by Maddie Wade
“You did not just spank me!” she says, and I could hear the surprise and the hint of desire in her voice.
“That’s what happens to naughty girls,” I laugh as I throw her on the bed and land on top of her. My lips find hers in a hot kiss that soon becomes scorching as our need for each other becomes frantic. Pulling back as she grabs at my shirt I stand and pull her up. The slumberous look of lust in her eyes nearly has me forgetting that I have plans for tonight that don’t start with hot sex. End with hot sex yes, but first I want to spoil this woman who had come to mean so much to me.
To show her what romance was and how she should be treated, to show her that maybe I could be the man that gave her everything she didn’t know she needed. Just as she has done for me.
“Come on, baby. No time for that. We need to pack and check out.” Her eyes dim, the disappointment is both wonderful and horrible to see. Wonderful because it proves how much she is enjoying our time together, but horrible because somebody like Ashley should never have to suffer disappointment in their lives.
“Oh, I thought we had another night.” she says quietly and I nearly break then, but I don’t.
I watch as she packs quickly, throwing her clothes into her case in a haphazard manner that was so Ashley.
I bite back the grin as we take the lift to the lobby and check out. Walking beside her I tried to catch her expression as the limo pulled up in front of us and she huffs.
“Great, now I can’t see our cab,” she bites out in irritation and I barely sustain the laugh at her pouty little lips. The driver comes around, opens the door and I step up and sweep out my hand in front of me, practising my most gallant wave.
Her face lights from the inside as a beautiful smile crosses her lips. “Really?” she asks as I nod.
I slide in beside her as the driver stows our luggage and closes the door. I sit beside her and she cuddles into me and kisses me hard, her tongue delving into my mouth and stoking the tempered need for her.
“Thank you, this is the perfect end to the perfect holiday,”
I kiss her then and let my hand wander up the side of her dress, touching the satiny soft skin of her thigh.
“It’s not over yet,” I whisper against her mouth and feel her smile against my lips.
“Ever had limo sex Jackson?” she asks, and I laugh loudly, knowing this woman, my Tinkerbell, was bringing out things in me that I never knew were possible.
*~*~*
Thirty minutes later slightly dishevelled but definitely satisfied we pull up outside our destination. I help Ashley adjust her clothes and then open the door and step out. I watch her face as she registers where we are. Her gaze goes from the building to me and back again twice. She watches as the concierge carries our bags inside and for the first time since we met my Tink was speechless.
“Welcome to the Four Seasons, Monsieur, Mademoiselle!”
“OMG are you for real?” Ashley asks as she grips my arm in a vice.
“Yep,” I say. “So, good surprise?”
“The best surprise ever! You are so getting lucky tonight,” she giggles in wonder as her eyes fly around the elegant lobby of the beautiful grand hotel.
Tucking her into my side as we walk to the desk, I whisper in her ear, “I already got lucky,”
“Well, that limo ride will seem like nothing compared with what you are going to get Mister!”
“I didn’t mean the limo ride, Tinkerbell. I meant the day you stepped on my toes in a London nightclub.”
She looks at me and her eyes turn dreamy. “Jackson!” she whispers, her voice has a low husky quality to it.
The receptionist spoke and the moment and connection was broken, but I would look back later and know that was the moment I knew. That was the moment I knew I was in love with a rainbow-haired pixie that owned a chocolate shop.
The suite I had booked us was decorated in rich royal blue and white, with white chaise lounge, white sofas, and cream rugs. A beautiful sumptuous four-poster bed. A marble whirlpool bath and a large balcony overlooking Paris, with the view of the Arc de Triomphe as a backdrop. It was perfect for what I had planned later.
I consult my watch and then turn to Ashley.
“So, would you like to test out the whirlpool before dinner?” She runs at me then and I catch her as she throws her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist. Cupping the sweet globes of her ass I smile. “Is that a yes?”
