Chapter 17
Ashlyn
That was not a fake kiss.
I haven’t been with a ton of men, but I have kissed enough to know when it’s a real kiss, and that kiss was authentic. It’s been two minutes since it happened, and I am still pink in the cheeks.
I don’t know if it meant anything, but I do know it was a genuine kiss.
As I fix my hair in the mirror, I can’t stop smiling. I make a mental note to thank Demi for being so pushy about all of it. Even if the kiss was real, we aren’t actually dating.
I pull out more peach lip gloss and pop the cap off.
Most of my lip gloss disappeared when Zane and I kissed, and I’m fine with that.
Suddenly the door opens, and a woman walks in, heading straight to the sink next to me.
I apply the gloss, and can feel her looking at me in the mirror.
I make eye contact and offer a small smile, but even when I look away, she is still staring.
“Are you dating Zane Calloway?” she asks, and I straighten up. She must just be a fan. I mean, he is a supermodel after all. A well-known one.
“I am,” I answer before looking back in the mirror. She continues to stare at me. She’s taller than me, but not by much. A little more shapely, too. If I had to guess, we are around the same age. Her hair is dark, cut in a choppy bob, and her eye makeup is very dramatic.
“Are you alright?” I ask because she’s still staring at me. She hasn’t even blinked; it’s almost like she is trying to etch me into her mind, which has me feeling a little uneasy.
“How long have you been dating him?” she asks.
I swallow. “A few weeks,” I say, doing my best to smile.
“And you already live together?”
The question feels intrusive, but then I remember I am “dating” a supermodel. “What can I say? We fell so quickly,” I answer. It sounds good in my head. If I were quoted, social media would eat it up.
And who says we aren’t convincing?
“Do you really think he could fall in love with you that quickly?” she asks. “I mean, he hardly knows you.”
I am still smiling, but there’s a sting to it. I’m not loving this encounter, even if it is just some journalist digging for dialogue for her story.
“You have to be careful with men like him,” she goes on. “They might seem like they love you, like they care, like you’re special, but they’re notorious for being liars. They will walk away and leave you high and dry in an instant.”
Okay, this is getting weird.
“I’m sorry, who are you?” I ask.
“He’s not going to love you,” she says, and my heart starts to race.
“Okay,” I say, walking around her and heading for the door.
“You’re going to get fucked over!” she calls out. As I walk back to the table, I feel like I am running.
“Everything okay in there?” Cal asks. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Ashlyn?” Demi asks.
I look at all of them and then force a smile. “Yeah. Everything is fine,” I lie. I don’t think Demi buys it, but Zane is just smiling and carrying on.
“Good. You wanna get out of here?” he asks with a smirk as he comes to his feet and plants a kiss on my cheek. Honestly, I’ve never wanted anything more than to leave this place. But it’s not for the reasons he probably thinks.
* * *
As soon as we get back to the house, I slip out of my shoes. I want to strip out of everything. As fun as the dinner started out, I can’t help but feel queasy about what happened afterwards.
“I think we did well,” Zane says.
“Yeah?” I ask, doing my best to be present.
“Yeah. I mean, usually I don’t check the social media cess pool unless I have to, but that kiss is all over the place. Nigel is going to be thrilled,” he said.
“That’s good,” I answer hollowly. Zane’s smile fades, and he sets his phone on the counter.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” he says.
“Mean what like what?” I ask.
“I mean, I didn’t just kiss you for the publicity. I know our relationship is contracted and all, but I never do things just to make other people happy. Especially doom scrollers,” he says.
“I know,” I say softly, and Zane’s eyes narrow in speculation.
“Something’s bothering you,” he says.
I want to lie, but I’ve never been good at it. I bite my lip, and that’s a dead giveaway.
“What is it? Did something happen? You’ve been acting off since you came out of the bathroom at the restaurant. Was it the kiss? Was it too much?”
I cut him off before he spirals. “There was a woman,” I tell him.
“A woman.” he echoes.
“In the bathroom.”
“Okay? Did you know her?”
“No,” I shake my head, replaying it in my mind. “But she acted like she knew me. And you.”
“I hate to say it, Ashlyn, but everyone acts like they know me. Worse than that, they act like they are entitled to my life. It was probably a reporter,” he says.
“Maybe,” I say with a shrug.
“Or worse,” he says with a mischievous smirk, stepping closer to me. “Maybe she was with the paparazzi.”
He’s trying to be funny. But the memory of the encounter has me feeling sick. Zane picks up on it, and his brow furrows in worry.
“What happened? Did she threaten you?”
“No,” I say. “More like…warned me.”
“Warned you? About what?” he asks, his posture stiffening a little.
I shake my head. “I don’t know. It was probably nothing.”
“It was enough to upset you,” Zane says. “You know what you need? A soak in the hot tub.”
I don’t think anything is going to make me feel better about the conversation with the bathroom lady, but the hot tub does sound nice.
“Alright,” I agree with a nod. We both slip into bathing suits. He’s wearing the same shorts he had on the night we met, and I’m in a black bikini. The water feels glorious.
“Okay, yeah,” I nod, sinking lower with a sigh. “This is it. This is what I needed.”
“Told you,” he grins, letting out a husky sigh as he settles in across from me.
“You do this a lot?” I ask.
“Most nights. After a swim. Except for this one time when it was out of order because some chick crash landed through my pergola and I had to get it replaced,” he teases. My eyes are closed, but I lift a hand from the water, flipping him off. He laughs and I smile.
