Ambitious (NeXt Book 4), page 14
“Hey, maybe we should talk?” I say as I set the bottle of soda down next to my General Tso chicken dinner.
Turning to face me, she nods. “Okay. What’s up?”
“I mean about what just happened. Nothing happened, not with Emily, I mean, but I’d understand if you weren’t happy. You know, walking in and seeing that certainly couldn’t have been great.”
Savannah nods again and then stands on her tiptoes to kiss me sweetly on the lips. “You could say that, but I did a quick assessment of the situation and decided everything was okay. She had to go, of course, but you weren’t guilty of doing anything wrong.”
“A quick assessment?” I ask, wondering why she suddenly sounds like some SEAL team commando.
Looking up at me with innocence in her eyes, she explains, “Your penis was hanging out, Cash, so my attention was naturally drawn to that. Since it was soft and it didn’t look like it had been anywhere that would make it wet, I concluded that you didn’t have sex with her. After that, I read your body language and decided you weren’t happy with her being here. Since you’re a gentleman, you probably didn’t tell her to get the hell out, so I took matters into my own hands. I think they gave you white rice instead of fried rice, so if you want to switch with me, that’s okay.”
I want to say half a dozen things in response to that explanation, but suddenly my brain seems devoid of any thought but how incredible she is. When she turns to continue unpacking the bag, I move behind her and slide my arms around her waist.
Setting my chin on her shoulder, I whisper, “You are the most wonderful woman in the world, Savannah Gardener. Do you know that?”
She turns her head and gives me a tiny peck. “Thank you. So any decision on the rice issue? I think I must have messed up when I was ordering because I don’t think I’ve ever had any Chinese restaurant screw up an order.”
I nuzzle her neck, loving how the sweetness of her skin fills my nose. “Whichever you like. I’m not a huge rice eater anyway. I think I’m going to go get dressed, so I’ll be right back.”
That makes her spin around in my hold, shaking her head. “No way. Stay in the towel. I have plans for what I want for dessert.”
“Not fortune cookies? Don’t you want to know what the future holds?”
Her gaze drifts down my body to where my cock pushes against the towel. Smiling, she says, “I can predict the future, actually. I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that dessert is going to be your favorite part of the meal.”
I cup my hand over the front of the towel and smile. “I don’t doubt it.”
Then she skims her fingertips along the skin between my hips and adds, “In fact, I think tonight calls for having dessert first.”
Chapter Nineteen
Savannah
I crouch down in front of Cash and press my lower back up against his kitchen cabinets to keep my balance. Going down on him before dinner hadn’t been my original plan, but things change.
He just looks too damn good standing there in that towel for me to let that go to waste.
Tugging the towel off his hips, I slide my hand around his hard cock and smile up at him. “Sure you’re not hungry and I should wait?”
Cash shakes his head as a smile lifts the corners of his mouth. “I could be a starving man who hasn’t eaten in weeks and I’d still want this from you before anything else.”
Giggling, I stroke him slowly. “That does not sound healthy.”
He stuffs his hands into my hair and tugs my head forward until the head of his cock presses against my lips. I sort of want to tease him a little more, but our dinner is getting cold and I really was looking forward to shrimp with lobster sauce, so it’s probably a good idea if I take care of business.
I open my mouth and slowly slide him over my lips, loving the feel of his silky soft skin. He tastes masculine and musky, even though he just had a shower. If I was insecure, I might think that’s because he had a girl here for God only knows how long before I arrived, but I’m not.
He’s already shown me the kind of man he is. I’m not worried he’s a cheater.
Above me, Cash moans when the tip of his cock bumps up against the back of my throat. I flick my tongue along his balls and hum against his skin to drive him crazy. The vibration hits him hard, and he pushes his hips forward so I can’t do anything but deep throat him.
Knowing that, I swallow hard and watch his eyes open wide in excitement. I may look sweet and innocent, but I have some experience pleasing a man.
“Oh, fuck…this isn’t going to take long, Savannah, if you keep doing things like that.”
He sounds disappointed, and although I don’t usually mind a long sex session, I can smell my food behind me on the counter just waiting to be eaten. So I begin bobbing my head up and down, taking him all the way down to the base and then back up until the head is the only thing still in my mouth. Sucking hard, I give it a little lick with the tip of my tongue and take all of him again, over and over as he moans loudly above me and pulls hard on my hair.
It only takes a few minutes, just like he warned, before he’s fucking my mouth like a man desperate to come. I hold onto his hips, sinking my fingertips into his skin, and with each thrust, I moan around his cock and revel in the grunts he makes. He tightens his hold on my hair even more, practically pulling it out by the roots, but I’m so excited by this that I can barely feel the pain as it dances across my scalp.
With one last push of his hips, he buries his cock in my mouth and I feel him come against my tongue. He holds my head tightly against him, filling my nose with the masculine scent that’s so him. My eyes closed, I swallow every drop he gives, and when he leans back and his cock slides out of my mouth, I look up to see a very satisfied Cash.
“Damn, that was some dessert.”
With a smile, I stand up and kiss him. “That’s for being a good boy. Now it’s time for dinner.”