“That is a hell yes,” she states and then her face turns more sombre. “Thank you, Jackson. Nobody has ever done anything like this for me.” The sincerity in her eyes slays me and I feel my emotions surge to the surface as she looks at me and I don’t know what to do with the feelings she evokes in me, so I kiss her. Kissed her like she was the air I breathed and the only thing I needed to keep me alive.
I pour everything into that kiss and before long we are tearing at each other’s clothes. The bed dips as we fall to it, items of clothing disregarded on the floor in our haste to touch skin consumed us both.
I have never known this intensity as mouths clash and bodies collide, she arches into me as I take her nipple in my mouth and sucks as she whimpers, and I feel her nails score down my ass cheeks, pulling me to her core.
Her heat engulfs me as I plunge into her in one swift stroke and she screams my name as I pound into her, skin slapping against skin as our bodies say what our heads can’t comprehend just yet. The need drives us as she reaches for her climax, her body convulsing as it hits her hard and then mine slams into me with such force, I think my head will explode.
As our breaths even out and our hearts slow, I pull back to look at her.
“Um we’re on the floor!” I say with a laugh.
“Yeah, that kind of got a bit wild!” she giggles, “See Sexy Singer, I knew there was a wild man in there all along.”
I slide from her body and pull her up, “Yes well this old man needs a soak in the bath, care to wash my back?”
“Come on then grandad,” she laughs, and we spend the next hour in the whirlpool bath, talking and laughing and drinking Champagne, while eating chocolate dipped strawberries that we both agree were good but not as good a Sweet Heaven dipped chocolate strawberries.
I tell Ashley to get take her time getting ready for our evening and close the door on the bedroom and go to change in the living area. Once I’m dressed I check the preparations for this evening. Everything is perfect.
An hour later Ashley steps out of the bedroom and she takes my breath away. She is wearing a sequined slash necked, sleeveless column dress in sea green with a split to the thigh, showing a tantalising glimpse of her tattooed thigh.
She looks like an ethereal mermaid enchantress and I feel like a seaman about to fall under the spell of this siren. Her rainbow hair flows down her back in soft waves, and silver stiletto sandals encased her feet. I knew when I saw the dress that it would be perfection on her and I wasn’t wrong.
“You look breath-taking,” I state and hold my hand to her.
“I feel like a princess,” she smiles as she comes to me tipping her head up my face. I drop a light kiss on her mouth.
“You look very dashing, Jackson,” she says as she adjusts the collar of my tux. I incline my head in acceptance of the compliment.
“Shall we?” I lead her towards the balcony doors and open them to reveal the candlelit table I had arranged for us.
“I hope you don’t mind but I thought it might be nice to experience this just the two of us?” I was unsure now that I had seen her if this was a silly idea, it had seemed right at the time, but now I wonder if I should take her out and show her Paris.
My Tinkerbell lays her hand on my chest and looks up at me. “It’s perfect, Jackson.”
Holding out her chair I watch as she sits and then I sit, a few moments later the private butler comes in and serves us both Champagne before taking our orders.
We sip at our drinks and I look at Ashley as she looks out over Paris at night the lights t
winkling and the sky bright with stars and I knew I would never forget this night for as long as I lived.
“Tell me about what you do Jackson. I feel as if your job is a blur. Are you really a businessman or are you really an international playboy or secret agent spy? You wear that tux as if you were born to it.”
I feel the first prickles of unease tingle at my scalp as Ashley asks about my job. If I tell her now I risk ruining a perfect holiday. I would tell her one more white lie, and then I could come clean when we get back.
“You got me. I’m really an international diamond thief on the run from Interpol. I spend my time seducing beautiful shop owners and stealing priceless diamonds. My house is just a front and of course have a Lamborghini and Maserati parked at the marina with my yacht.”
Ashley bursts out laughing, throwing her head back in abandon and making my guts twist with need and something else I can’t quite define.
“Well, now I feel cheated, I want to go on the yacht.” she responds playfully. I take her hand and stroke my fingers over the inside of her wrist, feeling her pulse.
“Alas, I can’t take you there, it’s under the watch of an evil mastermind determined to take what is mine and I must protect the fair maiden at all costs.”
