-14-

 

Ash woke in Ginny’s bed the next morning. He attempted to stretch, but the sheer effort of it proved too much. Every muscle he possessed protested the effort all at once. “Christ!” he groaned, as he discovered ten or so muscles he’d been hereto unaware of. Still, the memories of last night made it all worth it. Ginny lay snuggled into the crook of his arm, her soft breaths whispering against his skin. He turned so that he could bury his face in her dark hair.

Best way to wake ever.

Okay, so he was alive and thankfully the most laborious thing he had to accomplish today was a bit of laundry. Well, and whatever tasks Ginny had in mind for him.

He tried that stretch again, and this time managed to tease some of the stiffness from his joints. The movement roused Ginny.

“I hurt,” she groaned. “Don’t move yet, baby.”

“You hurt,” he teased, while attempting to unknot the tension from his body one limb at a time. He had some vague memory of attending a yoga class aeons ago with Spook, or had it been Paul? Yeah, it’d been Paul. He’d had the hots for the excessively curvy instructor. The way they’d been taught how to get rid of their tension during the class was by tensing everything and then gradually relaxing one muscle at a time, starting with their toes and working up to their head. It didn’t entirely unwind him, but he did feel awake by the end of it.

“Breakfast, back rub, or a bath?”

Ginny raised her head and blinked sleepily at him. “Think rubbing stuff was what got me into this state.”

“Yeah, well you’re safe at the moment. I think I’ve strained my dick.”

She smiled silkily. “Need me to rub it?”

“Maybe just give it a gentle kiss better.”

“Hmm, not such a great plan. I’m pretty certain I know where that would lead.”

“Yeah, heaven.”

“Sweet talker.” She rolled over and dropped out of the bed.

“Whoa! Where are you going?”

Ginny sat up rubbing her shoulder. “Dunno. I thought of something I had to do just now, but it’s gone again.”

“I know what it is. Get back into bed.” He lifted the edge of the duvet to make it easy for her dive beneath.

Ginny scampered back under the sheets, but jerked her head up again as soon as it hit the pillow. “I remembered. I owe someone a call.”

Damn her and her phone calls. “Someone can wait a bit. You and I are staying right here for a bit longer yet.” He snuggled against her, so they were pressed together like spoons and nibbled her jawline.

The weird thing about lying here achy and sore was that his hand and arm weren’t giving him any trouble at all. Maybe the real cure for pain was simply more pain elsewhere.

“We should fire up the Jacuzzi,” he said after a while.

Ginny tilted her head back and blew a strand of hair out of her eyes. “Do you not think that’d be a bit weird? No one has used the hot tub since Elspeth attempted to swim into the afterlife there.”

“It’s been professionally cleaned and serviced. You wouldn’t have refused to ever set foot in the lounge again if she’d decided to call time out on life in there, and in any case, she’s still very much alive and breathing. Mad as a box of frogs, but definitely breathing.”

Also, to his relief, out of the band and no longer his concern.

“Come on, I’m sure you can think of naughty exercises for me to do while we’re there. And the warm bubbles will ease away all the aches.”

“So would a massage.”

“Yeah,” he drawled. “I wouldn’t say no to one of those either.”

Ginny rolled over and sat up, her dark hair forming a tangle around her narrow face, but there was a magical gleam in her whisky-gold eyes. “Last one down there has to do the massaging.” She was up, bouncing like a spring lamb and streaking out the door before he’d even put a foot on the floor.

“Fuck.” Ash cast off the covers and bounded after her. The quickest way down to the hot tub was straight through the house, then take a left and a right and jog down the steps cut into the hillside. Ash sprinted as far as the top of the steps before he slowed to a walk. Ginny was way ahead of him, so he’d already lost the race, but the sun was bright and hot, and its rays licked against his naked body, and filled him with a happy glow. In this moment, he could entirely understand Xane’s propensity for walking around in the altogether. He actually felt marginally content. Enough to smile at the sight of the colourful flowering weeds he spotted. He came to a halt, then about turned, a broad smile spreading across his face.

