A Small Fortune Read online

  “Kids are brutally honest at that age,” she told him. “They don’t realize that other people—especially parents—have feelings, too. Not to mention that they don’t always mean what they say.”

  Jace’s comment hadn’t really bothered him. He knew what was behind it. The boy missed having a woman in his life.

  That, he couldn’t help thinking, made two of them.

  The only difference was that Jace had no trouble giving his heart away again. It wasn’t all that easy for Asher, given that he was still sporting the scars from what had happened the last time he surrendered his heart.

  Asher steered the conversation in a slightly different direction. “Well, he certainly has an abundance of feelings, I’ll give him that. He’s been moping most of the day, asking when you were coming over. He wasn’t very happy when I kept telling him that you were busy. You seem to be the highlight of his day.”

  She smiled. “That’s very sweet, but he’ll get tired of having me around soon enough,” she predicted. She was well aware of how delicate the balance in a relationship between father and son could be at this early stage of development, and she didn’t want Asher to feel that he was losing the boy to her.

  “Truth be told,” Asher continued as if she hadn’t just said anything, “you’re the highlight of my day, too.”

  Stunned, Marnie was at a loss how to respond for a moment.

  “And,” Asher continued, “I have a feeling that neither one of us is going to get tired of having you come around anytime in the foreseeable future.”

  His words totally took her breath away.

  Marnie had expected just the opposite response from him. What she’d expected to hear was his denying that there was anything between them and even a flippant dismissal of the electricity that the kiss they’d shared last night had produced.

  She pressed her lips together and finally murmured, “I don’t know what to say.”

  “Don’t say anything,” he replied. He hadn’t told her that because he wanted to discuss the pros and cons with her. It had slipped out because it was the truth. “Just be here a little while longer,” he requested.

  They were in the living room now, standing toe-to-toe. Close enough for her to feel the heat of his body and she was fairly certain that he could feel the heat from hers.

  The very thought stirred her to the point that it was difficult not to just throw her arms around Asher and kiss him.

  But that just might push him back, and she definitely didn’t want that.

  She still hadn’t made up her mind if Asher was a man who felt more comfortable doing the pursuing, or if being pursued was just as seductive to him. For her part, she was open to anything, but she had to admit that the thought of being the object of his pursuit was definitely appealing to her.

  “I wasn’t planning on going anywhere,” she told him, her voice barely above a low, seductive and intoxicating whisper.

  Asher told himself to take it slow, to stand on a little ceremony. After all, if you’ve been away from the water for six months and had barely gotten your toes wet in over practically a year, you didn’t just immediately dive into the deep end of the pool, not without severe consequences.

  Instead, you tested the waters first, gauged its temperature, went slowly...

  “Oh, the hell with it,” Asher finally muttered under his breath just before he dove in.

  “Excuse me?” Marnie said, confused. Or at least that was what she started to say. But the second part of that quickly faded away as her mouth was suddenly laid siege to by his.

  He stole her breath away in the very next moment.

  Marnie didn’t care. This was as close to ecstasy as she felt she was ever going to get, and she intended to enjoy the hell out of it before it stopped, or she woke up, whichever came first.

  The moment contact was made, Marnie gave herself permission to enjoy what was happening and to also pull out all the stops.

  She intended to go as far as she could on this ride, and if it went the full course, well, so be it. If that happened, it would be, she knew, a grand night to remember.

  It was, she thought as the kiss between them continued to thrive and deepen, as if her whole body were on fire.

  Her pulse accelerating, Marnie deliberately savored every pass of his mouth, every nuance that was involved. With each second that went by, her excitement heightened, along with her desire for more.

  The kiss deepened further, opening up a bottomless chasm beneath her.

  And then, just as she thought she was going to be forced to tear the clothes right off his body, Asher pulled his head back altogether.

  The thought that he was stopping—just like that—brought a cold, foreboding chill along her spine, encompassing all of her and temporarily holding her an unwilling prisoner.

  “Am I going too fast?” he asked. “Do you want me to stop?”

  She stared at him. Asher Fortune had to be the most selfless man ever created.

  But right now she didn’t want selfless; she wanted torrid.

  “Am I complaining?” she asked in a barely audible, husky whisper.

  It wasn’t anything she’d said; it was just a feeling he’d had. “No.”

  “Well, then?” was all Marnie asked before she offered up her mouth to him again.

  He needed no more of an invitation than that.

  Chapter Twelve

  This time, it was Marnie who was the one who abruptly pulled back.

  It took Asher a moment to realize that she wasn’t just leaning back against the sofa; she was actually pulling away.

  It took him another few moments of inner struggle to regain some sort of control over himself, since at this point, all he wanted to do was to be with her, to hold her, to make love with her and just completely lose himself in the essence that was Marnie.

  Putting the brakes on—hard—really cost him. But although he felt as if his need for Marnie was all but overwhelming, one thing was clear to him. Asher knew he couldn’t force himself on her. Couldn’t allow this to just be a one-sided exercise aimed to satisfy himself at her expense. The cost was much too high for him morally.

