Once they were inside his room, Ash closed the door and grabbed hold of Mack again. God, he loved the way she felt in his arms. He could hardly believe that he’d gone so long without her. There was a time when he was convinced that he’d stop breathing and die of suffocation if anyone ever took her away from him. The only positive that came from living without her for five years was that it proved to him he was strong enough to start over if he wanted to. He started a whole new life when he left New York and he could start a whole new life again if he had to...a new life with Mack.

He pressed his lips to hers again and let his tongue ease into her mouth. He loved kissing her. She always tasted so sweet. He swept his tongue around her mouth, tasting every part of her. Their tongues would tangle up every now and then, jockeying for position, pushing and pulling at each other. He used the side of his teeth to scrape her tongue and then nibble at her lips. He brought his tongue out and she sighed lustfully as he used it to lick her lips. He loved how her body went soft and she became pliable when he kissed or touched her. He loved that after all the time between them, they were still so good together.

He turned her around and walked her backwards to the bed, the whole time kissing from her lips to her neck and back up again. Once he felt her body was against the bed, he lowered her down onto it. He gave her another kiss, and he could swear the earth trembled underneath his feet. Then he stood up and quickly stripped off his clothes, loving the way her hazel eyes filled with desire as they took in every part of his body. Once he was fully undressed he reached down and pulled up the sundress she was wearing. She raised her arms and he pulled it off over her head, and then he pushed her bra up and out of her way...gasping out loud when her beautiful breasts fell out.

He kissed first one and then the other, right on the tip of the hardened nipple. Then he licked each one and sucked the left one into his mouth. He sucked her gently but firmly at the same time, marking his territory and making new memories. She moaned with each swirl of his tongue. He loved making her feel good, making her shudder, making her scream out his name. He moved his mouth down to her belly and kissed her there, letting his tongue trace slow circles down toward where her panties covered that beautiful, sweet treasure he craved. He kissed the silk that covered her mound and then moved his face lower, inhaling her scent in the place where her panties were soaked through. He ran his tongue along the upper part of her thigh and just under the elastic of the panties. She gasped and arched her back up off the bed. He moved his face over and did the same on the other side, and that time she moaned. Finally, he sat up slightly, put his fingers on either side of her panties and slowly dragged them down her silky thighs, over her knees, her hard calves and off her feet. He tossed them onto the floor and wasting no time, buried his face into her pussy.

She shuddered hard as he began to lick her softly. He knew her well, though, and he knew she didn’t like it soft for long. He licked her lightly just enough to get her twisting and moaning and rocking her hips and grinding her pussy into his face...and then he went to town. He started sucking and licking, letting his tongue flit in and out of her tight, wet opening, tasting every part of her. He nibbled at her clit and made her cry out and pull his hair. She wrapped her legs around his head like a vise, pushing his face in deeper so he’d move the stubble on his jaw around faster, nibble harder, suck more, lick passionately and finally, swirl his tongue around and around on top of her hard clit, putting pressure against it as he did...until she was screaming out his name in the throes of a violent orgasm that left her gasping for breath.

When Ash pulled his head up and looked at her face it made his cock throb even harder. She looked so fucking sexy when she was post-orgasmic. Her cheeks were bright red. Her pretty hair was all over the place, even stuck in the light sheen of sweat across her brow. Her lipstick was gone and her bottom lip slightly swollen where she’d been biting down on it to keep from screaming too loudly. “You’re so beautiful, baby.”

She reached up for his face and pulled it down to her lips. She kissed him like she was starving, delving her tongue so far into his mouth that it almost felt like she was trying to find his tonsils. He bit and sucked at her lips, and the kiss went on and on until neither of them was able to breathe. They came up for air, but Ash didn’t move off her. He used one of his thighs to press her legs open and then without touching his cock with his hand, he found his mark and plunged into her. Her hips came up off the bed and his hands went to her waist as he began fucking her. Mack was grinding her pelvis into him and gripping onto his shoulders. Her back was arched and her head was pressed back into the pillow. She had her eyes closed and her mouth open in a little “O” that almost made him want to pull out of her pussy and shove his cock into her mouth, but he didn’t. He kept fucking her, sliding all the way out and then back in until their hips slammed together. She lifted her sexy legs and wrapped them around his body, gripping him tightly with her thighs and using her feet to push against his back, trying to take him deeper, and harder. He fucked her faster, his body on fire, hers the catalyst. He moved a hand up and took one of her nipples between his fingers. He pinched and pulled at it in time with the thrusts he was still making into her pussy. His whole body was tingling and he felt the orgasm beginning to take control. His cock throbbed and his balls tightened and he let out a long, loud groan just before he exploded inside her. Mack arched up off the bed even higher and dug her fingernails into his flesh as she came with him. As the seconds passed, Ash found himself wondering about their lives from there on out. There was no way he was letting her go again. No. Fucking. Way.

