So back at his delightful house, Ash slept, curled into a comfortable position and Maya waited in the still hush. Her mind worked overtime as she planned just how she’d touch him, what she would do and how she would do it. Just plotting it all out made her horny and she almost yielded to the urge to pleasure herself, but Maya resisted. She wanted the real deal, full out and all the way with Ash, not a solitary round of masturbation.
To prepare, Maya found three rose-scented jar candles and lined them up on the windowsill in the master bedroom. Later she would light them and infuse the room with the romantic scent. With slow, quiet motions she found her favorite negligee, one of several she kept at Ash’s. Maya got it out and admired the sheer black fabric, the lace trim. To avoid waking him, she retreated to the guest bathroom and took a long, hot soak in the garden tub. She poured scented bath salts into the water and sat down. She savored the heat and felt her body relax. Maya remained until the water cooled and then she got out, drying with a soft, fluffy towel. Her senses were so heightened with anticipation of sex, each brush of the fabric sent a tiny ripple across her skin. She applied her favorite perfume between her breasts, on the pulse points of her throat, and to each wrist. She let her hair hang free, long and beautiful the way Ash preferred.
Nude, Maya headed for the kitchen and put two wine glasses in the freezer compartment to chill. Then she put a bottle of Robert Mondavi Moscato D’Oro in the fridge and laid out two strip stakes to thaw. And then she peeked at Ash. He still slept, so she put on the black negligee and found some music for his CD player, something instrumental and evocative. She watched Ash sleep, her anticipation growing as the hours passed. In the early afternoon, she lit the rose candles and turned on the music. Within minutes, Ash stirred, slow and somnolent as he opened his amazing eyes.
“Acushla?” he said and Maya moved into his view.
“I’m here,” she told him. “Did you sleep well?”
“Oh, aye,” Ash said. “I did, but now I’d like to do something more.”
Maya drew a long breath and smiled. “So would I.”
Ash rolled onto his back and his eyes darted round the room. “I see you prepared,” he said with a thick happy note in his voice. “I like the candles, woman.”
“Do you?” Maya replied. “I hope you like what I plan to do just as much.”
Before his nap, he’d undressed to the skin so she pulled the covers back. His cock came to attention, stiff and long. Maya didn’t wait for an invitation – she climbed on top and slid him into her cunt with graceful skill. She wiggled to get into a comfortable position, moving slowly because the sensation felt so damn good. His dick fit into her as if it’d been tailor-made for this purpose and once in place, Maya rode him. She rocked her hips back and forth, moaning as the reaction kicked her body into high gear with amazing sensual delight. Beneath her, Ash muttered in Irish, his breath fast and wild as he made yips of pleasure. Maya balanced herself on both arms, one on either side of him so she wouldn’t bump his healing wound.
She pushed down to drive him deeper into her pussy and intense pleasure spiraled upward, coursing through every atom of her body. Maya moaned. At the same time Ash grasped her breasts in his hands and caressed them with slow fingers. He pinched her nipples, not hard with but just enough finesse to make them expand into larger pink blossoms. Sensitive to the touch, Maya thought she’d die of pleasure when he lifted himself up to take one nipple into his mouth to suckle.
Just when she thought she’d come, Ash grasped her shoulders and rolled her over until he was on top. Before Maya could protest or say a single word, he took her mouth with fierce possession, his mouth on fire. Ash’s lips burned her, but her mouth answered his with the same intensity. His tongue raped her mouth, thrust between her lips with skill and power. Still connected with his cock to her cunt, Ash shifted his mouth to the soft hollow at the base of her throat. His kisses were light but so concentrated and deep each one evoked a powerful response.
Ash thrust deeper into Maya’s body and she seized up, taken with the increasing spirals taking her higher to the moment of truth. “Come with me,” she begged. “Ash, please.”
“Woman, I will,” he gasped.
