AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yeah. But at the risk of patting myself on the back, you’d be hard-pressed not to. I kicked that tasting’s ass. We both know it. But why make it harder on me? Why do you want me going in blind?”
He opens his mouth, but I gesture him to be quiet.
“Don’t even say something ridiculous like a doctor of wine should go in blind.”
He lets out a laugh.
A real, honest-to-goodness laugh, the likes of which I’ve never heard from Dale Steel.
It’s beautiful. It’s uplifting. It’s a gorgeous cloak of dark-red magnificence.
And already, it’s a new addiction.
Chapter Ten
Dale
I’m laughing. Truly laughing.
This woman makes me laugh, and damn, it feels good. It feels fucking fabulous.
She joins in, and her sweet giggle is more than I can take.
I love her. I love everything about her. Every damned thing. It’s a foregone conclusion. I will never not love Ashley White.
I’ll just have to learn to live with it.
With that thought, my laughter wanes.
And my libido kicks in.
Not that it wasn’t already kicked in. I’m always on high horny alert when I’m near Ashley, and many times even when I’m not. The memory of her smile, of something amusing she said, of the feel of her lips upon mine—all those things trigger a tightness in my groin.
She doesn’t have to be anywhere near me to make me want her. I always want her.
Always.
And right now, as she suppresses her joyful giggles, her lips parted just so, I can’t help myself.
I grab her and pull her into my arms.
She looks up at me, her blue eyes slightly guarded and her lips still glossy and parted.
If only we could hold this gaze forever. Just looking at her—the sheer beauty of her—could keep me content forever.
But my body kicks in, and I lower my mouth to hers.
Her lips stay parted, and I swoop my tongue between them.
Delicious. Simply delicious. Nothing tastes sweeter than Ashley’s kisses. No trace of sugar or fruit or wine. It’s simply Ashley, her natural sweetness that extends to all parts of her body. Especially that paradise between her legs.
Is she wet for me?
I advance, taking her with me until her back hits the wall. I lean into her, let her feel my erection as I push into her belly.
I deepen the kiss, my lips firm upon hers. I want to inhale her. Breathe every part of her into every part of me. I’ve been joined to her once, in sex. It was amazing. Life changing. But still not enough. Never fucking enough.
I’m drowning now, drowning in the sea of lust that is Ashley White. Her beauty, her intelligence, her wonderful sense of humor.
Drowning, and God help me, I don’t want to be saved.
But just as I’m falling deeper underwater, she pushes against me and breaks the kiss.
“Are you insane?” she says. “Employees are everywhere. Your uncle could walk in here.”
She’s not wrong.
I know that. And at the moment, I absolutely don’t give a damn.
I take her lips once more.
And once more she shoves me away.
“Dale!”
I look into her sapphire-blue eyes. Such fire and passion in her soul. I see it, and I know it’s reflected in my own.
“I want you,” I say gruffly. “I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything.”
She shakes her head, trembling. “You don’t. You just want sex.”
I rake my fingers through my hair. “Of course I want sex. I’m not a fucking rock. But it’s more than that.”
“If it were more than that, you wouldn’t have left me in that hotel room. Bills on the nightstand. You made me feel like a…” She shakes her head. “No. No, no, no. You did not. No one can make me feel inferior without my consent.”
“Eleanor Roosevelt,” I say.
“Yes. I’m not a whore, Dale.”
“I never said you were.”
“You left money on the nightstand.”
“So you could get home.”
“Yeah? Well, you didn’t live up to your end of the bargain.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You said you were going to use me up that night. But instead, we fell asleep. In the morning, instead of facing me, you ran. You ran, Dale.”
Again, she’s not wrong. What can I say? I have no excuse. Only that I knew what had happened. That my emotions were no longer suppressed, and that meant…
That meant the rage would surface.
I already experienced the rage last night, talking about my birth father.
The rage.
The fucking rage.
But right now?
My love for this woman—this passionate, striking woman—overpowers the rage.
“You want me to use you up?”
“That’s what you said you’d do.”
“Fine. Tonight. My place. Seven.”
She parts her lips and then brings one hand to her face, her eyes wide. She says nothing.
“I’ll take your silence as your consent. See you then.” I turn, still hard, still raging with lust and passion.
“Dale…”
I turn. Her cheeks are ruddy, her lips pink and swollen. The top of her chest is a lovely pinkish gold.