  There was no way he could allow that to happen—to either of them.

  “I’m sorry,” he apologized, the words tumbling awkwardly from his lips as he backed away and rebuttoned the shirt he’d come very close to shedding just now. “I didn’t mean to assume—”

  He got no further.

  Marnie had placed her finger on his lips, stopping the flow of words he was attempting to tender as an apology to her.

  “You didn’t assume anything wrong,” she told him, her voice low and thick with desire. She saw Asher looking at her in total confusion. “But we can’t do it here,” she went on. “Jace might wake up and come looking for you. Four is just too young to begin this kind of an education.”

  Marnie was right. How could he have been so irresponsible? Asher upbraided himself.

  “I’m an idiot,” he declared with a gut-wrenching sigh.

  Marnie couldn’t suppress the smile that rose to her lips. “You are many things, Asher Fortune. But an idiot isn’t one of them.” Fastening her own shirt, she left the shirttails hanging out and took his hand. As he looked at her with a silent question in his eyes, she said, “Come. There’s just been a change in the venue, not in the activity.”

  And with that, she headed back toward the staircase and led the way up to the master bedroom.

  His room.

  Asher would have followed her to the ends of the earth. His bedroom was definitely along the way.

  Anticipation went up a little higher within Marnie with each step she took that brought her closer to his bedroom. She’d never shied away from a relationship, but she had never taken this sort of an initiative before.
Never led the way, never felt this eager.

  But then, she’d never wanted another man the way she found herself wanting Asher. It felt as if rather than helping Asher find his way in life, Asher was the piece of her that had been missing all this time. She’d felt it the moment their hands had touched, the moment he’d kissed her.

  Unlike the other men she’d been involved with before, Asher completed her.

  It wasn’t all just one-sided. He wasn’t her project to complete, or a lost soul whom she could help find his way again.

  She needed him as much as he needed her.

  The moment they crossed the threshold into his room and Asher closed the door behind them, the safeguards came down.

  All thought of hesitation vanished. Marnie and he were of a single mind, a single thought. To be with each other, to make love with each other while this perfect moment existed, before the world intruded and reality pushed its way in.

  He pulled her into his arms, sealing his mouth to hers. The rapid beating of her heart against his chest told him everything he wanted to know.

  She was as much in the moment as he was.

  He could feel his heart echoing hers.

  Everything inside him cried, Hurry! Hurry before something happens to stop this. But even so, Asher found himself wanting to go slow, to savor the moment.

  To savor her.

  Still kissing Marnie, he moved from her lips to the slope of her throat. At the same time, he slowly undressed her, removing her clothes the way he might remove wrapping paper from a precious, long-desired, long-anticipated gift.

  Savoring the journey as much as he would savor the destination when he reached it.

  With each article of clothing that fell away, he could feel his anticipation heightening.

  He could feel Marnie’s heart keeping time with his own. That, too, excited him, stirring him to head-spinning heights.

  Unable to contain herself, Marnie began taking his clothing off, as well, so that when her buttons were undone, so were his. When her shirtsleeves slid off her shoulders, so did his.

  The room was warm, but she still felt chills going up her spine.

  And when he undid the notch in her belt, undoing the snap and guiding her jeans down her hips in what had to be the most achingly slow movement she’d ever experienced, Marnie made sure that she did the same with the jeans he had on.

  When her jeans finally slid down her legs to her ankles and pooled down around her feet to the floor, she stepped out of them.

  As did he out of his.

  “You’ve got one more article of clothing on than I do,” Asher pointed out when they were both standing there in only their underwear. He lowered his eyes to hers. “No fair,” he teased.

  It was then that Marnie surprised him by reaching behind her back and releasing the clasp that held her bra in place.

  The white lacy demi-bra with its soft blue-ribbon trim seemed to sigh, relaxing its embrace of her breasts. The material slipped away a little, allowing him to get a peek of just enough skin to tantalize him.

  The next moment, the bra was gone, a thing of the past.

  Asher filled his hands with her. Massaging her breasts in slow, measured strokes, he was slowly making himself completely crazy.

  Her moan only increased his sense of urgent need.

  The kisses deepened as he tried to fill his soul with her, as well.

  Asher caught his breath as he felt the palms of her hands splayed along his naked skin. It took a second for him to realize that she was divesting him of the last piece of material separating him from her.

  He followed suit automatically without even stopping to think about it, removing the blue-and-white scrap of lace serving as her last piece of underwear. He flung it aside, wanting his hands free to be able to be filled with her again.

  His mouth sealed to hers, as was his body, they sank down onto his king-size bed.

  Needs exploded.

  And then Asher got down to business, and Marnie discovered what true ecstasy really was.

  She could feel them, could feel the incredible tiny bursts of energy erupting at her very core with each pass of his clever fingers, each languid swipe of his lingering lips and tongue.

