“Why didn’t you call me?” Ash didn’t sound amused at her attempt to skirt the issue.
Felicia’s stomach dropped. “What?”
“Don’t pretend you didn’t hear me. I want to know why you didn’t call me after the wedding.”
She laughed. “Because I was with you, wearing a corset and stockings and fuck-me pumps. If you don’t remember, I need to work on my blowjob skills.”
Ash frowned at her. “Felicia, I’m being very serious.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I don’t know why.”
He set his coffee on the table; then he grabbed the covers and pulled them up to his waist. Felicia got the feeling he was trying to protect himself, not from something physical, but from something emotional.
“That’s not good enough,” he said. “You had a reason. Tell me what it was.”
What was she supposed to say? She thought of several lies, and then she remembered the best way to attack things was head-on.
“I was afraid.”
“Of me?” The look of confusion on his face made her want to cry. “Why?”
“Not of you, exactly. When you left…” This time she couldn’t stop it. Tears leaked from her eyes, and she was happy that Ash did nothing more than take her hand and squeeze it gently. If he’d put his arms around her, she was afraid she would fall apart and not be able to give him the answer he wanted, the one he deserved.
“After…the fight…the jail thing, when your parents took you out of the country…it hurt so much that you were gone. I’d cry myself to sleep at night, and my parents, they weren’t very sympathetic. My father told me no good would ever come of you, and I just needed to forget you. My mother was silent as always. The only person who helped me was Courtney.”
Felicia wiped at her tears.
Ash gathered both of her hands in his and held them tight. “Tell me,” he said. “I want to hear it all.”
“She was there when I had this big blowup with my parents.”
“He didn’t hit you, did he?” The tone of his voice told her he was ready to jump on the bike and hightail it to Shiprock to defend her, even after all these years.
“No.” She sniffled. “It was just… I really don’t want to talk about it. But Courtney was there, and afterward she and I went for a ride. We went for lots of rides back then. I told her that when you were back, I was going to sneak up to your house, and the two of us were going to run away together so we didn’t have to worry about what anyone else thought or said. It would just be me and you and any little babies that happened to come along.”
“Then why didn’t you call?” He sounded pissed now, and Felicia pulled her hands away from him.
“You didn’t call either.” Her voice was higher than she wanted it to be, but it matched his, so she didn’t feel too bad. “When you got back from Europe, my phone didn’t ring once.”
He jumped from the bed, his hand knocking over his coffee. The brown liquid spread over the table. “That’s because I saw you with Josh Minton. And when I did call your house, your mother told me you were getting married to him.”
Felicia felt shock, and it quickly turned to anger. “That little…” She wanted to call her mother names, but she couldn’t. “Ash, I never dated Josh. I worked at his parents’ vet clinic that summer. I swear, that was all Josh and I were doing together—working. She lied to you.”
Her sweet, quiet mother, the woman she’d always thought had been on her side but had just not wanted to ruffle her father’s feathers. Her mother knew how hard Ash’s leaving had been on Felicia. Why would she lie to him when she knew how much Ash meant to her daughter?
“Give me my phone.” She held out her hand. Now was the time to talk about this, when she was pissed and would be able to fight back instead of taking the mother-is-always-right road.
“No.” He sat back down. “I meant it when I said this is just us. We have to work this out on our own and not drag them into this. They’ve had too much influence over the whole thing already.”
Felicia leaned her head against his shoulder. “You’re right. My parents were total asses.”
“Mine weren’t any better. I should have known your mother lied, but to tell the truth, after I saw you with Josh, I believed her. I was pissed that you’d found someone else so fast. If she’d told me something like that today, I would question your mother’s statement. But on my side, I had my mother saying that if you really loved me, you would have stood up to your father instead of letting him beat the shit out of me and have me thrown in jail.”
Felicia snuggled against him. “You thought your mother was telling you the truth because you heard about Josh. I thought my mother was telling me the truth when she said you didn’t call.”
Her breath seemed to rattle in her chest. “The truth is, I did stand up for you. The big blowup was me screaming at my father that I would never talk to him again if he didn’t have them release you. I threatened to go to the sheriff and tell him the truth. I guess there was a part of me that thought you might know that.”
