Falling for Ava

by Pamela Ann

  I gave him a nod, telling him to go on.

  Hands intertwined, he rested them against the bar. “Once we’re married, we’ll go on as usual. We’ll both lead separate lives, even though we’d be in the same household. The main priority is the child you’re carrying, and that he or she will be legally mine. After everything is settled, you can do whatever you like—divorce or whatever you wish. You call the shots.”

  “Oh.” He meant a fake marriage. I wasn’t sure what was worse—him loathing me on sight or that he was offering me a fairytale that didn’t involve him.

  His words echoed in my head. Once we’re married, we’ll go on as usual. We’ll both lead separate lives, even though we’d be in the same household. Could I possibly live under the same roof as him, watching him from afar while he quietly carried on with mistresses?

  Nervously clearing my throat, I asked, “So, does this mean separate bedrooms? I mean, what do you expect from me as your pseudo-wife?”

  “There won’t be any sex involved. I just have to make that clear. I would try to be fair and say that you could carry on in your affairs with male consorts, but you’re pregnant, so that’s irrelevant. Also, I’d like to keep this private as much as possible. I don’t want anything to tarnish my name or my company’s brand. I’d carry on with my lifestyle and ensure that none of it would be a nuisance to you.

  “And, since we’re already discussing terms, you’re more than welcome to state yours and what you expect from the pre-nuptial agreement, spousal support, and so forth. I’m more than willing to accommodate your wishes as long as they’re reasonably in my limits. I want you to be taken care of and not want for anything when married to me.”

  What a heart-warming speech. It simply made me want to jump for joy. He had basically explained in an intricate manner that he was going to carry on with his women while I secretly kept to myself in his household, spoiled rotten and pampered like a bloody fool. And, oh, I would brilliantly get monthly stipends for being Mrs. Chambers. How smashing. Totally. Truly.

  Just pure, utter madness.

  “Listen, Reiss. Let’s pretend this conversation didn’t take place. You’re drunk, and I’m utterly exhausted. My capacity for tolerance when conversing with madness and lack of common sense has reached its limit. I beg of you, please change your mind about this.”

  “I can’t—I gave him my word.”

  “You can very well un-give it.”

  He let out a breath, shaking his head. “His lawyers and my team are already drawing up the contracts.”

  Bloody Hell.

  “No, Reiss. Don’t do this,” I begged, feeling even more unworthy to become his.

  The whole situation mocked me, making it blatantly obvious that he would never see me differently or fall for me again. It was tragic to keep being reminded of it. What’s more, each time, the blow seemed like it was brand new. My hurt kept growing. Even though I felt I should be numb to it, it would always prove me wrong.

  “It’s already done.” He breached the gap between us by rounding the side of the bar, approaching me at a speedy rate. “I’m merely here to convince you to say yes to my proposal,” he whispered quite close to my face, caging me in with his body. It was a cruel torture to be this close to him and know I should resist him, or I’d lose my stance on the subject.

  His hand touched my chin, lifting my gaze to meet his. “Say yes, Ava.”

  This close to him, I felt utterly powerless. My body was bound to him, and it was only a matter of time until my resistance would cease to exist. Until then, I shouldn’t give him the liberty.

  “Go home. We’ll talk tomorrow,” I pleaded. “I promise.”

  My breathing hitched when I thought he was angling his head to kiss me, but instead, his lips brushed my ear.

  “I don’t trust you…” he spoke into my ear, making me effortlessly shiver as I felt his body heat almost touching me, “so I’m not leaving this room until you’ve given me your word.” He strategically pressed his chest against mine, teasing the tips of my nipples against my silk robe, making me bite back a moan from the severe pleasure it gave me.

  “Reiss … stop,” I groaned, frustrated at his machinations. “Seducing me into marriage isn’t right.” Though I wouldn’t protest much if he did decide to follow through. I wanted him like no other. And at times like these, I was willing to settle this for the moment.

