same circumstance.
Alex met Jessie at a strip club when he was twenty-one years old. She was supposed to have been eighteen, but as it turned out, she lied about her age and provided a fake id. Being that she was a dancer at the club, that had caused quite a few problems.
But it hadn’t been the club giving her the most grief. It was her father. So when Alex found out that Jessie was being abused at home, he’d come to her rescue and the only logical way to get her out of that mess had been to marry her. He didn’t recommend it to anyone, but he had done it nonetheless.
They were married until she turned eighteen which was only a couple of months. Then they got the marriage annulled, and Alex had mistakenly thought that would be the end of it. He and Jessie were friends, and he wished her well and all that.
As it turned out, Jessie was a walking disaster. Her time at the strip club had led to some intense addictions – to both drugs and alcohol. Given that she had no one else to turn to, Alex again stepped in to save the day. And for damn near twenty years, he’d been coming to her rescue every time she needed him.
The problem was, he was beginning to think there was something more to these little stunts she pulled. Was she faking it? No, of course not. Her broken arm was proof of what Jeff had done to her. But the story he gave the cops was an entirely different one than the one she offered.
In Jeff’s version, Jessie had called him to come over, and once he was there, she instigated the fight, telling Jeff that the only thing she needed to do was to call Alex and everything would be taken care of.
Her version varied, depending on who she told it to. What she told Alex was that she had just gotten home from work when Jeff showed up. He proceeded to beat her because she wouldn’t go and get them something to eat. She’d been scared and injured, which was why she called Alex.
The scared and injured part he believed. The rest sounded like total bullshit. But what was he going to do about it? He’d spent the better part of two decades saving her from herself so to give up on her now seemed a little cruel.
“Do you mind if I stay here for a couple more days?” She asked sweetly.
Alex knew he was being played, knew she was doing the same thing she did every other time, but just like always, he conceded.
“Two days. But by this weekend, I need to get you home.” He had plans for the weekend and Jessie didn’t factor into them at all.
Pushing up from his chair, Alex took his beer and headed to his room. “I need to take a shower, but then I’ll order pizza or something. Give me fifteen minutes.” He told her without looking back.
Fifteen minutes almost on the money, Alex was back
in the living room hunting for his cell phone. Jessie was in the kitchen pouring a glass of tea, so he called out to her. “Have you seen my phone?”
“It’s in here on the bar.” She told him.
“Thanks.” He said absently as he grabbed his phone. “What do you want on your pizza?”
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll eat anything.”
Alex hit the buttons to take him to his previously dialed calls. That was the only way he knew the pizza places number because he always forgot to add it to his contact list. As he was rummaging through the numbers, he noticed the last call that came in.
Ashleigh.
At seven twenty three.
But it wasn’t a missed call.
“Did my phone ring while I was in the shower?” He asked Jessie, turning to look at her. She got that same look on her face that she normally did when she was about to lie.
“Some girl called. I told her you were in the shower and that I’d tell her you called.”
Fuck! “Why the hell did you answer my phone, Jessie?”
Those damn tears welled up in her eyes, and she flinched like someone was about to hit her and it pissed Alex off. He was suddenly no longer hungry, so he grabbed another beer from the fridge and took his phone to his bedroom.
The second he had the door closed behind him, he dialed Ashleigh’s number.
No answer.
Imagine that.
Son of a bitch.
No matter how he tried to explain, this was not going to work out the way he wanted it to.
~~*~~
Ashleigh couldn’t believe what she’d just heard. Some woman had answered Alex’s cell phone. Worse than that, the woman said he’d have to call her back because he was in the shower.
That bastard.
Although they hadn’t talked about being exclusive with one another, Ashleigh had assumed as much. How could she not after all the things they’d been doing and that wasn’t even including the sheet scorching sex.
Shame on her, apparently.
When her phone rang a few minutes later, she just stared at the screen as it lit up with Alex’s name and number. There was no way in hell she was going to answer it. Not now. Not ever. As far as she was concerned, they didn’t have anything more to say to one another.
So why did she want him to explain? Why did she want to give him the chance to tell her exactly why that woman was at his house and that it wasn’t because he was a slime ball and sleeping with her while sleeping with other women.
That was her heart talking, not her brain.
Ignoring the phone, Ashleigh grabbed her laptop and went out on the back porch. It was dark outside, but the small light fixture and her computer would provide enough to do what she needed to do.
It was true, readers wanted emotions when they read the stories they loved. They wanted heat and lust and chemistry. Ashleigh could give them that at the moment because she was angry and hurt. No better time than the present to put it all down on paper.
At least this way, she might possibly be able to keep the tears at bay. She was fairly certain that once she let them go, there’d be no stemming the flow, and she just might drown.
How had she been so stupid?
Chapter Seventeen
*** ~~ *** ~~ *** ~~ ***
By the time the weekend rolled around, Ashleigh had successfully written another one hundred pages and ignored just about as many calls from Alex. They had nothing to say to one another, so she wasn’t sure why he bothered to call.
She’d been tempted to answer a couple of times, but she reminded herself how smug that woman sounded on the phone and thought better of it. One time, just so she wouldn’t be inclined to answer it, she tossed her phone in her underwear drawer.
Ignoring it had become second nature by now, but when it rang Friday afternoon, she glanced at it just because. Grabbing the phone, she hit the answer button.
“Hey.”
“Let’s go out tonight.” Sam’s sweet voice rang through.