“No, I didn’t.” Ash put his arm around her and held her close. She could feel his tenseness, which matched her own right now.
“But at the wedding,” he said, “I thought we might reconnect, especially when I realized you weren’t with Josh. But then you didn’t call.”
Felicia closed her eyes. “I realize now it was stupid, and I should have followed my feelings, but…” She looked at him. “I still have the piece of paper you gave me. It’s in the jewelry box you made for me in school.”
The shocked look on his face made her laugh.
“You still have that?”
“It’s my most prized possession.” She tucked her hair behind her ear. “You know they always ask what you’d save first if you were in a fire? That’s it, for me. If that was lost, I’d cry for days—months, actually.”
She squeezed his thigh. “I still remember when you gave it to me.”
“Me too,” he replied, a seductive gleam in his eyes. “We’d just made love under the moonlight.”
“It was our second time,” she said. “I remember telling my dad, after the incident, that he couldn’t charge you with anything because we waited until I was seventeen, the age of consent. I screamed at him that I’d looked it up to make sure we wouldn’t get in trouble, that I was an adult in the eyes of the state of New Mexico. I think that pissed him off more than anything.”
They were silent for a few long moments. Finally, Ash said, “Getting back to the box—”
“Yes, let’s do,” Felicia butted in. “You told me that night you were going to make me all sorts of jewelry to put inside it. Right now the only thing in there is your class ring, which I still have, and that piece of paper with your phone number on it.”
“Well—” He stopped speaking and kissed her, his lips claiming hers as they always had, making her want him in every way imaginable. When he broke the kiss, he said, “I’ll have to keep my promise, won’t I?”
“I’m going to hold you to it.” She rubbed her nose against his. It was something she’d done quite a bit when they were younger.
Ash stroked his thumbs across her cheeks. “I remember the first time you did that to me.”
All bad memories raced from her mind, and Felicia giggled. “How could you forget it? I did it in front of half the school.”
Ash chuckled. He lay back down on the bed. She stretched out next to him and put her head on his shoulder.
“We were at…” She sat up. “We were at Benny’s house.”
“Yup. For his sixteenth birthday party. He had the cool parents, remember? They didn’t stick around to see what was happening. They provided food and drink, but no alcohol, and told us to have fun.”
“Spin the bottle,” she said. “I remember it well. I’d had a crush on you since I was fifteen, from the first time I saw you in art class. During the game, the bottle pointed toward you, and I’d never been kissed before. I wanted to kiss you so much, but I was so scared, so I rubbed my nose against yours.”
“And I did this.” He cupped his hand at the back of her neck and pulled her down. The kiss was demanding, and she felt herself melt. She opened her mouth and welcomed him inside. He tasted so…well, so Ash-like—the slight taste of tobacco and the mint he ate after he smoked one of his hand-rolled cigarettes.
“I don’t think it was quite so passionate,” she said after his lips left hers.
“You wound me,” Ash said, falling against the pillows in a pretend faint. A seductive glint filled his eyes. “I stuck my tongue in your mouth, though. That much I remember, because I saw fireworks when it was inside you.”
“I felt them too.” She straddled him and whispered against his lips, “But I have to say, your…technique…has improved over the years.”
“Happy to be of service,” he replied. She loved the deep, sexy tone of his voice. He kissed her again, holding her face between his hands. When the kiss broke, he said, “Fireworks?”
“Skyrockets,” she replied, claiming his lips for another kiss.
She knew those soft moans were coming from her mouth.
“What other services can I perform for you this morning?” Ash asked.
Felicia sat up and wiggled her ass against his crotch. She felt his cock harden, although it was trapped in place because of her position.
She rotated her hips again, moaning as she moved. “That feels so good.”
“You’d better be careful,” Ash warned. “I’m not dressed for the occasion. If you lift up enough, I might find my way inside you.”
“I’d welcome you with abandon.”
She gyrated her hips. She felt his dick move. It would be perfect to feel him inside her with no latex between them. “Ash.” She shifted a little more.
“Felicia.” He grasped her hips. “You’re too tempting, babe. We need to play things straight until…”
His voice drifted off.
