5
Riley Day
Ashe didn’t see Riley again until Valentine’s Day when he surprised her by dropping in at the Library Café earlier than they’d planned. People usually did a double-take whenever he walked into the Chelsea coffee shop conveniently located a few blocks from his condo, though for the most part, they left him alone.
The Library Café was a neighborhood place which combined coffee with books, most of them donated by the patrons; they filled the bookshelves now relegated to one side of the shop. It made for a very cramped space; with Riley soon to take over ownership of the café from her business partner, a renovation was definitely on the cards.
She was finishing up an order for a flat white when Ashe walked in the door. Riley stared at him, surprised. “What are you doing here? I thought we were meeting at your place.”
“There’s been a slight change of plan. If I’m not mistaken, you’re off the clock in about two minutes, and I plan to spoil you today.” He leaned against the counter to gaze at her, aware that everyone was watching them. Riley’s cheeks turned red and she quickly untied her apron.
“You already spoil me, all the time.”
“All the time isn’t enough, petal.” Especially when I’m out of town half the time, or working ten to twelve hours a day, he added silently.
Five minutes later, Ashe walked a red-faced Riley through the door to the resounding applause of the staff behind the counter and many of the customers. Though he knew she hated the attention Riley handled it well, laughing as she sketched a mock curtsey on the sidewalk. They linked hands and headed toward his condo.
“Don’t ever do that again,” she said, giving him a stern look.
“So sorry, not sorry,” he grinned, using one of Riley’s favorite sayings from Tessa, her friend and assistant manager. He pushed his thick-rimmed glasses up the bridge of his nose and draped his other arm over her shoulders, drawing her close. He knew the disguise of nerdy glasses and beanie wasn’t foolproof, but in the bitter cold of February, it was good enough.
As soon as Ashe opened the door, Riley was taken by surprise at the path of rose petals on the floor. He had turned off all the lights and drawn the blinds over the doors leading to the patio. It left the whole condo in semi-darkness, lit up only by the hundred battery-operated pillar candles he’d arranged all over the condo. Ashe reminded himself to donate them to a charity shop the next day. Soft music completed his vision of the perfect evening.
He slipped Riley’s coat off her shoulders and hung it behind the door along with his own. “Follow where it goes, petal. I’ll be right behind you.”
The path led into the master bedroom, past the king-sized bed also sprinkled with rose petals, and into the bathroom.
The master bathroom was one of the reasons Ashe had purchased the condo almost a year ago. It had a huge bathtub and a detached his-and-hers shower with separate shower heads, each with control knobs that took care of everything: temperature, water flow, and direction.
“It’s beautiful!” Riley exclaimed, rocking on her heels as Ashe turned on the water in the tub. “Now all I need is someone to feed me grapes and wine.”
“I can do that.” He came up behind her and brought his arms around her waist. She smelled of coffee and vanilla. “I wanted to prepare you a bath fit for a queen, like Cleopatra; she was believed to bathe in milk to keep her skin soft.”
“Looks like you forgot the milk,” she said, the corners of her mouth pulled down in a mock frown. “Why didn’t you provide some?”
“Because for authenticity’s sake, I’d have needed to find seven hundred lactating donkeys to produce enough milk to fill this tub,” he said, his expression serious though he was fighting hard not to smile. “Do you know how hard it is to find seven hundred donkeys in New York state, not to mention lactating ones?”
“Maybe you should start a donkey farm upstate,” Riley giggled. “It would be a hit. You could even do the milking.”
“Hush, petal, don’t give me any ideas. I just might milk a donkey for you,” Ashe said as he reached for a small brown bottle on the counter, opened it and poured two capfuls into the water. “In the meantime, we’ll have to make do with attar of roses.”
The sigh that escaped Riley’s lips signaled the official beginning of the evening, the transition from the end of her busy workday to Riley Day, as Ashe preferred to call that evening instead of Valentine’s Day.
Riley Day sounded so much better, and he was going to make it a regular celebration.
Ashe joined her in the tub after a few minutes. He washed her hair and kneaded her shoulders to ease the tensions of her day, then drew her closer so that she was leaning against him. He reached for a box he’d tucked behind a stack of towels and put it in front of her.
“Happy Valentine’s Day,” he murmured, loving the feel of her body against his. “Do you know it’s been four months since we first met, petal?” Ashe murmured in her ear.
“Four months, three days and eighteen hours,” she giggled. “But I’m just guessing, really, although I think it was October.”
“Yes, it was; and in November we babysat your nephews.”
“That was when you surprised me at the Library!”
“I didn’t surprise you, petal. It was fate, and that evening, I fell head over heels in love with you, Riley-I-Am.” Ashe loved calling her by another of his favorite nicknames. It was based on a children’s book they’d read together that evening for her nephews, Green Eggs and Ham.
Riley was quiet as she opened the box. He loved the moments they shared like this, she in his arms, safe from the harsh realities of her world: the house she’d left in Jackson Heights years earlier and, until a few months ago, her sister’s constant meddling.
“Happy Valentine’s Day.” Riley smiled and lifted the platinum key by its delicate chain. Ashe set the box aside and watched her lay the necklace on her palm. How long had he stared at the pendant when the jeweler had presented it to him a week earlier? The key pendant featured a cushion-cut yellow diamond in the center with round brilliant white diamonds surrounding it to represent the sun’s rays. It had taken the jeweler a few weeks to make it according to Ashe’s specifications, and now here it was, and Riley was rendered speechless, her hand covering her mouth as she gazed at it. Ashe had chosen well.
“Oh, Ashe, it’s beautiful!”
“I’m going to sound corny, but it’s the key to my heart, Riley-I-Am. You’ve held it since I first met you.”
She lifted her damp hair with her hands as he put the necklace around her neck, clasping its delicate lock behind her. Then she chuckled as she rested against him and lifted the key to gaze at it. “Guess it’s official then, Mr. Corny Hunter. I really do hold the key to your heart.”
“Aye, you do. But I thought you knew that already.”
“I don’t need anything to make us official. I just need you,” she said, turning to look up at him. “Do we really have to go out to dinner? There’s a snow alert for tonight, you know. They say nine inches is coming down.”
“Since when have you let nine inches stop you?” he whispered in her ear when her hand found his cock, already hard and pressing against her back.
“Never, and definitely not when it’s coming up right now.”
“Naughty girl.” Ashe closed his eyes as he savored the feeling of her hand tightening around him. He cupped her breasts, kneading them, his thumb and index finger pinching her nipple clips and tugging lightly. Riley gasped.
“Only around you,” she said, turning her head to look at him as Ashe kissed her on the lips before raining kisses along the back of her neck and shoulders. He wanted to savor her slowly, tease her with his mouth and tongue and watch the goosebumps rise with each pass as his own body screamed for release.
But Ashe had set limits on himself that evening, even if it meant skipping a quick romp in the tub. He had so much planned, from the second present he’d give her at the restaurant to the trip to the planetarium and then the final gift that he hoped would bring a bit of her mother back to her. His complete surrender—and hers—would have to wait a little longer.