Everything You Need (10 page)

Chapter 11

The smell of coffee drifted over Kris. She lifted her head and sniffed the air before she opened her eyes.

Ashton sat with his legs crossed on the carpet before the sofa, a sketchpad and a pencil in his hands. He turned a page and his eyes slid over the curve of her side and downwards; he probably hadn’t even noticed that she was awake.

Her hand slid under the pillow and she stifled a yawn as she silently watched him from under her eyelashes. He was bare-chested and bare-foot, clad only in tracksuit pants. His black hair was ruffled and his eyebrows were pinched in concentration. He had already filled ten sketchbooks with drawings of her. What did he see in her? Well, she knew what he saw in her. Kate’s face. Sadness descended over her.
No expectations
, she silently said to herself. She would enjoy his company and take everything that she could in the sixteen hours she owed him, but after that, she would cut all connection with him.

A swish of paper as he turned the page again and his gaze trailed upwards, to her face. The crease between his eyebrows faded, his expression softened and a smile lit his face.

“Hi.” She rolled on her back and stretched her arms above her, observing him with the corner of her eye. Despite the short nap, she still felt tired, but it was a pleasant sort of tiredness.

“Hey.” He set his drawing tools down, then rose, to lower himself onto the spot beside her. Over the thin sheet, his hand caressed her leg, exposing her skin as he drew the sheet up.

“What time is it?” She wrapped the sheet more tightly around her body.

He reclined backwards to pick up the phone that was on the seat of the armchair beside the sofa. “Eleven-thirty.” He put the phone back. “You still have an hour.”

“I should get up.” She lifted herself onto her elbows, but otherwise she didn’t make any other move that would indicate that she was willing to leave the sofa.

“What for?” His knuckles stroked the inside of her ankle before he lifted it and pressed his mouth against it.

“What are you doing?”

“Can’t you see?” He smiled then brushed his lips alongside her leg. His mouth reached her knee, he hooked her leg over his shoulder and licked the soft skin inside of her knee.

Trembles shook her body. “Ashton.”

“What?” He tugged on the sheet, exposing the lower part of her body. A wicked smile curved his mouth as his fingers trailed over the waistband of her white panties.

“We just had sex.” Yet, the heat was already starting to bloom in the pit of her stomach and it was just a matter of a few more kisses before the hunger for him would spread through her body like liquid fire. All he had to do is to touch her a little.

“That was an hour ago.” He pressed a trail of wet kisses up her thigh.

“You are so demanding.”

“I can’t help it.” His breath tickled the sensitive skin of her thigh, the spot at the edge of her underwear. He pressed a kiss there.

She reached for him, her hands framed his face and she drew him up, her leg sliding off his shoulder to frame his hip.

“You make me so horny.” He glided his mouth over her cheek and his hand sneaked under her neck and curled around it, his thumb drawing circles over her skin. “I just can’t get enough of you.”

She murmured something as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. His skin was always so warm and his weight was so reassuring as he pressed her down into the softness of the sofa.

His mouth trailed kisses over her eyelids and then slid down her nose to descend onto her mouth. He entangled her in a kiss, while his hands glided down her body until they stopped at her hips. His fingers played with the elastic lace of her panties. He ended the kiss. “I think we should get rid of these.” His voice was low and sensual. He lifted himself onto his knees and pulled her panties down before he leaned over her again.

She felt exposed to be without underwear, while he still had his pants on, but a slide of his mouth over her neck made her forget everything but his touch. She arched her neck.

“You are so beautiful,” he whispered against her skin.

She grimaced. He only thought that she was beautiful because she reminded him of his former girlfriend.

“I wish you could see yourself.” His lips brushed lower, over the fabric of her top, while his hands caressed her breasts.

“Don’t talk so much.” She buried her fingers in his hair and tugged him even closer, while she wrapped her legs around him, crossing them at the ankles. She could feel his hardness against her and she pushed her pelvis up, against him.

His mouth touched the tight bud of her breast, he sucked on it, wetting her top and the sheet.

She moaned and her grip on his hair tightened as she pushed her body up into his touch. He made her gasp and twitch so easily.

He rocked his hips against her.

Her eyes closed as she surrendered herself to the pleasure of his hands and mouth and the roll of his hips.

The wet caress withdrew, while his hips still moved against her. “I need you.” His voice was low, sensual and slightly breathless.

Her eyelids fluttered open to stare at his glazed eyes. She liked the look in his eyes, she liked his gaze full of affection and feverish need. “Yes,” she breathed out.

He smiled then and pressed a kiss on her mouth, while his fingers pulled something from under the sofa pillow, then sneaked down her side and between them. A sound of foil and a shift of his hips and then in one smooth glide he slid deep inside her.

She moaned.

“You feel so good.” He rested his forehead against hers, his shoulder-length hair falling down and veiling the world around them, while his hands smoothed down her side to curl around her hips. He started to move, with long strong thrusts he dove into her body, making her arch.

She loved it, the smell of him, the touch of him, the weight of him and the feel of him inside her, as he plundered the depths of her body like a savage warrior. Hard and fast, with thrusts that rocked not just her body, but the whole sofa, and yet, no matter how hard the sofa shook and how much he made her moan and gasp, there was gentleness in the way he touched her. She wrapped her arms tightly around him, her breath rushed and shallow, as he rocked her world, bringing her up and up and up with every roll of his hips.