“Where to?” Ashleigh definitely wasn’t opposed to the idea, but going to Club Destiny wasn’t going to be her first choice although she knew it would be Sam’s.
“Where else?”
Anywhere? Ashleigh wouldn’t voice it, but that was her first thought. She didn’t want to run into Alex. Worse, she didn’t want to run into Alex and another woman.
She might be a little less emotional, although the anger still burned like acid in her gut, but that didn’t mean she was willing to test her limits. Avoiding his calls had been hard enough. Thankfully he hadn’t bothered to stop by because she was positive she wouldn’t have been able to ignore him then and she wasn’t about to let him see what he’d reduced her to.
However, she’d known deep down that Alex wasn’t up for grabs when it came to his heart, and this had proven that point. She just wished it didn’t have to be quite so painful.
“What time?” Glancing at the clock on her computer, she wondered how much later they could push it. It was closing in on five o’clock.
“Let’s meet at eight. Drinks. Dancing.” Sam said. “We’ll have fun.”
“Is Sierra going?” Ashleigh wanted as many people as possible in the event she had to sneak out. She didn’t want to leave her friend alone, just in case.
“Yes.” She confirmed. “So are Logan, Luke and Cole.”
Great. One big happy love fest. Just what Ashleigh needed to top off a not so impressive week.
“Alright.” She found herself giving in. Staring at the walls was beginning to wear on her nerves and though she might run into Alex, at least she could get out of the house for a while.
“Perfect. See you there.” Sam disconnected the call and Ashleigh clung to it like a lifeline.
She really should have said no.
~~*~~
When Logan called to invite Alex to Club Destiny, he’d been hesitant, but if there was a possibility that Ashleigh would be there, he was going. Come hell or high water. Or Jessie.
For two days, Jessie had been driving him crazy. She was crying all the time, giving him one sob story after another about this or that and Alex was growing increasingly more irritated with her.
He tried to be friendly, but she was refusing to go home and Alex needed her to get back on her feet. His white knight days were coming to an end. At least when it came to rescuing his ex-wife.
She was part of the reason Alex had only tried calling Ashleigh, not going to her house insisting she talk to him.
Now it would look like he was trying to save face and there would be no way to explain Jessie’s presence at his house. Only a select few even knew about his long ago sham of a marriage, and Alex tried to keep it that way. Logan knew of course. He’d been around at the time. Dylan knew because Alex had shared that much of himself with his closest friend.
But neither of them knew why he had gotten married in the first place because Alex didn’t want to share Jessie’s hardships with everyone. Another way he tried to protect her. Again, at his own expense.
“Where are you going?” Jessie asked when Alex walked through the living room an hour later.
“Out.” She didn’t need to know more than that.
“Where to?” Her voice was closer as she followed behind him.
Turning on her, he stopped just outside of his kitchen. “Does it matter?”
A conditioned response, Jessie flinched and took a step back. Alex didn’t concede to her timid reaction this time, he merely turned away from her.
“Did I do something wrong?” Jessie asked.
Yes. You overstayed your welcome. “No.” Alex barked. “Shit. Jessie. Look.” He turned to face her again. “Don’t you think it’s time you went home? Hell, I’m paying for the damn house. I’d rather someone live in it.”
Fuck. He hadn’t meant to go that far. Jessie knew as well as he did who paid for the house. And the utilities. And her car. Shit. There wasn’t a damn thing the woman did pay for, except food maybe. As thin as
she was, Alex even wondered about that.
“I’ll get my stuff.” She turned on her heel and headed across the living room.
“Wait, Jessie.” Following behind her, Alex thrust his hands in his pockets. He hated this shit.
“What?” She turned on him this time, furious. “I get it. I’m in the way. Cramping your style. I’ll go home.”
Alex wished she was serious about that, but he knew better.
“Tomorrow.” He told her. “I’ll take you home in the morning, Jessie. Stay here tonight. I’ll be out late, so just stay here.” It wasn’t what he wanted to tell her, but he couldn’t bring himself to throw her out of his house, even if he wanted to.
A subtle nod was her response. She’d won again. She always won, but Alex was pretty sure she knew that.
An hour later, Alex pulled into the underground parking garage at Club Destiny. He needed a drink, and a couple of hours of mindless entertainment to help him get past the week he’d had. Having Jessie at his house for damn near five days was way more than he could handle. Not seeing or talking to Ashleigh for that amount of time had been even more frustrating.
Walking in the back doors, Alex nodded his head in greeting to a couple of people he recognized and then went in search of Logan and the others. He stopped suddenly when he saw them sitting at a table in the corner, all seven of them. Luke, Cole, and Sierra were sitting across from Logan and Sam, talking. Tag had just stood from the table, smiling that devilish grin that seemed to attract the ladies, but it was what he was doing that had Alex ready to knock that smile right off his face.
He was holding Ashleigh’s hand, leading her to the dance floor.
With his hands balled into fists, Alex turned away, making a beeline for the bar. He needed a drink.
“Hey, Alex.” Kane greeted him when he approached.
“What’s up, man?” Alex tried for normal, but his words came out with a hint of the irritation building in his gut.
“Not much. I see the whole gangs here tonight. What’s up? Someone else getting hitched?”
Alex laughed, not a hint of amusement in the gruff sound. “I’ll take a shot of whiskey. Make it a double and I won’t bother you for a little while.”
Seduction (Club Destiny) Page 13
