Unleashed Desire Page 3

  “He might shock you. Asher has sides to him that you’ve refused to see because you were too busy hating him,” Cel said smugly.

  “Oh and you’re the Asher expert now huh?” Kay asked with a smidge of jealousy. Sure, she knew that Cel was head over heels in love with Everett, but she didn’t like the idea of any female paying him close attention. That was one way to know that she was definitely losing her mind.

  “Everett agrees. I trust his judgement,” Cel said calmly.

  Kay considered and decided Charlie was right. The dress was loose but with flirty sheer paneling that was feminine without being overtly so. She finished off with a light brush of a blush pink lipstick slicked across her lips. A knocked sounded at her door. Both girls have her a thumbs up on her appearance as she walked toward the door. She threw it open and gaped at Asher, who was most decidedly not wearing a turtleneck.

  In true Asher style his clothes had to be tailored to fit. His black jeans were just the right amount of snug, showing off his well-toned ass. His black button-up was left open at the top and stretched across his hard pecs making Kay ache to touch him.

  “You look… wow,” Asher said quietly as soon as he caught sight of her. The dress she was wearing looked like it was spun of pink cotton candy. Sheer, yet not sheer.

  “You’re not wearing a turtleneck,” Kay blurted out in shock.

  “No. Why?” Asher asked surprised, wondering where the question came from.

  “You always wear turtlenecks,” Kay insisted. Celine burst into laughter behind her, so hard she started hiccupping.

  “To work. You didn’t think I wore them everywhere did you?” Asher laughed.

  “Uh… come in, let me grab my purse. This is Charlie and Celine… but I guess you already knew that since they… work for you,” Kay finished lamely and resisted the urge to facepalm.

  “Hi Celine. How’s Everett? We should hang out of the office more. Hi Charlie,” Asher greeted.

  “To be fair, I told her she was underestimating you.” Celine sniggered.

  “Don’t. I’d like to take her by surprise.” Asher winked.

  “Oh God. Let’s go! Now please? While I still have some dignity left,” Kay groaned.

  Asher laughed as he let her drag him forcefully from the house.

  Chapter Seven

  Kay laughed when she saw the restaurant Asher had taken her to. A sushi bar with a wide selection of sake. It seemed more hipster that she’d ever thought him. He waited until they were seated before he brought up the reason he’d asked her on a date.

  “I know we said what happened was a one-time thing but the truth is simply that I want you. I haven’t gotten you out of my system. I brought you here to shamelessly seduce you. I think what we have, at least physically, is incredible. Don’t you feel the pull?” Asher asked.

  “I do. One time was definitely not enough. I just, I mean don’t take it the wrong way but I don’t do relationships or love very well. The attraction is incredible but anything more than that is asking too much,” Kay said, worried.

  “Me neither. Are you kidding? My father has married so many women I stopped calling them step-mother a few ‘mothers’ ago. I can barely remember the name of his last wife most of the time.” Asher laughed.

  “Ah, so Karen isn’t your mother then. I was trying to find the resemblance but she’s so very blonde.” Now it was Kay’s turn to laugh.

  “Fuck no. Karen is my father’s most recent acquisition. She did try the mother bit for a while but she’s either too shallow or she has the emotional intelligence of a teaspoon. I was too uninterested to find out which. She might not last the next year. Unfortunately.” Asher rolled his eyes.

  “Well… if what you’re offering is physical…” Kay considered.

  “Purely physical. I can’t get enough of you. I hope you feel the same way. I know we started backward, sex before we got to know each other, but we have a chance now. We could talk a bit and then maybe afterward?” He trailed off.

  “Then yeah. I want you,” she whispered.

  “So Kennedy huh? What’s the story?” Asher asked. Kay chuckled.

  “My mom. Right from the get-go she’d always wanted the all-American dream. Get married, have a house in the suburbs, have the 2.5 kids and a white-collar husband to come home every evening with a drink ready in her hand for him and food on the table. Who better to embody the American dream than the Kennedys. I was supposed to be a boy. She decided I could be Kennedy too. More Jackie than JFK but still.” Kay grinned.

  “I’m guessing the American dream didn’t work for her, if you’re so cynical about romantic attachment,” Asher said.

  “Nope. Not the least bit. It backfired. Her white-collar husband ran off with secretary number four. My mom filled the void with other white-collar replacements. She wanted me to be like her. I left after college because she was insistent that writing isn’t a ladylike profession. I wasn’t sure what was but I didn’t stick around long enough to find out. She married again. I didn’t go.” Kay sighed.

  “I know the feeling. John the Third wasn’t thrilled with my career choice.” Asher shrugged as sushi rolls were placed in front of them. Around them music played on string instruments filtered in from hidden speakers. The restaurant’s low light made it easy for him to fall into her forest green gaze. She’d been hurt by her mother, more than she let on, but there was a steely determination in her eyes that told him she would deny it if he pointed it out.

  “But you’re successful,” Kay gasped. If her mother saw her name on a billboard she would definitely have called Kay. Their differences weren’t so bad that the woman wouldn’t have celebrated her success. They were just too different to ever see eye to eye.