The whiteness crashed over her and she cried out, clenching around him. She would have closed her eyes, but the intensity of his dark blue irises staring at her held them wide open, keeping her from tearing her gaze away from his.

With his jaw locked, he continued to ram into her, prolonging her spasms.

There was something in his eyes, something raw and vulnerable, something dark and heart-breaking.
Was he remembering her?
An aching pang pierced her chest.

He drove into her, hard, for the last time, then froze, in the core of her being. His eyes closed and he lowered his forehead onto the pillow beside her.

Gasping for air and her chest heaving, her fingers slid up his back and neck and she buried them into the damp strands of hair at the back of his neck.

With his hand on her hip, he shifted his weight, turning her sideways with him. He pressed a kiss on her forehead and smiled, while his nails grazed the skin of her thigh.

She hid her face in the niche between his shoulder and neck. “Could you pull out?”

He rolled his hips, making her gasp. “I like being in you.” His leaned his chin on the top of her head.

She liked having him inside her, too, not that she would tell him that.

A phone rang, and from the melody, it was hers. She shifted backwards.

With a small groan he slipped out of her. “Leave it.”

The melody told her not only that it was her phone, but it also betrayed the caller, who would persist in calling until she answered. “I can’t.” She wrapped the sheet around her and sat up. Where were her panties? She found them curled around her ankle. She pulled them up and then, ignoring his pouting, she reached over the sofa’s armrest toward the coffee table, the new addition to the furniture. She picked up the phone and answered it.

“Kris, where are you?” her mother’s voice, heavily laced with a whine, greeted her.

“What is it?” She sighed and crawled over Ashton.

Ashton grabbed her wrist. “Where are you going?”

“Is that George?” Mother asked.

“Yes, that’s George,” Kris said to avoid additional questions. She shook off Ashton’s hold and climbed off the bed. She slipped her feet into shoes, and ignoring the scowl on Ashton’s face, she, with her wobbling legs, strode to the kitchen, pulling up the sheet that dragged over the parquet. “What is it?”

“You have to come. I need cigarettes. I only have enough to last me until Saturday.”

“Is the vending machine broken again?”

“I don’t have any money left. You have to come on Saturday and bring me some. And the money.”

“You spent it all? But you had a hundred.” It should have been more than enough for her monthly supply of cigarettes, which she could buy from the vending machine in the main hall.

“A hundred is far too little for my needs, I need at least two hundred.”

What had she spent the money on this time? Kris rubbed her forehead. “You promised you’d watch your spending, you know what our situation is.” Because of Ashton’s offer, it wasn’t that serious, but telling that to mother would be like giving her a free pass for a spending spree. “You also said that you’d cut down on the cigarettes.” She sat on the stool and leaned her head on the wall behind her.

There was a moment of silence before her mother said, “I have to go. The workshop is starting.”

“Yes, of course it is.”

Her mother ignored her. “Don’t forget. Saturday.”

“I won’t,” Kris said and hung up, sighing again.

“Who was that?”

She lifted her head to see Ashton standing in the doorway. “My mother.”

“Troubles?” He walked into the kitchen.

“You could say that.”

“Can I help?”

“If you have a car, you can drive me to her, so that she can get her smokes.” Because her mother getting cigarettes before her supply ran out was of utmost importance.

“Huh?”

She waved her hand. “Never mind.”

“Right now?”

“What?”

“If you need me, I can drive you.”

“I wasn’t serious.”

“Ah.” He pushed his hands into the pockets of his pants.

Her eyes slid over his white long-sleeved T-shirt. “I should get dressed.”

“I would prefer you didn’t.” He picked up the edge of the sheet that hung over the chair and tugged on it.

Her fingers gripped the folds and she narrowed her eyes at him.

“It’s mine, you know, and I want it back.”

“Very funny.”

He grinned and jerked on the sheet a little harder.

“Ashton, really?”

His grin widened and he leaned over her. “Yes, really.”

He was cute, with his boyish smile and the naughtiness in his eyes, but she wasn’t in the mood to play with him. She hauled the fabric out of his hand, stood and pushed past him into the studio.

Ashton followed her, his eyebrows furrowed. “Are you mad?”

“No.” She gathered her clothes from the sofa and floor and sat down on the sofa. Turned sideways, with her back to Ashton, she released the sheet to pool around her waist and put on her bra.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” The undershirt was next and then she started to pull on her jeans.

He put a hand on her shoulder. “Kris.”

“Could you pass me the shirt?” She pointed at the shirt that lay over the arm of the sofa. “I’m really not mad at you.”

He gave her the shirt. “Only mildly irritated?”

“Not at you, though.” She put on her shirt.

“Bad timing then?” He sat down on the sofa beside her, his hand went to her back and started to stroke it.

“You could say that.” She pulled her legs onto the bed and against her chest.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because.”

He shifted closer and toward her, he leaned his chin on her shoulder. “You never want to talk about anything. I don’t know a thing about you.”

“Yes, you do.”

“What? That your favourite author is Agatha Christie and that you like to listen to Creed.”

“You know that my favourite show is Falling Skies. And that I wait tables for a living.”

“But I don’t know where.” His hand glided upwards to touch her neck.

Why did he need to know? “I only pose for you.”

His thumb slid up and down the side of her neck. “And have sex with me.”

“So?” It wasn’t as if she was the only one he had slept with. Because of the way he behaved, all gentle and affectionate, she sometimes forgot that.

His touch withdrew. “So? Is that all you can say?”