Authors: Melissa Foster
“Not on your life.” She went up on her toes and kissed him.
The elevator doors opened, and with a hand
on her lower back, he guided her into his living room. Her eyes went directly to the far wall, which boasted floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, complete with a sliding library ladder. The books were interspersed with family photographs and a few of Heath’s favorite sculptures and vases.
Ally’s eyes widened as she walked past the wall of windows overlooking the river, which she’d missed when she’d
been so taken with the bookshelves, slowing for only a second to take in the glorious view before reaching the shelves. She ran her fingers over the spines of a row of books, then glanced over her shoulder at Heath.
“These shelves, all these books…It’s like a dream come true.” She took a few steps and stood before his favorite sculpture. Ally tilted her head to the right, then to the left,
as she examined the sculpture of a woman’s chest to forehead.
“I’ve never seen anything like this up close,” Ally said with a hint of awe. “It’s as if the steel is moving in the wind. I can almost feel this woman breathe and feel her hair blowing in the wind. It’s fascinating.”
“Sage Remington is the artist.”
“I know of him, but I’ve never seen his work up close. We really should join
Jackson when he does the shoot. What a treat that would be.”
Treat?
She had no idea that to Heath, she was the biggest treat of all.
“I’d like that. We’ll plan to go.” He admired the sculpture again. “He creates these using varying widths of steel ribbons. You see how there’s no back? I think that gives the steel the feel of fluidity.” He joined her by the sculpture. “It’s the definition
that gets me. The ability to define everything—her lips, her nose, the dips and swells of her neck. He somehow makes her look feminine and delicate despite the heavy metal he uses.”
“Heath.” She reached for his hand. “Why would you ever want to stay at my place when you have all of this at your disposal? These books, this glorious art.” She turned to face the river. “And this amazing view?”
She shifted her gaze, and her eyes danced over the Scandinavian-style couches. Heath’s apartment wasn’t lavishly furnished, and much like Ally’s, it wasn’t littered with accessories. He lived simply, at a pricey address.
He ran his hands down her arms. “Isn’t it obvious?”
“No,” she said with wide eyes.
“Because you’re there. This is stuff, Ally. Books, art, and a view. I’d rather wake
up to you than wake up to the Hudson.”
“If that’s a line, you really have mastered the art of seduction.”
His thumb brushed lightly over her lower lip. He’d waited all night to be closer to her, and now she was looking at him with her big, beautiful eyes, touching his stomach with her delicate hand. He couldn’t help lowering his lips to hers in a soft, welcoming kiss. Her tongue eagerly
sought his, releasing his pent-up desire as her hands fisted in his shirt and she rocked her hips against him. He felt his body swell with lust, but it was the slow moan that escaped her lungs and slithered down his throat that did him in.
“Ally.” His voice was low, gravelly, and full of lust.
Her eyes blazed, and she deepened the kiss in response. Heath lifted her into his arms and headed
for the stairs, ascending them swiftly.
“You’re carrying me up the stairs?” she said against his lips with a smile.
“It’s quicker.” He slowed on the first landing and kissed her again before ascending the remaining stairs to the bedroom, where he set her feet on the floor. Two walls of floor-to-ceiling glass gave way to a glorious view of dark shades of orange, purple, and blue hovering
above the city lights and the river below.
“Oh my God. How do you ever sleep? I’d sit here and stare at the view all night long.”
The night sky cast a romantic hue into the dark room, silhouetting Ally’s curvaceous hips and full breasts. Heath lowered his mouth to the nape of her neck and trailed light kisses to the sensitive spot just below her ear. His hands explored her thighs as he
pressed his hard length against her rear.
“You’re the only view I want to get lost in, sweetheart.”
Her head tipped back with a lusty sigh. She reached behind her and gripped his hips, holding him close as she met his gyrating pelvis with her ass. Heath slowly unzipped her dress and slid it over her shoulders. It fell to the floor in a heap. She was breathing harder, and when Ally pressed
her ass against him again, it was all he could do to restrain his carnal desires. He gathered her hair over one shoulder, admiring the graceful lines of her back as he unhooked her bra and gently removed it.