Ash, Mack, and Charlie flew to New York together on Sunday night and stayed at Mack’s apartment. On Monday morning Mack went to the office, and Ash and Charlie took a car to Allison’s attorney’s office in the heart of Manhattan. It was a luxury high-rise building and his office was on the fourth floor. They took the elevator up and Ash finally asked Charlie the question he’d been wondering about since they made this appointment. “Are you nervous about seeing her?” Charlie hadn’t seen her mother since their court date regarding her emancipation a month earlier. Allison only called when she was trying to manipulate her over the will, and the calls usually ended in an argument and tears. Today, Charlie was dressed casually in a denim skirt and a white button-down blouse. Her shoes were canvas sneakers and her hair was in a ponytail. Ash thought the outfit made her look cute, but way too young to be dealing with this mess. He knew that Allison was going to take one look at her and think of something insulting to say about how she looked like “poor white trash,” or something else he might have to punch his first woman over.

“Not really,” Charlie said. “I wish things were different, but they’re not. We never fought before, but that was because I did exactly what she wanted me to do. I hung out with the popular kids. I dressed in the latest fashions. I treated anyone that didn’t have as much money as us like shit. Those were honestly the only things she ever noticed about me. Do you know that she once took away all my electronics for two weeks when I was thirteen because she found out that I’d been playing video games with the gardener’s son and the cook’s daughter? She told me that we had an ‘obligation’ to the community to carry ourselves a certain way and be seen with certain people. I told Dad, and I guess that was the first time I realized it.”

“Realized what?” Ash thought he knew, because he’d made the same realization himself...but he didn’t want to put ideas in her head about the father they both missed and still loved unconditionally.

“That he just wasn’t strong enough to stand up to her. He had so many good qualities, but he wasn’t strong...like you.” Ash’s heart swelled at the compliment, and he had so much respect for his little sister for realizing that just because their father wasn’t strong, it didn’t mean he wasn’t a good person and a good father in a lot of other ways. Ash put his arm around Charlie and turned them toward the conference room they were supposed to meet in.

“I’m here for you, kid, no matter what.”

“I know. I love you, Ash.” Her words took him by surprise and shook him up a little. The last time Charlie told him she loved him, she was ten years old and he was leaving her alone with the crazy woman they were on their way in to see. He wished that he had a time machine. If he could go back, he’d do so many things differently.

“I love you too, kid.” His voice cracked, and Charlie looked up at him and smiled before squaring her shoulders and walking into the conference room with her head held high. Ash walked in behind her and his eyes fell on Allison. She was, as usual, dressed from head to toe in money. Her hair was professionally colored, highlighted and styled. Her makeup was flawless. The breasts his father had paid for sat up high and proud and showed off too much cleavage for a lawyer’s office on a Monday morning, in his opinion. Allison wasn’t looking at him, she was staring...or glaring...at her daughter. She stood up, slowly revealing the rest of the cream-colored suit she was wearing. It was tailored to fit her every curve. He wondered if she thought that would help her case, or if she was already in the market for a new man.

“Charlotte,” she said, shaking her head. “What are they doing to you out there?” Ash felt himself tense up and he checked his temper and let Charlie respond.

“They’re taking good care of me,” Charlie said with a smile. “Something I’m not used to. I’d love to get this over with so we can get back.” She pulled out a chair next to her own attorney and looked at him and said, “Can we get started?” Ash took a seat next to Charlie and watched Allison’s lawyer put his hand on her arm and guide her back down into the chair. She moved her intense glare from Charlie to him then and he could see the hate she felt for him in her eyes. She had resented him from the start. He looked just like his mother. He was still mourning her then, and he idolized her...and suddenly Allison was there, taking everything over. He hadn’t been nice to her, but in his defense, she was supposed to be the adult. With each year that went by, she pulled him and his father further and further apart. His dad tried, but like Charlie said, he just wasn’t strong enough. Ash forced himself to smile at his stepmother and he said:

“Hello, Allison, you’re looking well.” She didn’t answer him, but he could almost hear the “fuck you” in her eyes. He kept smiling, genuinely now, knowing that it bothered her.