  “But it’s working, isn’t it?” he taunted, roving his magnetic gaze over my body as if he was seeing me naked. “I look at you, and you immediately respond to me. Ten years is a very long time, Ava, yet it hasn’t changed. Not. One. Little. Bit.”

  “You’re not being fair. You can’t use this against me.”

  “Oh, can’t I? But I love watching you. You’re so responsive. It makes my cock hungry just thinking of it.” And to punctuate his point, he nudged his hardness against the slit of my thigh, warming my sensitive skin with his arousal.

  My retort came out as a moan. I softly parted my lips, gravitating towards him as he started to rhythmically thrust into my thigh, inches away from my hot folds.

  “Aren’t you hungry for this, Ava?” Thick though was his yearning, his amusing laughter immediately dampened my mood. It wasn’t a cruel laugh, but it somehow sounded halfway between mockery and arrogance that I couldn’t get enough of him.

  I was convinced he was used to this—treating women like his playthings while he mastered being such a complete, callous bastard. Or maybe it was just me, and he treated his other women differently. Maybe he still made love the way he used to yet only shared his cruel side with me.

  Images of him plunging into his girlfriend played before me, creating such poisonous jealousy it completely took hold of me.

  “What if I tell you that I’ve been already fed, and I’m very much satisfied at the moment?”

  His jovial manner rapidly died. Sharp breaths hit my neck as his breathing came in short pants. He hadn’t said a word, yet I could feel his anger rolling off him in waves. I wished I could’ve said something to dispel it, but I had run out of excuses. The longer the time stretched with his silence, the more it made me nervous. His body was tensed like he was holding back something.

  I was starting to panic when I barely heard him ask me something. “Are you…?” he paused, breathing unevenly. “Are you lying to me?”

  His question confused me because he sounded as if I had wounded him. He even almost sounded like he was in pain. Why? He absolutely didn’t want me; he had declared it minutes ago when he had stated he wasn’t ever going to consummate the marriage proposal he had thrown at me. This most likely stemmed from Ashton’s deep-seated hate toward him. He was getting territorial because he felt like I had betrayed him for Ashton, which was absurd since he and I weren’t anything apart from co-parents to the baby. Subsequently, for him to act this way was completely unfounded.

  “My sex life isn’t your business. I can do as I please, so you don’t have the right to interrogate me about it.”

  He didn’t take kindly to that. In fact, he sounded like he was about to lose it, hissing like a demented man against my ear. “Don’t fuck with me, Ava.”

  The man simply had asked for it. “No,” I gritted out, emphasizing it distinctly. “I’m obviously not fucking you, Reiss. I don’t want to. Ever.”

  “You’re pregnant with my fucking baby!” he roared, utterly livid as he threw me an accusing look. “My child, Ava! It’s my child that’s growing inside you, and you let that filthy man fuck you stupid?”

  Good Heavens, he was looking at me as if I just told him I was a murderer.

  “Jesus, Reiss. You can’t truly be serious about being angry with me? I mean, I bet you slept with someone last night. Hell, maybe even today before you came here. Breathe, for fuck’s sake!”

  He growled like a bloody animal as he placed his palms on the sides of my head. “Tell me what he did to make you part your legs for him!” he demanded, hissing in my face.

  Double stan
dard bastard to the highest order! Did he take me for an idiot? He’d been going about town with a woman on his side, clearly enjoying his bachelor life. For him to demand such crude things from me was beyond untoward.

  “Go. To. Hell!”

  “I’m already there, love,” he stated in a tone that went straight to my heart. “Or did you forget that you sent me there years ago?”

  When I had tried to make amends, he had played recklessly with my feelings, toying with my vulnerability. I understood his need for revenge, even the hate—he had the right for it. I expected it and all of his vindictiveness.

  “I’m sorry for that. I truly am.” What was done was done, and there was nothing I could do to change it. We were not teenagers any longer; we were grown adults. Had he given me the chance to show him from the start how I truly felt, things would have turned out differently, but he hadn’t opted for that. Instead, he had decided to crush my heart, acting upon revenge to make himself feel better.

  “Maybe, if you tell me what happened, it might slowly redeem you.”

