Steel Love: Alpha BBW Motorcycle Romance (14 page)

Maggie felt a shiver run through her body as Ash’s lips pressed into her ear. Please? He’d said please. He said he would be a perfect gentleman. Maggie felt his honesty. He wouldn’t push her if she didn’t want it. But she wanted it. Maggie wanted him with her. Maybe she didn’t want sex tonight. She didn’t feel ready for that, but she wanted his arms wrapped around her all night keeping her safe. Maggie lifted her eyes to Ash’s, her hands reaching up to push her fingers into his hair.
“Ok.”

Chapter 15

MAGGIE

At first Maggie wanted to argue with Ash about him driving, but when she pushed off the Prius and reached out to Prentice for her purse she realized how unsteady she still felt. She wondered briefly if maybe she had hit her head harder than she thought, but when she assessed herself she wasn’t dizzy and her eyesight seemed fine. It was her legs that still felt really shaky, so Maggie agreed and handed the keys to Ash.

She refused to let him walk her around the car though. Maggie gave him a look that clearly stated, “Let me have a little of my dignity please.” Ash backed off and Maggie made her way around the car. She heard him discussing the logistics of the situation before he got in the car. Apparently Prentice would follow them back to Maggie’s house on his bike. He would sit out front on the porch through the night and Ash would stay with Maggie upstairs.

When he got into the car Maggie turned to him, “We’re not having sex.”

Ash looked sharply over at Maggie eyes wide with surprise. “Ok.”

“I’m just saying that, you know I heard you say to Prentice you would sleep upstairs with me. I just want you to know I’m not having sex with you tonight.”

Ash watched her a moment and then smirked, “Just tonight?”

A fierce blush crept up Maggie’s neck as she looked down at her hands then out the windshield. “I’m not answering that.” She couldn’t help but smile at Ash’s chuckle as he started the car and pulled out onto the street. Maggie spotted Prentice on his bike pulling out of his spot in front of The Hole. She felt bad that she hadn’t said goodbye to Jessi, but she would call her tomorrow and apologize.

“So how will you get back to the bar tomorrow? Will you ride on the back of Prentice’s bike?” Maggie peaked over at Ash as she spoke. His eyes widened and he exploded with laughter.

“Hell no. I don’t ride bitch. You can take me back to my bike before you head to work… If that’s ok.” Ash frowned a bit. He was obviously not used to asking permission.

“Yeah, that should be fine.” Maggie sighed and leaned her head back against the car seat. Letting her eyes close against the intermittent glare of the streetlights. She wanted nothing more than to change into her pajamas and crawl into her bed.

Maggie’s eyes popped back open at the realization that she didn’t have any cute pajamas. All her sleep clothes were either flannel pants or boxer shorts with a tank top. And most of them were ten years old. Reef liked her in skimpy silky nightclothes. Of course she had left them all behind. She hated those clothes, but maybe she should have taken one of the long silk nightdresses with her. I mean was it reasonable to assume she would never want to look sexy for a man again in her life?

As they pulled into her driveway she resigned herself to the fact that the first time Ash and she slept together she would most assuredly
not
be cute. Then she realized she’d just thought of this as the
first
time they slept together. As if there would be more times. “Let’s just see how tonight goes.” Maggie admonished herself, under her breath, as she climbed from the car.

“What was that?” Ash looked at her over the roof of the car.

“Oh! Nothing. I was just… um… it was nothing.” Maggie tried to smile and shrug it off. She had to laugh at the quirked eyebrow Ash gave her.

“Talk to yourself often?”

“When needs must.” Maggie called over her shoulder. While she made her way up to the front porch Ash walked back toward Prentice who was just pulling up behind them.

She stopped at the front door realizing Ash had the keys. She leaned against the door and waited for him to finish up his discussion with Prentice. Finally he started walking toward the house. Maggie studied Ash as he moved out of the shadows and into the light cast out by the bulb above the front door. He was indeed a lovely specimen of a man. Maggie smiled to herself as her eyes moved over his arms and shoulders. They were very nice shoulders.
Strong
shoulders. His black t-shirt stretched tight over his chest and she could see the outline of his pecs. She knew what his chest and shoulders felt like, but she wanted to know what they
looked
like. The thought made Maggie giggle as Ash walked up the stairs. He stopped when he reached the top step and looked at her while she laughed, flipping her keys around his finger.