I turn to get our food, but he pulls me to him and kisses me long and deep. I melt into his arms, loving how it feels to have them around me.
“I love you, Savannah, and not just because you do things like that.”
“So if I never went down on you again, you’d be okay?” I ask with a giggle, knowing the answer before he even gives it to me.
A look of disappointment crosses his face. “Well, not okay, but I’d still love you.”
I tap the tip of his nose and smile. “Don’t worry. I like doing that for you. It gets me all hot. Right now, though, I’m starving, so if you have any special dessert for me, I hope you’re okay with me getting it at the usual dessert time.”
“Trust me. I have something for you for dessert. I’m thinking whipped cream with it too.”
I’m not sure if he has a treat for me that I can actually eat or he’s talking about spraying whipped cream all over my body and eating that himself as he goes down on me. Either way, I’ll love it.
Just like I love him.
Cash leans back against the couch cushion and closes his eyes. “I think I have food coma. Did they give you an extra-large order of General Tso? I haven’t exactly been starving while I’ve been at my brother’s, but I’m stuffed.”
“No, just the regular size,” I say as I snuggle up next to him. “I think it might be all the rice you ate. For a guy who isn’t a big rice eater, you gobbled down nearly a whole pint of the stuff.”
He opens his eyes and smiles. “I guess I need to revise my position on rice. Just give me a minute and then I’m going to give you your dessert.”
“It’s not food, is it?” I ask, suddenly worried I might actually have to consume more after that feast we just finished.
My question makes him laugh. “No. The only edible food I have in this apartment walked through the door with you.”
“Oh, okay. Because if it was something like a real dessert, I might have to give it a little while because I’m stuffed too.”
He pulls me to him and closes his eyes. “Just a few minutes. I promise.”
One heavy sigh and a minute later, he’s asleep. After all he’s been through for the past week, I can’t blame him.
I lay my head on his chest and close my eyes while I think about how much I miss him every time he’s gone from my side. It’s all happened so quickly, but that doesn’t mean anything. When you know how you feel about someone, time and how long you’ve known them becomes unimportant.
All that matters is he loves me and I love him. Everything else we’ll handle.
When I open my eyes, I look down my body to see Cash kissing the insides of my thighs. It must be dessert time.
“I woke up just at just the right time.”
He smiles against my leg and winks. “I like to think I have enough skill at this that you wouldn’t sleep through it.”
As I start to joke that you never know since I tend to sleep like the dead, his thumb brushes between my legs and begins drawing tight circles on my clit. Suddenly, my ability to speak vanishes, that area of my brain completely overrun by pure pleasure.
“I like that you started to say something and then as soon as I touched you, nothing. Tells me I hit the right spot,” he says as he kisses where my left leg meets my body.
His warm breath drifts over my exposed skin, thrilling me while I wait to feel his mouth on me. The anticipation is sweet torture, with every second that ticks by making me want this more and more.
I lift my hips off the couch to give him a not-so-subtle hint that it’s time for dessert to start, and he looks up at me with pure mischief in his blue eyes. He has no idea the effect he has on me just with a glance.
“I’d like you to touch that spot again, but this time with your mouth, please,” I say sweetly.
He doesn’t wait another moment before pressing his mouth to my needy clit and giving it a gentle suck. My eyes roll back in my head as pleasure rolls through me with every flick of his tongue. I’m a slave to that mouth of his.
I don’t know how long he teases me, taking me to the edge of an orgasm and then easing me back, but I finally can’t wait any longer and stuff my hand against the back of his head. He looks up, seemingly confused like he doesn’t understand what could be the urgency, but then he smiles.
“Anything you’d like?” he asks and then licks the full length of my pussy until he stops right below my clit.
“Yes! I’d like to come, but you won’t let me. All this teasing is very frustrating, Cash.”
“Then I better do something about it.”
Before I can say I think he should, his mouth closes around my clit and he slides two fingers inside me. Fireworks go off behind my eyes as my release tears through me after waiting so long for just this exquisite feeling.
“Yes! Don’t stop…” I whimper, desperate to have this continue until I can’t bear it any longer.
His tongue laps at me while his fingers fuck me, curling just right to graze that one spot inside that makes an orgasm better than any feeling in the world. And then, I feel a second one hit me and buck against his face with abandon, my body craving every single touch of his tongue and mouth I can have on me.
When he sits back on his heels, I collapse into the cushions and sigh, more content than I ever remember being. “That dessert was fantastic. I’d like to have that delivered to me for after every meal.”
“Glad you liked it. It’s a Cash March specialty.”
My brain feels fuzzy, like I lost oxygen when I came and now I can’t think straight. Even more, I think I want to sleep again.
Closing my eyes, I whisper, “I love you.”
I feel his lips touch mine and he says, “I love you, Savannah. You look like you’re going to pass out.”
“Just for a second or two. I think you have the honor of being the only man I’ve ever met who could affect me like this.”
As I drift off, he kisses me again and whispers, “Good. I want to be the only man who affects you at all in any way.”
Chapter Twenty
Cash
Three months later
Savannah tightens her hold on my hand as we walk up toward the front door to my grandmother’s house. It’s a beautiful, sunny day and she looks stunning in a red long sleeved dress with a white bow that crosses just under her ribs, like my perfect Christmas present.
