Page 5 of Ash
ChapterThree
Ash
For the first time since I had met Lainey, I wanted to be away from her.
The moment the truck had pulled to a spot, I was out of it and rushing away. Not because being close to her was anything but wonderful but because she had questions I just couldn’t answer. Not without lying to her face and I refused to do that. The scary thing was that I wanted to tell her everything. Not just about what had really taken her hostage only a few months ago but all about myself as well.
Lainey kept coming up the mountain because she was looking for something. And I desperately wanted that thing to be me. even when I knew it wasn’t.
“Ash?”
I froze my back to the door but then again, I didn’t need to turn to know who it was. Lainey had followed me up. If I hadn’t of been thinking about her so hard, I would have noticed it. Her scent washed over me, clean skin, the crisp smell of apples from her shampoo. Intoxicatingly fresh. Steadying my breath I turned to her, my hands still on the zipper of my fatigues. “Hey.” I did an awkward chin jerk in her direction as I pushed my filthy trousers down over my hips.
Elaine’s mouth fell open as I stepped out of them, I wasn’t naked, but she blushed like I had just stripped nude in front of her. her eye skirting away. “I thought we could talk but if you're too busy.” Guiltily the tip of her tongue slipped between her lips.
“Not too busy for you.” I started to say and stopped myself. I stood there, in nothing but my boxer briefs and stared at her. She looked so uncertain and so God damn beautiful she made my chest ache. I wanted to go to her, wrap her in my arms and kiss all of her questions away. Because that’s why she was here, to ask me questions. “I just need to clean up some.” I shrugged, turning my face away from her.
It was one thing being around her in public when the others could act as a buffer between us and completely another for her to be standing in my room when I was in my underwear. Her being that close was doing strange things to my mind, and my body as well. Grabbing her, pushing her down on my bunk and kicking the door closed would be so easy. Almost as easy as licking into her tender flesh until she was screaming my name would be.
Something must have shown in my eyes and two pink spots blossomed on her cheek. “I can come back when you’re done.”
Slowly I let my eyes travel up her body, I took my time about it before I let them settle on her face. “Now is fine,” Without meaning to I took a step towards her. “What do you want to talk about?”
Doubt flickered into life in her eyes. “You were the one who….”
“The one who carried you down the mountain? Yeah. That was me.”
“How? I’m not small and it’s a long way. How…”
At first, I didn’t understand her question. And then it hit me. I moved without thinking. Covering the distance between us, I swung her up into my arms. Cradling her against my chest so our faces were just inches apart. “Like this.” One more inch, two at most and I could press my lips to hers. My face lowered and her eyes widened as the realisation of what I was going to do hit her.
It might have been my imagination but something akin to fear tightened the feature of her face. With a sigh, I placed her back on her feet, but it was like I could still feel her in my arms. “It was no big deal Lainey or do I still need to call you Elaine?” I winked in her direction before turning back to the mess of clothes I had left on the floor. I couldn’t look at her when she had that fear in her eyes because it was ripping into me. I didn’t want her to be afraid of me, not when I was the one person in the world who would never hurt her. She just didn’t know it yet.
“Lainey is fine.” She continued staring at my back. I didn’t need to turn around to know she was struggling to word her next question. I could almost hear the wheels in her head turning. “I… was you going to kiss me just then?”
I whirled around, taking a step into her pace before I could help myself. I tilted her chin up so I could stare into her eyes. Searching her face, I dropped my voice to a barely there whisper. “Is that so surprising?”
“Yes.” She whispered straight back. The unease was back in her eyes again, but her body was betraying her. The smallest changes of her scent, the goosebumps that erupted over her skin. The tip of her tongue appeared between her lips.
“Why?”
“Because” she faltered. “I don’t know. It just seemed a little weird timing. We barely know each other. I never got the impression…”
I barked out a laugh. She was right we barely knew each other but if I had never given her the impression that I liked her then she was blind. Every time I looked at her, I undressed her with my eyes and imagined what it would be like to have those shapely legs wrapped around my waist. “You’re in my room and I’m getting undressed.” I pointed out, the pink on her cheeks flamed scarlet at my words. “What would you have done if I had kissed you Lainey?” the fingers I had curled around her chin, tightened slightly when she tried to look away. “Would you have kissed me back?”
“I don’t know... I…”
I pressed my lips to her forehead and stepped away, hands dropping to my sites. So, I didn’t reach for her again. “You’re right Lainey, I was going to kiss you but it's also the reason I didn’t.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I won’t kiss you until you want me to. I don’t mean I want you to beg me or any of that macho shit.” I flicked my eyes towards her to gauge her reaction. “I’m just being honest. When I kiss a woman, I want her to kiss me back, and you’re not there yet.”
Lainey's eyebrow arched in surprise. “Yet?”
“Yeah yet, but it's ok. I can be patient and wait for you to realise …...”
She cut me off. “Realise what?”
“How crazy I am about you.”
