NINE – GREGORY
I have made a horrible mistake. The biggest one I have ever made. What good could possibly come from me placing her on my bed? It seemed like a good idea at first, it was a soft place to set her down and I didn’t want her to have to stand.
Trying – and failing to calm my breath, I can’t shake the picture of her. Does she know how tantalizing she looked leaning against the headboard? Ash has no way of knowing it, but that sight alone made me hard as a pole. I nearly lost control and joined her when she began absent-mindedly rubbing the bed next to her. Thank god I had only put my head in, that would not have been good for her to see my arousal.
Shifting to hide my erection, I look at the closed curtains and find they are the exact color of her eyes. Great, those are going to have to go. I am already going to have a hard time forgetting the image of her laying on my bed, seeing these curtains certainly won’t help.
Who am I kidding, the whole bed will have to go. Just knowing she had laid there will be enough to keep me up all night.
Hearing Rose enter the room, I move to look out the open window. I am grateful for the distraction of Rose bringing the bath water in. Staring out the window and trying to forget about the gorgeous woman on my bed, I get an opportunity to think. Any reservations I had about her vanished this afternoon. Seeing her in danger scared me deeper than I thought possible and I barely know her.
My instincts are telling me that she is not a threat to me or this town. I must trust them, they have never lead me astray before. She may be a shifter, but I truly don’t believe she means any harm. Besides, it looks like she found a way for Grant to trust her and if he does, I can too.
There are so many answers I need to get from her, though. How did she learn to fight like that? Why did she lie about it to the other men? What is she afraid of? I don’t know when I will be able to ask them though, given how shaken she was. I don’t want to put her back in that state.
Maybe after her bath, I am sure that will calm her down enough to have that conversation.
After I get my answers, I will have to tell her that I know she can shift into an eagle. It’s the elephant in the room that she doesn’t even know exists. One thing I do know is she will never allow herself to trust me if that truth is still hidden.
I find I need her to trust me. I need it more than I need to breathe.
I hear the soft click of the door, letting me know that Rose has finished. I will have to find her later, it was rude of me not to even acknowledge her, but she couldn’t see me in this state.
Knowing if I wanted to keep my thoughts straight, I could not see her on the bed again. Stopping myself from pulling back the curtains, I raise my voice just loud enough to carry over, “Ash, the bath is full. You can come out now.”
No response.
Speaking a little louder, I say it again, “You can come out now.” Still no response. There goes my resolve not to pull back the curtains. I slide open one side and I see she fell asleep. The fight probably took all her energy. I should have thought of that, but I seem to be having trouble with the most basic thoughts when she is near.
I know we need to talk but I can’t bring myself to wake her up. As if I am trying to break a record for the most mistakes in one day, I decided to join her for a nap. Sliding up next to her, I am reminded of the night I first saw her, asleep underneath the tree.
Where I couldn’t touch her then, I can now.
I start moving before I even realize it. I placed one arm around her shoulders, then shift her so she is laying her head on my chest instead of against the headboard. With the movement, she rolls in. She gives a soft sigh and curls her hand in my shirt. So lovely.
Her hair is spread out behind her, with the smallest of strands laying across her face. I hesitate to brush them away, I don’t want to risk waking her up. This iswhen I notice the scratch on her otherwise unmarred face. It’s a small enough of a scrape it won’t leave a scar, but the sight of it turned my stomach. Yet another thing to repay, if I get the chance to see those bastards again.
Looking past her face, I see her position exposed the top swell of her breast. It is only visible because of the tear. I bite back the sudden anger, thinking about that monster grabbing her hard enough to rip her dress. I take a deep breath and remind myself that she is safe, just shaken up. I need to stay calm.
I feel a surge of protectiveness rise in me, I never want to see her get hurt again. Only the fact that they are already locked up allows me to relax.
I try to fall asleep but the shameful part of me is hypnotized by her breasts. Once I got past my anger, I realize the tear changed her dress. It went from tastefully tantalizing, to downright sinful. Her breasts are practically spilling out of the top of her dress. Though still covered by her near-invisible shift, there is not much left to the imagination. I find my hand itching to cup her ample cleavage, to see if they fit perfectly in my hand.
