Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Ashley dreamed she was listening to the most beautiful song in the world. One that stirred her heart, moved her soul, and made her want to sing along.
As she slowly came awake to the now familiar feel of the bus’s tires moving along the freeway, she realized she hadn’t been listening to the song in her dreams. The music was coming from just beyond the bedroom door.
It didn’t occur to her to put on clothes or to wrap a sheet around herself as she got out of bed, not when she didn’t want to wait another second to see Drew again. She’d never heard him play this melody before.
Could it possibly be a new song?
As quietly as possible so that she wouldn’t disturb his concentration, she opened the door and poked her head through. But of course Drew noticed her immediately. He stopped playing, put the guitar down at his side, then smiled and held out a hand for her.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”
She was surprised that she didn’t feel shy at all about her nakedness as she moved toward him and took his hand.
Then again, there wasn’t really any room for shy when he was looking at her like this—with so much heat and desire that her hormones revved from zero to a thousand in the time it took him to pull her onto his lap.
“Don’t apologize. I wish you had woken me earlier,” she told him as she straddled his lap and lowered her mouth to his for a kiss.
He had put on a pair of jeans, but she could feel his erection pushing the zipper into the bare flesh between her thighs.
It would be so easy to get lost in his kiss—and the way his big hands were moving down her back and then over her hips to cup her bare bottom and pull her closer—but she needed to know about his song first.
“The song you were playing…it’s incredible.”
“It’s pretty rough still, but it’s coming along.”
He reached up to brush his thumb over her lower lip, a mesmerizing pattern that made it hard to think straight. However, the fact that he was writing again was such a big deal that even her newfound sensuality had to take a backseat to it.
“It didn’t sound rough, Drew. I thought I was dreaming at first, dreaming of the most beautiful song I’d ever heard.” She could see how pleased he was by her reaction to the song. “When did you write it?”
“Just now.”
“Now?”
“You fell asleep in my arms, and I didn’t want to get up out of bed.
Didn’t want to let go of you. Not ever, if I didn’t have to.
But then the music started playing in my head.
In my hands, too. Like it was going to burst out of my bones and skin if I didn’t grab my guitar that second.
” He looked amazed by it even as he spoke.
“That’s never happened to me before. I mean, I’ve been inspired, but not like this. ”
Ashley moved even closer and hugged him tightly with her entire body. “I’m so happy for you. So happy that your muse is back.”
“It’s you, Ash.” He shifted them on the chair so that he could look into her eyes. “You’re the reason it’s back.”
“Me?” Of all the things he could have said, nothing would have surprised her more. “How could I have anything to do with your song?”
“Because when we made love, the walls that had been building up, the blocks that had been settling into place…” He rubbed his cheek against hers, and it felt so lovely that she sighed at the sweet, simple pleasure of it.
“All the pleasure, all the joy, all the mind-blowing bliss of being with you pushed the bad things out of the way.”
Everything he was saying was so sweet, and incredibly flattering, too. But it was a lot for her to take in. Too much, honestly.
She’d never planned to be anyone’s muse. And could barely believe that someone as normal as she could inspire great art.
But instead of fighting to unravel her strange feelings about it, she focused on Drew and his music. “Now that the inspiration is flowing again, you should keep writing. I can go back into the bedr—”
“Stay.” He cradled her hips in his hands and scooted her even closer. “I want you again. I need you again.”
Oh God, she needed him just as badly. But she’d never forgive herself if she got between him and his music, so she made herself say, “Promise me you won’t forget the song you were writing.”
“I promise I won’t, but you’ve got to promise me something, too.”
“What?”
“That you won’t try to get up off my lap until I’ve made you come again.”
Just like that, with nothing but his wonderfully dirty words, he took her right to the edge of release. “I promise.”
He crushed her mouth beneath his as soon as the promise left her lips.
And though the faint light creeping in through the blinds told her it had only been a handful of hours since they’d made love, she needed him again with the same desperate anticipation she’d felt right before he’d made her his for the very first time.
He swept her hair back from her shoulders with one hand, then gently tugged the strands so that her head tilted back, leaving her neck open for his lips and tongue and teeth.
She didn’t even realize she was rocking her pelvis into his until he used his other hand against her bottom to increase the pressure and the friction of the denim against her.
She’d told him last night that she was good at being the good girl, but she didn’t feel like that good girl anymore. At least not when she was naked and straddling Drew in the middle of his tour bus, on the verge of coming apart on his lap while he urged her to do just that.