Ginny was already in the water when he reached the terrace. “What took you so long, slow poke?”

“I went back for these.” He handed her one of the fruit juice mocktails he’d mixed for them both. “I thought you might like some refreshment while you soaked.”

Ginny sucked the offering up through her straw. “Mm, that’s good. Is it passion fruit?”

“Passion fruit, pineapple, and a little twist of lemon.”

“I didn’t know you could make anything this fancy.”

Ash set his drink on the edge of the tub and slipped into the water beside her. “I’m not completely incompetent.” The water temperature was just right to ward off all those irritating niggles. It was amazing how unfit you could get in such a short space of time. “It’s got a decent kick to it too when you add vodka.”

“Ah,” she said, putting her drink aside, having already drunk nearly all of it. “It’s one that Xane taught you.”

“It’s not actually. He’s not the only man who’s ever touched vodka.”

“Just the only one who has ever touched you.”

Ash sighed, dunked his head, and surfaced again. “You keep going on about that. I don’t know why.”

“Because I want to know what happened.”

“I thought you knew all the details. Didn’t I blurt them all while I was delirious? In any case, we’ve had this conversation before. It’s not my fault you can’t remember it.”

“No, it’s Iain’s,” she muttered humourlessly, moving the conversation in a dreary direction. “I wonder how many other people he’s spiked?”

“I’d rather not think about him, or the sort of crap he’s likely to have pulled while they were under the effects. It just makes me mad. He nearly ruined everything for us, Ginny, several times over.” Seeing Iain Willows again in this lifetime would be far too soon. The man was a monster, and while Ash could normally find a lot of forgiveness in his heart, there were some things you couldn’t let go, like attempted murder, spiking people and taking advantage of them, and constantly making shit up to cover your tracks.

“Will there be a trial?”

Ash shrugged. She probably had a better idea than him, as he’d been deliberately avoiding anything related to the topic of Iain. “At some point, I guess. I don’t know if I’ll be involved. There’s no hard evidence for what he did to me, only circumstantial stuff, whereas there were a whole host of witnesses to his attack on Xane. I don’t know that I want to be involved anyway. I’d rather not have anything to do with him anymore.” He certainly didn’t want to end up staring across a court room at him. “He was one of my oldest friends, Gin, my closest friend at one time. It’s not easy looking back now. It just sets me off thinking about exactly how involved he likely was in Connie rejecting me. You realise the villainous fucker even went shopping for the ring with me?”

Ginny fell silent. He watched her chew over the information. “Okay, don’t take this the wrong way, but if he did have a hand in destroying your relationship with Connie, then I’m kind of glad about it. Obviously, I’m sorry he hurt you, but if he hadn’t interfered, then Connie would be Mrs. Gore by now and you and I would never have become a thing. And, I like us being us.”

“I like us being us too,” he agreed, and sank back against the side of the Jacuzzi with his eyes closed. Ash listened to the wind rustle the tree leaves and the birds and insects chirping around them.

“You’re not falling asleep, are you?” Ginny prodded him in the midriff with her foot after his mind had wandered back and forth over the lyrics he’d been working on the previous day, and what the rest of the band were doing right now. Most likely, they were sleeping after the performance. It still twisted up his guts knowing that they were doing a TV show without him. “’Cause, I have to say that’s a bad idea.”

She prodded him again, only this time she then slid her foot downward towards his loins.

Ash caught hold of her ankle before her foot made contact with his cock. Whereupon, he lifted her foot out of the water and sucked her big toe into his mouth.

“Oh my God, no!” she squawked, and started batting fountains of water at him. “Ash, do not. Don’t that’s—” Her knuckles whitened as she tightened her grip on the edge of the tub.

“It’s what?” he asked around her toe.

Her mouth had rounded to make a silent groan. “It’s good,” she squeaked.

Yup, that’s what he figured.

“It shouldn’t be. It’s bad that it’s good. I mean, it’s my toes. Feet are kind of nasty.”

