Out of the Ashes (Marked as His Book 1)

by Rossi, Monica

  She didn’t even know how much money was in the envelope, they had never talked about what she’d make, but she felt a lump of emotion in her throat. He’d given her a job when she’d needed it, even though it had made waves with his family, he had been patient with her even though she never knew what she was doing, and now he’d anticipated her need for untraceable cash without making a big deal about it. He couldn’t know how grateful she was.

  She wanted to tell him but if she’d tried to talk then a flood of tears would have accompanied her words.

  Instead, she just leaned up on her tip toes and brushed her lips against his.

  And time froze.

  She knew immediately that she’d made a mistake because such a simple kiss should not have sent tendrils of fire sweeping through her body.

  But it had.

  She should pull back, apologize, and explain that gratitude had just overcome her good sense. But she wasn’t doing any of that, she was locked to him, breathless, her eyes wide and bright staring into his, stunned like a dear in the headlights waiting to see what he would do.

  And just when she was about to retreat, his arms wrapped around her, pulling her close. One hand around her back found her waist and the other came up to cradle her skull, holding her close.

  Fern felt his lips harden on hers, becoming more insistent, more demanding. She almost couldn’t breathe. This was going from a chaste kiss of gratitude to something else way too quickly. She should stop it now, before it was too late.

  His hand trailed down her until it was almost touching her back side, fire followed in its wake, and she pressed herself against him, feeling the hard outline of his erection against her. Lust pooled at the base of her spine sending shivers of need through her body.

  Who was she kidding? It was already too late. She wanted this man too much, had fantasized about a moment like this too many times, felt the flush of desire stir in her every time he’d been near her, and now that he was finally touching her, she wasn’t sure she could let him go.

  No matter how stupid and reckless, this was going to happen. It had been building the entire time she’d known him and she had no intentions of stopping it now. Maybe if she’d wanted him a tad less, practical matters, like how awkward it was going to be at work, or how much she needed the job, would have intruded on her thoughts, but in the moment the need of him crowded out all common sense.

  She let her hands play across his body as their frantic kiss continued, grabbing the hem of his shirt and pulling it over his head. Their lips broke apart as she took in the sight of him shirtless. She’d had an idea of what he’d look like, her mind had played over the image again and again involuntarily as she lay down at night, unable to sleep. But reality was so much better than her dreams.

  She leaned in, intent on trailing kisses across his taunt chest, but he stopped her before she could land her lips on him.

  “Your turn,” he said, his voice low, almost growling the words, as he pulled the shirt over her head. A moment of reality tried to steal into her brain as she sat there in front of him with nothing but a bra covering her chest. She’d hadn’t been naked in front of anyone other than Timothy in a long time.

  “Perfect,” he whispered as he let his fingers trace the swell of her breast above her bra. She lost her shyness, her need for his hands to be on her outweighing any reservations she might have. Fern unclasped her bra and let it fall into her lap.

  His intake of breath was the sweetest compliment she’d ever received, and as his hand palmed her breast and his head dipped down to take her other nipple she arched into him.

  A moan escaped her as he suckled her, his hand leaving her breast and traveling lower to the apex of her thighs. She wanted him, needed him now. Her hand covered his, pushing him, wishing the fabric of pants didn’t separate them.

  Abruptly he stopped, pulling away from her. She felt his absence keenly as cool air brushed the areas his hands and mouth had been occupying.

  She must have made a sound of protest because he explained as he scooped her up in his arms, “We need a little more privacy,” he said nodding at the windows in front of the shop.

  Fern cringed inside, she hadn’t even thought of that, the windows hadn’t even crossed her mind while he’d been touching her. Anyone could have walked by and seen them. Though it was unlikely at that time of night, it wasn’t implausible.

  “Don’t worry about it, nobody saw us,” he said, dipping his head to capture her lips again as they walked. The embarrassment didn’t last long, how could it with his perfect mouth on hers?

  He took her to his studio and laid her gently on the table slash chair his clients usually occupied. His mouth resumed its deep exploration of her breasts as his hands skimmed across her skin, working their way down to her waist, where they quickly and deftly unbuttoned and removed her pants.

  The cool air touched her but couldn’t hold a candle to the heat coming from her skin. She felt like she was on fire and his hands playing across her body just made her hotter and hotter.

  His fingers traveled down and found the warm wet folds and dipped inside them, almost making her buck off the table. She didn’t know how much more she could handle before it was too much. Her breath was coming in short gasps and she wanted to tell him that she needed him but speech was too much for her.

  She didn’t think it was going to be long before she came apart at the seams.

  Dax seemed to sense her growing need and his mouth left her breast and quickly traveled down her abdomen, leaving soft but hurried kisses in his wake.

  She watched as his mouth hovered over her before he dipped down and tasted her.

  Any coherent thought she might have been holding on to, left as primal need took over. Her hands grasped his head as her hips rocked against his inquisitive tongue. She moaned and thrashed against the chair, feeling like she was about to lose control when finally the wave of sensations broke across her body.

