7. Reese

CHAPTER 7

Reese

S he took awhile but when she pops out of the bathroom, it’s worth the wait. She’s gorgeous. Her hair falls in soft, light brown waves of caramel gold. Her gray eyes are lit with silver sparks that glow in the light. I’ve turned down the lights and left one lamp lit.

I pat the chair at the table and she comes over, sitting down and giggling slightly when I push her chair in for her.

My mama taught her kids to have manners. I know how to treat a woman. Especially a special woman like Ashleigh.

“Ashleigh, you told me you don’t have any allergies so I made some of my venison stew and biscuits. Then I’ve got some strawberries from my greenhouse and a little shortcake to go with it.”

She smiles at me. “You can call me Ash.”

“Ash? I like it.”

We eat and talk and it’s nice. It’s pleasant and I’ve never been more comfortable and yet uncomfortable with a woman. I want more. I want it all.

I hold out my hand and touch one of her hands gently, smiling when she wraps her hand around my big paw.

She’s so damn tiny that it feels like I could break her. I bet anything that she’s not though. She’s a firecracker that could blow at any minute and I like it. I love it!

She’s curvy and sexy and just plain gorgeous and it’s got my dick hard as hell and my pulse throbbing with the need to touch her, take her, love her. Forever.

When we’re done with dinner, I grab the dessert and dish it up, handing her one. I sit down and watch her take a delicate nibble at the simple dessert. She closes her smoky eyes and moans, her tongue slicking along her plush mouth again. My eyes follow the movement and I groan deep in my belly.

“Ash?”

“It’s so good.”

I growl under my breath and her eyes open again, her pupils dark and blown.

“Let’s finish this up and go play some chess.”

She shrinks back. “Okay.”

So when we finish up I pull out the old board and my wooden chess pieces, giving her first choice. She picks white. What a surprise since she’s so damn innocent. It radiates off of her like a light.

But I settle down and drop my chin in my hand, studying the board when she moves her knight.

I nod my head and carefully move my own pawn from the back. With move after move, I tempt her out further until her queen is exposed and then I take it, moving along her king.

“Check mate.”

“Dammit,” she whispers then smiles. “That didn’t take long. Have you played a lot?”

“We didn’t have a lot of games or anything like that when I was young. But my mom had an old board that she found somewhere and we studies it until we learned to play each other. We didn’t have money to go out so this was our entertainment.”

She nods and her gray eyes study me closely. “Your mom was a single parent?”

“Yeah. My dad left us right after I was born. He didn’t want to have kids and I was the last straw.”

“Yeah. At least you had your mom.”

“You didn’t?”

“From what I understand my mother didn’t know who my father was. And she didn’t want to be a parent so after five years, she dropped me off with her mother. Who didn’t want anything to do with me.”

I reach out and touch her hand, holding it and rubbing my thumb along her hand. “I’m so sorry. Was your grandma nice?”

“No. She was very stern and she didn’t think kids should be heard at all.”

“Ugh. That’s awful. Kids are supposed to have fun. I might not have had much but I knew my mom loved me. She was just so busy with work to keep us going that she didn’t have a lot left to give.”

“I’m sorry that you lost her.”

I sigh, absently tracing her skin. “My older sister ran away when she turned eighteen. To be with a guy that I’m sure wasn’t nearly good enough for her. It broke my mom. She made it until my eighteenth birthday the next year and then she was gone.”

I look up and her eyes shimmer with tears. “I’m so sorry. That must have been so hard for you. You were so young.”

I shrug. “I was older than most. I learned to take care of myself at a young age so I just kept on. And then I did a crazy thing.”

“What?” Her wide gray eyes are locked on me.

“I wrote Lucifer’s Cross. And then all hell broke loose and I couldn’t get any peace. People kept asking me about the next book and the next and I couldn’t even think let alone write. So I ran away to the mountains.”

“What do you do for work? Are you working on something new?”

“No. I don’t write anymore.”

“That’s a shame. I remember Lucifer’s Cross. It was amazing.”

I sigh and drop her hand, running my fingers through my hair. “I just couldn’t think anymore. There was a muddled story but it wasn’t good enough and I just couldn’t finish it.”

She smiles. “I’d love to see it.”

“Maybe someday.”

I hold out my hand and smile at her. “Would you like to dance?”

She smiles and stands. “I’d love to.”

I hit a button and a soft jazz song plays through the cabin. She leans her head on my shoulder. My heart beats frantically in my chest and I struggle to breathe. My whole body is lit up like the Fourth of July and I can’t stop touching her. I trail my hand down her back and fit her hips tighter to me, feeling her whole body melt into me.

“Reese? I feel like I need to tell you something.”

“What?” I can’t say more than that. It feels like all my energy is concentrated below my belt where my dick is straining to touch her, feel her.

“I’m a virgin.”

My whole body freezes tight and then I stare down at her, pulling back. I don’t like the hurt look on her face but the shock reverberates through me, echoing frantically in my mind.

“You’ve never…”

I can’t even finish the sentence. But she nods and that makes me smile. Her eyes widen.

“Thank fuck. I’ve been sitting here this whole night thinking that I want you so damn much and I also want to kill any other man that’s touched you.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m falling for you. Hell, I have fallen for you. As soon as I saw you I knew that you were the one for me. You’re the woman that I’ve been waiting for all this time.”

“You can’t be serious. I’m nothing special.”

I grasp her chin and force it up to my face. “You are special. More special than any woman I’ve ever met. You’re strong and smart. You’re more woman than I think I deserve. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not going to keep you.”

Her eyes are luminous as stars as she smiles mistily at me. Her hand touches my cheek and I lean into her palm. “I never thought any man would want me. Not for more than one night.”

I shake my head vehemently. “I want all of you forever.”

She steps back and pulls her sweater over her head, making my head spin. In the firelight glow, her alabaster skin gleams like fine china. “Fuck, you’re gorgeous. Your tits…”

My hands come up and wrap around her full breasts, straining against the silk of her bra. She hisses out a breath and then she lifts her hands up and behind her back, stripping the bra off and holding it out with a smile. My tongue dries up so fast that I almost choke.

“Holy shit!”

Then it’s like we move as one and clothes fly every which way. My hands caress her soft curves gently and then I pick her up and throw her over my shoulder, grinning when she laughs. “Hey, what’s going on?”

“I need to get you somewhere soft where I can touch all these curves.”

“Good. Touch away.”

She giggles when I drop her to the bed.

But she stops giggling when I push her thighs open and settle between them. My mouth kisses her gently right by her the soft patch of hair that calls me. My lips nuzzle into her folds and I’m lost. “You smell delicious,” I groan.

“Please, Reese. Touch me. Touch me fucking hard.”

I lose my head and bury myself between her rounded thighs. My tongue digs into her honeypot and I growl, my teeth, lips and tongue eating her until her hips press up into me. Her hands lock on my hair and she pushes my head in further until all I can see and smell is her.

“Yes, yes, yes!” I feel her pussy tighten and then ripple around my tongue.

“I love you!” She screams wildly and thrashes until she almost knocks me loose.

I finally lift my head, licking the taste of her off my lips. Her eyes open and she smiles mistily.

“That was amazing,” she says.

“I’m not done.”