  He was relentless. I knew this side of him, and he wouldn’t ever stop until he had the answer he wanted.

  Begrudgingly conceding to his request, I recalled a particular night about five days after Ashton had arrived from New York. “I was sleeping when he came in. He managed to acquire a keycard from the lobby since he told them I’m his wife.” Reiss listened, his eyes never tearing away from my face. “I can’t remember much, but I woke up naked with him between my legs, teasing me with his tongue…”

  “Go on,” he immediately insisted.

  Biting my lip, I reddened as I prepared to speak again. “I was still half asleep, so it didn’t register yet. He carried on for quite some time … until I came.”

  “And you let him fuck you,” he smoothly concluded before his fingers snapped before me. “Just like that!”

  No, it hadn’t been like that at all, but I was beyond infuriated with him for simply demanding I tell him everything when it hadn’t been so long ago that he had told me he didn’t want anything from me. From the second he had learned about the baby, he had been acting as if he hadn’t said such harsh words to me. How could he treat me like that and then carry on with his life, shagging his mistress as if he hadn’t cheated on her with me?

  “Are you not even going to respond?”

  “I wasn’t aware that it was actually a question.” Bravo. I truly despised him with a passion in this instant.

  His eyes darkened with almost no green showing in them, fury leading his logic. “You—”

  My temper colorfully matched his. I began to shake in my rage, so much so that a few strands of my hair fell out of my loose bun. “Don’t you dare say it!” I spat at him, ready to take him on. If acting like a complete brute was his way of achieving things, then I should do the same. “Insult me one more time, Reiss—I fucking dare you— and I’ll never divorce Ashton. You’ll be fighting me for parental rights from across the Atlantic Ocean.” I felt incensed and unjustifiably irrational, and I couldn’t seem to stop it from happening.

  “Have you not learned anything? You know better than to throw such provocation.” His eyes danced, anger mixed with something more potent. “I don’t abide by the rules. I dare because I can,” he said just as he tugged the tie off my robe in one swift movement, instantly parting the silk that had been barely covering my nipples, my nether region blatantly exposed to him. “I dare because this”—he cupped both of my breasts, squeezing them with a tinge of roughness—“this … is mine.”

  Shit. How could he simply manipulate my body into working against me? It was purely cruel, and even though it was, my moans didn’t go unnoticed.

  One hand remained while the other explored farther below, drifting down past my navel as it sought towards the crevice between my legs that were slightly parted in anticipation of his touch. Then, parting the lips of my pussy coarsely before he slid his middle finger into my entrance, he grunted my name just as it gripped his finger, greedy for more.

  “This is all mine,” he vowed with such raw emotion it became my undoing. “It’s always going to be mine.”

  I sobbed from losing control of my body and how much truth there was in his words. “You’ve made your point. Please, stop.”

  “I can’t,” he muttered in vain. “I fucking wish I could … you don’t know how much I wish I could.” His thumb found the sweet nub, rubbing it in circular motions while his finger started to fuck me. “I dream of you just like this, surrendering yourself to me like you did the first time.”

  I spiraled out of control as I opened myself to him farther, past caring about our differences. What mattered was him and what he was creating inside me. The ache inside was merely being teased, and I was desperate to have more of him.

  “Reiss, no more, please. I can’t—” I cried out from frustration. “I need you to fuck me. Please … just fuck me.”

  “I’ve never heard anything sexier from you.” The words of praise rushed out of his lips as he took care of his clothing. The sound of his pants falling onto the ground made me even wetter, anticipating the feel of him, all powerful and magnificent, pleasuring himself with my body.

  “Christ!” he growled as his cock impaled me, momentarily paralyzing me as he guided himself, seating deeply inside me. “Why do you always feel the same—just fucking perfect and so beautifully tight?” His left hand cupped my face, staring at me as if he was seeing me for the first time. His eyes had always possessed the power to disarm me.

  His cock was still deep inside of me, throbbing enormously from blatant arousal, but he remained still, unmoving as he penetrated deeply into my eyes. In this instant, I wasn’t sure what was going through his head. It was hard to read him.

