“Yes,” she said softly. I walked over to the bed, kicked off my shoes and climbed in. I was amazed how it didn’t feel awkward or weird to be in bed with her. It felt right. In fact, I hadn’t felt this comfortable and relaxed in a bed in years. I settled in, sighing with relief as I did.
“Thank you,” she said, sounding sleepy now.
“It’s a pleasure.” I pulled the duvet up to my shoulders and although we were on opposite sides of the bed and were not even vaguely touching, I felt so close to her right now.
“This time I did need rescuing,” she said.
“You did, did you?” I rolled over and looked at her. “So does that finally make me your knight in shining armor?”
She rolled over and faced me. I propped my head up on my hand and looked at her with a smile.
“Onlyin this instance.” She smiled back at me and every part of me wanted to close the gap between us.
“But what if I save your life again?” I teased.
“Technically, you didn’t save my life, because I was never actually dying.”
“But we didn’t know that at the time, so I don’t think your logic works.” We smiled at each other. Her smile felt as if it reached right inside me and physically tugged on my heart.
“You’re not going to save my life again, because there aren’t going to be any more situations to save me from. I mean, there can’t be. It’s too much, right?”
“Way too much,” I confirmed. I took stock of the situation. I couldn’t believe she was in my bed. She was very, very different from the last woman I’d had in my bed. In fact, this was different from all of them. I don’t think I’d ever had such a long conversation with anyone who’d been in my bed in thirteen years. Ash opened her mouth and let out a huge yawn, and because it was contagious, I found myself yawning too. “Night, Ash,” I said, and rolled over again.
“Night, Max.”
I closed my eyes and as I started to relax, I remembered something.
“I want to have an orgasm and good sex at least once in my life.”
I sat up in bed and looked over at her.
“What?” she asked.
“Have you really never had good sex?”
“What?” Ash sat up straight and looked at me. “How did you . . . Oh God!” she moaned, dropping her face into her hands.
“Have you seriously, seriously not had an orgasm?”
“Oh God, nooooo.” Her moan was long and pained and she flopped back down on the bed, hands covering her face.
“Ash, you’re joking, right?” I moved closer and looked down at her. “You’ve never had an orgasm?”
“Oh God, please stop saying that.”
“This is crazy! I can’t believe it. You’ve never had an or—”
“I have.” She pulled her hands away from her face and glared at me. “Just not with . . . you know, a person who isn’t made of silicone. And now I would appreciate it if we never spoke about it again. Like that other thing that I never want to speak of with you again either. I’m going to sleep now! And so are you!” She flipped over defiantly and pulled the duvet back up almost over her entire head. I stared at her back in total shock. She had never had good sex. Never had an orgasm with someone. My cock went hard, because, fucking hell, did I then want to be the man to change all that for her. But then another thought hit me: I had to make this up to her.
And there was only one way, and one way alone, to do that.
CHAPTER 31
Ash
I was having such pleasant dreams. Petal was rubbing up against my leg and I was stroking her. Her fur felt a little different in my dream though, coarser, not as smooth and silky, but it still felt good. I began to wake up, drifting from unconsciousness to semi-consciousness, to full consciousness, and when I did, I was still stroking Petal. I slowly raised my head. The pillow I was lying on was very uncomfortable, and my leg felt trapped between something heavy, yet weirdly familiar. But when I raised my head fully, the true gravity of my situation was revealed.
“Morning,” Max said casually, staring up at the ceiling.
