Chapter Thirteen
Ashton
When I woke up the next morning, he wasn’t in bed with me. I sat up and looked around for any kind of evidence that he was still here. I sighed and fell back on my pillows. A slight grin formed on my lips as my mind replayed last night. Whatever aggression he felt from the situation with Steve was released with every rough, delicious stroke he put inside of me. I glanced over at the empty space next to me. Just hours ago, our bodies were tangled together after collapsing into a heap after intense sex. I became lost in his hazel eyes as he ran a tender thumb across my cheek. The moonlight streaming through the window had illuminated the worry and frustration scattered over his handsome face, filling me with guilt.
So many things raced through my mind, but one thing stood out the most. O’Shea was fucking sexy when he took charge and defended me. Everything happened so fast; one minute we were dancing and having a good time and the next minute, he was sucker punching Steve. I’d known Steve since we were in high school and never in my life had I heard him use a racial slur or call me a whore. To see how protective O’Shea was over me, I couldn’t help but appreciate him for what he’d done. He could’ve stayed out of it and not done anything, but he stepped in as if I was his woman and defended me. He handled the situation before I could really even react to what Steve had said, ordering Steve to respect the both of us and to not talk to me in the way that he had.
The little rendezvous in the truck was hot as sin, too. I’d never been the spontaneous type, but something about O’Shea brought out my wild side. Pleasing him oddly made me happy. It turned me on to hear his moans of pleasure, watching his muscles flex as he reacted to the pleasure I’d put upon him. I loved when he called me his little sex kitten and how he was as eager to please me as I was to please him. When we held hands on the way home, a warm fuzzy feeling settled around my heart. He’d kissed the back of my hand a few times while driving, sending butterflies in my stomach and making me feel like a shy teenager hanging with her first love. Now that I was starting to get to know this man, his cocky, asshole persona faded and a sweet, protective, sexy, and caring man took his place.
My phone vibrated on the nightstand. I rolled over and grabbed it, unlocked it, and read the text message.
Ava: Be there in 10!
Shit. It was 12:30 in the afternoon! I couldn’t help but laugh at myself. With a night like the one I had last night, I was surprised I didn’t sleep later.
I sat up in bed and stretched, every muscle in my body sore. Ava’s text message was still open on my phone, reminding me that I needed to get myself together to wash away the evidence of sex. Grabbing my robe, I made my way to the bathroom and took a quick shower.
Just as I rinsed the body wash from my body, someone pounded on my door. I quickly washed off the remaining soap and shut off the water, grabbing a towel. “I’m coming, I’m coming,” I said out loud, wrapping myself in the towel and slipping on my robe. Padding to the door, I opened it to find my very tanned friends.
“You guys look very…orange,” I snickered. Alex rolled her eyes and moved past me.
“It was Ava’s idea. I never said the girl was bright,” she said. Ava gave me a small smile and stepped inside. I closed the door behind them and joined them in the living room.
Ava studied me for a few moments, squinting a little. “So what the hell happened last night?” she asked.
I sighed. “A bunch of bullshit, that’s what.”
“I know one minute you and O’Shea were dancing and then the next, Steve was eating O’Shea’s fist,” Alex said.
“Yeah, we were dancing and then Steve came over with his usual bullshit. Trying to rub our breakup in my face and brag about Clarissa being pregnant and everything.” I cringed as those memories filtered through my head. “O’Shea offered to take me to the bar, but then Steve got in his face and called him the N-word twice.”
“Holy fucking shit,” Alex gasped. “Steve didn’t!”
“He did. And called me a whore,” I answered.
Ava looked around. “Where is O’Shea anyway?”
“I think he’s at work already,” I said.
“This is so insane. I didn’t take Steve to be, you know, racist,” Alex said with a sigh. “And I feel so bad for O’Shea. What happened when you guys left?”
I fought the urge to blush. Oh you know…we fucked on the side of the road in his truck and came home and fucked again.
