Chapter Eleven
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From the moment the door clicked, signaling Ashleigh had joined him, Alex had felt her eyes on him. After what transpired between them in the garage and the heat the woman inspired in him, Alex knew he was going to go up in flames. Which was another good reason for getting in the pool. At least there he’d be able to cool off, even if the water was warm.
The sound of Ashleigh’s bare feet on the concrete sounded behind him, coming closer, and he had to force himself not to turn and look at her. Seeing the woman in a bathing suit was probably going to blow his mind.
“Um, Alex...” Ashleigh called out to him, and he knew he had no choice but to turn around.
Looking up at her, all but gloriously naked in that tiny hot pink bikini, he had to close his mouth or risk drooling down his chin. Not a good look for him, that’s for sure.
“Are you sure about this?” She asked when he finally made eye contact.
Was he sure? Hell no, he wasn’t sure, but it was inevitable. At this point at least. Going back up two steps, he held out his hand for her until she moved closer. Lacing his fingers with hers, he hoped he could withdraw some of her strength because he was suddenly feeling a bit woozy.
Once in the water, he released her hand, but remained close, crouching low, leaning his back against one of the side walls with his hands holding the edge above his head.
“So, when did you start writing erotic romance?” He asked.
Ashleigh leaned down into the water, letting it come up to her neck before she turned back toward him. “It’s been about five years now, I guess.”
Alex wondered if something specific had made her want to venture into that genre, or if it was something she just wanted to do all along. Asking her those questions was awkward though. Since his secret was out, or rather hers was, Alex didn’t quite know how to broach the subject.
“Have you read my books?” She asked, her gaze fixed on his face.
Well, that was one way to do it.
“Yes.” He admitted truthfully. Some of them he’d read more than once, and that was saying something because he wasn’t much for reading.
“All of them?” She wasn’t closing the gap between them, but she wasn’t going farther away either, so Alex considered that a good sign.
As long as he remained holding on to the edge of the pool, keeping his ass as far away from her as possible, she’d be safe. At least that’s what he told himself.
“Except for the last one that came out. I haven’t had a chance to go out and get it yet.” But he planned to.
“So what’d you think?”
Wow, now that was a difficult question if he’d ever head one. What did he think? Did he tell her that he couldn’t get the image of her in some of those kinky positions out of his head? Or maybe he told her how he wanted to see her tied to his bed while he had his wicked way with her. Or possibly how he wanted to see her in the playroom at the club, naked, and on her knees in front of him while others watched.
The last one might not really be true, but some of her vivid descriptions had had him imagining exactly that scenario. Hot or not, Alex had never been into voyeurism.
Regardless, he couldn’t tell her any of those things, no matter how true they were because although she wrote about stuff like that, he was pretty sure she only considered them fantasies.
“They’re interesting.” He admitted, his body warming by several degrees as she made her way over to him.
“Are you nervous, Alex?” Ashleigh asked. “Because I’m thinking if anyone should be nervous, it should be me.”
He laughed. That should be the case, yes. And no, he wasn’t nervous, he was just hell bent on keeping his hands off of her so he didn’t scare the daylights out of her. “Why should you be nervous?”
“I don’t know.” She said, her demeanor changing immediately to the Ashleigh he knew well. She turned away from him, moving farther into the pool and farther away from him.
He knew how it looked from the outside, but the last thing he was trying to do was push her away. In fact, he wanted her closer. Much closer. Like close enough for him to bury his cock inside of her while she rode him right there in the water. Instead, she must’ve thought he was trying to keep his distance for other reasons.
He had more control than this, but for the life of him, he couldn’t conjure up an ounce.
“Come here.” His mouth said before his brain caught up to it.
Ashleigh didn’t turn though. Instead, she kept walking until she was wading into the deeper end of the pool and over to one of the stone ledges that acted as a seat. Ok, so he would obviously have to go to her.
Releasing his death grip on the pool’s edge, he stood to his full height, the water coming up to his hips before he closed the distance between them. Since the pool wasn’t very deep, Alex walked right up to where she was sitting. Easing her legs open, he maneuvered between them, placing his hands on her silky thighs.
“Look at me, Ashleigh.” He told her when she was doing her best to avoid him. Lifting her chin, he forced her to look him in the eye.
“I’ve read your books, but not until I knew you had written them. They’re fucking hot if you want to know the truth.” He paused. “Too fucking hot.”
“That’s kinda the point.” She smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“Honey, I won’t lie to you. I enjoyed them immensely. Is that what you want to hear?”
“Maybe.” There was a glimmer in her eye. He got the impression this was turning her on.
With the hand that was still on her thigh, he reached for her hand, pulling it closer to him until he placed it directly on the hard proof. “See what you do to me? You make me hard, Ashleigh. When I read your books, it only made me want to do those wicked things to you.” And then some, but he wasn’t going to tell her that just yet. “But it isn’t what you write that makes me so fucking hard. You do that. Not Ashton Leigh. You. Ashleigh.”
When her palm pressed against his erection, Alex groaned. “Baby.” It was the only warning he could get out.