“The only thing better than this would be a massage,” I say.
“Who says you can’t have both?” he asks. The next thing I know, he is hopping out of the tub.
“What are you doing?” I ask as he appears behind me.
He sits with his legs on either side of me, dangling them into the water and places his hands on my shoulders.
They’re large, warm, and soft. At first, I don’t know what to think.
Then he starts to massage my neck, and after that I don’t really care.
“You have no idea how good that feels,” I tell him, and he chuckles softly.
“Yeah?” he asks.
“Yes. The perfect end to a crazy day,” I say as his hands work the tight muscles in my shoulders.
“You know…” he says after a moment. “I have some ideas that could make it an even more perfect day.”
I smile and lean my head back on his thigh. “Do you?” I ask.
“I do,” he says and his hands arch over my shoulders, sliding down to the swell of my breasts.
I slink further into the water.
“Should we?” I ask.
“Should we what?” he asks.
“I think you know,” I say, turning around to face him. I’m hovering in the water in front of him, my face level with his crotch. I look up at him from under my eyelashes with a smirk.
“I think we should do whatever we want,” he says as he reaches for me. I pull back, scooting towards the middle of the huge tub.
“But those weren’t the rules,” I say. “We aren’t supposed to…”
Zane slides into the hot tub and moves toward me. “Do you always do what you’re supposed to?” he asks, his voice low and gruff.
He reaches out and runs his fingers across my jawline, down my chin, and to the spot where he left a hickey. A smirk crawls across his lips.
“We really shouldn’t…” I say.
His fingers run back up my neck, and he cups my cheek in his hand.
“I’ll make you a deal…” he says, pressing the ball of his thumb to my lips, tugging them open. “I won’t tell if you don’t.”
“Mmmm” I murmur, and he leans down, his lips brushing mine.
“Deal?” he says.
“Yeah, but only this once.”
Zane wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me close to him. He leans down and kisses me, then sucks on my lower lip for just a second. Instinctively, I wrap my legs around his waist, closing the space between us. His kiss deepens, and I melt into him, releasing a soft moan into his warm mouth.
I hear him make a sound of satisfaction, then gently breaks the kiss. Turning around, he grabs my hand and leads me out of the hot tub and into the house.
Once we are inside, he picks me up, and I wrap my legs around him again.
He kisses me and holds the back of my head with his hand, tugging at my hair.
He carries me into the bedroom and stops at the bedside.
I slide down his body, feet landing on the floor.
He steps away, just a little, and drags his eyes up and down my body.
I am standing in front of him wearing my wet black bikini. I’m starting to get cold and notice little goosebumps forming all over my body.
He reaches his hand out and pulls the string on my bikini bottoms; first the left, then the right.
I step to the right and let it fall to the floor.
He wraps his arm around me and unties the string at my back.
Before he releases the final string that is tied around my neck, he takes my jaw in his hand, pulls me in, and kisses me eagerly.
When I step back to sit on the edge of the bed, my top falls away, leaving me fully naked. I sit there watching him take off his bathing suit. He kicks it away with his foot.
For a moment he just stands there, his chest rising and falling, eyes wild, lips brooding, abs carved like marble, cock thick and erect.
I take a mental snapshot. It’s the perfect shot. Even if I had a real camera right now and took a picture, I’d never share it with anyone. It’s mine.
He wraps his hand around his hard cock and gives it two slow, firm strokes, awakening it even more. He keeps eye contact with me while he strokes himself; I think he likes me watching him.
“Zane,” I say his name because I’m tired of waiting.
“Do you want it?” he asks with a grin as he crawls on top of me.
“I never said I didn’t want it. I said we shouldn’t.”
“What do you think now?” he teases me by pressing the tip of his dick against me, just enough to make my body throb for it, but not enough to penetrate. “Should we? Or should we stop?”
I lift my chin to stare him directly in the eye, and with a smug smile, I say, “We should.” I tilt my hips up to crash against his; he thrusts downward, driving his cock deep inside of me.
“Fuck,” I groan, digging my fingertips into the skin on his back.
“Careful,” he grunts. “You wouldn’t want to leave any marks.”
“Oh no?” I ask. “You left a mark on me.”
“You don’t have people taking your picture all the time for all the world to see, honey,” he says, slowly starting a rhythm with his hips.
“That’s what Photoshop is for, honey.” I say. He smiles broadly and thrusts into me.
Zane pumps in and out of me, faster and harder with each thrust. My fingernails dig deeper into his back, and I do not give a fuck.
This is too delicious and I can think of nothing but how he feels inside me.
The gritty groans coming from him only confirm that he doesn’t care either; we are lost in each other and nothing else is on our minds.
“Zane,” I whimper and he grins. “I’m going to come…” I tell him. He lifts my hips up and picks up the pace, thrusting into me over and over until I cry out. “Oh, God…yes…yes! Fuck!”
“Who do you belong to?” he asks.
“You…” I whimper as I ride the orgasm.
“Who’s pussy is this?” he asks.
“Yours…”
“Good girl,” he says as he comes.
As I melt into the bed, he gets up and runs his hands through his silvery blonde hair with a grin. “There. Now we can go back to following the rules,” he says. He winks at me before sauntering out of the room.
Right. Yeah. After that, I think we should break the rules every chance we get. I roll onto my side, grab a pillow to hold, and drift off into blissful sleep.