“Something funny?”

“No, I’m just tired that’s all. And getting a little silly I think. Maybe the shock is finally wearing off. I think I just need to get some sleep.”

Ash nodded and walked toward her. She stuck her hand out for the keys and watched his face as he handed them over. He had a reluctant set to his brow, but he did hand them to her, and really that was all that mattered. He wasn’t trying to control her. He was asking her permission. All of that, more than anything so far, was probably what she found sexiest about him.

Maggie could feel Ash at her back as she unlocked the front door. He stood far closer than a regular friend probably would. As he followed her inside she felt his fingertips lightly brush against the top of her back between her shoulder blades and then caress down her spine stopping at her lower back. He didn’t break contact until they were both inside and he turned to shut the door.

“Prentice is going to stay on the front porch, but I told him we would leave the front door unlocked so he could come in if he needed to. Is that ok?”

Maggie smiled at Ash as she dropped her keys and purse on the table near the door. “That’s fine, thank you for asking. I trust your judgment in this… So do you need anything to drink or, anything at all before we… um… go upstairs?”

When was she going to be comfortable around him? When was she going to stop blushing and feeling so nervous?

“No I’m good. Lead the way.” Ash smirked at Maggie as he responded.

Maggie turned and quickly made her way upstairs. When they reached the top landing she pointed to the right and gestured toward the door that led into her bedroom. “That’s my bedroom. The bathroom is across the hall through there, I’m just going to wash my face and when I’m done you can use it while I change. Is that ok?”

“Absolutely, I’ll wait in your room.” Ash walked away from her, arms loose at his sides as he moved toward the bedroom. Maggie walked into the bathroom; closing the door tightly behind her she leaned back against the hard wood letting its strength support her for a moment as she tried to get her heart under control. Ash Moreno was in her bedroom at this very moment. Ash was going to sleep in her bed tonight. Thank God she’d changed the sheets this week.

Maggie pushed off the door and walked over to the sink. She pulled her hair up into a high bun and began her nightly ritual of cleaning her face and applying her moisturizer. She brushed her teeth, and after a moment flossed, then rinsed with mouthwash, twice for good measure. Before she left the bathroom she looked in the mirror. She had never been particularly vain, but at the same time she had always believed herself pretty. Reef was an asshole. She couldn’t really remember the last time he’d simply told her she was pretty. She shrugged at her reflection. If Ash wasn’t attracted to her in her cleanest barest state there was nothing she could do about it, and honestly she probably didn’t want to be with a man like that anyway.

When she walked into the bedroom Ash was sitting on her bed. He’d removed his boots and placed them near the door with his socks tucked inside. “The bathroom’s all yours.” Maggie said.

Ash stood up from her bed and walked past brushing a hand down her arm as he moved toward the hall. Goose bumps exploded along the trail he made as she turned to watch him walk away. He glanced back at her before crossing the threshold into the bathroom. She waited until he was in the bathroom before closing the bedroom door.

Maggie tended to get hot at night so she couldn’t imagine wearing flannel pajama pants with another person in the bed. Her only other clothing option was the boxer shorts. She pulled out a pair of the boxers and a black tank top. She stripped down as fast as she could; throwing her smoky bar clothes into the hamper in the corner, then pulled on the shorts and tank top. She hated wearing a bra or underwear to bed. She could never get comfortable and the one thing she desperately needed right now was sleep so she chose to go commando.

Maggie glanced around the room making sure there weren’t any other dirty bras or underwear lying around. Since leaving Reef she tended toward being just this side of messy. It was her own little passive aggressive self-assurance that yes indeed she was in control of her own life and she could leave a bra hanging over the bed rail if she damn well pleased.

Once she was sure the room was relatively clean her eyes fell on the bed. Thank God she’d found this queen bed at the thrift store when she’d first moved back. If she still had the twin from her childhood in here they would be in serious trouble. The bed was unmade with the sheets crumpled at the foot. Maggie began arranging the pillows at the head and then stood at the foot and shook out the sheets. While it was still cool out she wasn’t using the AC but liked to crack the window and turn the ceiling fan on low. She couldn’t sleep without a fan on.

