Ash is never going to sleep tonight with Chloe in his bed.

So he might as well play with her.

Oh my God. All that wild dark hair and that pale, pale skin. She’s part Irish, all right, if not all Irish, down to the tips of her toes. Not black Irish, but true Irish, that wild Celtic blood. Fae, Tuatha de Dannan, changeling child, with legs that go on forever and those big dark eyes. Her breasts are high and full, and she’s a fucking baby. Ash should kick her out and forget about it. But she held those oviraptor shells, like they were the most precious things in the world: one of Shakespeare’s first folios, a shard of the true cross.

No one’s ever touched her the way Ash is touching her. No one’s kissed her for real. And then she admits she’s a virgin and part of him wants to run and his cock hardens. Here he has this beautiful creature in his bed who can recite Shakespeare and thinks playing around is all brand new fun.

He would be an idiot to let this chance pass him by, and he hasn’t even heard her sing yet. He doesn’t care if she isn’t a debutante. He doesn’t care that she has two sets of half brothers, two stepfathers, which probably means mom got divorced at least twice. She’s from the meth capital of South Carolina. He met her waitressing, for God’s sake. This is not the kind of girl Mama and Daddy expect for him.

And goddammit, she likes his turtle.

She’s so wide-eyed and innocent in his bed. Ash didn’t realize how much he craved this after the Katies and the Merediths and Sarabeths, all other girls he’s slept with since, well, ever. This not this, Ash. Straight to his cock. Purring about how big it is and exactly where they want it, go down on me and I’ll let you fuck my mouth, tie me up (with your ties of course, ruin another few of them). But Chloe … dying over his thumb skimming on her nipples.

He wants to feel how tight she is. Not. Yet.

“What do you want?” His thigh is sitting against her pussy and she’s already getting wet on it.

“To touch you.” Chloe reddens. “I don’t mean — but you’re so hot. And you feel so good. I just want to run by hands over you.”

Those girls would never, ever say anything like that.

She tucks her head under his chin and begins stroking the length of his jawline. “I like your stubble. It’s perfect.” Well, she can thank Violet for that. That’s the way she likes it and that’s the way Thatcher insists they keep it. Her fingers venture down his neck and her palms suddenly lie flat against his chest. “Dear god. I don’t know what you do in your spare time but it’s worth every second. All this hard muscle.” She kisses him there. Her fingers —oh fuck, her fingers — they trail down to his abs. She runs them over his near-washboard. “And this. I want it against me.” Up his sides; around his back, pressed close now so she can reach. Her fingers are gentle on him. His hard-on sits between her thighs and she has to feel it; she moves on it a little. She strokes the back of his neck, his bicep.

These small hands enjoy him; they move back to his face, tracing the curve of his ear. “You’re beautiful, Ash.” He almost breaks open. No one has told him that in a very, very long time. It’s one thing to see it reflected like a mirror every day. It’s another to hear it quietly in the dark. “I want to memorize you, In case you never you let me back here again.”

“Why would I do that? You’re the only woman I’ve been remotely interested in for months. Longer.”

“I find a guy with real life dinosaur bones, a turtle on his dining room table, beautiful and phenomenal in bed, and of fucking course, he’s clearly rich.” He sees her roll her eyes in the half-light. “My mother cleans houses.”

“Don’t give a shit.”

“She’s been married three times.”

“Who gives a fuck?”

“I’m what’s generally known as trailer trash who clawed her way up, Ash.”

“But you did, didn’t you?”

“I learned to sing in a church so far to crazy it’s called the Christ’s Saving Holy Mountain Pentecostal Baptist. It was so insane I’m now agnostic.”

“Thank god, so am I.”

“And you’re cool with all this?” Chloe furrows her brows. “Will your brothers be? Will your parents be?”

He shrugs. “They’re not dating you.”

“I’m serious, Ash.”

He shrugs. “You like my turtle.”

Chloe seems exasperated. “You act like that’s the be-all and end-all of what you want in a woman!”

“Honestly? It sort of is. And oh my God, the rest of it.” He gently flips her on her back. “The rest of it, Chloe.” He fits his cock, still covered in pajama bottoms, between her thighs, against those cute lace panties. “I can feel you wet against me and I’ve hardly touched you. And before you say it, I don’t give a shit if you’re eighteen. Do you?”

She’s quiet for a second. “I like it. A lot.”

Ash’s quiet for a minute. He listens to the night noises, biting his lip, deciding if he should say what he’s about to say. But he finally decides that fuck it, he’s admitted enough to Chloe tonight. “If I tell you I like that you’re eighteen, will you run screaming?”

“No. I’ll probably just get turned on.”