  “Success is relative. I make enough that I’ll never be under my father’s thumb so there’s a sort of grudging respect but I don’t think he’d ever fully approve of what I do.” Asher shrugged.

  “Well, to disappointing parents then,” Kay clinked glasses with him.

  Asher laughed.

  “Look, I’ve wanted you since I got my hands on you. I’d like it if I could again this night.” Kay shocked herself with her own bluntness. She’d always been content to let the men in her life lead at their own pace.

  “I thought you’d never ask.”

  This time Kay took Asher’s lips as soon as they walked through the threshold of the door. He hummed in appreciation against her lips as she tasted him with her tongue. He tasted like sake, woodsmoke and something so completely male that she groaned. She wanted to taste every inch of him. After they had parted ways, all she had thought was that she missed out on the opportunity to taste his cock the way he’d tasted her. She intended to make up for that oversight. She twisted, still leaning into the kiss until she led him to the first available room. It was the sitting room.

  “I want to taste you,” she said with a smirk. Mimicking him.

  Asher sat on the couch and watched her. She was enchanting, with a lustful gleam in her eyes. She was anticipating this. He’d never met a woman who looked like she enjoyed the idea of giving him a blowjob like Kay looked. It was intoxicating. As he sat, she crawled forward on all fours to the juncture of his thighs. Her hands reached forward to his belt buckle as she undid them and slid his pants and boxers low enough to free his cock. He was already achingly hard. She licked her lips at the sight as a sense of power surged through her.

  “Mmmhhnn.” She made a sound of approval deep in her throat as she took the head of his cock deep into her mouth.

  “Fuuucckk!” Asher moaned. Her mouth was hot and velvety soft. She flicked her tongue against the underside of his cockhead, teasing the sensitive bundle of nerves there. She moaned softly as the salty-sweet taste of his precum filled her mouth. He was delicious in the most sinful of ways. She sucked him deeper, forcing him to jerk off the couch into her sucking mouth. His hands fisted in her hair as he panted, at her mercy. Sucking a man’s cock had never been so pleasurable. With every groan that esca
ped from his lips, she felt an answering pull in her pussy. She was already wet and ready to take him. She sucked him deeper, using her tongue to trace the ridges and the veins of his cock. She slid a finger underneath her dress and pulled off her panties.

  Asher was in heaven, lost in a sea of pleasure. Kay’s mouth was a vice around his cock, never relenting or stopping as she drove his need to untold heights. He didn’t want to come in her mouth. He wanted to come in her, while she screamed his name and came around his cock. He grabbed her hair, pulling her away before he exploded in her mouth. Kay made a sound of complaint deep in her throat.

  “I wasn’t done,” she whined, already missing the warm satin feel of his cock in her mouth.

  “Sweetheart if I don’t fuck you, I’m going to go insane,” he moaned.

  He took her hand in his, leading her to the bedroom. Slowly he slid her cotton candy dress off her shoulders to a gossamer heap on the floor. Her skin was flushed, her breasts high mounds of firm flesh tipped with rosy, diamond-hard nipples. He pressed kisses against the pulse of her throat. Her skin heated beneath his tongue.

  “Yes. More!” she urged.

  He gave it to her, pressing his lips lower, lower still, until he took her left nipple into the cavern of his mouth. One pull against his tongue had her shuddering. Liquid desire pooled between her legs, leaving slick trails of need down her legs. Asher licked her nipples, alternating one then the other as his teeth grazed her sensitive flesh. Each pull had her pussy walls clenching, needing to feel him deep inside her. Slowly he pushed her on the bed and entered her in one slick thrust.

  “Yessss!” she hissed.

  He pushed his cock into her slick channel, reaching down to rub his thumb against her clit, slow thumb flick, hard thrust, slow thumb flick, hard thrust until her walls were gripping him so hard it almost hurt.

  “Please! Please! Harder, faster!” she pleaded until the room filled with the raw animal sounds of their joining. He gave what she craved, what she needed as she screamed her encouragement, driving his pleasure to burn hotter. He gripped her hips and pumped his cock hard into her. The thrust combined with a fast flick of his fingers over her clit sent her careening over the edge. The grip of her pussy tightened, sending him into his own spiraling climax.

  Chapter Eight

  Sex had gotten better but more than that, they connected. Kay had never met any man like Asher. It wasn’t just that she liked him, although that really put holes in the “just physical” thing. It was that he got her and her work. With Asher around, her writer’s block magically vanished. When she wasn’t putting in the work at the library, she was working on the manuscript of her ghostwriting job. Asher didn’t mind coming over to help. Sometimes they just sat, feet touching as they worked on their laptops over ice cream and pizza. It wasn’t fancy restaurants and galas, but to Kay it was as perfect as it got. He was there again that evening, the sixth day in a row they had spent together after work.

  “You know, I could probably send your manuscript to my publishers to see if they’d take an interest in it,” Asher suggested. “I think it’s got something and I’m not just saying that because you let me see you naked.”

  Kay stared at him open-mouthed for a moment. Those were words any writer would kill to hear and he’d just offered them casually like it was no big deal.