I can almost see her nipple through the material and I long to tease it. To make it perk up under my careful attention. I remember my self-pleasure from yesterday and how my mental image of sucking on her ample tits sent me skyrocketing over the edge.
My erection that had barely disappeared before, came back with a vengeance. It’s throbbing like it can sense being closer to her. I try and ignore it, hoping it will shrink after a few minutes but the longer she is laying on me, the harder it gets. There is no hope, as the swell of her breasts remains in my view.
I close my eyes hoping it will help but it’s a futile attempt. My head is swimming with images of her and my body burns with contact. My hunger for her flares and my cock finally became too painful to handle. Fearing permanent damage, I shift to try and ease the pressure.
As soon as I do, I feel Ash stiffen in my arms. I woke her up and I have no doubt she can feel my desire, pressed right up against her.
Naturally, she does the exact opposite of what I expected. I thought she would jump away, or better yet, hit me for having my way with her sleeping form. Instead, she nestles her body closer to mine. At first, I think I am imagining it, but then she looks up at me. Her eyes are heavy with desire. If I wasn’t already sitting, that gaze would have weakened me to my knees.
I stilled my breath and watched her. I didn’t even blink, for the risk of fouling the moment.
I was so mesmerized, I am ashamed to admit I didn’t notice she started speaking. I missed the first few words, “What did you just say?”
Her eyes lit up with laughter, “I said, I am sure this is a dream, no self-respecting man would sneak up on a woman while she was sleeping, and he definitely wouldn’t press something so large against her.” To make her point, she pressed her hip into my cock, just slightly.
I groaned, “I never said I had self-respect.” I leaned my head towards her. With our breaths mingling. She said in a questioning tone, “And he certainly wouldn’t kiss her, not while she was in such a state of undress?”
I decided to answer that question with actions, instead of words. I used my free arm to tilt her head towards me. Holding her gaze, I lowered my lips to meet hers. As soon as our lips touched, her eyes closed and her mouth parted open, allowing me to kiss her deeply. I flicked my tongue past her lips where her tongue reached out to meet mine. They touched ever so slightly and I found myself moaning.
As if my moans encouraged her, Ash rotated around, pressing her front to mine. She deepened the kiss, doing all she could to make me lose my mind.
I needed to touch her, have my hands all over her body. I moved one hand from under her chin and ran it through her hair. Silky smooth. My other hand moved to wrap around her waist, holding her flush against me. She was impossibly soft pressed up against me.
She broke away from the kiss, and whispered my name, “Gregory.” Her voice husky and rich with desire.
She moved again, this time placing herself on my lap, with her legs on either side of me. We still wore our clothes but I burned everywhere she touched, as if she was fire licking my bare skin. She moved her hands slowly up my chest, then reached up and touched the side of my face.
I need more than this slow tease. My hands make their way to hover over her tits. One hand is positioned over the ripped portion of her dress. She looks down at my hands, then swallowed.
As soon as she looked back up, her eyes were all the permission I needed. Using a speed that I didn’t know I had, I tore free the top of her dress, fully exposing the material underneath. It’s so thin, I can finally see her nipples. To my surprise, they are already perked up, like plump cherries.
I ache to touch them, but I can’t stop staring. Every part of Ash’s body is perfect. “Ash, I have been dreaming about cupping your breasts.”
Her hand grabs mine and guides them to cup her breasts, “So touch them.” I start kneading her breasts and she keeps her hands grasped on mine like she is holding me there. Her breasts are the ideal size, the fit in my hands as if they were made for each other.
Ash moaned my name again, “Gregory.” I respond with a kiss and she reaches up to run her hands through my hair. Once she has a hold, she encourages me to lower my head. I lean forward, and she arches her back, creating the space to take her nipple in my mouth.
This is the moment I have been dreaming about. I devour her tits, loving every second my face is buried in her cleavage.
“Oh god yes, that feels so good. Gregory. Please. Never. Stop.” She starts moving her hips in a slow circle over mine. Moving my mouth off her nipple, just far enough to speak, “Ash, nothing could make me stop.” My voice came out deeper than normal.
Wanting more of that sweet movement, I continue my assault, running my teeth lightly over her taut nipple. Sucking on it, I alternate between gentle and firm. My mouth is focused on one tit, while the other is being teased by my hand.