I fiddled with the fringe on the throw pillow. “We just talked about it,” I said. “He knows what happened between Steve and me—”
“Is anything going on between the two of you?” Ava interrupted. I looked up at her with wide eyes.
“What?”
“Like are you two an item or something?”
“Um, no. Why would we be?”
“I don’t know. You two were looking like a couple on the dance floor. Steve seems content as long as you’re miserable over him, but last night, you looked like you’ve moved on to bigger and better things. Probably why he approached you,” she added.
I bit the inside of my cheek. Maybe she was right. Ava, Alex, and I had been there for almost an hour before O’Shea finally showed up. Steve had seen me plenty of times during that period, even standing a few feet away from me as he got another beer, but refused to acknowledge me. The moment O’Shea and I danced together, he finally made it his business to come over and try to embarrass me and disrespect O’Shea. I didn't understand why he’d care. It wasn’t like he wanted me anymore.
Then there was the conversation O’Shea and I had last night in the truck. Neither one of us knew what we were doing, but I knew it felt good; it felt right. He'd admitted that he'd been thinking about what would happen if we became emotionally involved. Seeing this new side of him made me want to open up and get close to him, but it was far too early to know for sure.
My phone vibrated next to me, displaying a text message from him.
O: My mom wants to come visit soon. That cool?
He sent another text right after.
O: She’ll be in a hotel. She just wants to see that I'm safe and okay. You know how moms are.
I smiled to myself. It was rather cute how his mom fussed over him.
A: Totally fine. Do you know when? Oh and mom actually wants you to join us for dinner this Sunday.
O: If you wanted to ask me on a date, you could've just said so. You don't have to dress it up as “family dinner”
Rolling my eyes, I typed my reply.
A: Aaaand welcome back, asshole. She just wants to meet my new roommate.
O: How you gonna introduce me? The guy who fucks you senseless and makes you come multiple times?
A: Oh fuck off, you cocky bastard. You're my ROOMMATE.
O: Genital bumping buddy sounds more appropriate.
“And Steve’s already posting about it like the asshole he is,” Ava said. Alex leaned over and looked at Ava’s phone screen, shaking her head.
“Even when he gets the shit kicked out of him, he’s delusional enough to think he actually hurt O’Shea,” Alex mentioned.
I looked up from my phone. “What are you two going on about?”
“Steve posted about the fight on Facebook. Have you seen it?” Ava asked.
I shook my head. “No. We’re not friends on Facebook anymore.”
Ava held out her phone to me. I took it and looked at the screen, reading Steve’s last post.
Trust me, the other guy looks worse. That’s what happens when you think you’re big and bad in my town.
I snorted. Typical Steve to make everything about him as if he'd won the war. “O’Shea looks nothing like that. He only has a slight bruise from where Steve’s ring cut him. Looks like Steve is talking about himself,” I said, handing her back the phone.
“How did you feel about everything that happened anyway?” Ava asked.
I sighed. “At first I felt super embarrassed. I mean I told O’Shea about what happened between Steve and I, but to hear Steve say things like that about me in front of him…that was a different story. Like it’s one thing to tell someone something, but completely different for them to actually witness the fuckery themselves, you know?”
“True. I didn’t expect him to go into hero mode though. Kind of feel bad for inviting him. I totally forgot that Steve is always there on Thirsty Thursdays,” Alex said.
“Yeah, I felt bad, too. It was supposed to be a fun evening but everything went to shit and the night ended early,” I mumbled. Well, the night ended early as a group, anyway. My night officially started when I told him to pull over.
“Oh yeah, about what you texted me yesterday, Ashton,” Alex said as she snapped her fingers. “Do you have feelings for him?”
“Wait, what did she text you yesterday? Why didn’t I get a text?” Ava asked with a pout. I glared at Alex, who only shrugged in return.
“It wasn’t really anything important,” I said, trying to change the subject.
“I’ll be the judge of that. What did she say, Alex?” Ava asked. Alex pulled her phone from her pocket, messing around with it for a bit before clearing her throat.