Ash whispers into her ear. “Then I really, really like that you’re only eighteen, sweetheart. No one’s really played with you yet. I’ve never had such a sweet little thing in my bed before. It’s like unwrapping the best present.”

Chloe shivers. He sees the goosebumps on her and pulls the blankets up. “You’re cold. Tell me when you get cold.”

“That’s not why I was shivering.”

Somehow he manages to get even harder.

Ash moves between her legs a little bit, experimentally, just to see what she’ll do. She gasps. “Feel good? I could make us both come this way. I won’t, but I could. Maybe some other night. First, tell me what you have and haven’t done. And you need to be honest.”

She bites her lip again. It’s so goddamn adorable. “No one’s ever gone down on me. No sex.”

“Gone down on a guy?”

She nods.

“Spit or swallow?”

“My best friend, Caplan? He always said spitting was like going to someone’s house and not eating dinner,” Chloe says.

Ash roars with laughter. “So let’s see.” He shifts to her side and lies half on top of her. “We’ve established that you’ve had someone play with these.” He begins that excruciatingly slow circling around her breast again, ends at her nipple and brushes over it. He does the same to the other, draws it out like before until they’re stiff peaks under her shirt, sticking out and making his cock even harder. “But has anyone done this?” He lowers his mouth and catches one of them in his mouth. At first he just holds it there in the purse of his lips, the warm wetness of his mouth. Then he begins to suck gently. Chloe draws a sharp breath and arches up to him. He sucks hard, trying to figure out what she likes, then flutters his tongue on her while he’s sucking. She gasps, and her hands tangle in his hair. That’s it. So Ash sucks and sucks, kisses and licks at her while she squirms and bucks under him. He loves a woman’s breast in his mouth. Then he moves to the other, careful to keep rolling her wet nipple between his fingers, dragging fabric over it. Ash takes an age with them and bets if he palms her she will have soaked through.

“You liked that.” He sits up. “Take your shirt off, it’ll feel better.”

Chloe pulls her shirt over her head. Her breasts are just like he’d hoped: so high and full, not too big or too small. “Let me do that again.” This time, her whole nipple goes into his mouth, and he sucks hard. She likes this even better, bucks and whimpers and rubs herself on him. She seems to have no shame in holding it back, in pretending, and doesn’t act as if she likes something she doesn’t because he thinks she will. While Ash sucks on her, he skates his hands down her belly. He adores girls’ stomachs, their softness. Ash traces patterns on her, pets up and down. Chloe squirms with pleasure. She strokes his back and plays with his hair. She’s clearly taking pleasure in just touching him, enjoying his skin against hers.

“You feel so good.” Her breath is ragged.

Ash plays with the edge of her panties, touching just at the edge of them while he keeps sucking her. He’d suck her tits all night. But he wants to touch her so badly. Every time he hits that little bit of fabric, she whimpers and whines. He finally takes the chance and dips his finger underneath it, just the littlest bit. And oh God, she’s trimmed very short, but not into a Brazilian. Ash secretly hates those. Chloe arches up to him. He turns more on his side, moves to her other breast, and caresses her over the lace. Over her soft mound. Down to her silky thighs, which part for him, and that simple movement almost destroys him. She wants him to touch her inner thighs, and he begins to stroke them, slowly, slowly, up and down, always stopping before he hits the fabric.

“Kiss me again.” Chloe gives him big, sweet eyes.

“Yes, ma’am.” His lips find hers. She knows how to do it now, sucking on his bottom lip, nipping, moving her mouth on his. Then Chloe’s hand is the one stroking firmly down from his chest. She makes little contented noises. “You feel so good, Ash.” She barely moves her lips from his. Her fingers dance over his abs and suddenly every one of those push-ups is worth it. “Oh god, you feel good.” She plays in the hair that starts below his belly button and she must know exactly where that leads. Her fingers brush below his waistband.

She stops kissing him and looks at him with those big, big eyes.

“What is it, sweetheart?” She needs to learn to ask for things.

“Can I?”

“Can you what, baby?”

“Can I play with you?”

Girls, in Ash’ experience, do not ask things like this. They just grab you.

“I would really, really like that. But you need to learn to use words. Next time, unless you say what you want to play with, the answer’s going to be no.”

Her fingers tangle in his hair. He hardly even bothers trimming — Ash doesn’t anticipate getting laid. But here he is with this girl in his bed and she’s about to play with his cock. He should probably be mortified. “I’m not good at this.” Chloe blinks sweetly at him again. “I think you’re going to have to teach me how to do it.”

Ash kisses her. “I’ll tell you what to do if you need help. Take it out first. Show me how you do it.” He wants to laugh and add, then I’ll show you how to do it.

