18. Liv #2
“You know, I don’t think you’ve ever been this nice to me. I’m going to remember this moment.” The deep rumble of his voice against my neck had me squirming beneath him. Until he moved away.
“I don’t care what you do, just—” The bed shifted with his movement.
Strong hands slid beneath my arms and pulled roughly aligning my back with his chest. It wasn’t what I expected, but he surrounded me again, caging me in in a way that felt safe, not confining.
He loosened my ponytail, gently tugging the elastic to release the strands.
Slowly, his fingers trailed down the back of my neck, with a light pull to tip my head back against his shoulder.
When his mouth pressed to a spot beneath my ear, the unexpected light touch in the darkness would’ve had my body jerking if he hadn’t held me in place.
Warmth seeped into my skin as he moved one hand to the hem of my shirt, sliding it beneath the material, lightly drawing his hand over my stomach.
In another life, I might have hissed at him not to touch me there, to avoid the soft flesh, but I’d given up hating myself over what someone else thought I should look like after constant comparisons.
Instead, I let his hand continue the caressing path up my body until he found what he sought.
The soft fabric of his shirt was light and barely touched me, but still agonizing against the peaked tips of my breasts until his rough palm glided over them, nearly making me whimper at the contrast.
Ash’s breath remained even, mostly, though he inhaled sharply when he palmed my breast. A mental image of how we must look popped in my mind, and I nearly regretted the darkness until I remembered he switched off the lights to keep me from drowning in my thoughts. Which was exactly what I was?—
Pressure on my nipple, sweet and sharp almost to the point of pain, snapped my mind back to the situation at hand.
“I hear you thinking again.” His voice sounded near my ear.
“Sorry.” I gasped as he pinched the other nipple harder, smoothing his thumb over the slight twinge.
“Don’t apologize. I’ve got you.” His fingers cupped me, squeezing lightly as my breasts spilled over his fingers. “Enjoy it, Barnes. Take all the time you need.” His tongue traced the dip of my collarbone, the delicate curve there more sensitive that I’d realized, and I whimpered.
Oh, God, how embarrassing.
“Fuck, Olivia.” A low groan in my ear, a scrape of teeth where my neck met my shoulder. The sound left my throat again, making Ash’s fingers dig into my tits harder, and—he liked the sounds I made?
His hands slid lower, the rough tips of his fingers warming me through. And I shifted to let my thighs fall apart, silently inviting him to do more.
“You still with me?”
“I’m literally right with you. It’s not like I went anywhere.” Oops. Damn my smart mouth .
“Olivia.” The commanding tone returned, all bossy and demanding. The sound of my name in his mouth burned more than the bite of his teeth.
“Sorry,” I mumbled, grateful for the darkness to hide my face, and the expression I was sure would be half horrified, half snarky smirk.
“I thought I said not to apologize.”
“Yes, sir,” I said, more to be a smartass than anything else, but he made a growling sound in his throat. “Oh, you liked that? Sir?”
“This isn’t about me.” Oh, his voice went even deeper.
“I’m sorry…sir.”
“Olivia Elaine Barnes. Shut. Up.”
Shit, I liked that. I shouldn’t, but…
Shit .
The “yes, sir” came out of my mouth before I could stop it, and me muttered praise and admonishment against my skin, all while slowly pushing his hand lower, still avoiding the one place?—
Oh hell , one finger pressed down right over my aching center.
Another pathetic whine escaped my lips. Ash grasped my chin with his free hand and captured my mouth with his, stealing the sound as I made it again when he pressed harder against my throbbing clit.
Then he moved his hand away .
A keening sound left my throat, but he stole it too as his deft fingers traced the crease of my thigh, mapping the shape of me like he needed to commit it to memory.
Moving his hand over the curve of my hip, the softness of my stomach.
Drawing me into a sense of ease seemed to be his goal, except it was doing the opposite, ramping up the building heat.
Anticipation built as his fingers drifted closer to my center, my breath coming in short pants turning to ragged inhales as his fingers slid away. Again.
“Ash.” His name fell from my lips in a groan, a plea for him to put me out of my misery, but still, he continued, his fiery path drawing lines of aching pleasure leading straight to my core.
And my drench, pulsing center clenched on nothing, when finally, fucking finally , he let his hand drift lower to part me again. A single finger traced through the gathered wetness, and I let out another awful sound.