With her back to him, Ally reached behind her, searching for his hips again. He gripped her wrists and held them by her sides as he licked and sucked her neck, then followed the line of
her spine with his tongue. He felt her shiver against him as he kissed the dimples at the base of her spine, then laved them with his tongue.
“Heath,” she pleaded.
He hooked his fingers in the waistband of her lacy panties and drew them down slowly, then lifted each of her feet to set her free. Bare, save for her black high heels, Ally was a piece of art, shadowed by the light of the moon.
Heath knelt behind her, filling his hands with her hips as he licked the curve where her ass met her thighs, loving first one side, then the other, as goose bumps formed on her skin. He ran his hands down one leg, then slowly up, reveling in the feel of her softness, the trust she had in him. His hands traveled north to the juncture of her sex. Heat emanated from between her legs as he swept
his thumb over her wet flesh.
She inhaled a sharp breath, spreading her legs to accommodate his large hands, but Heath wasn’t in a hurry. He took his time, kissing her perfect, rounded ass and sliding his hands around the front of her hips, holding her in place as he dipped lower and his tongue found the wet, sensitive skin between her legs. Her scent aroused him, and the way her body shivered
with every flick of his tongue spurred him on, making his cock throb with need. He felt her fingers move over the swollen, sensitive nub he’d been waiting to taste, and he groaned at the sight of her pleasuring herself. He rose to his full height and stripped bare, pressing his throbbing heat against the seam of her ass as she continued to stroke herself. With one hand clutching her waist, he
reached around with the other and buried his fingers deep inside her.
“Heath. Oh God,” Ally cried out.
He ground his hips against her ass while furtively seeking the orgasm he knew she needed. He clamped his teeth on the curve of her shoulder, stroking over her most sensitive spot with his fingers. Her thighs tightened against him as the orgasm claimed her. He wrapped one hand around her
waist, still teasing with the other, until the last of her climax shuddered through her. Then he reached down and put his hard cock between her legs, rubbing against her swollen sex without penetrating her.
“I have to feel you against me.”
He thrust against her ass, her juices coating every inch of his eager cock.
“Oh God, Heath. That feels so good.”
She reached between her legs
and pressed his shaft against her sex, moaning and driving him out of his fucking mind. He pinched her nipples.
Hard
. And she cried out again, a loud, indiscernible sound that ricocheted off the glass walls and sent a shiver down his spine.
“Too much?” he asked against her cheek.
“More. Harder,” she pleaded.
He squeezed harder, and she arched into his hands.
“Fuck, Ally, I need
you.” He reached for his pants. “Condom.”
“No. No condom.”
Heath stilled.
“Take me, Heath. I’m on the pill, and you said you’ve always used protection. So have I.”
She moved forward and pressed her hands against the dresser, spreading her legs wide. Heath stroked his cock, and when she looked over her shoulder, her hair sexily covering one eye, her legs spread wide, her ass perched
high from her heels, he nearly came.
“I love to see you touch yourself,” she said in a heady voice. She reached between her legs again, and that was it.
Heath abandoned all restraint. In one hard thrust he pushed into her. They both moaned with pleasure.
“Ally, you’re so wet, so tight. So fucking hot.” He thrust in harder, wanting to bury himself as deep as he possibly could, fill
every inch of her. Another hard pump brought the sound of flesh slapping against flesh. “Jesus. Tell me if I hurt you.”
She spread her hands and legs wider, bending farther over the dresser as he sank into her, time and time again. He wrapped one arm around her waist, trapping her against him, and groped her breast with the other as her muscles contracted around him.
“Oh…God.” Her head
fell between her shoulders.
Heath raised her, so her back was pressed to his chest, as her body shook and her hips thrust.
“That’s it baby.” Every fast pulse brought him closer to his release. She felt amazing as he palmed her breast, while he was buried deep inside her.
As she came down from her orgasm, he lightly kissed her cheek.
“Oh my God. Heath.”
She pressed her ass against
him again, and he withdrew from inside her and turned her in his arms, taking her in a demanding kiss. She returned his efforts with fervor. They were so in sync sexually that Heath had a hard time thinking straight. He gripped her ass as he ravaged her mouth. She cupped his balls, nearly sending him over the edge, and then she dropped to her knees and took him in her mouth.
