Chapter 29
29
ZARINA
The water pressure in Ashe’s house was so much better than mine. So after the whole incident with The EA, which was now extinct, I stayed under his shower until the water ran cold.
He was still with the club, probably briefing the rest of the Redliners about what had happened in that warehouse.
I asked him to keep his descriptions brief when I was around, because I wasn’t sure just how much I wanted to know about the things my family endured just so those brats could get a hard on.
Toni was fine, even though Rome had forced him to get checked out by the family doctor anyway. He’d been knocked out for quite a while, and she was worried that his cheeriness was uncharacteristic.
Which to be fair, it was.
I turned the water off and wrapped myself in one of Ashe’s fluffy black towels, letting myself linger in the steamy bathroom for a while before worrying about getting dressed.
“You still here, darlin’?” I heard him call out and the door close behind him.
“In here!”
The bathroom door cracked open, and Ashe leaned against the frame, smirking down at me.
My arms continued working to pull the brush through my hair, but my mind was completely fixated on the sight of him in front of me.
His big arms flexing, the veins in his hands popping slightly with the grip he had on the door frame, the way his shirt lifted up slightly, giving me a tease of the firm stomach and trail of hair that disappeared down the front of his pants.
God, I wanted to bite into him.
But even more attractive than his body, his smirk, his face, was the way he was looking at me right now.
The way that he always looked at me.
Like I was someone so fucking interesting. Like he saw right through the pretty exterior and into the bullshit mess that was inside and still wanted me more than anyone had ever wanted anyone before.
I’d seen that look before.
My brothers and my friends looked at their wives and girlfriends that way, but I had never been on the receiving end before. Even standing in his bathroom, dripping like a drowned rat, with mascara smudged around my eyes and my waterproof lipstick fraying around the edges of my lips, he looked at me like I was the fucking sun after a persistent wet season.
“You’re a sight, ya know that?”
I arched a brow. “A good one?”
He chuckled, and my stomach flipped. “A fucking beautiful one.”
Ashe closed the space between us then, standing behind me and gripping the bathroom counter, caging me against him. He dipped his head into the crook of my neck, dragging his nose against my shoulder until he pressed his lips against my throat, humming a little as he did it.
I closed my eyes, letting the tingle that came after rush through my body, down my spine, and settle right between my legs. A shudder of a breath escaped me, and his mouth stretched into a smile against my skin.
His hand gripped my hip, squeezing it hard and pulling me closer against his body. I felt his hard length pressed against me, the evidence of just how much he wanted me, and I bit down on the whimper that rose in my throat.
“Ashe,” I said, without having words to follow it.
And like he knew, he chuckled, yanking at the towel wrapped around me and letting it fall to the ground. I watched him through the reflection of the mirror, and met his dark eyes there, roaming.
“Fuck,” he gritted out, shaking his head as his gaze moved down.
He reached up, taking my breasts in his hands and squeezing, thumbs padding over the peaks of my nipples as he did. My eyes fluttered closed, and I let my head lean back to rest on his shoulder while he played.
Ashe’s large frame caged me in, wrapped around me, enveloped me completely, and I had never felt more comfortable.
One rough hand continued to knead, switching between the left and right nipple, as the other hand snaked down my stomach and between my legs. He parted me with his fingers, finding my clit and circling slowly, and I sucked in a breath.
“All for me?” he arched a brow as he felt just how ready I was for him, still staring at our reflections in the mirror.
I nodded furiously, wanting him to go faster, harder—give me more.
“Yes,” I breathed out, barely able to complete the word as his fingers danced painfully gentle against my clit.
He pulled me harder against him, fingers working quicker and my breathing grew more ragged. I watched my face in the mirror, watched as the pink rushed to my cheeks. I was getting close, my thighs began to shake and betray me as Ashe pushed me closer and closer towards the edge.
“Look at you,” he whispered against my jaw, his eyes still locked on my reflection. “You going to come all over my hand, Princess?”
I nodded wordlessly as he rubbed and circled and flicked. The feeling of his cock pressing urgently against my back only made me more desperate, just knowing how much this man wanted me was enough to make me fall apart under his touch.
When he nipped at my earlobe again, I toppled over the edge. My whole body tensed, shuddered, and then went limp in his arms.
But he wasn’t done.
“You want more, darlin’?”
I nodded lamely again, because I wasn’t sure that I could speak yet. And with a chuckle, Ashe pushed me forward, bending me over the bench until my nipples met the cold porcelain of the sink, adding a whole new sensation into the mix.
“Good,” he growled before sinking into me fully.
A low groan escaped my mouth as he filled me. It was a sensation that I wasn’t sure I’d ever get enough of.
His fingers dug into my hips and he swore through his teeth. “Fuck, Zar.”