The tension built to unbearable levels and then everything exploded. The spasms released with wild bursts of sensual pleasure, such sweet feelings centered in her groin Maya thought she’d scream until her lungs gave out. Her fingers clutched Ash, twisted against his skin and held tight. In those crazy moments Maya forgot about his injury and they soared together and came.
Her wordless cries of pleasure echoed and even after Ash rolled her to her side, panting hard but with a giant grin, Maya’s pussy shuddered with aftershocks of physical wonder. He touched her clit and she shivered, almost enough to come again.
“Woman, you’re a wonder,” Ash said when he had enough breath for words.
“Oh, Ash,” Maya sighed. She wanted to say the words, tell him she loved him, but she held back. I will in a little bit. I swear I will.
“Now I’m hungry,” he told her. Typical man, she thought. “Let’s get up.”
“In a minute,” she answered. She wanted to hold onto the delicious feeling of being sated for a bit more. “You said you had something to tell me, didn’t you?”
Ash grinned. “I do, acushla, but all in good time.”
“All right,” she conceded. “How’s your shoulder?”
“Fine,” he said. “It only hurts a little, and no bleeding. In fact, I think I’ll take a shower.”
Despite knowing she must reek of cum, Maya nodded. “I’ll cook the steaks while you do, then.”
“No,” Ash said, his tone firm and no-nonsense. “You’ll join me first.”
An hour later, Maya served the steaks, medium rare and tender enough to use nothing more than a fork to eat, out on the covered patio. A gentle breeze whispered through the trees and vines above and jiggled the blossoms on the potted plants. Ash, wearing jeans and a muscle shirt, joined her as she brought the steaks to the outdoor table. She added the salads she tossed together earlier and the pair of baked potatoes she nuked in the microwave. Ash poured the wine into the goblets and they dined al fresco, in harmony with each other and the world around them.
She adored being here in the house with Ash and Maya regretted she’d have to go home soon, back to her cinder block apartment. Unless he invited her to stay, which she doubted. They’d been together for nearly a year, and he hadn’t yet. “I’m glad you’re almost recovered,” she told him. “We’ll both have to return to campus soon.”
“Aye,” Ash said. “I miss it, actually. I’d go back tomorrow, but I think I’ll wait until Monday instead.”
“Monday would work for me, too,” Maya replied. She checked her mental calendar. Today happened to be Thursday so they would have three more full, idyllic days before reality returned.
“I’d like it if we went back together,” Ash said. He finished off his last bite of steak with an expression of almost adoration. “I expect we’ll be spending more time together than ever.”
Maya thought she would love it, and hope fluttered in her belly with force. “Will we?”
Ash reached into his pocket and drew out a small box. “Des came to visit but as I said, he also brought something I asked him to deliver. It’s for you, acushla.”
She accepted the small black box he put into her hands and opened it. Maya gasped when she saw what rested inside. The 14-karat, white gold Claddagh ring from Ireland featured an emerald heart held between two hands. Diamonds surrounded the green stone in a heart-shaped ring. Above the emerald, more diamonds added their sparkle. At the wrists of each hand holding the emerald heart itself, more diamonds clustered. “It’s the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen,” Maya said. She knew enough of the history of the Claddagh rings to know they represented love, but what she didn’t know was how Ash intended it, as a token of their relationship or for something more.
“Do you truly like it, love?” For once h
e sounded almost hesitant, even uncertain. “If you’d rather have something more modern, it’s fine.”
“No. I adore it,” she said.
“Then will you consider being engaged to be married?” Ash asked, his green eyes softer than early morning mist. “I love you, woman. I have almost from the first, but I feared you just wanted a lover, not a husband. I asked Des to bring the ring, as ‘twas my mother’s and grandmother’s before her. I didn’t expect to be shot, but it was you came and cared for me. It gave me hope you might want to stay forever. Ta ghra agam do, acushla, so what do you say?”
Tears of joy gave the world she saw a shimmering beauty, but Maya laughed aloud with her delight. “I have no idea what the Irish words mean, Ash, but I love you too. I realized how much when you were hurt. Yes, I’d love to be engaged and wear your ring.”
