Love Isn't Blind 2 (4 page)

"I never want to be a burden to anyone..." he began.

"Listen to what I'm saying, Anthony. I'm trying to tell you that I love you and that I want you to ignore all the self-doubt in your mind and admit you love me, too."

"I do love you," he whispered. He spoke quietly, as though the words might sting her if said any louder.

"Then let's stop worrying about what might go wrong and start enjoying what we have. Do you think you can do that?" She leaned in and pressed her forehead to his.

"Yes. I know I've been such a child about all this; I just couldn't stand to put my heart out there only to have you tell me you'd never be able to love someone like me."

"Oh, Anthony," she said with a laugh. "I don't know if I could ever love anyone else after having met you."

ASHLEY TOOK HIS HANDS and pressed them to her face. She kissed his fingertips and held them against her cheek. She knew this was his way of learning what her features were like, and she closed her eyes as he explored her lips, nose, jaw, and even brushed his fingers lightly over her eyelids.

"You're just like I imagined," he said, his voice a quiet whisper just inches from her ear.

Instead of responding with words, Ashley tilted her head to kiss him, letting her lips say everything she needed them to say. He returned the kiss eagerly, his hands still holding her face as their tongues intertwined, exploring each other's mouths. Anthony pulled away after a moment, and for a second Ashley was worried that he might still be having second thoughts. Her fears were for nothing as he stood and took her by the hand, leading her out of the office and into his bedroom.

She'd never seen his bedroom before, and it was as sparse and simple as she'd expected. The relative emptiness of the room made the bed seem the main feature. As he closed the door behind them and turned back toward her, taking her up in his arms, she knew what was about to happen.

They undressed each other slowly, fingers, lips, and tongues tracing delicately along each area of newly exposed skin. When they were completely naked, Ashley moved to the bed and lay on her back, her head propped up on a pile of pillows. Anthony needed no prompting; he was there in a heartbeat. He kneeled between her legs, kissing her once on the lips before moving downward, leaving a trail of caresses. She felt flushed with warmth as he pressed his lips against the swell of her breasts, and again on her nipples, and several times down the length of her belly.

Ashley slid her hands into the unruly mess of his hair as his mouth trailed over her pubic hair, this gentle disruption provoking a surge of excitement. He kissed her inner thighs, working his way inward towards the soft folds of her sex where he probed with his tongue, licking the sticky honey dripping out of her. He licked upwards towards her clit, flicking it lightly with the tip of his tongue before pushing his lips down over it and teasing her growing bud with tiny circles. She clenched her hand in his hair as her clit swelled; she couldn't remember having been as close to an orgasm so soon after a man had gone down on her.

Anthony pushed the flat of his tongue down and swept it upwards, sending a buzz of pleasure through her body. He closed his lips around her clit and sucked at her, flicking her bump as she tilted her hips into him, her hands tightening their grasp in his hair. She cried out with pleasure as an orgasm rippled through her. Anthony licked harder, his mouth creating a vacuum that multiplied the intensity of the sensation of his tongue. She bucked against him and collapsed, pushing his head away as the sensation was just too much to bear any longer.

"I want you inside of me," she said.

As he crawled over her, she reached down to grab his cock, happy to feel it hard and ready to go. She rubbed it against her cum-slicked opening, spreading her juice until his tip could slide smoothly inside her. A moan escaped her lips as he pushed into her, filling her with his manhood. He settled his weight down on her, and she felt this closeness as something she'd been missing until this moment. She never wanted to be apart from him, vowing to always stay as close as she was now with him inside her.

She kissed him passionately and lifted her knees to open herself to him a little bit more. He pushed against her and she gasped, never knowing a man to enter her so deeply and fully. Her breath came in short gasps as he started moving his hips back and forth, his cock sliding easily in and out of her wet pussy. He'd only barely begun but she already felt a tingling in her sex that told her she should get ready for an encore orgasm. Anthony's manhood was hitting her in just the right spot, and she wrapped her hands around his upper body, grabbing onto his strong back and digging in against the surge of pleasure rolling through her body.

Releasing his own grunts of satisfaction, Anthony's movements were steady and deliberate, his extreme self-control allowing him to thrust in and out in a steady rhythm that had her trembling at the brink of another orgasm just minutes after entering her. He ground his pubic mound against her with each stroke, adding the amazing sensation of his cock stroking her g-spot to the grinding pressure on her clit.

"Oh god, I'm cumming again," she cried, digging her nails into his back.