As Maggie finished getting the room ready for bed she heard Ash’s soft knock on the door. “Come on in.” Maggie called out as she stretched up on tippy toes to pull the fan cord. Ash opened the door letting it swing wide and stopped to watch her. When she finally got the fan speed where she wanted it and her heels hit the floor again she looked back at him. Her heart jumped into her throat at the look he gave her. “What?” she croaked out.

Ash took a step into the room, his eyes moving over her so heavy she would swear she could
feel
it and that feeling made her squeeze her thighs together and her nipples tighten embarrassingly. Maggie crossed her arms over her chest, but not before Ash noticed. He reached behind him to grasp the door and swing it closed then moved toward her. When he was two feet from her he stopped and put his hands in his pockets. The gesture looked strained like he was trying desperately not to touch her.

“After the first time I saw you. Standing on your front porch in the rain. Do you remember?” Ash looked into Maggie’s eyes and she nodded. “I had a fantasy about you, shelving books.”

Maggie frowned at that, and then laughed out loud and tilted her head to the side as if examining him. “You had a fantasy about me
shelving
books?”

Ash grinned at her and reached out to tuck a loose curl behind her ear, “Well… yeah you were putting books away in the library. You had your hair up in a bun like you do now. And you were wearing a short skirt with thigh highs and garters. You were reaching up to put a book on a high shelf. Like you were just reaching up to pull the fan cord. I walked up behind you and your skirt was riding up the backs of your legs so I could just see skin above the tops of the thigh highs. I reached out and pulled your hair from the bun. So it hung down your back.”

As he spoke Ash closed the distance between them and placed his hands lightly on her shoulders. While he described the skirt riding up the back of her thighs his fingers brushed up and down her arms. Maggie couldn’t keep her breath steady. She felt like the air left the room, but it wasn’t scary. She didn’t want air right now. All she wanted was for Ash to never stop touching her.

“Is… is that all?” Maggie asked, her voice barely audible.

“Yeah. That’s all. Just… when you were reaching up like that… it reminded me of it.” Ash cleared his throat and stepped back.

“We should get some sleep. You’ve had a rough night.”

When he broke contact Maggie took a deep breath to clear her head and turned toward the bed. She didn’t respond to him, just pulled the sheets back and crawled under the covers. Ash unbuttoned his jeans and pulled them off throwing them over his boots by the door. He wore black boxer briefs that cupped his ass nicely. While his back was to her he pulled his shirt over his head and threw it on the pile of his boots and jeans. She sucked in her breath at the site of his back. His muscles were thick and tight. She wanted to lick the length of his spine.

When he turned she could see just how turned on his little fantasy made him. If Maggie had any concern about his attraction to her before, well that concern was definitely addressed and squashed.

The only thing she could think to do was cover her head with the sheet, which made Ash bark out laughter. “Are you hiding from me Maggie?” His voice was suddenly way closer than it had been.

“Why would you ask that?” Maggie squeaked out.

“Well… this is the first time I’ve slept with a girl whose first reaction to seeing me in my underwear was to cover her head.”

Maggie couldn’t help but laugh, until she felt the mattress press down next to her. She liked to sleep on the edge of the bed so she hadn’t thought to move over and give him room. This necessitated Ash crawling over her, which he did very slowly, hovering above her with an arm and a leg on either side of her body for a moment. When he was finally on the inside of the bed she could feel him shifting his body to get under the covers. When he was settled Maggie pulled the sheet down from her head and rolled to face him. “Comfortable?”

Ash smirked at her. “Very. Thank you. Are you comfortable?”

Maggie sighed and squirmed against the mattress. “Yep. I was thinking before you came in the room, it’s lucky I got a new bed. When I came back home my old twin was still in here. After one night on that thing I went out the next day and got this bed. It was my first purchase after leaving Reef. I worried for a bit that maybe I made a mistake spending money on what seemed like a frivolous expense, but now I’m happy I did.”