Ash took the ring from its box and lifted her left hand. “The words mean ‘I love you’,” he said. “And I’m glad you will, woman. Des swore to me you would, that he could see how very much you loved me, but I was afraid to hope.”
He slid the ring onto her finger, the crown points turned to her fingertips. Somewhere, she’d read the Claddagh rings were turned to show your status and if Maya remembered right, Ash positioned it to show their engagement. She stretched out her hand to let the diamonds catch the late afternoon sunlight and watched the reflections dance.
Ash pushed back his chair and came to pull her up. He took her into his arms, and held her in his embrace. Just before he kissed her, he said, “I’m not one to believe in long engagements, either, so start planning a wedding, woman of mine.”
As Maya surrendered to his mouth, she knew she’d come home to stay. The sexy Irish professor belonged to her and she’d never need to worry about competition ever again. She yielded to his kiss as his hands caressed her body, cherishing her with his touch. Reflecting back on the things they’d done, what they’d shared, she came to a realization: he really loves me. True love, all of it.
Nothing ever seemed brighter or better than the future ahead.
“Ash?” she said when he came up for air.
“Aye?”
“I adore this house, I’m delighted with my ring … but I love you,” Maya told him.
“The third’s the most important,” he replied. “You know, don’t you, what the ring means?”
“What?”
“My heart is in your hands,” he said.
His green eyes met hers, deep and lush as a forest or a secret lake, and Maya couldn’t think of any better place it could be.
Epilogue….an Irish honeymoon
The day after they married, in a short yet sweet ceremony in Ash’s garden with just a few friends and family members present, Ash took Maya home to meet his family. They welcomed her with warm affection, tea and scones. His mother – who said to call her ‘Ma’ – treated Maya like a new-found daughter and Ash’s Da, an older, grayer version of Ash and Des, made Maya feel at home.
They spent a few days in Ash’s hometown, walking the streets, talking to people he’d known since boyhood. Then they toured Ireland in a rented car. Everything from the sheep grazing over the green hills, to the windswept views of the ocean and the ancient shrines in out of the way spots enchanted Maya.
After the time with his family, the newlyweds stayed in quaint bed and breakfast inns and even a castle at Dromore but at last, before they flew home, they met Desmond in Dublin. The brothers reunited with joy and Maya shopped at Stephen’s Green in the city centre. Ash and Des vanished to a pub. Later, they all dined in a café along the Liffey and in a quiet moment, Maya asked her brother-in-law the question that had niggled in her mind for too long.
“Is there any danger the man who shot Ash will return?” she asked. She didn’t worry about it much, but she had moments of near panic when she did.
“None at all, darlin’,” Des said in his lazy way. “He’s having his battles with the devil himself these days.”
“He’s dead?” She wasn’t sure if she understood or not.
“Aye, woman, he’s dead,” Desmond told her. “I said I shot him, did I not?”
“Yes, you did.”
“I’m a not a man to miss. Not when my only brother lies bleeding on the ground.”
Ash sighed aloud, a very Irish sound and said, “You might as well tell her what you did with the body before she asks.”
“Ah, well, then,” Des said. “I put him in the boot of Ash’s car and when I went to the supermarket, I also dropped the man off into the Los AngelesRiver. By chance, there’d been enough rain it was running full. If the authorities found him, I doubt they knew what to make of him. With any luck at all, he floated on down and out to the ocean.”
Maya stared, disconcerted. She wasn’t sure if she felt more horrified or glad the threat no longer existed. “And if they do find him?”
“I doubt much fuss will be made about one dead man in a city of many.” Des told her. “I haven’t lost sleep over it yet and won’t.”
Ash put his hand over Maya’s. “Woman, let’s talk no more of it. It’s over and done. We’re on our honeymoon, so let’s be happy.”
“I am,” she said. “I’m very happy with you, Ash.”
Her emerald ring caught enough light to sparkle and her heart within radiated, with a love to last the ages.
The End
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Other Books by Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy:
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An Emerald Heart Page 4
