Page 21 of One More Song

I back away, embarrassed for all of us. Mostly Granger. He’s a good man who deserves a nice girl and the truth is I’ve never been good. Not really.

The guys living with me probably think I am. Just a sweet girl who bakes cookies and is planting a garden and puts meals on the table at the proper time. But I haven’t always been that girl. And the longer I stand in Ash’s presence, the more I remember the kind of person I was before Mitch.

Wild.

Foolish.

I took risks and made mistakes.

And I paid dearly for each one.

I back away, saying I need to use the restroom, giving them both a strained smile. A fake pasted-on smile that Granger seems to believe and he says he’ll be waiting for me when I get back. I nod. Ash nods too as if we’re in on the same joke, but I know the punch line and I don’t want to hear it. I’ve been the brunt of it far too many times.

My eyes scan the room as I head toward the back of the bar. Millie and Keith are still occupied with Saint, and I look for an exit. I need air. Now.

I take in a deep breath when I push the backdoor open, the cool night air of early April hitting my face. I press my back against the metal wall, looking out past the parking lot. A graveyard lies before me. The Boneyard got its name because it was built right next to a cemetery and I wonder how many secrets are buried here?

That’s one thing I know about -secrets.

I’ve become an expert at keeping them.

My own and others.

The back door swings open, and even before I see who comes out, I know it’s Ash who followed me.

“You okay?” he asks, moving toward me. He runs a hand over my cheek, and I moan. My stomach twists.

I want to kiss him. I want him to kiss me.

Damn him for making me feel things I shouldn’t. I try to keep my walls intact, but they come crashing down around him.

“I’m better now,” I whisper, his mouth so close to mine. I breathe him in. Sandalwood and leather and fresh ink from a pen. He smells like paper, like poetry. He’s a musician, sure, but I want to believe he is so much more. “Kiss me.”

He does. The kiss isn’t hard, like I expect. His lips are soft, and I close my eyes, sinking into the moment, wanting it to go as far as he will take me. All the way.

The kiss intensifies, the heat between us so damn hot I can’t breathe. I let out a soft purr, needing relief. The sky is dark, and no one is back here, it’s just Ash and me and the swollen moon, casting just enough light over us for me to see his eyes.

My head is spinning, the mix of alcohol and his touch sparking something inside of me that I’d forgotten how to feel. My walls are down, my inhibitions gone, and it’s just him and me.

I moan as his kiss deepens, feeling his hard body pressed against mine. My back is against the brick wall, and my dress hitches up my thigh as I lift one leg, arching my back, needing the friction of his own leg on my pussy.

It aches. Deliciously so.

“Ash,” I whimper, needing the relief only he can provide.

He looks at me, those stormy eyes intense and matching the lust I feel. I don’t want to think about how easy it would be to fall into his gaze, to lose myself completely in him. I just need this. Now.

“Please.”

He groans, his hands running down my body, over my hip, down my thigh, his fingers finding the hem of my dress and hitching it up higher. “What do you want, Ember?” he asks, voice gravelly.

Normally I’d be too shy to say it. But the need is too intense. “Make me come.”

“Fuck,” he mutters, one finger sliding under my thong, slipping inside me. Then another one. His thumb circles my clit expertly, until I’m crying out with the rise of pleasure. “You’re killing me, sweetheart.”

I cry out louder as a surge of sensations explodes within me. Electric heat sizzles through my clit, blazing through every cell in my body. It’s too much, and not enough at the same time.

My body shudders, jerks, until I’m falling.

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