“She asked me, ‘Hypothetically speaking, what if I continued this thing with O’Shea and end up falling in love with him?’ I asked her what would be so bad about that, because look at him. The man is fucking gorgeous and I personally think he’s funny while you think he’s being an asshole,” she said.
“This ‘thing?’ So you’ve been sleeping with him more than that one time you admitted to?” Ava nearly shrieked with the biggest smile on her face.
I put my face in my hands and groaned. “You guys are so embarrassing. It doesn’t matter what we’re doing. Just like I told Alex, he’s already stated more than once that he’s not looking for anything. He told me he didn’t know what we were doing, but he was just enjoying the company of a beautiful woman. So if anything, it would turn into a one-sided situation that would leave me hurt if I was dumb enough to fall for a guy like him,” I explained, just as the front door opened.
O’Shea walked in and paused, looking at the three of us with a raised brow.
“What’s up, ladies?” he asked.
“You’re off already?” I asked him.
“Nah. Just grabbing something to eat. On my lunch break right now,” he answered and headed toward the kitchen. Alex and Ava watched him until he disappeared.
“He’s fucking sexy. I wouldn’t care if he never fell in love; I’d bang him every day,” Alex admitted.
Ava rolled her eyes. “Sure. Now it’s totally weird hearing you talking about banging other people when you’re dating my brother.”
“Just saying,” Alex said, lifting her hands in defense.
“Ash, are we out of turkey?” O’Shea called from the kitchen.
“It should be in the drawer with the rest of the lunch meat!” I called back.
“Yeah, I don’t see it in here,” he said back. I sighed and stood up from the couch.
“I’ll be right back, guys,” I muttered, and headed to the kitchen. O’Shea leaned against the counter near the fridge, holding the opened package of turkey slices in one hand while chewing what I assumed was a slice of turkey. “What the hell?”
He put a finger to his lips and put the turkey on the counter, pulling me to him and pressing his lips to mine. I looked up at him with wide eyes when he finally pulled away.
“I’d wanted to do much more than that on my lunch break, but you were saved by your friends,” he whispered. I looked toward the living room, hearing Ava and Alex talking amongst themselves.
“Maybe it was a good thing. I have to start taking calls as soon as they leave anyway.”
“Too bad I won’t be able to listen in on those calls,” he murmured, kissing my neck.
“O’Shea! We gotta show you something!” Ava called out. I jumped away from him and moved back just as Ava and Alex appeared in the kitchen.
“What’s up?” he asked.
Ava held her phone up near his face, probably showing him Steve’s post. He looked at the screen for a few moments and chuckled, shaking his head.
“Maybe he got into another fight with someone else to think the other guy looks worse,” he mused. “Last I checked I look pretty damn good after last night.”
“Totally,” Ava said with a giggle.
“And we’re sorry about what happened last night. Definitely didn’t think Steve would’ve done something like that or we wouldn’t have asked you to come.”
“It’s not your fault. Even if you hadn’t asked me, he isn’t going to run me out of a public place. I didn’t care so much about what he’d called me; I was more upset about him disrespecting her,” he said, nodding toward me.
My cheeks warmed as everyone looked at me. “Um, well, I’d love to sit and chat with you guys all day, but I have to get ready to take some calls now,” I said.
“Yeah, I need to run a few errands before work this evening. Pretty soon I’m going to be joining you in this phone sex venture,” Alex muttered. I giggled.
“I’m sure we’re always hiring when you’re tired of retail,” I said. They both said goodbye and left, leaving O’Shea and I alone. I walked back into the kitchen where he now made a sandwich. “Are you okay?”
He looked up from the mayo he was spreading. “Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“I just wanted to make sure after last night. Things were pretty intense, you know?”
“Yeah,” he said, focusing on putting turkey on his sandwich.
“At least your bruise isn’t that noticeable,” I added.
“Well, his punches were weak and sloppy.”
I gave him a small smile. “I really do appreciate what you did for me last night, especially when you didn’t have to.”
“That’s the problem with people these days,” he said with a sigh. “People don’t get involved because they don’t ‘have’ to. Sometimes not getting involved could make a situation turn into a life or death one.”
I raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Whoa. Steve wouldn’t hurt me like that. He’s not necessarily violent.”
“I’m not talking about you,” he muttered, slapping the bread on top of his sandwich. “My sister was killed by her ex-boyfriend. It could’ve been avoided had the other people that were with her had gotten involved.”
My mouth dropped a bit, but I quickly recovered. This man was like an onion, layers upon layers that hid why he was the way he was. Now I could see why he was so protective of me.
“Wow…I’m so sorry,” I murmured. He shrugged and bit into his sandwich.
“Shit happens. All you can do is be the change you want to see in the future. So as long as I’m around, no one will disrespect the women I’m out with.”
I nodded, unsure of what to really say. Before he moved in, I thought he was just this gorgeous, macho asshole who loved getting under my skin every chance he got. The more I got to know him, the more I liked him.
“What?” he asked, his mouth full of his sandwich.
I blinked. I hadn’t realized I’d been staring at him. “So, um, did your mom say what day she was coming?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Not yet. She told me she’d let me know.”
“Well, keep me updated. Anyway, I guess I’ll see you this evening. I need to go take some calls,” I said and walked away.
“Cool. I want to see you in action,” he mused, following behind me. I looked at him over my shoulder with a smirk.
“See me in action? It’s just phone sex, you know that.”
“But still, I want to see you do it. It would be pretty cool to see what’s happening on this side of the line,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows. I laughed as I entered my bedroom, grabbing the cordless phone off the charger.
“O’Shea, it’s not the same as it is with you. I just talk to the other guys; I don’t actually masturbate with them.”
He put a hand on his heart. “Aww. You’re making me feel special, sex kitten!”
“Whatever,” I said with a giggle and headed back to the living room.
“Oh wow. You’re coming out of your room to do your important work now?” he asked in sarcastic shock.
“It’s not like you don’t already know what I do.”
“This is true.”
“If you listen, you have to be quiet and don’t mess with me,” I warned as I sat on the couch.
“I’ll be quiet, but I can’t promise the last thing,” he said with a wink, sitting next to me. I put the phone down next to me, grinning in amusement as he looked at it, waiting for it to ring.
“You’re more ready than I am,” I teased. He ran a finger up and down my thigh. “I told you no messing with me.”
“And I told you I was making no promises on that,” he replied with a grin. “Besides, it’s not often that a guy is roommates with a phone sex operator.”
I shook my head and turned on the TV as I waited. He continued eating his sandwich, his hand never leaving my thigh as we watched a rerun of Law & Order: SVU. A few minutes later, the phone finally rang. He looked at me and licked his lips.
“Aren’t you going to answer?” he asked.
“This is going to be so odd.”
“Nope, just pretend I’m not here,” he said and smiled. I stuck my tongue out at him and cleared my throat.
“Thanks for calling Erotic Fantasies. I’m Natasha; whose fantasy am I fulfilling this afternoon?” I answered.
“Hi, um, I’m Samuel,” the guy said. O’Shea got on his knees in front of me and kissed up my leg as his fingers traveled underneath my robe.
“No,” I mouthed to him, only to be met with a wicked grin and a nod. “That’s a nice name, Samuel. The sound of it makes me so wet.”
“Really? My mother said it was a biblical name.” Oh great. I’m probably going to hell for that one.
“Yes, really. In fact, I’m even throbbing for you,” I purred. Samuel laughed nervously, as if he’d never had this kind of interaction with a woman before.
“Oh boy, this is really making me hot. Can I ask a favor, Natasha?”
“Anything for you, Samuel.”
“Can I—well, can I listen to you masturbate? I’m turned on the most by a woman moaning,” he requested.
“You want to listen to me pleasure myself?” I repeated, eyeing O’Shea as he untied the sash of my robe. “Sure, you can do that.”
O’Shea grinned and opened my robe, exposing my naked body to him. He wrapped his arms around my legs and pulled me down a little on the couch. Resting my legs on his shoulders, he dipped his head between my legs and gave me a long lick before suckling my clit.