Her attorney started the meeting with a bunch of legal mumbo-jumbo and unnecessary introductions. At last he took out a pile of paperwork and slid it over to their attorney, who looked at the first page and laughed. “This is not what we came here for. This is a completely different offer than the first one.”

“We’ve put in a few addenda,” the other attorney said.

“A few? It’s like twelve pages longer. She’s asking for two million dollars plus a monthly allowance, an expense account, paid vacations...paid vacations? They’re not her employers, they’re her children.”

“I only have one child here. He is not mine. He’s only five years younger than me, for God’s sake.”

Ash cleared his throat. “Ten.”

The attorney saved her from having to try to explain her lie or backtrack. Allison was thirty-eight years old. She’d been twenty-three when his father married her, and Ash was thirteen. He remembered wondering if his father had gone crazy the first time he met her. He hadn’t been mature enough yet to realize the things some people would do to keep from being lonely, and celibate. By the time he was fourteen or so, he’d figured out what his father saw in her, superficially at least, but he’d still hated her, maybe even a little more then, because by that time he was convinced she was only with his father because he was rich. Ash never cared about the money. She could have taken it all for all he cared. But he felt like if he knew her motivations then everyone else did too...and that was making a fool out of his father, and he hated that. Now, however, he thought about the will and the way his dad had left it, and he smiled again. Dad had gotten the last laugh. He finally stood up to her...in death. Better late than never, I guess.

“I only came here because I thought this was a done deal,” Charlie said. She pushed back her chair and stood up. Ash was filled with pride. He stood up too.

“Charlotte...”

“It’s Charlie,” she said. “And save it...Mom. You worked for minimum wage in a coffee shop when you met my father. You lived the good life for fifteen years. It’s time for you to relearn how to take care of yourself. If I can do it, so can you.”

“Oh, right! You can do it with Daddy’s billions,” Allison said, rolling her eyes.

“I’m not going to argue with you,” Charlie said. “The point here is that he was my father, and Ash’s, not yours. You’re a grown woman who is capable of taking care of herself. Two million dollars and an estate that’s worth at least fifty mill. Accept that today...Mother...or we walk out of here and I swear I will spend the next ten years fighting this in court so by the time you do get a penny out of me, you’ll owe it to your attorney.” The two women glared at each other for several seconds and when Allison didn’t speak, Charlie turned and started for the door. Ash was right behind her and as they stepped through it Allison said:

“Okay! Fine. I’ll take the first deal.”

Charlie turned back around, and Ash stepped out of her way. She walked over to the table and her attorney, who looked as proud and impressed as Ash felt, slid a document and a pen over in front of her. She picked it up, signed it, and said, “So when will the assets be released?”

“I’ll push it through as quickly as I can. I’ll shoot for the end of the week.”

“Thank you,” Charlie said to him. She looked at the other attorney then and said, “And thank you too. You can send your bill to my accountant. I’ll make sure it gets paid.” He stumbled all over himself thanking her and she cut him off when she looked at her mother and said, “I wish you nothing but well, Mom, honestly I do. I hope someday you can come out of yourself enough that you and I can have a real relationship. But...I’m not Dad. I’m stronger than he was, and you won’t use and manipulate me.” She really left then, and Ash followed her. They didn’t speak until they got out in front of the building and then Ash stopped, hugged her tightly, and said:

“I don’t think I’ve ever been prouder of anyone in my life.” He could feel Charlie shaking and after a second, he realized that she was crying. He held her tighter until she pulled back and said:

“Wanna change your mind now?”

He smiled. “Nope. A woman who can kick ass, take names, and still be a woman...some man is going to be so lucky to have you someday...and he’d better know it. He’d also better know you’ve got a whole MC at your back if he doesn’t.”

She smiled and wiped the tears off her face. Rolling her eyes, she said, “I didn’t even think about that. Dating in California is going to be a blast.”