  Especially his tongue.

  As she arched, shifted and bucked, too filled with pure, unadulterated pleasure to stand it, she was also determined not to allow it to end. She came to the edge of sanity, relishing every fantastic nuance, every quiver of her body in response to his.

  Grabbing his shoulders after a particularly wildly incredible experience, she panted out his name as she tried to feebly drag Asher back up to her level.

  “You don’t do it now,” she whispered in a raspy, gravelly voice, “and there won’t be anything left of me and then I won’t be able, however inadequately, to return this favor.”

  One final thrust of his tongue to send her tumbling over the edge and then he raised himself up on his hands, slowly dragging his body up along hers, setting her on fire all over again. As for him, the match was already lit and the flame was beginning to work its way up to the end of the wick.

  “Ready or not,” he whispered against her ear, “here I come.”

  “I’m ready,” she managed to get out between gritted teeth. “Oh, so very ready,” she assured him eagerly. Her whole body was tingling in fevered anticipation.

  Parting her legs for him, Marnie caught her breath as he came to her.

  The sound of sheer pleasure escaped her lips as she felt Asher take her, make her his own.

  The sense of urgency that came over her was breathtaking. Marnie couldn’t seem to shake the feeling that if she didn’t hurry, if she didn’t urge him to do the same, this would swiftly become a heartbreakingly lost opportunity.

  She knew she was being silly, that a wheelbarrow of premonitions didn’t amount to a hill of anything, but she moved quickly, as if the very forces of hell were chasing them.

  The woman moved to an amazing tempo, Asher couldn’t help thinking, and he actually had to be quick in order to match it. Not about to be left behind, he moved his hips as quickly as she did, increasing the tempo right along with her and even moving slightly ahead until it was hard to say who was outracing whom.

  He wanted to cry out her name, to shout it out to the world, but he knew that he couldn’t, so he struggled to remain as silent as possible.

  But a moan did escape. Whether it was hers or his, he couldn’t have said for sure. All he knew was that the wave of pleasure that washed over him was like none he’d ever felt before.

  It even took him a moment to realize that he was holding her so tightly he was in danger of squeezing her past the limit of endurance.

  The last thing he wanted was to end this episode by hurting her.

  He released Marnie, albeit reluctantly. Holding her to him like this felt as if he were sealing her into his heart.

  Asher didn’t want to attempt to explore what that really meant to him right now, or why he had even thought of it. He only knew that this was something exquisitely different, exquisitely new, and he felt both humbled and overwhelmed in its presence.

  Even so, he was gun-shy, which meant that he was a little leery of anything his feelings declared right now. After all, it was his feelings that had pushed him into marrying Lynn in the first place.

  Bad call there, he couldn’t help thinking.

  The descent from the peak they had reached together was far too swift to please him.

  He drew in a long breath, and then another, attempting to regulate both his breathing and his heart. Neither was being very cooperative.

  Asher turned his face toward hers, not really knowing what to say, how to acknowledge what had just happened. What did you say to a woman who had rocked your world?

  No singl
e word or group of words that came to mind seemed nearly adequate.

  He began with the most responsible thing he could say, getting it out of the way first. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

  Dazed, still floating on a euphoric cloud of pink cotton candy, Marnie murmured, “Hmm?” to what she presumed was a question.

  Asher drew himself up on his elbow so that he could get a better view of her face. Right now it was all but buried in the shadows.

  “I didn’t hurt you, did I?” he asked again, this time with a tad more concern in his voice.

  Rather than answer outright, she turned into him and smiled up into his eyes.

  Deeply.

  She was still somewhat dazed and oh-so-reluctant to disembark from the wild, interplanetary ride she’d just been on.

  “No,” she finally managed to say. “Why would you think you hurt me?” she had to ask.

  “I was afraid I got too carried away, too physical,” he confessed.

  Her words were still emerging from her lips in slow motion. “And that’s a bad thing?”

  “Not for me,” he allowed, but as far as he was concerned, he wasn’t the one who counted here. “I was thinking about you—”

  “Not for me, either,” she breathed, punctuating each breathy word with a smile that progressively widened with each syllable.

  When she looked at him like that, all he could think of was doing it again, despite the fact that he felt weak enough to allow an undernourished cat with a limp to wipe the floor with him.

  “You’re sure?” he pressed.

  “Very sure,” she answered solemnly. And then, summoning whatever latent strength she had stored up for just such an emergency, Marnie drew herself up, turned and suddenly, he was the one beneath her and she was the one on top. “As a matter of fact, let me show you just how sure of that I am,” she offered.

  Before he could say a single word, either in protest or to urge her on, Marnie splayed her body over his and sealed her mouth to his lips.

  This time, the moan of pleasure that echoed between them belonged to him.

  He felt her smile widening over his lips, could have sworn he heard a triumphant laugh emerge from her and find its way into him.