For a few sweet moments, he stayed like that, giving my body time to adjust to the size of him before he started to move. He pulled out all the way, before plunging back into me again. His movements were slow, but hard.
Sure and careful, but desperate.
Gentle and reverent, but rough.
Every thrust was delicious. Every movement had my eyes rolling back. I was panting before he even picked up his pace.
“Ashe,” I moaned, knocking whatever knick knacks and miscellaneous items he had placed on the bathroom counter as my hands splayed out in search of something to grip onto.
He leaned forward, taking my breasts in his hands and kneading roughly, nipping and biting at my neck as he did. He kept up with the steady rhythm, moving and hitting that spot just right with each buck of his hips.
“I want to fuck you forever, Zarina,” he said against my ear, sending a trail of goosebumps down my spine with nothing but his gravelly voice.
A pathetic little squeak of agreement was all I could manage. Because yes, I wanted him to fuck me forever. I wanted him to bend me over this bench after every shower. I wanted him to fold my legs over my head every time we got into bed. I wanted to ride him on the couch with reality TV playing in the background.
My vision was accompanied by little stars in my periphery and I clamped a hand over my mouth, biting down on the squeal that threatened to escape when I tightened and came again.
“Jesus, Zarina,” he growled.
Because this time, Ashe followed me over that edge, and with a deep moan that was becoming my new favourite sound of all time, he pulsed and finished and spilled into me.
We stayed like that for a bit, panting in time and trying to catch our breaths, before Ashe turned and put the shower back on, taking me into his arms once the water was warm and pulling me into the spray.
I stood there under the water, still a little orgasm-drunk and delirious while he rubbed me down with the soft wash cloth and soap that smelled like him. It was a masculine yet luxurious scent that lingered wherever he went.
Then he quickly washed himself down before hopping out, wrapping me into a fresh, fluffy towel, fastening one around his own waist, and throwing me over his shoulder with an effortless swing.
I chuckled and kicked my feet, and was met with a playful smack on the ass while he carried me to his bedroom. He threw me on the impossibly soft bed, where he sat me up, dried my hair and then brushed it, all in comfortable silence.
Ashe may have been a man of few words, but his actions had always spoken loud enough for me.
I was yawning by the time he drew the blinds shut, darkening the room to the outside world so we might be able to pretend we were the only people to exist for a little while.
“Do you think your brother will be able to accept me eventually?” he asked quietly once it was dark and I was tucked against him.
I turned to look up at him, only the silhouette of his face was visible, but I could see that it was tense.
“You guys saved us all today. I think we can safely say that the Redliner-Santino feud is officially over.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
I leaned over to the bedside table to flick on the small warm light, and Ashe cringed away from it, eyebrows drawing together.
“Hey,” I frowned up at him, tapping him on the chin until he looked at me. “What did you mean?”
He let out a long sigh, shaking his head.
“I mean will he accept me as a man dating his sister? Not just as a Redliner.”
A smile played at my lips.
“Are you saying you wanna be my boyfriend, Ashe?” I bit my lip, fluttering my eyelashes at him.
He rolled his eyes, throwing one of the decorative pillows at my head and turning away from me.
“Do you wanna kiss me?” I made kissy faces at him, and he chuckled, pushing me away.
“Do you wanna looove me?” I nuzzled my face against his.
With a growl, he rolled then, taking me with him until he had my hands pinned above my head. He considered me for a moment, eyes tracing each detail of my face as I arched a brow at him.
“Yeah,” he admitted after a beat, and my mouth fell open a little at the admission. “Yeah, I think I do.”
I rolled my lips inwards, blinking away the totally-unrelated way that my eyes seemed to sting. My chest tightened, and my throat stung with the warning of emotion.
He lowered himself onto his elbows, hovering just above me and taking my face into his big hands.
“I want to be yours, Zarina. And I want you to be mine. Is that so hard to believe?”
I closed my eyes and shook my head.
“Hey,” he urged. When I opened my eyes again, he was frowning down at me. “You’re something special, girl. I see you. I see every fucking bit of you. And I like all of it. Okay?”
“Okay,” I said, but it came out tense.
“Come here,” he sighed, rolling again and taking me with him so that my head rested on his chest. I soaked him in for a little while in silence, soaked in his words and his admission and the honesty that I felt when he said them.
It didn’t feel like a trick, it didn’t feel like an exaggeration. It felt like this man did truly see me, and that he had from the start.
“I think Toni will love you,” I said into the dark much later. “Just like I do.”
His arms tightened around me and he let out a heavy breath. And I realised then that maybe I wasn’t the only one who felt like I hadn’t ever been seen quite correctly.
And so I held onto him.
“I love you too, Zar,” he whispered against my hair. I closed my eyes when he said it, trying to commit the sound of his wobbly voice to memory.
But I didn’t have to worry about forgetting what it sounded like, because from that night on, he never missed an opportunity to say it again.