“I don’t think so.” He kneaded the arch of her foot, while he continued to work his tongue around the pad of the toe. Feet were simply a part of a person, the same as any other bit of them.

“It’s naughty…dirty… It’s really bad, naughty…” Ginny’s eyelids fluttered as her head lolled back against the side of the tub in obvious bliss.

Huh? Yeah, all right. He wasn’t sure how she figured that one out. How could sucking her toe be up there on the OMG scale, while going down on her was only a little bit wicked? Not that she’d actually said that, but she’d never freaked out over the idea of him teasing her clit, or said anything about it being ludicrously dirty.

“But the sort of naughty you like, right?”

She made a bunch of mewling noises he interpreted as affirmatives. Apparently, he’d found a new trick to delight her with, one she was hitherto unfamiliar with. Good, as he liked making her squirmy and flushed.

Ash released her big toe, and slicked his tongue into the groove between her first two toes. A chuckle rumbled through his chest and throat when she shuddered like she was about to come. “Have I found a weak spot?”

“You’re a bad man.”

“You only like bad men.” He teased each toe in turn, then ventured over the top of her foot to her ankle, then up her leg, leaving behind a wet trail of kisses. When he reached her knee, he tugged, making her slide along the bottom of the tub so that he could more easily reach his target. Ginny clung to the sides, in order to keep her head above the water, as he cupped her bottom and raised her up so that her pussy was level with his nose.

“Ash, you’ve not earned that yet. We have an agreement, remember. Five stars before you get to do any licking.”

That wasn’t actually their arrangement, and in any case, she now had her legs hooked over his shoulders. “So, are you saying I’m not allowed to do this?”

He sucked her intimate piece of jewellery into his mouth.

Funny how she didn’t seem quite so worried about the rules anymore. Leastways, until he came up for air.

“You’re not supposed to… Unless I say you’re supposed to.”

Yeah, that was the thing about bad boys; they didn’t always stick to the rules. “And I’m guessing I’m not supposed to do this either?” He swept his tongue along the whole of her slit, making her whimper in a way that pumped liquid fire into his groin.

“Or this?” This time his tongue tickled the bit of skin between her pussy and her rosy pucker. Experimentally, he took things a step further and gave it a lick. Ginny squirmed like a fish and started opening and closing her mouth like one too.

“If you start getting ideas about sticking anything more than your tongue tip in there we’re through for the day.”

He laughed. This was no more than a tease. He had no intention of exploring her arse. That wasn’t his kink. He’d done it a time or two, but it didn’t rock his world like he knew it did for some men. In turn, they didn’t appreciate the sheer heavenly virtues of a pair of thighs wrapped in fishnets. “You’re just a grand bundle of contradictions, aren’t you?”

“How so?”

“You spend plenty of time wolf whistling at the Xane, Luthor, and Dani sideshow.”

Her brow wrinkled. “I don’t see the connection.”

Ash viewed her along the length of her glistening wet body. “Seriously? You’re not telling me you think they take turns to make out. Cocks are definitely going through both exits in that relationship.”

Ginny made a spluttering noise and gaped at him. “Dani wouldn’t. In any case, it’s Xane’s that’s in the middle.”

“A fair proportion of the time, I don’t doubt it, but I’ll bet you twenty quid that she takes it up the butt, the same as both Xane and Luthor.”

Ginny wriggled her way free of his grasp, and sat staring at him, her mouth open. “I can’t believe you think about her like that.”

Ash took a sip of his drink. “I’m not putting her down for it. I say game on to her.” Also, he’d had time aplenty on his hands recently. The mind turned to all sorts of surprising vistas when it was otherwise unoccupied. The intricacy of three-way sex wasn’t nearly the most extreme example of his wonderings.

“I still say she wouldn’t.” Ginny shook her head. “No way, not the Saint.”

“Two hundred quid says she even enjoys it.”

“Does not, and I don’t have fifty pence at the minute, so I’m hardly going to shake on that. In any case, I’m not betting on the intimate details of my friend’s love life. Whatever goes on is no one’s business but hers and Xane’s and Luthor’s.”