Chloe pulls his cock out of his boxers, grabs his shaft without nearly enough pressure, and starts jerking him off. He stops her. “High school boys will get off on anything. Here.” He hands her actual lube. “Put this on my cock.”

Just having her spread lube on his cock is slippery and fantastic.

“Now watch.” Ash takes himself in his hand. He’s such a fucking exhibitionist; he loves the idea of Chloe watching him jerk off. He shows her what he does and how he likes it: harder, careful to rub the sensitive part on the underside of the head, occasionally passing over the head itself. She watches him. It’s so goddamn hot.

“You do it.”

Chloe nestles in next to him. “You’re dripping.” She touches the head of his cock. “I love that.” She spreads it over him, then take his cock in her hand in roughly the way he showed her and begins stroking him. Chloe does it right, too, careful to hit the underside, random passes over the head.

“Do it harder, baby. God, that’s it.” He lies back and kisses her, letting himself enjoy it for a minute or two before he stops her. “If you keep that up I’ll come, and I don’t want to do that yet. So why don’t you just play with me? Be gentle and don’t do anything that’ll get me too turned on.” He goes back to petting the insides of her thighs, and she purrs.

Eventually, Ash lets his fingers meet the lace.

“Please?” Chloe practically begs.

“What do you like?”

She knits her eyebrows.. “I don’t know.”

Oh god, she is a baby. He shouldn’t be doing this. But this is so hot, and she’s actually enjoying simply playing around, how amazing is this? “How do you do it yourself?”

“I don’t know.” Chloe laughs.

“C’mon. Everyone does. Hell, I did it this morning.” While he thought about her, legs spread and begging. Ash stops touching Chloe and pulls her close so she’s nestled into his arms. She sighs a little and cuddles in. He skims a hand up and down her side. “Do you lay on your front of back? You can tell me, Chloe.”

She laughs again. “On my back.”

“One hand or two?”

“What the hell would I use two hands for?”

“Where do you touch?”

She takes his hand. “Right … there.” His thumb rests on her clit.

“Then what do you do?”

Chloe sets her thumb on top of his and guides it back and forth, stroking slowly. She moves her hips a little.

“Like that.”

He keeps stroking her with his thumb. “We’ll just have to figure it out from there then.” Ash stops. “Are you on the pill or anything?”

“Yeah. Just in case. Are you clean?”

Ash nods. He’s religious about it.

“Not that I’m planning to have sex with you. I just feel like I’m supposed to ask?”

He nods. “Where we were? Here. You were on your back, pretty, and I was a little bit on top of you, but not too much. We were kissing, which was absolutely fantastic. You were playing with my cock, and I was about to find out exactly how wet your pussy is. In fact, why don’t we take everything off? Are you okay with that?” He strokes her face. Her eyes are so big, lashes so long in the dark. Pupils blown with want, just from playing around like this.

“Does that mean I get to see you naked?” She sounds teasing.

“It means I get to see you naked.” Oh wow, she may not have ever been totally naked in bed with someone equally naked, but he decides he doesn’t really want the answer to that question. “Can I?”

Chloe nods.

“No.” Ash keeps his voice firm. “Yes or no.”

“Yes.”

He slides that lace down her thighs and pushes the blankets down: damn the cold because he wants to see. She does the same to his boxers.

Her hands — both of them —circle his cock. Chloe thumbs his head; he’s dripping. She spreads it over him again, then over the sensitive underside of his head. He groans without meaning to. “You liked that.” Her voice is soft. Her hands play over him, feeling him, stroking him from his base to his head. “You’re so soft right here.” She pets his head.

“Oh my god, you’re killing me.”

“I’m sorry. I got distracted.” Her right hand grips him and begins to very slowly jerk him off, hitting that sensitive spot under his cock every single time. Her other hand slips down to cup his balls. She strokes them, jerking him harder and faster. Ash is not going to last. He’s going to come in her hands like he’s the eighteen-year-old and finally stops her.

“Was I not doing it right?” Chloe sounds anxious.

“No, honey, you were doing it way too right. I’d rather not end this, at least on my side, quite yet. You, on the other hand —” He begins stroking her inner thighs again, but this time comes closer to where he knows she wants touched. She fairly purrs, and her legs spread wider for him. “Good girl. That’s so hot when you open your legs like that.” He’s so careful with her. When his fingers finally graze her, she shivers with pleasure. He gives up on her thighs and instead caresses her outer lips. She’s shaved or waxed there. Perfect combination, keeps her from looking twelve and he gets an eyeful, too, when he looks. And he’s going to look at some point. Just not yet. Right now he’s going to make Chloe feel very, very, very good.