  She might have screamed as she came, his mouth still working against her, her whole body tensed as sensations rocked through her, leaving her feeling like she was suspended in honey.

  When the tremors finally subsided Dax lifted his head and looked down at her, the lust still clear in his eyes called to Fern even in the midst of her afterglow.

  He stood and unbuttoned his pants, pushing them down slightly his cock sprang free, hard and ready for her. She didn’t know how her body could take any more but she felt an answering pull in her belly at the sight of him.

  He grabbed her hips and pulled her to the side of the chair, her legs spreading for him of their own accord. His eyes ate the sight of her greedily and she found herself being aroused by just him looking at her.

  “You don’t know how many times I’ve imagined this Fern, watching you at work, I never knew someone who could make cleaning a counter or answering the phones an erotic act, but somehow you managed it. Do you know how many times I wanted to bend you over that counter and take you there in front of everyone?” he asked.

  Fern shook her head, she didn’t trust herself to speak.

  “A lot, every day all day, I thought of different ways I could take you, of how you’d look laying just like you are right now under me. And you know what? Nothing I’ve imagined has even come close to reality.”

  She watched, entranced by his body and his words as he took his cock in his hand and guided himself slowly into her. Her eyes closed involuntarily and a noise she’d never made before came from deep inside her as she felt him entering her. Nothing had ever felt so right.

  Her legs curled around him, pressing him closer, further into her, but he took his time, his eyes watching as they joined.

  Fern tried to wait for him, but she found herself unable. She reached up and grabbed his arms, pulling herself up and against his body until they were face to face, him still buried deep inside her, and she begged him breathlessly, her need abolishing all restraint she might have shown, “Please Dax, please.”

  She h
adn’t been quite sure what it was she was begging for, but in the minutes and hours that followed, she got it.

  ***

  Fern lay, out of breath and boneless across his chest. Well, this was a fine mess she’d gotten herself into. One week into a job she’d desperately needed and she’d already slept with the boss. She may have just screwed up her best chance at getting her life together and getting away from Tim for good. But Jesus, laying there drenched in sweat and more satiated than she’d ever been in her life, she was having a hard time feeling bad about it.

  She looked up at his perfectly chiseled face, the dark eyelashes making half-moons on his cheeks, and found, in that moment, she didn’t regret it at all.

  Fern nursed her cup of coffee and enjoyed the sound of rain pattering against the roof. The sound and the dreary light leaking in through her window was calming and she needed calmness right about now.

  “Mama, mama! Trina says she’s thirsty and I’m thirsty too!” her daughter cried as she ran into the room dragging her little friend behind her. A little friend who looked down at the floor whenever she was in the room with Fern, an action that tugged at her heart. She had a special place in her heart for those who were shy like her. Katy certainly wasn’t, she was fierce and protective and brave, all the things that Fern wished she could be. Sometimes just watching her child on the playground dangle from monkey bars or stand up to other kids and it lit a fierce pride in her, and maybe just a little bit of envy. Maybe if she’d been born with some of that she wouldn’t be in the position she was in. Because she would never have let a man treat her that way in the first place or either she’d have left after the first time it happened. Instead she was mousy and shy, wracking her brain trying to figure out the right thing to do, nerves out of whack because she was uncertain about everything.

  If she had a little more of what Katy had, spunk or grit or whatever it was, maybe if she had some of it she wouldn’t be sitting here after having had the best night of sex of her life wondering whether or not she should quit her job. Whether she should call him and see if he wanted to maybe try it again, or whether she should go ahead and move and never look back.

  “We’ve got apple juice, sweet tea, and Kool-Aid in the fridge, which one will it be?”

  Katy looked at her friend to choose, just as a polite host should, and even leaned over closer so Trina could whisper in her ear. “We’d like the apple juice please,” her girl said politely.

  Fern’s mouth curved in a smile as she poured the girls two Doc McStuffins cups of apple juice. Maybe she was bias, but Katy was just about the best thing that had ever been made. No matter what or who her father was.

  The girls drank their juice in record time and went tearing back down the tiny hallway and into Katy’s bedroom.

  She would have thought that after six whole days of being with Trina over at the neighbor’s house the kid would want a break. But the first thing she’d said that morning when she’d woken up was to ask if she could have Trina over to play.

  Fern’s first instinct had been to say no, she wanted some time alone with her kid after having been gone all week, but she’d said yes instead and they’d gone across down the hall to her friend’s apartment, even before they’d gotten dressed, to ask if Trina could come eat pancakes and watch cartoons with them. That had been hours ago and the girls were still going strong.

  Which was fine. It just gave Fern more time to obsess over what she should do about Dax. Tall, gorgeous, granite jawed, ice blue eyes, great ass having Dax. Oh yeah, hands of magic Dax. She thought of what he’d done with those hands the night before and a shiver of desire shuddered through her body.

  She knew what she wanted to do about Dax. But what she wanted wasn’t always what was best for her and more importantly, her child. She wanted to let Dax make love to her for the next twelve or thirteen hours but not only would that be physically draining, she also had other responsibilities to think off. Namely, her daughter.

