Questing Heart: Fighting Heart Erotic Bad Boy Romance Series Book 2 (8 page)

Cody slept fitfully. Just before lights out, he texted Ashley. She didn’t reply. It was late and he guessed she was already asleep. He drifted to sleep an hour after he laid his head on the pillow, his head swirling in a delirium of excitement. He wanted to work out a fool proof way to win Ashley, to peel back her defences until she would give in to him…Desire, need and conflicting feelings span around his head as his mind drifted into unconsciousness.

Ashley was walking towards him, brushing her hair from her eyes. Her soft pink lips were a wide smile, her eyes were aglow. They were in the country lane, and she wore an outfit he had never seen before. It fitted her like a glove, a silken material that pressed against every line and contour of her body, revealing the curves within the curves, the soft sweeping line of her stomach, and the shape of her prominent nipples. The material was silken and yet like liquid. She walked towards Cody and he was in awe of her. He stood still, and they laughed, knowing the way each other felt for the other. An embrace was coming. It was inevitable. He was hungry for her touch and her kiss. Their momentum towards each other was delicious and tender. Yet Cody could still hear his name being called from the side. He turned his head to the right and saw a beautiful woman in a scarlet suit.

“Cody,” she called. “I’m waiting for you.”

The woman twisting herself into curvaceous pose and pushing out her breasts. Cody looked at Ashley, she was still smiling at him but her pace was slowing. Cody looked around again, and now the woman in red was peeling off her scarlet suit. She threw her suit jacket to the floor, her eyes sultry as she unzipped her skirt and dropped it to the floor. Her body was curvaceous and utterly delightful.

Now, between the both of them, he was deeply aroused. He felt the heaving pressure of his erect cock against the restraint of his trousers. He was aching with need. Ashley chuckled. The woman in red unbuttoned her blouse. She cast it to the floor and Cody saw her full hour glass body, full of soft tender flesh around the hips and her thighs, and with large soft breasts decorated but barely restrained by her scarlet brassiere. Her underwear was the same colour as her suit, and the lace was extremely revealing. Cody’s eyes traced the lines and shape of her nipple buds pushing through the material. The brunette smiled at his lingering gaze on her fine body, and she laughed seductively.

“I’m not done with you, not one bit,” she said.

He looked back at Ashley, feeling guilty and distracted. From nowhere a long coat appeared, hanging in the air and her hand moved to take it.

“Wait!” called Cody and Ashley hesitated. He looked back at the brunette, her captivating eyes full of fiery lust. With one deft hand behind her back she released the clasp of her bra, and it fell away, she leaned forward and let her magnificent breasts fall free.

“Almost there…” she said. He couldn’t take his eyes away as she took hold of the thin red lace panties on her hips. Cody felt his cock aching with need, throbbing hard against his jeans. He watched the woman pull her panties down and drop them from her hips. His eyes absorbed every detail of her naked body, the curve of her hips, her full breasts and nipples, the thick dark triangle of her brown hair. He felt an urge to run to her… to take her… he wanted to set her down and ravish her, to part her thighs before he tore his own clothes away and plunged his cock into the fullness of her body. The scarlet woman moved towards him.

“Let me help you with that,” she said, pointing straight at the bulge in Cody’s trousers. He looked at Ashley. She had turned away and now she was wearing the long dark coat and her body was out of sight.

“Ashley, wait, I love you!” said Cody. But she was already walking, and now the brunette was at his side, her soft skin and sexual beauty demanding his attention. She pressed her full breasts against his chest, and a soft thigh curved past around his hip. She had stolen his view of Ashley and all his space. Her hand pressed against his hardness and she took the head of his cock between her finger and thumb and began to massage him to the brink through his trousers. He looked in her eyes. “Joanna… don’t…”

“Go on,” she said. “I know you want to…”

It was no kind of nightmare, but when Cody awoke he was tired, angry, and deeply aroused. Joanna Laws was a sweet temptress but he wanted to get past all that. He wanted Ashley most of all. Thoughts of the Ashley in his dream lingered in his mind. He wanted to know the pleasure she had available beneath the silken dress, he wanted to feel her and taste her in all the ways Joanna had offered.

The guilt in the dream stayed with him. Cody felt he had cheated on Ashley and hated it. He got out of bed, and took his aching erection into the shower. He couldn’t help recalling the scarlet woman’s touch but he pushed past it, concentrating instead on Ashley’s beauty and her smiling lips. With the hot water of the shower coursing over his body, he closed his eyes and thought only of those lips. In his mind, he kissed her. His penis ached with need. Cody held it in his hand at the base, and stroked it to the top, imagining Ashley’s hand upon it instead of his own. He remembered that silken clothing clinging to her body. She laughed as Cody looked for the seam, and guiding his hand to the neckline, and with a sharp gesture, invited him to rip it. He tore gently, until he saw a naked breast, and then he tore it all off completely.  Cody felt his fantasy was like an answer to his dream. Now Ashley was naked Cody imagined the unrestrained desire in her eyes. She enfolded him in her arms and they kissed. Together they took his clothes off and then Ashley slid down his body, her hands tugging at Cody’s boxer shorts. His aching penis throbbed at her as she pulled the underwear away. She gently kissed the head of his cock. Cody couldn’t wait. The desire was too much. In his vision, her kiss became more intense and she took the head of his penis in her mouth tenderly. In the vision and in the shower Cody’s body shuddered and his seed exploded into the sweet wetness of Ashley’s mouth and on her teasing tongue. Cody had passed his personal temptation test, ignoring the woman in red to indulge with Ashley. But before any more tests arrived Cody hoped he could really have Ashley – her lips, her body, every part of her. Then Cody showered clean and began to get ready for whatever the two ladies in his life could throw his way.

