Undone, Volume 3 (24 page)

“I’m sorry I didn’t
thank you when I was up on stage,” I managed to say before I
started crying a little, too.

“Och, don’t be
silly.” My father brushed away my apology.

“All those piano
lessons you drove me to.” My voice broke and my mother caught me up
in a big hug.

“I’d drive you to a
thousand more,” she assured me, giving me a plump kiss on my cheek.
“Now stop making me cry. And go have a nice time with this big rock
star of yours.”

“You don’t want to
come to the after party?” I asked.

“You’re more than
welcome,” Ash assured them. “Anyone you want to meet?” he asked
my mom. “I’d be happy to introduce you.”

“I’ve got what I
want right here.” My mother tucked her arm into my father’s and
they stood together, looking as proud and puffed as peacocks as they
gazed at me adoringly.

“Your mother and I
are going to go have some real Russian vodka back in that
fancy-schmancy hotel room you booked us in. We’re going to go toast
to both of your success. Now go! Go!”

They shooed us away and
away we went, heading into a party so mobbed we honestly weren’t
able to move a foot. We didn’t make the rounds so much as people
made the rounds to us, congratulating us, wishing us well, telling us
how excited they were for us. Everyone was so nice and kind and
lovely and all I could think was how much I wanted to be alone with
Ash.

“I can’t wait to
get you alone,” he leaned down and murmured into my ear.

“I keep thinking the
same thing,” I admitted.

At that moment, Taylor
Swift walked into the room. In the rush of attention, we saw our
opening and took it. We ducked out a side door, giggling like high
school kids cutting class. We couldn’t make it up to the hotel room
fast enough. Ash was staying at the MGM as well, of course in one of
the top floor mega suites. We had to share the elevator ride with a
couple of other people who tried unsuccessfully not to stare at Ash.
I understood their difficulty. I couldn’t stop gazing at him,
myself. Especially since just the touch of his hand lit me up inside,
his fingers stroking that sensitive spot between my index finger and
thumb. I’d been craving his touch for so long, I didn’t think I’d
make it until the top floor.

Finally, the doors
dinged open and finally we were able to tumble down the hall and make
it into his room.

“Ana,” he exhaled
into me, pulling at the straps on my dress. “Missed you so much.”

“Hated it.” I
wasn’t sure he even understood what I meant, that I’d hated all
of our time apart, every second of it. But I didn’t need to rely on
words when I could reach up and tear his jacket right off of him.

“Need—” He
unzipped the back of my dress and pulled it down off of me, one hand
reaching out to cup and squeeze my breast through my bra. “Can’t—”
He kissed me, ending my attempt to try to answer him, which wouldn’t
have been successful anyway.

I groaned in response,
kissing him back with all the pent-up longing and passion and need
that had welled up in me for months. His shirt, my bra, his pants, my
panties, all of it came off quick and he backed me up against the
nearest wall.

“Need now,” he
groaned, sucking hard on my erect nipple. His thigh parting my legs,
he sank a finger into my dripping wet sex, hissing to discover me so
ready for him.

“Ash,” I sighed,
sinking my fingernails into his powerful shoulders. I wanted to mark
him, make him mine so we’d never have to be apart ever again.

“Never letting go,”
he managed as he ripped off his boxer briefs and positioned his
thick, erect shaft at my entrance. “Are you ready?” He sank his
mouth down onto my throat, claiming, biting, sucking. A harsh cry of
need escaped from my parted lips.

When he thrust up into
me in one long, commanding stroke, I nearly passed out it felt so
good. I screamed and clawed at him. He pinned me against the wall,
hammering into me.

“Mine,” he called
out, his gaze fixed on where our bodies met, where his glistening,
hard cock pushed into my slick pussy again and again. I was so wet
for him, so aroused, with the sound of us smacking together, his
balls against me, I got so close so fast.

“Come for me, Ana,”
he ordered, grabbing hold of my breasts in his large, rough hands.
“Come hard, baby.”

