Three hours later, Ashton and I are back home, and Lisa is safely away from her husband. I’m quiet while we eat dinner, preoccupied with the day’s events.

“You okay?” Ashton asks when we’re finished.

I smile at him. “Just thinking. About Lisa.” Picking up our plates, I carry them to the sink. “You really came through for her.”

He gives a diffident half-shrug. “I was in the right place at the right time.”

“You weren’t just there.” I come back to him and slide my hands up his chest to his shoulders. “You’re her knight in shining armor now. And I have to say, when you hit her jerk of a husband, it was … kinda hot.”

“Is that right?”

“I think you deserve a reward.” Sinking slowly to my knees before him, I reach for the snap of his jeans. He watches me, a by-now familiar heat smoldering in his eyes.

He’s still very bossy in bed, but sometimes he lets me explore, and I’ve taken every chance I can to learn his body like he’s learning mine. Unzipping him, I free his cock, already half-erect from the promise of my attentions.

Before Ashton, I’d never given a blowjob, but he’s discovered that I’m a very diligent student when something engages my passions. Leaning forward, I lick around the flared rim of his head, making him suck in his breath.

His hands tangle gently in my hair as I lick him from tip to root, then back again, swirling my tongue over the tip to capture the liquid that’s gathering in his slit. “Ah, Tori,” he groans.

I can’t deep-throat him yet, but I’m determined that soon I’ll be able to. For now, I close my mouth over him and suck, softly at first, then harder, my head bobbing, my hand doing its best to contain his girth.

By the time he’s ready to explode, my panties are soaking wet. Easing back from him, I peel off all my clothing from the waist down while he watches me with half-lidded eyes. He doesn’t object when I straddle him, lowering myself slowly onto his cock.

It requires several attempts for me to take him all in, and when I’m done I’m ready to burst. Ashton tugs at my top and I strip it off, tossing it aside. He lowers his head and tastes me through my bra, circling my nipple with his tongue, then sucking me through the fabric.

“Ash. You feel so good.” I hold him to me as he switches to my other breast, while his hands start to raise and lower me, sliding me slowly up and down his shaft. “Oh, fuck.”

“Bra,” he whispers, and I take it off, freeing my breasts. He feasts on them, first one and then the other, still moving me with agonizing slowness.

“Baby, I need more.”

Ashton nuzzles my neck, then nips at my earlobe. “Be patient.”

“Ash.”

“Patient,” he repeats, and the man actually slows his pace. I clamp down on him as hard as I can. He gives me a sweet but wicked smile.

I’m getting desperate. “Baby, please.”

“You have my cock,” he murmurs against my skin. “What more could you need?”

“You know what I want.”

He stops moving altogether, instead claiming my mouth in a long, deep kiss. “You like it when I fuck you hard,” he says when he lifts his head.

“Yes, I do.” I tunnel my fingers through his hair. “I love every way you do me, you know that. But I love it best when you fuck me so hard I can’t walk afterwards.”

“Tori.” He says my name like it’s a prayer, almost reverently. There’s a strange sensation in my chest hearing him talk like that.

I try to move my hips, but he won’t let me. “Ash,” I plead. He kisses me again, sipping at my mouth almost delicately, driving me mad with his tenderness.

Finally, he starts to work me up and down, slowly at first, then faster and faster, thrusting up to meet me. “Ash! Yes!” My head’s thrown back, pleasure radiating out from my core and back again.

“Clit,” he growls, and I reach down to finger myself. It only takes a few seconds before the sensations gathering in my center swell and burst apart, taking me with them, making me shout Ash’s name as I grip him.

When I finally come down, he’s still hard inside me. “Phase two,” he says, and rises to lay me down on the table. My legs go up against his torso.

Leaning over me, so my legs are sandwiched between our bodies, my feet up around my head, he starts to move. One hand curls around my shoulder, to hold me in place for his thrusts, while the other arm keeps most of his weight off me.

Ashton builds up speed until he’s drilling into me, hard and fast, and I’m crying out with every stroke, wordless sounds of ecstasy. He pummels me into oblivion, and when I come again he follows me over the edge, filling me up with his release.

A little more of his weight presses down on me while he gets his breath back. When he’s ready, he scoops me up and carries me into the master bath. As soon as he sets me down, I sink down onto the bench seat; my legs are like rubber.

Just what I wanted.

Hot water, soap, and steam lead us straight into more playtime, so by the time Ash dries me off and carries me to bed, I’m glorying in the feeling of being well used. I snuggle into him, already sleepy.

My final thought as I drift away is that I never want this to end.

* * *

A few days later, I ask him about Lisa. Ashton smiles. “She filed a restraining order and divorce papers two days ago.”

“Good for her. She’s still in the shelter?”

“Yes, but I’m helping her try to get into an apartment.” He stares at his plate. “It feels better, helping her, than practicing law has in years.”

I squeeze his hand. “Maybe you should do some more pro bono work. Shake things up a little.”

“Maybe.” Turning his hand, he laces his fingers with mine. “I have a client party to go to this Friday. I want you to come with me.”

My heart leaps. The more time I spend with Ash, the better we seem to get along. Not just the sex, but all the little everyday moments.

I can imagine spending my life with him … and I can’t imagine spending it with anyone else. Not anymore. I’m falling for him, and hard.

“I could do that,” I say, with a shy smile. The thought of meeting his fancy clients is intimidating, but I love that he wants me with him.

“I’ll introduce you as my daughter’s friend,” he says. “No worries there.”

I keep the smile on my face. We both knew when we started this that it would have to end when Eden got back. There’s no point telling him I wish he would claim me as his lover in front of everyone.

That I think I want forever with him.