She said that, but he knew she was curious now, assuming she hadn’t been already, and actually he didn’t buy that for a second. Ginny was a sexual being. The only bit that surprised him was that she didn’t know for definite. He thought women talked to one another about stuff, and not only were she and Dani close friends, they’d been the only two women on this island. Spook’s housekeeper who occasionally dropped by to deliver their shopping and tidy the place up didn’t count.

“I’ll ask Xane when he gets back,” Ash said, mostly to see her expression—predominately outraged, but with a hefty slice of salacious intrigue.

“Like he’s going to tell you.”

“Gin, he’s never been coy about sex.” As long as he didn’t ask while Dani was around he’d get a straight answer. “So—” he asked, having drained his glass of juice. “—when you’ve had threesomes in the past, you’ve never—”

“Shut up.” She slapped the water in front of him so that it sprayed upwards into his face leaving him spluttering.

Ash swiped a hand across his face to clear his eyes of most of the water. Once he could see again without squinting, he reached out and grabbed her, pulling her tight against his body, despite her squirming about like an eel. Actually, he kind of liked the wriggling. It got him worked up in a good way. Not that he needed much encouragement. His libido seemed to have fired up and gone into overdrive since she’d set him working on the G-plan. He still thought it ought to involve G-spots. Maybe he’d suggest hunting for hers in a while. That’d be a great work out for his fingers. “Were they not good for you, baby?” he asked, when he finally had her seated across his lap. She had her back to his torso, and her pert little derriere was rubbing mercilessly against his ripe cock.

“They were okay, fun at the time but largely meaningless.”

“Like when you took Paul, Spook and me back to your hotel room?”

She twisted her head around to look at him over her shoulder. “What do you want me to say, Ash? You were there. I wasn’t looking for anything more than thrills, and nor were you.”

“I expect you to say exactly that, if it’s the truth. I might hate Spook and Paul’s guts for having touched you, but I accept that you had a sex life before I turned up, and I don’t expect my girlfriend to be some pure unadulterated virgin whose only experience is with me.”

She kept on rubbing her butt up against his cock. “Virgins aren’t really your type. They’re not dirty enough.”

“It has nothing to do with how dirty they are. I just happen to like women who know what they’re doing, and what they like. It’s possible to have a super dirty mind and still be clueless when it comes to Tab D fitting into Slot C.”

“It’s normally A and B.”

“I know what I mean.”

“I’m just teasing you, Chief.”

She was definitely doing that. Ash hooked his hand around the tops of her thighs to seat her more firmly in his lap, then stroked his palms upwards across her flat stomach to the swell of her breasts. She wasn’t abundantly blessed in that department, but that was fine, it happened that unlike Rock Giant, he liked small boobs. What Ginny did have was enormous darkly coloured nipples that contrasted with the buttermilk paleness of her skin. He pinched them both simultaneously between his forefingers and thumbs.

“Hey, you know the rules—exercises before prizes.”

Knew ’em. Didn’t much care about ’em. “Yeah, but Ginny.” He leaned in closer and kissed the side of her throat. “Jacuzzi sex.” He let that thought ferment in her brain while he continued to place kiss upon kiss on her throat and continued to tease her nipples into stiffened points.

“Is that something you’ve done before?” She gasped, as he sucked hard enough to bruise, and his cock found itself a notch between the lips of her pussy, rather than between her cheeks.

“Nope. Been almost there in a swimming pool a couple of times.” Right around the point they were at now, in fact. The almost hooked together stage, where everything was about sensation and anticipation, but there was still no guarantee it would actually happen. Being at this point with her was different to all those times, though. He didn’t need a psychoanalyst to tell him why either. He’d never loved any of those other women. Ginny on the other hand filled up his heart to capacity. There was simply no way for him to ever get enough of her. He released his hold on one of her breasts and dove his hand down to between her thighs.

Ginny arched her back so that she was leant back against his shoulder, while her mouth opened around gasp after ecstatic gasp. He loved how she never held back over expressing herself.