“Until what, Ash?” The desire she’d felt earlier was burning into anger. “Until we decide if this is just a week’s worth of fucking? Until we know we’re not going to get hurt again? Because I don’t think we can promise each other that.”
When she tried to get up, Ash pushed her back, covering her body with his in a split second.
“You’re right; there’s no guarantee on anything. But we can’t risk bringing a baby into the mix just yet. I’m selfish, and I want you to myself for a few years. Call it making up for missed time.”
Her heart stilled. It tightened painfully, and then she felt herself take a sharp breath.
“Did you say…years?”
“Yes, I did.” He put his lips against her ears. “You got a problem with that?”
“None whatsoever,” she whispered.
“Good.” He shifted positions, and when she looked into his brown eyes, her stomach did flips. “Now, you’ve been a bad girl, trying to tempt me with your bare pussy. This is what’s going to happen. I’m going to lift off you, and you’re going to roll onto your belly.”
“But—” Felicia stopped talking when he put his finger against her lips.
“It’s not open for negotiation.”
“Yes, sir.” She liked the wicked gleam in his eyes. This new side to him was very sexy. Before they’d both been shy, she a little more so than he. But now…she had a feeling he could teach her quite a bit. He stood, and she rolled so that she was in the center of the bed, ass up.
“I like that view,” he said. He lay down next to her, his head propped up on a hand, his arm bent at the elbow. He rubbed her ass with his free hand. “Your skin is so soft.”
“It won’t be if you slap it,” she responded.
He gave her a light tap, one that made her lower region tingle.
“Slapping your bottom just means it will be soft and hot at the same time.” The next smack was harder. The tingle intensified. The third time his palm met her ass, her clit tightened.
“You know, if we had to spend thirteen years apart, I’m glad you used the time to learn a skill that will help give me an orgasm,” she said.
“Excuse me?” He slapped her ass more, alternating between sides. Felicia tried to roll away from him, but he’d sat up and put his butt on her thighs, effectively keeping her in place.
“You’re taking it wrong,” she said, not sure if she should be laughing. But this was so much fun, to feel his hard body on top of hers, even if his hand kept coming down on her butt.
He didn’t spank her long, just enough for her ass to tingle. When he stopped, he put one hand on either cheek and rubbed, faster and faster. The friction increased the need she already had for him to be inside her.
“Please, Ash.”
In response, he delivered a smart smack to each cheek. Felicia groaned. She pushed back as much as she could, considering the weight on her legs.
“That’s not what I meant,” she said, her voice breaking. “I need you inside me.”
“Do you?” He slapped each cheek again. Then he grabbed a handful of her flesh and squeezed. “Beg me.”
“Please!”
“Clearly you didn’t learn begging skills. Allow me to assist you.” He pressed his lips against her ear. His breath tickled her neck. Her nipples hardened; her clit pulsed. “Repeat after me.”
“Please, Ash, I need you,” Felicia repeated the phrase he’d said.
“You sound as if you’re at a garden party.” He had his legs on either side of her. His hard cock pressed into the crack between her ass cheeks. “Say it like you’re a porn star. Moan and groan and make me think you’re my nasty Felicia.”
Those last three words sent her head spiraling into a near orgasmic frenzy. His nasty Felicia.
“Fuck me, fuck me. Give it to me. Make me yours, please, please.” The erotic gasps filling the room were coming from her. She did indeed feel as if she were a porn star, but there was no cameraman, no director. Only her and Ash, which meant she could let go and be as nasty as he wanted her to be.
Felicia whimpered in need. Ash, she soon found out, was a great teacher.
“Let me hear it,” he said when she mumbled his name. He always punctuated his orders with a slap on her ass.
“Ash!” Felicia screamed out, unmindful of the people who might be in the rooms around them. “Fuck me. Give me your dick, hard and fast. Do it now! Stick it in me!”
This time her cries sounded perfect even to her. When Ash reached for the condom that lay on the bed, she knew he thought the same thing. She heard him rip it open.
She lifted her hips and spread her legs as wide as she could. “Fuck me,” she said when she felt his heat behind her. “Take me, Ash.”