“Oh…fuck….” His
head tipped back with a growl as his hips plunged forward, thrusting into her mouth over and over again. He felt his release building and wanted—
needed
—to be inside her. He fisted his hands in her hair and moved his hips back.
She gazed up at him, and he lifted her into his arms and lowered her onto his throbbing heat.
“Ah, yes…” she said in a heated breath.
He pulled off her heels
and gritted his teeth against the insane pleasure of her legs wrapping tightly around him, her nails digging into his shoulders. He crossed the room and lowered her down to the bed, feeling the heat of their bodies joining again as they hit the mattress. She closed her eyes, and he found her hands and laced their fingers together beside her head.
“Open your eyes, sweetheart.”
Her heavy
lids lifted, and her lips curved up.
“I adore you,” he whispered as his lips found hers again, and he breathed his love into her as their bodies moved in perfect harmony.
Ally awakened every bit of him. His body was on fire, electrified, and as she came apart beneath him and he surrendered to his own powerful release, it was love that filled his veins.
They lay tangled together on
their sides in the wake of their lovemaking while their breathing returned to normal.
“Stay with me,” he whispered.
She pressed her lips to his, and he pulled her in closer.
“Will you catch me?” she whispered with a sweet smile as she traced his collarbone with her finger.
He furrowed his brow in confusion.
“When I fall for you,” she answered. “Will you be there to catch me?”
“For the rest of your life, sweetheart. Day or night.” He gathered her in his arms and sealed his vow with a kiss.
ALLY’S MOTHER USED to tell her that people didn’t find love, love found them, and it almost always seemed to do so in the most unusual ways and at the most unlikely times. Her parents had met in high school, and as her mother told the story, she’d hated her father at first sight. He was too full of himself, and he looked at her as if she were
his
when she couldn’t imagine
ever
wanting
to be his. That was, until he’d found out that she wasn’t interested, and he’d spent the next few weeks showing her the person he really was
.
He’d walked her to every class, even when it meant being late to his own, and every day after school he waited for her in the library, where he knew she went to do her homework. He had inserted himself into her life without an invitation, and
despite her mother turning him down for every date for the first month, he was relentless and proved himself as the loving, loyal, smart man Ally knew him to be. And only after he’d stopped being overly cocky and had shown his kind and sensitive self, had she accepted a date—and within a few more weeks, he’d
become
her mother’s life. In all the times Ally had heard the story, she’d never put much
value in the
I’m not what I seem
scenario, and she’d certainly never linked it to herself in any way. Until now.
As the Saturday-morning sun crept over the horizon and showered her and Heath in a bright new day, she began to see herself differently. When she inched back against him, his chest hair tickled her skin and his hips and thighs cradled her rear, and she realized that the person she’d
presented herself as when she’d met Heath wasn’t her true self, even though she’d thought it was.
It was who she’d pretended to be—even to herself.
In college Ally had taken the walk of shame once or twice; only she’d never considered it a walk of
shame
. She’d done what
she’d
wanted to do, on
her
terms. After college—and after being cheated on for a second time—she’d stopped wanting anything
remotely close to a monogamous relationship. That was when she’d taken control of her personal life. Erecting a wall around herself, sleeping with an occasional man
on her terms
. She realized now that part of her terms meant without any ties to her
true
self. It had been her way of protecting her heart. Heath had somehow touched her in a way that made her want to break through that facade in the
same way her father had removed his emotional armor for her mother.
In his sleep, Heath’s warm, even breaths whispered across her shoulder. She felt his heart beating against her back, and even in sleep he held her protectively, with one strong arm around her waist. Ally hadn’t ever thought of herself as the type of woman who needed protecting, but every ounce of her loved the way Heath had
made her
his
. She loved the way he devoured her sexually and the way she caught him stealing glances, as if he might see some hidden piece of her when she wasn’t aware that he was looking. Even the way he called her
sweetheart
made her heart squeeze and her belly get warm. As she lay within his embrace, she wondered what she’d been so afraid of. She tried to dissect it, to figure it out as she
did the blood work and biopsies she analyzed at work.