“More?” He teased her slit with the tips of two fingers. “Want me to go on a G-spot hunt?”

“I’m not sure the angles are right for that, and I’m not moving.”

“Later then. I’ve something right here that could find the right angle though.”

She reached down and touched him. Her hand briefly cupped his entire length before she lifted up and leaned forward so that she could direct him to her entrance. Then she sat back and engulfed him.

Ash’s mind screamed with the pleasure of it. It was a slow fuck. Too much thrashing about and they created tidal-waves, also the water meant things weren’t as slippery as usual. Slow was good though, as after the pounding hurry they’d been in last night, his limbs were still knotted with aches. Also, slow meant he got to feel all those shiver inducing fluttery movements she was making with her inner muscles. His cock loved being kissed like that. That action left him sensitised all over. His skin covered in electric sparks.

His hands shook as he held onto her, but he refused to let go and allow the water to pull them apart. He’d never allow anything to pull them apart. Iain had almost done it, but he’d learned from that. If anything cropped up in the future, he’d listen to her side of the story first before he jumped to any conclusions. There were too many manipulative people in the world eager to destroy other people’s happiness not to question every action and event thoroughly.

“Ash, I want to get out of the water.”

It meant breaking apart, but only for long enough for her to stand and lean over the side so that the important bits were clear of the water. Okay, his legs were still largely submerged, but… Whatever. He slicked her pussy with his tongue before joining them together again. One hand on her waist, the other on her shoulder, he held onto her while their breathing turned ragged and groans spilled from their lips. What had started out as slow and subtle quickly became athletic. He’d pay for this later, he didn’t doubt it. More than a few muscles were protesting already, but he ignored their screams as irrelevant. The only thing of importance was ensuring his lady got what she craved. He was pretty certain he was giving her that. The groans he fucked from her music to his ears, and almost his undoing.

Dammit, the square root of one hundred and forty-four was? He didn’t have a clue. Numbers had never made sense to him. History and philosophy, those he could rock. Without music, life would be a mistake. Morality is the herd instinct in the individual. Wit is the epitaph of emotion. The lie is a condition of life.

He was too caught up in the rhythm of thrust and retreat, and the slap, slap, slap of his loins meeting her glowing cheeks. It was going to be a sprint finish. At least she was with him, her pussy clenching tightly around him, and her pulse beating a rapid tattoo against his fingers.

Photo-finish: they came together, quaking as one, her fluttery breaths an echo of his cries.

Ash slumped over her and kissed along the line of her spine. They crawled the distance between the tub and the grass-covered roof of the sauna house, where they rolled onto their backs and lay drying in the sun.

Neither of them spoke for several minutes, content to communicate via touch and with the depth of their smiles. The sun was blazing and the grass roof fragrant. Ash propped himself up on one elbow to look at her. Daisies and clover surrounded her head, and all but a few of the beads of water had dried off her skin. He licked away the last couple.

“You are so fucking beautiful, Ginny Walters.”

She used her hand to shade her gaze from the sun. “You’re pretty hot yourself, stud.”

“Do you really think so?”

“I’m looking atcha aren’t I?” She was, and in a curiously adoring way too. His heart swelled with wonder. “I love you,” he said, meaning it with every ounce of his being. Not so long ago, he’d have shied from that sort of declaration, but then not so long ago, he’d been so screwed up by his past he’d lost faith in ever having a future. She’d changed that. She’d changed everything.

He cupped her face and gave her a lingering kiss. “Want some brunch?”

“Are you offering to make it?”

Ash cast a glance down at his right hand. He’d not had any major spasms since round three of Jenga. Maybe the G-plan was working, that or all the happy hormones circulating his bloodstream were simply doing him the world of good. Maybe the key to being whole again wasn’t anything more than believing in the future and knowing it would be good no matter what, as long as Ginny was with him. “Yes, I’m offering to make it. Whatever you want, as long as it’s eggs. I can cook eggs, scrambled, poached, devilled.”

“Can you manage an omelette?”

He eyed his hand again a moment. Then nodded. “Reckon I can whisk something up.”