Deciding I want to taste the other, I move my mouth to take the other nipple in. Ash lets out a breathy moan. I use my newly freed hand tug on her ass, pulling her hips closer to mine. She wiggles further on top of me. The only closer we could get is if our clothes were off.
I ache to hear more of her moans. I burn to hear her scream my name, not just whisper it.
Not wanting to rush the moment, we stayed like that for some time, me fully focused on her breasts and holding her close; her grinding her hips on top of me, clutching my head.
Her hips starting to pull away. I was about to object when I was stopped short by the light touch of her fingertips on my cock. That caress was nearly my undoing. Moving my hand from her ass, I was ready to guide her to grab my cock. To stoke it. But we didn’t get that far. We were pulled out of our passion by a loud knocking, then a voice at the door.
“Gregory, I’m back. Can I come in?”
I groaned into her chest, “I am going to murder my brother.”
Ash looked down at me, ashamed and starts to pull herself away, “You should probably answer that, we need to know if they are taken care of.”
“I can send him away, we can just find out later. You’re safe here either way.”
“No. He can’t know about this,” she motioned frantically between us, “If you send him away, it’ll be obvious.”
Biting back sudden anger at her hesitation, “Why can’t he?” Grant knocked again. “Gregory, I know you’re in there, I just ran into Rose.” I ignored him and looked back at Ash. She was looking towards the door, pointedly avoiding me, “Because it would never work between us and it’ll be easier if no one else knows what just happened.” At this, she distanced herself from me entirely.
She went from being right next to me, to all the way across the bed. From being open to being closed from me and miles away.
Speaking in a soft, pleading voice, “Please get the door, I will pretend to be asleep again.”
“Fine. I will give you this, but only because Grant is unlikely to go away and I don’t want him to see you like this,” I motioned to her chest and growled out, “But this is not the end of this conversation.” Wincing, that came out much harsher than I intended.
The tone of my voice must have sparked irritation in her, she glared daggers at me, “We’ll see. Now go.”
She had a complete transformation but it doesn’t scare me. Despite what she said, this conversation is far from over.
I got up and adjusted myself, hiding my erection in the waistband of my pants. Ash watched my movement and I saw her smirk at my obvious discomfort. Closing the curtains, she quickly added, “Make sure you grab me a new dress. As soon as you leave, I will take that bath, so please knock before you come back in.” Then she slammed the curtains closed, well as hard as one could slam curtains.
I ripped the curtains back open, furious with her nerve, “I will not knock to come back in my own room. If you want to take a bath, that is fine, but know that I might walk in at any second.”
Ash looked furious and probably would have yelled something back, but I turned to walk towards the door before she had a chance. The fear of Grant finding out shut her up more effectively than arguing ever could have.
I yanked the door open with a fury, Grant stood there, ready to knock again. I spoke to him in a stern whisper, while my eyes flared with rage, “I was busy and you are going to wake Ash up with all that noise.”
Grant glances behind me, and seeing the curtains drawn, he speaks up loud enough for his voice to carry through the room, “Oh? She is sleeping? How curious, I could swear I heard some noises coming from inside.”
He then looks down at my shirt, no doubt seeing the wrinkles from Ash’s grip and grinned, “I see you were busy. I hate to interrupt longer, but you need to go downstairs, the constable wants your statement.”
“Why?”
“He just wants to tie up all the strings to ensure these guys aren’t getting out anytime soon. Should only take a couple minutes.”
“Oh really?” I let go of the door, and cross my arms over my chest, “And I assume I am supposed to say I yanked the first guy off Ash and beat him bloody?”
Nodding, “If you want our stories to match, yes.”
I said the next part loud enough, so Ash could hear it, “Why did you lie, in the first place?”
“Because she asked me to,” he said, with a determined look in his eyes, “She didn’t want any more attention drawn to herself than she would already get. I don’t blame her, it’s hard being new in town. I figured I would help.”
I spoke more to myself, but it was loud enough for Grant to hear, “Why would it matter, people would be happy she was able to protect herself?”
He reached over and touched my shoulder, “I do not know, we could always ask her later. For now, let’s just head downstairs and get this over with.”
“Yeah,” I glance back at the bed, I will ask her later, on top of the other questions I have. Stepping out of the room, I close the door softly.