Anthony groaned in response, and she felt him slam into her harder and harder as his own climax sent him into a fury of kisses and rapid hip thrusts. Their mouths came together with muffled moans escaping from lips mashed together so hard that Ashley thought hers might start bleeding at any second. The pain of their kiss mixed with the pleasure from her orgasm, and all rational thought disappeared as her body dealt with the flood of exploding endorphins. She could feel Anthony's cock pulsing jets of cum inside her, and she felt her pussy clench involuntarily around his shaft as he performed his last few strokes.

"I'm sorry I've been so blind to the one thing I should have seen clearly," said Anthony in the quiet afterglow of their lovemaking.

"Shush," replied Ashley, stroking his hair and holding him on top of her. "The future is what matters now. Know that I love you, and that you're everything I could want in a man. You are perfect and complete in my eyes."

"You know, being with you is the first time I've been able to feel like that might actually be true." He nuzzled her neck and let out a soft sigh. "I'm never going to let you go."

"Good," Ashley said. "I hadn't planned on letting you go either."

EIGHT MONTHS LATER

The book launch party was a smash success, owing largely to the fact that it was the first time Anthony Lang attended a public event for one of his novels. Early sales reports had pegged his new book, The Copenhagen Affair, as one of the decade’s best suspense novels. Many reviewers cited a noticeable shift in the tone and voice of the narrative, a fact he wasn't shy about crediting to his new wife. Now, standing before a crowd from the press, his publishing company, and the literary community, Anthony was practically beaming with pride instead of skulking in the background as he had at the few minor events he'd bothered to show up for.

"I know this event is for me and my new book," he said at the conclusion of his speech to those in attendance, "but I'd be remiss in not taking this opportunity to let you know that my beautiful wife will be releasing her first novel next fall. Come on up here dear."

The crowd applauded as Ashley made her way to the front of the room to stand next to her husband. After finishing a draft she considered polished enough to pass on to Anthony's agent, the book was picked up immediately. Ashley recognized that she was trading on her husband's name to some extent, but the advance reviews were already quite positive. The publishers loved the image the two writers would make when it came to publicity, and Ashley already knew that her book would be released in bookstores around the world. They were in the process of translating it for major international markets, something that wasn't usually done until a book had already proven itself in North America.

Ashley and Anthony worked the room, shaking hands and chatting with friends or important people from the media. Now that Anthony was spending more time engaging with his fans, Ashley could tell he was enjoying these public interactions more and more. She saw contentment in his smile and a general relaxing of his rigid and punishing work and exercise schedules, and it finally sunk in that although he would never work for the CIA or the Marines again, he was touching millions of people by entertaining them with his words.

Her own book had come out smoothly, and they'd settled into a routine of working together on his novel. Rather than dictate into a recorder, they'd begun sitting down to compose his work together, and she found an easy rhythm of floating between his work and hers. She was careful not to insert her editorial opinions during the first draft so it would still be his original work, but he quickly came to rely heavily on her for later revisions, as she did on him for her own writing.

"Shall we get out of here?" Anthony whispered in her ear.

"That's probably a good idea," Ashley replied. "You look like you'd stick around shaking hands and accepting compliments all night if I didn't stop you."

"I have to admit, I do like hearing people tell me how great I am."

The boyish grin on his face made Ashley giggle. They walked to the limo his publishing house had rented for him, and she turned to face him just before stepping in through the door he held open.

"I have something to tell you," she said. "I was going to wait until tomorrow so we could have this night all about your book launch, but everything just seems so perfect and I can't wait a second longer."

Anthony looked at her quizzically, and then a hopeful light dawned on his face. "Are you trying to tell me...?" He asked, his expression registering a mix of fear and excitement.

"I'm pregnant," she said quietly, daring to say it out loud for the first time since finding out.

"That's wonderful news!" he said, rushing to sweep her up in his arms.

"Really?" she asked. "You're not upset? I mean, we sort of talked about it, but we never discussed when it would be a good time."

"It's perfect timing," he said, kissing her and releasing her while gesturing towards the waiting limousine.

Ashley stepped inside and shuffled over to make room for her husband. He slipped in beside her, closed the door behind him, and put his arm around her shoulders so she could rest against him.

"Where to now?" asked the driver, turning his head around to look through the open partition.

"Straight home," answered Anthony. "I've just heard the most wonderful news, and I think my wife and I would like to go home and celebrate."

The partition rolled up and the car pulled away from the hotel where the launch party had been held. As they drove home, Ashley marveled at how much her life had changed over the last year. She squeezed Anthony's hand and closed her eyes, safe in the knowledge that there was nowhere she'd rather be than next to this man she'd once felt to be the biggest influence in her life. Now he'd be able to continue that influence on her and their child. She didn't know what the future held, but the view from here was as close to perfect as she could imagine.