  “I haven’t really looked at you, truly looked at you since that night in the middle of the rose bushes while moonlight kissed your skin.” It had been our last night together before I had broken his heart the next day.

  Right now, he had this expression on his face, as if mesmerized. He took his time, caressing, memorizing every contour of my face, as if he was reacquainting himself, as if noting everything he could remember.

  “You’re eyes haven’t changed much. You’re still unbelievably beautiful. It hurts to look at you sometimes.”

  It felt surreal, as though I was hallucinating that he was gazing at me like he used to. It was bittersweet, and I couldn’t help being pulled into it, exalting in his touch. It was as if he really was touching me for the first time. In a sense, he was after all these years because it was the first time he had touched me with tenderness.

  When his thumb reached out to my bottom lip, grazing it lightly at the tip, my tongue inadvertently came out to slowly taste it, making him grunt in response.

  “Ava,” he said hoarsely, the pull of desire hanging between us like magnets attracting each other. “I used to love kissing these lips.”

  The look in his eyes, the feel of him inside me, caused me to barely hear him properly. I couldn’t tear my gaze off him as I breathed him in, basking in the very feel of him. The love I felt for him had seized me whole.

  Fulfilling my own curiosity, I touched his face. I wasn’t sure what came over me, but I had this sudden urge, this need so strong I couldn’t help succumbing to it.

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t wait forever,” I rushed out my apology, just as I brusquely brought his face towards mine, kissing him as ravenously as I could. I kissed him hard, like it was a punishment and a blessing. I kissed with my heart, my all, and he eagerly responded in the same alarming hunger. He made a guttural sound that reminded me of a famished lion that was about to lose control as it greedily feasted on its capture.

  He took everything he could, stripping me bare with every kiss he granted me. He felt like a man out of control, almost slamming me against the wall as he took my leg and harshly withdrew before driving into me with such an obliterating thrust it took my breath away.

  “Ava—” he said in bet
ween kisses, withdrawing and sliding his cock back inside me with the same ferocity. “Damn you. You fucking always make me feel like an animal! This need to be inside you is maddening. You’re all I think about.”

  “Take as much as you can, then. Feast on this hunger. I’m yours for however long you want me.” It was hopeless fighting my love for him. I was battling something that was larger than life. There was no point in denying myself, even if I could be with him only for a short amount of time.

  He gave me a doubtful look, appearing almost nervous as I noted the bobbing of his throat. “I might not stop for days—weeks even. Are you sure you can handle that?”

  “For you … only for you. I’ll endure anything to please you.”

  Chapter 21

  Ava

  An odd sensation woke me from my deep slumber. Without opening my lids, I noted the achy muscles and the soreness between my thighs. It almost made me smile, thinking how ravenous Reiss had been. When he’d said he could fuck for days, he had truly meant it. However, after the third time he had taken me, I had been ready to wave my white flag, begging for a short hiatus. I remembered us falling asleep on the bed.

  Even though I hadn’t opened my eyes yet, I knew he was intensely staring at me. The old Reiss used to study me whilst sleeping and defenseless. Although, with this new version of him, I wasn’t sure what ran through his mind. I was more afraid he regretted it now that he had been given the chance to pause and think properly without his cock leading his reasoning.

  The idea of him regretting it almost brought tears to my eyes. But, if it did happen, I shouldn’t take it too hard. He was a virile male who enjoyed women, and I was the ex-lover whom he needed to get out of his system. Once he got his fill, he’d resume his hankerings of beautiful women. What a truly sad thing to think about after what I had just shared with him, but it was my reality and there was no point in sugarcoating the truth.

  Not wanting to be exposed and vulnerable to his scrutiny, I slowly shifted to the other side, facing away from him. Regulating my breathing, I thought of calming clouds or anything of that nature when I felt his hand against my back, softly tracing my spine. He took his time, gliding against my skin before I felt the heat of his body slowly moving behind me. His lips were the first things I felt as they left a soft kiss on my nape.