I grabbed his head and moaned. “Oh Samuel, I wish you could see how wet I am right now,” I said, closing my eyes and resting my head on the couch.
“You sound really nice, Natasha. I wish I could, um, be inside of you at this moment.”
“Yes, me too. My pretty little pussy is throbbing for you,” I purred, gasping when O’Shea dipped his tongue inside of me.
“What are you doing to yourself?” he asked. I bit my lip and looked at O’Shea, who looked up at me as he licked between my folds.
“I’m just caressing my clit really slow…imagining it was your tongue,” I breathed.
“I bet you taste really good.”
“I taste myself all the time and I think I do. But then again, I’m biased.”
“You’re fucking delicious,” O’Shea growled from between my legs.
“Do you have someone in the background? I heard someone else,” Samuel said. My eyes widened as I put a finger to my lips.
“No, no, I have the TV on. I like to watch a little porn as I do my calls. I’ll turn it off so it doesn’t distract you,” I said, giving O’Shea a warning look. He simply chuckled and continued his assault on my clit, bringing me closer to my release.
“I’m almost there, Natasha, “ he wheezed, his breath hitching as he spoke.
“I want you to fill my pussy with your hot come,” I moaned, digging my nails into O’Shea’s shoulder. If there was anyone I wanted to fill me at that moment, it was definitely O’Shea. Before I could even compose myself, I cried out as my orgasm ripped through me. O’Shea had a firm grip on my thighs as I crested over the edge, continuing to suck my clit. My body jerked in response until I finally pushed him away, causing him to laugh softly.
Samuel yelped as he came. I nearly had to bite into a pillow to keep from laughing. “That was great, Samuel,” I purred as O’Shea rubbed my clit with the pad of his thumb.
“Yes, it was. Thank you for that.”
“The pleasure was all mine. Thank you for calling. Have a great afternoon,” I said and hung up.
“It’s so sexy watching you in action,” he murmured, moving up to slip his tongue in my mouth.
“Now you have me really horny,” I said as I wrapped my legs around him and pulled him to me, unzipping his work jump suit.
“What about the callers?”
“We can have a quickie,” I said, kissing him once more. I pushed his jump suit off his shoulders, allowing him to wiggle out of it until it fell around his knees. Removing his hard cock from his boxers, I stroked it with my hand.
He growled and bit his lip. “Your hand feels good, but your insides feel better,” he hissed, moving my hand and plunging into me in a single stroke. We both cried out as the pleasure overwhelmed us. He kept his strokes quick and hard, knowing that we didn’t have much time.
“I love how you feel inside of me,” I panted, kissing his lips.
“You feel amazing, baby. So tight,” he groaned, pumping into me with incredible vigor. My body tingled with excitement as we continued on with our spontaneous, wild sex. I could always count on him to make things fun. He did things at random, always keeping me on my toes. Who would’ve thought phone sex could actually be fun? It probably would’ve been weird or boring with any other guy, but O’Shea somehow incorporated it into our relationship and made it more enjoyable.
Relationship? I froze. I’d unconsciously labeled what we were doing when I shouldn’t have. He proceeded to thrust into me, unaware of everything going on in my heart and mind. Stubbornness aside, he was pretty much everything I looked for in a guy…granted that the situation was different. He was funny, protective, and sweet in his own way. He looked at me, the lust in his eyes disappearing as he frowned.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, slowing down to a stop. I blinked and felt a tear roll down my cheek.
“I’m fine—”
“You’re crying. Am I hurting you?”
“No, it’s…nothing. I’m really fine,” I said, giving him a small smile. He searched my face for an answer I wasn’t ready to give him, shaking his head. His hand encircled the back of my neck as he pulled me closer to his body, kissing me with fervent that it brought fresh tears to my eyes.
“Please don’t cry,” he whispered, kissing me as he started moving within me again. I clutched him as tight as I could, unable to deny the fact that I was already falling for a man that was in no position to love me the way I needed to be loved right now.