Ashley belly laughs then and wipes the tears from her eyes. As she finishes our meal arrives and the moment is gone.
Once we finished our meals of Crevettes Sauce Boursin- shrimp sautéed with sun-dried tomatoes, corn and leeks in a garlic, herb cream sauce followed by Saint-Jacques Sauce Gingembre et Citron Vert- Pan Seared Scallops in ginger and lime sauce and finished with a decadent Chocolate Mousse and a Toasted Almond cocktail, we were both replete.
It is the epitome of exuberance and we both pat our tummies and laugh as we hold hands and watched the people of Paris go about their lives.
I take Ashley’s hand as we watch a street musician plays a beautiful ballad. “Dance with me?”
We dance in silence our bodies swaying to the haunting song of love, there on the balcony of one of the oldest hotels in the city of love and a feeling of magic falls over us that neither one of us will ever be free of and at that moment, I don’t care.
We make love that night and I realise that maybe just maybe I have been wrong about love.
Ashley and I have breakfast at the Un Dimanche, a Parisian a chocolate restaurant famed for its breakfast specialties. I joke about the workout I would need when we get back after all this chocolate and Ashley assures me she would help me get a sweat on in her own unique way. Which was, I had come to realise, my favourite exercise of all time.
It was as we were checking out that fate kicks me in the teeth and reminds me of why I did the job I did and why I’d never allowed myself to be vulnerable.
Standing with my arm around Ashley as I paid the bill, I hear a voice I hoped to never hear again.
“Jackson, is that you?” I feel my hackles rise at her voice but keep my cool as I turn.
“Jade,” I reply with a cool edge to my voice.
“My, my, you have filled out,” she says with a smirk as her eyes go from top to bottom making me feel dirty. She licks her pouty, false lips and reaches her hand out to stroke my arm with her long talons. As I look at her I wonder what the hell I had ever seen in her.
I pull away and turned slightly to Ashley,
“Now, now, Jacky, don’t be like that. We were close once, you and I,” she trills, and I feel my spine stiffen.
“And who do we have here?” she asks as she looks at Ashley and turns her nose up dismissing her.
“Slumming it, Jacky?”
“Jade!” the man at her side hisses and she laughs and pats his arm.
“Oh, come, Eddie, she knows I’m only joking, don’t you darling,” she says to a now pale Ashley.
I am dumbfounded for all of ten seconds. “No, Jade, she doesn’t know that, I don’t either. You are just being the spiteful bitch you always were and always will be. You're not fit to lick her shoes.”
I feel Ashley touch my arm and turn to her.
“It’s okay, baby,” she says, “the collagen has probably addled her brain. Isn’t that right sweetheart? Come on, Jackson let’s go home baby, your Tinkerbell has a hankering for the mile-high club.” She pulls me away and I see a smirk cross Eddie’s face as Jade turns beetroot red and fumes.
“Toodle-oo, Jadey, careful your fun bags don’t explode. You’re looking a little red.”
“Enjoy him while you can, Trash Girl. Jacky doesn’t do long-term, poor boy had his heart broken and it has never mended poor love,” Jade hisses, I have to pull a hissing and spitting Ashley away as she goes to slap a smirking Jade.
“Come on, Tinkerbell no fighting over the trash or I’ll have to call you scrappy doo not Tinkerbell.
“Humph, well I’m glad to see your taste has improved Jackson,” she huffs.
We fly home that day and we don’t join the mile-high club and something changes in me and I don’t know what and I wouldn’t until it was too late.
Chapter 21
Ashley
France was everything and more, Jackson’s surprise was one that I’ll never in a million years forget. I’ve never had a boyfriend do anything like that for me, but then I think I’ve never had a boyfriend that looks at me the way Jackson does.
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t falling in love with him, but there is nothing I don’t love about him, but why I’m too scared to say it to him I have no idea. Scared that he might not say it back to me, scared this it’s too fast? I have no idea, but something is stopping me, but I know it will happen when it’s right.