  “Seriously? That wouldn’t be too much trouble for you?” Kay asked incredulously.

  “No, it wouldn’t. I’ve been with you every step of the way, crafting and creating. If I didn’t think your work could cut it, I wouldn’t offer. You’re an amazing writer Kay. The world deserves some of that brilliance. Plus, do you know the last time I read romance? Never. I read yours and I can’t wait for the next chapter. Your character building is top-notch,” he said with a proud smile.

  Kay flushed. Only Cel had read some of her stuff and though she’d always said they were good, Kay didn’t trust her entirely. Cel loved her and that meant she was biased. Asher didn’t strike her as a man who would give her a compliment if he didn’t mean it. He was meticulous about his job and demanded perfection even from her. If he said it was good, it was good, and if he was willing to stick his neck out for her then it was really, really good. She appreciated that he encouraged her.

  She moved from her end of the couch and snuggled against him, sliding his laptop away.

  “Thank you,” she whispered.

  “You don’t need to thank me Kay. Your work speaks for itself,” he said with conviction.

  Just like that, she could feel her heart slide right off her chest and into his. She knew, right there, that it wasn’t just physical anymore. And if she was honest, she’d known for a while but she’d refused to acknowledge the fact that she wanted to see him, that she was happy when she was with him. At the library, his stolen glances were the highlight of her day. Outside work, the way he grinned at her, the way he showed up at her doorstep, whisking her away to boutique cinemas or old bookstores, spoke to her in exactly the love language she had refused to be fluent in. Yet, snuggled in his arms, it felt like home. Not sexual, even though the undercurrent still existed. Just comforting and safe. How was she ever going to keep lying to herself that it was just physical?

  “Damn,” Kay cursed under her breath.

  “What’s wrong?” Asher asked.

  “This. This is wrong,” Kay said, taking her hand through her tresses in a frustrated manner.

  “What is?” Asher asked again, confused.

  “You. Holding me like that!” Kay snapped.

  “Would you rather I not hold you when you snuggle in my arms?” Asher tried to catch on to what was going on but to no avail. He had no clue.

  “It’s not the holding, it’s the way you hold me. It’s the way it makes me feel dammit. This isn’t just physical anymore. I can’t keep lying to myself or you that it is no matter how hard I try. I have feelings for you and I don’t want to have feelings for you. Love bloody hurts and I don’t want to be hurt,” Kay finished slowly.

  Asher bit the inside of his cheek. He had known hadn’t he? That he was falling for her. He had suspected but he thought, stupidly, that if he kept that to himself, it would go away. She wouldn’t reciprocate, things wouldn’t get complicated and he’d enjoy the physical until it was time to move on. Only he had the sneaking suspicion that he wouldn’t be able to move on. He didn’t want to love her too. Love wasn’t something that worked for him; he had too many doubts.

  “I know. I don’t want this to be more than physical too. I didn’t want that. I tried, believe me I tried to keep it that way but you are so…” How could he explain it? Words failed him. Passionate? Enchanting? Incredible? She was a whirlwind and he’d gotten sucked right in.

  “Perhaps we could take a step back. Let whatever this is pass over and then we can re-evaluate what we are,” Kay suggested, even though the idea of letting him go was breaking her heart.

  “Some space yeah? I think that would be ideal. We could try being apart,” Asher agreed slowly. He wasn’t sure he had the capacity to love her without hurting her and she didn’t even want love, not his or anyone’s. He stood from the couch, packed up his laptop and left, struggling not to glance behind to see if her heart was breaking as badly as his was.

  Chapter Nine

  “And you just let him go like that?” Celine gasped incredulously.

  “Yes okay? What was I to do? I’ve seen the destruction love can cause. I don’t want to be collateral damage,” Kay insisted.

  “You’re an idiot,” Charlie said bluntly.

  Kay gawked at her. Celine nodded her head in agreement.

  “Excuse me? Again, you are here for moral support and to tell me I did the right thing.” Kay asked with a frown.

  “Listen, you either want me to give you moral support or tell you the truth. In this situation, you cannot have both,” Charlie said.

  “Hear hear,” Celine cheered. Kay shot her a look so heated it could melt steel. She didn’t need to hear this.
She was already feeling like she might have made a mistake. Would taking the plunge really be that bad?

  “You two are completely and utterly hopeless,” Kay sighed and dug into her marshmallow flavored ice cream.

  “No, you are. You say love destroys. Your entire argument is prefaced on the fact that you don’t want to be collateral damage, right?” Cel asked.

  “That is exactly what I’ve been saying. Why go through the eventual hurt? It’s pointless.” Kay sighed, finally feeling vindicated.

  “Do I look destroyed to you?” Cel asked.

  “Of course not.” Kay snorted.

  “Are you deliberately being obtuse? I’m in love and this is the happiest I’ve ever been. Love is a messy, messy business but I wouldn’t give up a second of it to protect my heart. Not a second. Love comes with hurt yeah, but it comes with so many other beautiful things. You’re really going to give up on love because you know of a few bad experiences, while conveniently ignoring the good ones in front of you? That seems illogical,” Celine pointed out.