And the perfect woman to introduce to my family.
She stops about two steps away from the porch and turns to look at me. “Are you sure this is a good idea? I’m dying to meet everyone, but it’s the holidays, Cash. Christmas was just two days ago. This seems like the time for all of you to be together, not having some new person put in the mix.”
I lean down and kiss her on her red lips tinted to match her dress. “You’re not some new person. You’re the woman I’ve lived with for the past two months. I want everyone to meet you and see how lucky I am. What better time than at the holidays, especially since you look like my Christmas present?”
My joke doesn’t go over as well as I would like, and her frown deepens. “This isn’t funny, Cash. I’m nervous. I didn’t care if anyone thought I was a liar when I did that interview, but that was people I knew. These are people in your family. What if they don’t see that I did that because I love you?”
“They will. Trust me. I know they will. They already do. My mother said when she saw you on TV that day that she would want to meet any woman who loved her son that much to do what you did. Well, today she gets to meet you. It’s been a little over three months since we started dating. It’s time.”
When she doesn’t smile, I add, “Because if I don’t introduce you to them now, they’re going to think I made you up, like you’re just an imaginary girlfriend instead of the real life, flesh and blood woman I adore.”
“Don’t try to joke your way out of this,” she mumbles.
I love how cute she’s being about my family meeting her. As if my dating a woman who’s this gorgeous and as wealthy as she is would ever be a problem. She acts as if she’s some girl I picked up on the way over instead of the beautiful woman I one day intend on marrying.
Not that she knows about that last part yet.
“Ready?”
Savannah runs her hands over her long brown hair and takes a deep breath in. “Do I look okay? Red sometimes leaves me all washed out, and even though I thought I looked good this morning at the house, now I’m feeling like being around all this water is making me look pale.”
Cradling her face in my hands, I kiss her as the last word leaves her mouth. “You look perfect. Trust me, they’re going to love you.”
She looks up at me and lets her breath out slowly. Suddenly, her eyes open wide in pure terror. “I think I forgot everyone’s name! Run through them all again, please.”
I can’t help but laugh at how she’s so nervous about meeting the March and Jackson clan. Maybe I should have told her more embarrassing stories about all of us so she’d know there’s no reason to worry.
“Okay, here goes. My grandmother’s name is Alexandria. She’s who my brother is named after. My parents are Cassian and Olivia.”
Rolling her eyes, she pushes my shoulder. “I know the immediate family, Cash. It’s the extended one I’m mixing up.”
“Got it. Well, the brother who looks like my father and me is Kane. The one who looks like Alex is Stefan. Liam is the tall guy around our age who looks like me, and Cade is the one who looks like Alex.”
She nods as I speak, looking more enthusiastic with each second. “Okay. I think I got it. Stefan and Cade are father and son and look like Alex with that side of the family’s dark hair and brown eyes. There’s a sister in there too, right?”
“Yeah. Ava, and she looks like her mother, who is Stefan’s wife. Remember her name?”
Suddenly, fear fills Savannah’s eyes again. “No! Wait, is it Abbi?”
“No. She’s the blond who’s married to Kane. Remember, blond with the guy who looks like me and my father, and brunettes are related to Stefan with the brown hair and brown eyes.”
“Okay, okay. I think I have it. But what if the brunettes are standing with the uncle who looks like you? I’m going to get confused.”
She has no idea of the history of that topic, so I just shake my head and smile. “That won’t happen. The brunettes are never alone with Kane.”
“That’s a very weird statement. You know that, right?”
I take her hand and begin walking toward my grandmother’s front door. “Not if you know the stories.”
“So what? Does that mean the blond, Abbi, is never going to be standing just with Stefan?” she asks.
It’s a logical question, but since little of what happens with my family is logical, I don’t have a good answer for her. “She might, but that’s not an issue. Oh, and don’t forget there’s Wilder. He sort of looks like me with dark hair and blue eyes, but he’s always miserable at these things. He’s Kane and Abbi’s son.”
Waving her hands excitedly, she says, “Oh, and he’s never next to Cade because they hate each other.”
“Right. Cade will probably have his girlfriend Hailey with him, which will mean there won’t be any angry fights between those two. Without her here, things between Cade and Wilder might get ugly.”
As I ring the doorbell, Savannah says under her breath, “And Olivia has the red hair, which makes her unique amongst everyone in the family.”
I smile and nod my head. “Exactly.”
On my way out of the house, Alex catches me on the porch and pulls me aside. Curious if I missed something big while I was getting Savannah another glass of wine, I glance around and see everyone looks the same as they did ten minutes ago. Nobody is bloody, and it seems like everyone’s still talking to each other.
“What’s up? Did something happen?”
He laughs, probably because I sound paranoid. I do sound overly worried, but I’ve seen this family’s get-togethers devolve into drunken melees before.
“No. I just thought you should give Savannah some time with Mom and Grandma. The three of them are down at the table talking, and this is the first time she’s been left alone with them. Something up, or are you just a helicopter boyfriend now?”