  She just didn’t know. It had felt so good to be touched, not just because of the sex, but even just being held. She hadn’t just been held and touched like she was wanted, without some kind of violence behind it in years. Since her and Timothy were dating, before he’d shown her his true colors.

  And what if Dax had the same true colors hiding beneath the kind and thoughtful super-hot exterior. She knew she couldn’t trust her own judgment, because look where that had gotten her before. No, it was probably for the best that she just leave him alone. Maybe he’d understand when she told him that she wanted to keep her work and private life separate. And maybe he wouldn’t, but either way, she couldn’t risk letting someone into her life that could upset things just when she was getting them back on track. No, she was better off alone than that. Even if all he wanted was someone to hook up with, things like that had a way of getting complicated.

  She heaved a sigh of relief. She was glad that was decided, it was one less thing to worry about.

  She stood up, ready to get started straightening up her sadly neglected little home, smile on her face, when her phone rang.

  “Hello?” she answered.

  “Hi,” the deep timbre of Dax’s voice answered back, causing the center of Fern to immediately turn into liquid fire.

  “Uh, hi,” she replied, unsure of what she should say.

  “I won’t keep you on your day off, I just called to say that I don’t expect what happened last night to continue as a condition of your employment. If that was worrying you at all.”

  A feeling of relief washed through Fern at the words, she hadn’t thought he was the kind of man to take advantage of the situation but at the same time she could never be sure. She just didn’t trust her own judgment any more.

  “I’m so glad you called to say that, I didn’t think you would, but hearing you say it is a huge relief anyway.”

  “I’m glad,” he said warmly, “but that said, it wasn’t the only reason I called.”

  “Oh?” she said, knowing full well whatever he asked, she would do, she was just so grateful to him, for everything.

  “Um, well this is awkward considering… everything. But I wanted to ask you on a date.”

  He paused, and she knew she should say something but she couldn’t even think.

  “And it’s totally fine if you say no, it has no effect on your employment. But, before what happened last night I was wondering if I should ask, and then last night happened and I know that I definitely should have asked, not just because the sex was incredible, which it was, but because I just feel this connection with you, that I haven’t felt before and I know that…” he sighed, “I’m sorry, I’m rambling. I’m not a big talker but I’m afraid when I do I tend to ramble. What I want to say is: Fern, may I take you out to eat some Italian food tonight?”

  Fern’s heart felt like it was in her throat, she had just decided that she was not going to do this. That it was for the best that she keep their relationship on a professional work level, that this was a bad thing to do. A foolish thing to do. She couldn’t. She shouldn’t.

  But God help her she wanted to.

  “Yes,” she said, her heart beating like a frightened rabbit’s, the blood rushing through her ears. She pushed the fear back, trying to find that spark inside her that was so prominent in her daughter. She wanted this man, not just for a night, and maybe she’d change her mind later. Hell, maybe he’d change his mind later, but at this moment she wanted nothing more than to walk hand in hand into a cheesy Italian restaurant with him. “Yes, I’d love to.”

  And for once, for better or worse, she was going to try to be brave and grab what she wanted with both hands.

  Dax hung up the phone and threw it on the couch beside him, sinking back into the cushions and letting go of a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding. He hadn’t been so nervous asking out a girl since middle school.

  “What’s up broseph? You’re grinning like you just ate the last donut on Cop Island.”

  Had he be
en grinning? It was official, he was turning back into a teenager. The hard on he’d had since he’d woken up and remembered what they’d done last night was evidence of that.

  He started to make something up but instead he just told Sandy the truth, “I asked Fern out on a date and she said yes.”

  Sandy smiled at him and punched him in the shoulder before joining him on the couch, draping her legs over his. “I hear ya big bro. Way to go. It won’t be long now before you’ll be holding hands and going steady,” she teased.

  Dax pushed her legs off of him and laughed, “A man can hope. You seem to be in a better mood today, what’s up with you?”

  “Oh nothing much, other than I found an apartment and I landed some studio space at The Inky Dink.”

  “The Inky Dink? What the hell kind of shop name is that?”

  “Don’t hate, I’ve got to start somewhere.”

  “Well yeah, at home, at Fallen Five Tattoos, you got your start here and not at some POS shop called the mother fucking Inky Dink.”

  “Pssht. Shut it.” Sandy made the same noise Ma always used when she was tired of listening to their noise. “Ask me about my apartment instead of razzing me about the name of my new employer.”

  Dax rolled his eyes, “So, tell me about your new apartment,” he asked, his voice bland and droll.

  “I’m so glad you’re interested! It’s a studio but it has a bedroom to the side-“

  “That’s not a studio then.”

  Sandy glared at him.

  “Fine, continue.”

  “So, as I was saying, it’s a studio with a small sleeping area and master bathroom off to the side. It’s got all of the original hard wood floors throughout, and it’s got this darling retro kitchen area that just screams shabby chic circa 1970… and the area is being described as up and coming with several new –“

  “It’s also a piece of shit in a piece of shit neighborhood isn’t it?”