Ash isn’t surprised that she’s already wet, but he is surprised that she’s so open, so swollen and ready. His finger dips inside her and she gasps, then hums deeps in her throat when he strokes her softer inner lips. Chloe’s soaked for him. “Kiss me again.” She almost whimpers.

“That would be nice, yeah.” He can barely breathe. He slips a finger into Chloe, barely inside her, and she arches off the bed with pleasure as her arms wrap around him. Ash doesn’t want to hurt her. Very slowly, he slides his finger farther into her. She moves on him.

“Have you done this before?”

She laughs. “Yes. None of them were nearly as good at it as you are. And you don’t have to worry about breaking anything —I bled a little bit afterwards once. So sorry, no bloody sheets for you.”

“Damn it.” Ash laughs. “I was going to hang them out the window medieval style.” He kisses her again, and his finger slides the rest of the way inside. Chloe’s tight. She twists on him and whimpers like he’s fucking her. Gently, Ash moves his finger until he finds a spot that makes her buck and moan. Right there. He refuses to let himself think about how tight she is, how hot and wet, and how much he wants his cock inside her. She’s soaking his hand. When he withdraws his finger — one finger, oh my God —she whines.

“Shhh.” Ash’s hand is slicked; her thighs are wet. When he begins gently exploring her folds, he finds her clit swollen and sensitive. She purrs again when he brushes his thumb over it. Ash pets gently, circling her, trying to figure out what she likes. Chloe’s legs are wide open for him; her kiss becomes more demanding and she seems like she’d be a whole lot louder without his lips on hers. Ash decides to see and kisses over to her ear. Almost immediately, she cries out. When he moves his thumb from side to side, she moans and arches up to his hand. “That’s it, honey. You be as loud as you want. I love to hear you. Are you going to come for me?”

He moves his thumb faster, a little harder. Chloe’s breathing has grown quicker, she’s mostly murmuring incomprehensible strings of “oh God” and “so good.” She tenses fast and suddenly lets go, peaking hard again and again. Ash holds her there; he slows his thumb and presses but doesn’t stop, not completely, while she gasps and shudders, until her moans go further and further apart and she’s finally still. God, he’s fucked girls who made much less noise than that about it — and he’s good goddamn lay.

“Did I do it right?” He’s still almost painfully hard, and those noises just made it worse.

“You did it more than right. Oh my god. That was so fucking good.”

He kisses her. “You’re easily impressed.”

“No, you’re amazing.” Her eyes are half-glazed. “No one ever did that before.”

Oh God, he’s the first person to ever give her an orgasm, and he almost breaks down laughing. It’s that or totally freak out. “It’s not like it was difficult, sweetie.”

Chloe blinks a few times, lazily, then turns more towards him. “Can I play with you again?”

Oh, sweet Jesus. “If you want — I mean, I’m not going to last.”

“Why not? I haven’t touched you in —”

“But I’ve been touching you, honey. Believe me, that’s enough.”

Her hand’s small and delicate on his cock. Chloe kisses him; she presses against him except where her two hands are busy with him, one jerking him hard and fast, the other stroking his balls. The tension gathering in his muscles, like he’s approaching, finally, the top of a roller coaster. He wants it so bad, and suddenly he’s certain he’s going to get it, just for a few seconds before he’s shuddering and pumping come all over her belly as she tugs him gently, like she’s working every last bit of it out. He only comes harder.

He kisses her forehead. “Someone learned quickly. And weren’t you sweet, not minding me coming on your belly.”

“Why would I mind?” Chloe rolls her eyes. “I love that you did that.”

“Oh god, don’t tell me that. I’ll be begging to come on your tits.” Ash flops on his back. Damn, best handjob he’s had in a long time.

“You can come on my tits whenever you want. Just don’t come in my hair, okay?”

“Oh Christ.” Ash buries his face in his hands. “Don’t say shit like that!”

“Why not? It’s a total turn-on.”

He gets up, grabs a washcloth, and cleans her soft belly. She stretches, clearly enjoying the attention, and oh my God, Chloe’s eighteen, she could do this all over again.

He checks his phone. “We have two hours. Do you want to go to sleep, stay up in bed, work on the turtle or get some food?”

“Bed.” Chloe yawns. “Okay, maybe sleep.” She pauses. “Where do you want me to sleep?”

Ash absolutely adores sleeping with a woman, no matter how bitchy, no matter how jaded. He loves the warm smell of girl, the softness in his arms. “Right here. Do I get to spoon you?”

“I don’t know if I can sleep like that.” She sounds doubtful.

“Give it a try.” It’s hard to keep the pleading note out of his voice.

Naked, she curls into his arms. She’s small and her skin is soft and she has all that long, wild dark hair. He flips it up and rests his lips on her neck. She makes a contented sound.

Goddammit. Falling this hard is Thatcher’s job.