“Olivia, you feel—” He cut himself off when I grabbed his wrist before he could pull away again.
Even taking him by surprise, he was immovable.
All those stupid hockey muscles gave him strength I hadn’t anticipated.
“Look at you, taking over,” he murmured, drawing closer to where I needed him, his voice sending skittering vibrations down my spine. “You’re doing so well, Olivia.”
“Oh God, Oh God .”
“You can just call me Ash.”
Somehow his cockiness made it worse. Made me lose all control of my body.
Everything went tense and loose at once, and all I could do was breathe and feel.
It was new, feeling this at all, but feeling this way with Ash…
it was ground-breaking, like discovering a new element when it sparked in your face.
Then his finger traced my entrance, drawing wetness up to my clit, and I lost all coherent thought.
Sparks danced in my vision, and my eyes squeezed closed when he stroked, slowly drawing circles closer and closer around to where I needed him until he…
stopped. I hissed as I struggled to crack my lids open to see what the fuck he thought he was doing, and one thick finger sank into me.
It was agonizing bliss and sweet torture, but I still needed more.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck , Ash, I can’t—” But I forgot all words as he slid another finger inside me, another, stoking the building fire.
“Take what you need, Olivia. I’ve got you.”
My hips tipped up, taking him deeper. I groaned as he stroked the spot I could never quite reach on my own.
“So good, Barnes. Are you gonna come for me?”
Every cell in my body lit up from the inside at the praise, and I wanted to come for him, I did, but the harder I tried, the further it slipped away until I was a sobbing, gasping mess.
Humor laced his words when he said, “You’re doing so well. I’m right here; just let go.”
“What?” The word came out almost as a shriek, it was so loud in the near silence.
“You must be so close. Let go and come for me.” The hand not between my legs found a nipple again, rolling and playing with the taut bud until my breaths grew uneven again.
When his thumb found my clit, and his fingers curled inside me, my body nearly arched off the bed, held steady by the confines of his arms. White light engulfed my vision, and my inner walls clenched around his fingers, wringing a strangled cry out of me.
“Fuck, Ash, don’t stop. Right there .” The new, higher angle of my hips and all the places he touched me sent me over the edge.
Building bliss grew so slowly, creeping along my body so lightly at first that I barely noticed it until I was caught in the syrupy feeling trapping my limbs as the sensation grew.
Pleasure spread in perfect, incandescent waves from my core, spread further by Ash murmuring in my ear, keeping me present in a way I usually couldn’t maintain.
Ash’s steady, solid presence at my back grounded me, keeping me from spiraling out.
And when the peak finally came, I barreled over it, falling over the edge in a cascade of sparkling sensation.
When the paralysis of pleasure released me, awareness slowly filtered back.
Heat scorched my back, and it took a moment to realize the pounding rhythm against my shoulder blade was his heartbeat.
It took another moment to realize he still traced lazy circles over my clit, turning the hypersensitive flesh nearly ticklish.
With a flinch, I put a hand on his arm and turned to face him as best I could in this position, with my back pressed against his front.
“Fuuuuuck.” The word stretched out, everything still on a lag from the bone melting orgasm.
I was a puddle, spilling off his body, only upright because Ash was.
My entire body tingled and tensed, electricity arcing down every nerve like a weird Tesla coil.
Finally, when I stopped shaking and could breathe again, I drank down air like I was drowning, realizing I was a mess.
Sated, but a bedraggled and damp mess all the same.
“Holy shit. That was…” I rolled over onto my stomach, looking up at Ash. His smugness was all I needed to see.
Still, tenderness laced the smugness, and I watched his black eyes take in the length of my body sprawled on his bed. “Good, huh? I told you could do it.”
The limpness in my body disappeared, replaced by a ravenous desire for him, and I rose up on my arms to meet his eyes, prepared to slide over to straddle him. A jaw-cracking yawn interrupted my plans. Ash leaned over, kissing my forehead.
“I bet the food’s been delivered. We can eat and go to sleep.”
Hmm. I liked the sound of that, but still, wanting him remained like embers of a slow-burning fire.
A new tenderness for this previously unknown aspect of Ash put me into a dreamy contemplative state.
I went into this not knowing what to expect from either of us, and came out the other side feeling closer to him than before.
He saw me, talked me out of my own head again, and gave me what might have been the most intense orgasm of my life.
The first given by another person, certainly.
If I wasn’t careful, I’d fall so much harder for this man.