“What time you are going the charity event?” Taylor asks walking into the back room of the shop.
“Jackson’s going to pick me up at six, so you’re closing remember?” I tell her. I did tell her before I went to Paris, but she forgets everything I tell her, and have to remind her on the day too.
“Is he still being a little funny with you?” Taylor takes a piece of rum bark off the table.
Since we bumped into his ex in Paris something changed in him, it’s almost like he’s pulling away from me. I asked him how they broke up and he just says that he doesn’t want to talk about it. Which only makes me think that it was the worst break up he’d ever had, she broke him in a way that he was not ready to talk to me about.
“Yeah, he’s been sleeping here, but he is not really talking much too me.” I look up at Taylor. “Not sure what I should be doing,” I tell her, because it’s the truth. I don’t know what I should do to bring the happy man back.
“Maybe he just needs the time to realise that she broke his heart, but you’re here to mend it.” I pout at her. She is my crazy best friend with a dirty mind, but when I need her she always knows the right thing to say to me.
“Ashley.” I hear my name being yelled from the postman, walking out to the front of the shop I give him a smile. “You have a parcel to sign for.” He hands me a box.
“You want a cake?” I ask him. He’s been our postman since we first opened the shop, I still remember one day he finished his shift and came back to the shop and helped us paint, it was so sweet of him.
“No thanks, but a bottle of water would be great,” he looks over at Taylor.
Signing for the box, I open it straight away, pulling out a teddy and some sex toys, with a note. I can show you a better time than him.
I look at Taylor looking at the note over my shoulder. “This is getting creepy now,” Taylor says, and I’m lost for words, I don’t know what to say. I would feel better if I knew who it was.
“Yeah, I know,” I throw everything back in the box. “I’m just going to text Jackson, so he knows,” I say walking into the back room to get my phone.
Ashley: I got another gift from the stalker.
Jackson: What did you get?
I sent Jackson a picture of everything, as it was easier to show him than tell him. I wait for a reply but get nothing. I look at my phone a few more
minutes waiting for something, but Jackson isn’t sending anything back.
Getting back to work, looking forward to tonight. I’d asked Jackson why this charity was important to him, I mean everyone has a reason to support a charity.
He told me that his friend Justin got in a car accident, the air ambulance saved him, he is in a wheelchair now, but if it wasn’t for them then he might not even be here today. Jackson says that he is a lucky man, not just because he is alive, but his wife Rachel is the second most beautiful girl he has ever seen after me, which made me laugh.
They will be there today, and I’m excited to meet some of Jackson’s friends, it’s mainly his brother than he hangs out with which is fine, I’m a family girl myself, but I would love to meet some friends that will tell me the guy stories about him.
*~*~*
Finishing the last bit of my make-up I look in the mirror at my dress. I got a backless black ball gown dress with a slit on the side in the end. I wanted something that didn’t really show of my tattoos too much, I mean this is a charity event. But Jackson said that if he was embarrassed by me then he wouldn’t have asked me to be his plus one.
He words were, ‘If you think I’m ashamed of my girlfriend with the tattoos and rainbow hair, you are crazy. You're my girlfriend and I’m showing you off.’ I was still a little worried about it, I didn’t want someone saying to him that I was too different for him, because that was always my first thought about us being together. I’m a little more out there and he is a little quieter, but after France I know that he likes me just the way I am, and that makes me so happy to know.
I hear the door open. “Tinkerbell you ready?” I hear him shout out.
“Yeah, coming,” I say grabbing my bag off the bed, and walking out to the living room I watch Jackson slowly moving his eyes over my body.
“Oh fuck, Tinkerbell, you look…” He takes a step closer to me. “No one word can say how you look. Beautiful, stunning, sexy the list can go on,” he says leaning down to give me a kiss. “I’m ripping this dress off tonight,” Jackson smiles is so cheeky right now.
“And I can’t wait.” I bite my bottom lip as he looks at his watch. “I don’t think so Mister, you are not ruining my hair,” I say, and Jackson starts laughing.
