Chapter 8 Ember #2
“Just a little,” I whispered. “Maybe you could warm me up, daddy?” I chewed on my bottom lip, shocked at my boldness. His eyes changed. Turned darker. Hungrier. More predatory than before.
“I’m sure that’s something I can more than handle, pretty girl.” He set me down slowly, making sure I felt every inch of him before my feet touched the ground. “What if you take a hot bath and—“ The lights chose that moment to turn back on.
I couldn’t hide the weird disappointment I felt. I’d always hated the dark, yet there I was, standing in the living room over an hour away from home, sad the space had filled with light I usually loved.
“Generators kicked in,” he mumbled. I nodded quietly.
Somehow, in the now bright room, some of the inhibitions I had lost started to build back up. And I had a feeling that without having to say the words, he knew that. Could somehow sense it.
“Do you trust me, princess?” Warm wetness coated my thighs. The answer made my tongue feel almost too big for my mouth.
“Yes,” I answered, just above a whisper. I couldn’t tear my eyes off him as he moved.
His tall, strong body moved with a confidence and grace that dropped off the man. And he’s mine. The thought was jarring. Mine. The more it volleyed in my head, the truer it felt. I hardly knew the man’s full name. Past that, I was clueless about him.
But it was something deeper than trivial facts I could learn in a quick game of twenty questions that made me trust him.
It was like my soul, my spirit, recognized his. This thing was more than attraction to a seriously handsome stranger I’d just met. Mine. Immediately, I realized just how whole I suddenly felt. Like a part of me that I hadn’t known was missing, was back.
He reached the panel that held what seemed like a dozen switches on the wall by the door.
His fingers hovered over one in particular for a moment before he pressed it.
The cabin dimmed, filling back with only the warm, golden hue of the fire roaring at my side and the moonlight still streaming through the windows.
“Better?” he asked, and those walls that had started to come back up crashed to the ground without a second thought.
For better or worse, I was going to take a chance on him. For a night, a week, or however long this could be.
“Better,” I responded with a smile. Before I could inhale completely, he was back with me.
“Fuck the shower.”
“Okay, we can do that later,” I whispered, and he winked.
I giggled, my heart and soul lighter than they had felt in a long time.
Before I could think, my feet were no longer touching the ground, and I was back up in his arms. This time like a bride would be carried by her groom as my arms wrapped around his neck.
“I got you, princess. I promise I got you.” The tone of his voice felt like it was more than a promise. It was a vow.
We didn’t stop until we reached the main bedroom of the cabin.
It was spacious, a lot bigger than any master bedroom I had ever seen before.
I’d only been in there for a moment, not nearly enough time to appreciate the beauty of the spindled cedar wood bedframe of the California king-size bed with the luxurious bedding in the prettiest, deepest shade of hunter green.
And standing in front of the man who had taken my breath away with one look, I wasn’t paying attention to it then, either.
“You’re so fucking beautiful, I’m not sure how the hell it’s possible that you’re real, Ember.”
“You’re not so bad yourself.” I chewed on my bottom lip, but his hand came up and pulled it out.
“Don’t. Those lips are perfect. Don’t hurt them,” he muttered. His gaze made my mouth tingle. I swallowed with a nod. “In the name of being honest, how far do you want to take this, princess?”
“I thought you were going to take care of me.” My voice shook as I sassily repeated his words back at him. He smirked. Good lord, the man was handsome. Way too handsome for his own good. It made me wonder about the countless times that smirk probably made panties melt right off women.
“Oh, I am, princess. I’m going to make you feel so good, I’m going to make you forget your name.
“ My sex clenched. If any other man said this, I would have called bullshit. But there was something about Asher, about daddy, that made me believe he’d more than deliver on his word.
“But you need to tell me right now how far you want this to go.” The tips of Asher’s fingers skimmed my shoulder, roaming down to my hand then hip and back up, stopping just beneath my breasts.
My breath hitched, and it felt like my lungs couldn’t draw a full breath of air.
“I’m yours,” I whispered. I might have been in a lust-filled haze, but I knew exactly what I was doing and saying.
I was his.
Completely.
Jesus, this was insane!
I wondered for a split second if this was what Abby and Tabitha had felt when they’d fallen in love at first sight. Love at first sight? Was that what this was? Even if it was doomed not to last from the very start?
“Princess, I need your words. Daddy wants to make sure we don’t do anything you’re not comfortable with.” Oh yeah, love at first sight was exactly what this was.
“There isn’t anything you aren’t allowed to do to me, daddy,” I answered. I was his. He might not have asked for it, but I was completely his. Heart, body, and soul.
“And I’m yours, princess.” He took my hand and lifted it up between us. Without taking his eyes off mine, he pressed his lips to my knuckles before dropping my hand and pulling me in closer.
“I’m going to unwrap you like my very own late Christmas gift, baby girl.” A shiver rushed through me. “Daddy’s going to tell you everything he’s going to do before he does it.” I licked my lips, more than ready for his unwrapping.
He turned me around, back against his front, and my eyes fluttered shut as his hands glided back and forth on the hem of the oversized sweater I’d tossed over my pajamas. My knees knocked together as my back arched; something inside of me needed to be closer to him.
“This is cute,” he whispered. “So soft.” I swear I had no idea how I kept standing with the way everything in my body ached with anticipation. “You’re the prettiest, most beautiful person I’ve ever seen in my life, Ember.” I felt his head dip lower and breathe me in deeper, exhaling with a groan.
“Ash,” I breathed. He leaned in closer as the pads of his fingers dipped under the material of the sweater.
“That’s not what you call me.” I could hear the smile in his voice. “Unless you’ve changed your mind.”
“I haven’t, daddy,” I quickly answered.
“Good girl.” I trembled at his praise. My thighs rubbed together for relief.
“Let’s take this off so I can see a little more of you, baby.
” His fingers hooked under the material, pushing the sweater up my body yet somehow not dragging his fingers against my torso, almost like he was trying to make me whimper with anticipation.
He lifted it up over my shoulders and tossed it behind him, letting it fall on the ground with a soft thud.
I felt his eyes on every square inch of my exposed skin as his front pressed tighter against my back.
There was no denying he liked what he saw even with the somewhat dorky, slightly sexy PJs I was wearing when he’d arrived, surprising the two of us.
How can that have been just a couple hours ago?
Why does it feel like I’ve known him for a lifetime?
“I don’t know what I did in a past life to deserve you, but I can’t deny that I’d go through anything a million times over to be here standing with you tonight.
” His lips lightly skimmed over my frantic pulse point.
“Even if you told me to stop right now,” he whispered.
His lips lightly hovered over the line of my neck as I tilted my head to give him access.
“Just this. Just watching the way your body responds to mine would be enough. Kissing those angelic lips would be enough to last me a lifetime.”
“But I need more,” I whined, and he growled.
“Oh, you’re going to get more.” His hips thrust forward, and I gasped. “So much more,” he promised, and I believed him. Somehow, in the span of a couple of hours, my common sense seemed to have disappeared, along with being a realist.
All that was left was a na?ve dreamer who was coming to life for the very first time in my twenty-eight years on earth.