“Come for me, Ash. Just like this.” He murmured the heated words against the upper swell of her breasts.
“I love watching you come.” He licked the tip of one breast, and she felt every muscle in her body clench.
“I love feeling you come.” He turned his focus to her other breast, drawing slow, wet circles around her nipple with his tongue. “I love hearing you come.”
Barely a beat later, when he rocked her into his denim-covered erection at the exact moment that his teeth scraped over her incredibly aroused skin, she came for him, just the way he wanted her to.
She rolled her hips into him, riding the wave of pleasure as long as she possibly could while it went on and on and on.
Just when she thought she’d never survive it, her system finally began to calm. But clearly Drew had other plans for her as he slid his fingers through the slick wetness between her legs.
“You’re so hot right here, Ash.” He lifted his fingers to his mouth and licked them, as if she were the most decadent, delicious treat ever made. “And you taste so damned good.”
She didn’t think, didn’t second-guess, just followed her instincts and leaned forward to lick his fingers, too. She’d barely slid her tongue over the pad of his middle finger when his mouth stole in and captured hers.
He kissed her as though he’d never, ever get enough. And she couldn’t stop herself from kissing him back the exact same way.
No matter what happened after this tour, she’d always have the sweet memories of feeling like the center of his world. She’d remember—and be grateful for—these stolen moments with Drew every day for the rest of her life.
But a split second later, when he slid his hand back down between her legs and thrust his fingers inside of her, she wasn’t thinking about making memories anymore.
She honestly couldn’t think at all. Could only focus on how good everything felt as Drew whispered such incredibly sweet words against her sweat-dampened skin.
“Again, Ash. Let yourself go and I’ll be here for you. Always.”
No one had ever promised to always be there for her. Not her friends at school. And certainly not any of the guys she’d gone on dates with. Not even her parents, who had spent so much of their time at odds with each other.
Only Drew.
She looked into his eyes, wanting to ask how he could make her such a big promise.
But when she saw the same vow in his gaze—and she felt it in his touch, as if heightening her pleasure would only serve to heighten his, too—any questions she might have asked were lost in the wonder of being with such an amazing man.
One who never just took what he wanted, but who gave. And gave. And gave.
Between one heartbeat and the next, another climax crashed over her, so strong that if Drew hadn’t been holding her so tightly, she might have slid right off his lap onto the floor.
And then he was lifting her into his arms and carrying her into his bedroom.
He sat with his back against the headboard and then brought her over him so that her legs were straddling his hips.
Perhaps she should have been sated by now, but she was absolutely desperate to take him inside her body.
Not just his fingers this time, not just his tongue. Every beautifully hard inch of him.
With shaky fingers, she reached down to undo the button and zipper on his jeans, but thankfully he was already working himself out of them and reaching for one of the condoms from the side table.
He slid the protection into place, and then his hands were on her hips again, and he was lifting her up over him.
“I know we should be taking it slow, Ash. Last night was your first time, and I know you’re not used to—”
She cut off the rest of his words by sinking down fast and hard onto him, taking all of him in one long, hot, perfect slide.
Her breath whooshed from her lungs as he filled every last part of her, but she didn’t wait to get it back before wrapping her arms around him and holding on tight as she rode him like the bad girl she’d never been until today.
“Can you hear it, Ash?” His words felt hot and damp against her earlobe as he groaned at the pleasure she was giving him. Giving them both. He bit down on the sensitive flesh, and she shuddered against him. “Can you hear the music playing?”
“Yes.” Every moment she was with him was a symphony of pleasure. An opera of emotion. The perfect pop song that cut right to the heart of everything she was feeling. “Always.”
The word always had barely fallen from her lips when Drew spun them around so that she was lying beneath him on the bed and his deliciously heavy weight was pressing her down into the mattress.
“Now, Ash.” He gritted out the words as sweat dripped down from his chest to hers. “I need you to come again for me now. I can’t hold back much longer.”
“I don’t want you to hold back, Drew. I’m desperate to feel you come inside of me.”
His eyes dilated nearly to black right before he threw back his head and thrust into her so hard that she could barely hang on.
He felt impossibly big inside of her as he took her again and again and again, and she loved every single second of it.
Especially when every thrust brought her closer, took her higher, until the perfect moment when he gripped her hips and erased any distance that had remained between them, his climax setting off hers in a sequence of fireworks inside her body.
The brightest, most brilliant and beautiful fireworks she’d ever experienced.
All because of Drew.