Screaming, eyes rolled
back into my head, I did as I was told. I wanted him to keep fucking
me just like that, never stop. I needed him to fuck me like he owned
me, like he’d never let me go. I couldn’t take being apart for
him, not for another minute, and as soon as I could I wrapped my
hands around his ass and pushed him in even deeper.

“Yes, like that!” I
cried out as he buried himself in me to the hilt. I could feel his
huge, thick cock spreading me, bumping up against my cervix. His
precome mingled with my juices and I could feel him tense, his
breathing ragged and urgent. I whined with need, knowing he’d come
soon, needing to feel him unload in me. I wanted it so badly, that
moment of release when he’d thrust and call out and give me all of
his come.

“Ana!” he roared as
he sank deep inside me, coaxing another orgasm out of me as I
quivered and screamed and clutched him to me. Breathing hard, we
stayed joined together, our heads sunk into each other.

“Never letting go,”
he repeated, his hands cupped under my ass, keeping us firmly linked
even as I sank down off the wall, spent. He walked us over to the
couch, holding me as if I weighed nothing, then sat with me
straddling his lap.

Kissing me reverently,
he adored my throat, my lips, my jaw. “I missed you so much. I’m
so sorry about whatever I said up in that cabin to Connor. I didn’t
mean it. I love you. I love you so much.”

Tears spilled from my
eyes at his words. The words I’d heard in that song, the words I
now knew he’d written to me as long ago as January. Words that
echoed the same sentiment in my heart.

“I love you, Ash. I
love you.” The words tumbled from my mouth as we kissed and
professed our love over and over, each of us reveling in the newfound
ability to say it directly to each other. No holding back, no
intercepted letters, no songs pumping through the airwaves that may
or may not have been authentic lyrics. Just our whispers for each
other as we sealed our love in kisses.

Slowly, he began
thrusting up inside of me again. Signing, I eased fully back down
along his shaft, wondering at the feel of him, the way he grew hard
again so quickly, the way he filled me. I couldn’t wait to take him
in my mouth again, to lick all of him down, sucking and loving him.

“You’re so
gorgeous.” He brought his hands to my waist, easing me up and down,
working me along his length. With his thumbs, he grazed the swell of
my breasts, the tips of my nipples. I arched my back, giving myself
to him, getting just the right angle as I straddled him.

“I could watch you on
top of me for hours,” he murmured, sounding transfixed. His eyes
looked glazed over with pure lust as I met his gaze. Feeling like a
sex goddess, I rolled my hips over his, easing myself down on his
huge cock. He closed his eyes and groaned.

“That’s so good,
baby.”

“You like that, Ash?”
I asked, bringing myself up, then down again full, surrounding him
entirely in my wet heat.

“It’s too good.
I’ve waited too long.” Grabbing me around the waist he pulled us
both up and off the couch, then flipped me around and shoved me over
the back of it, rough and demanding. “I have to take you,” he
growled, giving my quivering ass a hard slap.

“Uh! Ash!” In my
core I felt a wet rush of heat in response to his touch, the rough
feel of his smack against my soft cheeks. And then he claimed me
again, from behind, taking me full and hard the way he liked it. The
way I needed it.

“Hold on, baby,” he
warned me. I dug my fingers into the couch, getting a good grip and
he dug his fingers into my hips so hard I knew he’d leave a bruise.
But I wanted his mark on me, I wanted him to take me so hard, so
deep, and that’s just what he did, thundering into me, fucking me
relentlessly, so demanding I knew he felt exactly the same way.

He shot his hot come
deep in me and I came, shuddering around his shaft, milking every
last drop. He gathered me in his arms and we sank down onto the couch
again, him cradling me on his lap. We breathed each other in, basking
in each other’s nearness.

“I’m never letting
anything come between us ever again,” he promised me. “You’re
mine, Ana.”

“And you’re mine,
Ash.” I wrapped my arms around his neck, kissing him full on his
lips. “You belong to me.”

“I do.” He nodded.
“You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I don’t
know where I would be now if it wasn’t for you.”

“I’m so grateful to
all the horrible men chasing you with cameras that day you came into
the library.”