“Show me, Alex.” The seductive temptress said, her little pink tongue darting out to lick her bottom lip before she caught it between her teeth.
“Show you what?” He was riding a mighty fine edge right now, and what she said next would likely send him over.
“Show me what happens when you lose control.”
Oh, fuck! There was absolutely no holding back, it wouldn’t have mattered if he was a fucking superhero, he could not keep his hands off of her. Alex pulled her into his arms, close enough she had to wrap her legs around his waist. And that’s when he lost every remaining ounce of control he possessed.
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Yes!
This was the man she wanted.
The man who hungered for her, not the one who sat back on the sidelines trying to restrain himself.
Ashleigh had always been attracted to Alex. Always. For as long as she could remember. But it was his fierce determination and his dominating personality that drew her to him. The man kissing her senseless, his large hand pressed against her back, holding her to him, was the one she ached for in the dark of night.
Her body was on fire, and no amount of water was going to douse the flame that he had lit inside of her. Ashleigh could feel his erection, solid and firm between her legs, and she wanted to feel him inside of her. She wanted the hard length of him filling her, wanted him to be lost in the same tumultuous feelings she was.
The need was so fierce, so hot, she didn’t know if her body could contain it all before she broke apart.
“I need to taste you.” Alex said when he broke the kiss.
She was game.
“I’m afraid I can’t be gentle.” His words sounded as though they were torn from somewhere deep inside him.
“I don’t want gentle. I won’t break.” She told him, once again pulling his mouth down on hers.
As he used his tongue to expertly rob her of all common sense, Ashleigh reached behind her and released the string that tied her bikini top behind her neck. The small pink fabric easily dropped, freeing her breasts to the cool air and Alex’s penetrating gaze.
“Lean back.” He instructed, pulling his mouth from hers.
Ashleigh did as she was told, leaning back with nothing behind her except water, gripping his hips with her thighs and his forearms with her hands to keep her from going under. She was floating, literally, but emotionally she was soaring.
This conflagration that had ignited in her blood was foreign, yet addictive, and she couldn’t seem to get enough. She wanted Alex to touch her, to ground her in the moment, but he seemed content to just look at her and that penetrating gaze of his was unsettling.
The air caressed her breasts, sending cool chills over her skin. But when Alex latched onto a nipple, heating it with his mouth, her body began to tremble from the inside out.
“I’ve waited ten fucking years for this, Ashleigh.” Alex’s gruff tone sent shards of pleasure ripping through her as he plumped her breasts with his hands as he licked the pebbled tips.
“Alex. Please. It’s not enough.” And it wasn’t nearly enough. She’d never been this worked up; her body had never throbbed in various places at the same time.
“What do you want me to do to you, Ashleigh?”
Was that a trick question? She wanted him to do everything to her. Over and over again until she didn’t know her own name.
But she wanted to touch him too. She wanted to taste him. That’s something she didn’t have any experience with. She almost did, but Alex had turned her away that night.
Forcing the depressing thoughts away before they took hold, Ashleigh pulled herself up into his arms once again. Lifting her right breast, she held it closer to his mouth.
“Lick me.” She ordered him, feeling oddly empowered and more sexually aggressive than she ever imagined. She wanted him to lose control, and in order to do that, she had to push her own limits.
When his tongue snaked out and swirled around her puckered nipple, Ashleigh watched in awe. There was something to be said about watching because it definitely stimulated certain areas of the brain. The same areas that controlled her orgasm if she had to guess since she felt the tingling start to intensify.
“Suck me.” And boy did he. “Alex!” She screamed his name; the pain ricocheted from her nipple to her clit and back again, setting off mini detonations along the way.
She wasn’t ready to come yet. Not until she got to play with him some more. And not until he was inside her.
Gripping his head in her hands, she held him to her breast before pulling him away easily. “I want to taste you. I want to feel you in my mouth.”
“God, woman.” Alex was breathing hard, his chest heaving. “You’re going to be the death of me.”
Yeah, well... if that was the case, they were going to go together because her circuits were overloaded and she wasn’t so sure her body knew what to do with the intense pleasure.
Reaching down between them, Ashleigh found what she was looking for. Gently stroking him through his shorts, she wanted to know what he felt like against her bare palm. Feeling bolder than she expected, she slipped her hand into the waistband of his shorts, finding the satiny hard length of him and stroking slowly.
“Let me taste you.” She said as their eyes met. “Please.”
Alex groaned as she stroked, but he carried her to the steps that would lead out of the pool. The brisk air tickled her skin, goose bumps breaking out up and down her arms. Thankfully he carried her into the much warmer house before heading to his bedroom – no make that bathroom – where he deposited her into the standup shower.
“Take off your bathing suit.” Alex told her as he turned on the water, his eyes focused on every inch of her exposed skin.
Feeling modest for the first time since she got there, Ashleigh fumbled with the tie on her back before finally managing to release it. Her breasts were already uncovered, so that was the easy part. Lowering her wet bikini bottoms down her legs took more effort than it should have.
Once they were around her ankles, she kicked them free and stood before him, completely exposed in more ways than one.