“Never been more
grateful for those assholes.” He grinned, kissing me again.
“There’s a lot I don’t know, Ana. I don’t know what I’m
doing next. Or where—”

“Shh, don’t worry
so much.” I kissed his forehead, laughing at myself as I said it. I
was usually a classic worrier and planner, liking to have everything
mapped out just so. But if I’d learned anything over the last few
months, it was that there was a limit to what you could plan. You
could devote a lot of time to figuring out every last detail, but
then something could happen to blow it all out of the water. It was
far better to live in the moment, especially when that moment
involved Ash Black naked and holding you in his arms.

He smiled at me and
stroked my back, kissing my ear. “You think it’s all going to
work out, Anika Ivanov?”

“Yes, I do,” I
assured him. And somehow in my heart I knew I was right.

Ash

Another year, another
Kavanaugh family holiday party. Only this year I wasn’t wondering
who I was going to take as my date. I wasn’t taking orders from my
PR rep Lola and stewing over getting the right camera shots to rehab
my image. I was the happiest man in the room with my gorgeous fiancée
on my arm.

This time the
engagement ring was all Ana’s, not on loan from a store, not picked
out for its wow factor by a PR company rep. And I’d been right,
there was a stone in Ana’s family I was able to use in the setting,
giving it a personal touch and emotional tie to her background. Her
mother had been so pleased when I’d asked. Though it was a small
diamond, I knew its worth far exceeded the others I included into the
design. And there were others. I didn’t go cockroach-sized like
Lola had, but I wanted my girl to have some sparkle.

“I can’t wait to
see Gigi!” Ana squeezed my arm as we walked through the grand
entrance of the Waldorf Astoria. The two of them had started
corresponding regularly, discussing wedding plans and who knew what
else. That friendly woman from Montana, the one who’d married my
surprise! half-brother Declan, she was in on it, too. They seemed to
be having a ball.

“Tulips,” Gram
declared as she walked over to greet us, looking regal as always. “It
came to me last night as I was reading a fascinating biography of
Katherine Graham. I’m not sure why, exactly, but I became instantly
convinced, you need to go with tulips.”

Good thing Ana seemed
to know what she was talking about. The two of them hugged like long
lost relatives, which I guess they were soon to officially become.
Our wedding was set for the springtime, only a few months away. And
apparently we were going to have tulips at it.

“Asher.” An older,
jowly British relative cornered me the moment I entered the ballroom.
“May I have a word?” I watched my fiancée and Gram walk away,
knowing there was no getting out of it. It was time for my annual
disapproving lecture.

“Jolly good show
young man.” Say what now? I looked at him in surprise. “That new
album of yours, quite excellent if I do say so myself.”

“Oh, thanks.”

“That second number
you have on there.” He started humming and I suppressed a wince.
Apparently I hadn’t inherited my musical abilities from him.

He was talking about my
latest album, released just last month in time for the holidays. I’d
recorded an album of standards with some of the greats, legendary
jazz musicians with more talent in their pinky fingers than many of
the pop stars I knew and couldn’t say I loved. I’d learned a lot
from them and had a blast.

We’d roughed up the
songs everyone knew, given them some Ash Black signature style but
still kept them true to their roots. So far, the album was selling
great. It was the kind of thing I never would have considered doing
before I met Ana. Now, I couldn’t imagine not having done it. It
felt great to break out of the mold and have some fun, not worry so
much about looking and seeming cool and instead simply enjoy making
music.

Meanwhile, “Undone”
had been nominated for a Grammy in a couple of categories. The
success of that song still blew me away. But more than that, I was
grateful for how it brought me and Ana back together. Had she not
been invited to that BMA show, we might have kept right on keeping
on, each of us stupidly thinking the other wanted it that way. We’d
wasted enough time as it was.

Since that show, I’d
barely let her out of my sight. We’d divided our time between S.F.
and New York, and Ana had a whole new role at the library now,
overseeing the disbursement of the funds I’d established to
refurbish and expand children’s programming and services. I’d
never seen anyone so happy about making other people happy, but Ana
lit up about it, spending time visiting children’s branches and
asking them about what they could use to improve their offerings. Me,
I liked making her happy and if that meant making a bunch of kids
happy, too, well it was a win-win.