Cody had said there was nothing between them – that Joanna Laws was just his agent – but I guess I felt Cody was either lying to me or deluding himself, and as I knew he wouldn’t lie to me, it had to be delusion. Have you ever tried hanging around someone who is eating a delicious meal while you’re famished? You might want their company. They are talking to you telling you something important that you should be hanging on their every word or telling you a joke that should make you laugh all day long, but all you can see is the stuffed crust pepperoni pizza slice half way to their mouth. That’s how it was with Cody. He was my pepperoni pizza slice, but in someone else’s hand. I couldn’t go back to London. I had nothing to go back to! Even so I knew Cody could help me fix everything. The festival brochure said that this whole gig would be over in two days and Cody could come back home and help me set things right. Until then I needed to snatch moments with him here and there to talk. Before Joanna showed up the morning we’d shared in the Yorkshire countryside had been great, but I’d had so much fun I hadn’t even got started on the serious business of Brandon’s threats or the practical matter of my living accommodation. I could have faced either of those problems alone if I had to, but Cody said he could help me. Actually, he said a lot more than that. He was gave me a glimpse of a new life where we were lovers…I enjoyed those glimpse. But as soon as he offered those sweet glimpses, Joanna Laws, turned up to pour cold water on all that.

When Cody went into the shop for those ice creams, the woman made her play. She looked at me, square on. The woman had hair to die for, and wore the kind of cosmetics which look almost invisible but manage to make a girl look beautiful all the same. The woman must have spent a fortune on her look, and it worked for her. Her brown eyes matched her glossy brown hair. Her suit was figure hugging in all the right places and what a figure she had – a curvaceous hour-glass. Since my fling with Brandon I felt I must have been in pretty good shape to catch a guy like him, but up against this girl – with money, class, expensive suits, a fantastically cool career and a new car, what did I have to offer Cody? As she faced me, all this was running through my mind.

“So
you
are the muse,” said Joanna.

I shrugged. “If you say so. I’m Cody’s friend,” I said, feeling awkward.

“A friend. That’s nice. It’s good for someone like Cody to have real friends. I mean, he’s a great guy isn’t he? So sincere, so trusting, and he’s pretty damn cute too, isn’t he?”

When I was with Brandon, I hadn’t noticed Cody’s looks at all. At least not in the beginning, but now I really did. Joanna Laws was right, he was big time cute, and I knew she was building up to something. I was getting tense, ready for what was coming.

“He’s pretty cute,” I said.

“He’s been here a week now, and then you suddenly show up wanting to see him. He hasn’t spoken to me about your little problems in detail. But you need some help of some kind, am I right?”

“That’s between me and Cody, thanks, Joanna.”

The smile on Joanna’s face faded.

“That’s not quite the case, Ashley. I’m his agent. His welfare is my business. So if you are here needing his help, let me tell you two things. First off, this is really not the time. Cody is on a literary tour which could change his life – I believe this boy could be a star –
why would you want to distract him from that
?  Two – however things are between you - I respect you, and I know Cody is a loyal friend, but you need to hear this. Cody and I are
very
attracted to each other. Two nights ago it all got very intimate, if you catch my drift. Now I know he won’t want to hurt you, but please bear in mind that we’re right at the start of something here. I can see you’re a good person, so I know you’ll respect that.  And please, don’t drown him with your personal problems. Not right now. In fact, I’d suggest you go back to London and wait for him there.”

I was dumbstruck, my mouth hanging open. She’d been so blunt. They’d been
intimate
. She meant they’d had sex -
of course
that’s what she meant… but that was before I’d shown up and something about the way she said it told me they hadn’t been intimate since… besides, none of that information had come from the horse’s mouth. If Cody did have sex with Joanna Laws when he thought I was with Brandon… who could blame him? I didn’t like the idea, all the same. Even so, I knew there was some truth in what Joanna had said. But the woman shot wide - she had handled me all wrong. She’d thrown down a gauntlet, and I’m a girl who likes a challenge.

“Thanks for your advice, Joanna. But I’ll wait until Cody tells me to go home, and then I’ll go straight away. How’s that’s sound?”

My words were full of sweetness and bad attitude and I watched as they landed on the intended target. She was smiling, but her pretty eyes were all daggers. When Cody returned with our ice creams, he must have felt the coolness between us.

But I decided one thing right there. I wasn’t ever going to spoil Cody’s party. He was my friend and I was his. I would hang back a way while he got his life together at the festival and then I’d wait for him to see if he wanted to help me. It all had to come from him with his timing. If he got with Joanna Laws, I would do nothing about it. He deserved his choice.  All I wanted was the Cody I’d known at the start – the sweet, supportive friend. I could endure all the rest if only I got my old Cody back. But like I said, that was easier said than done.

Today was another day. I knew they’d had dinner together again the night before, and I guessed if Joanna was telling the truth, they would end up in bed again sooner or later. I didn’t fancy another day watching Joanna all over Cody while holding me off. I decided to give Cody a day’s rest so I spent the day going through the motions of reading my study books at the city library, drinking lonesome lattes in the local coffee shops.  I felt so alone. When Cody finally texted me and said he wanted to see me at his penultimate reading, I was ecstatic. I closed the study books and walked out into the afternoon wanting to smash out of my self-pitying fug. I was sick of looking second best to Joanna Laws. I still had half my wages from Purdy’s left. I decided I was going clothes shopping. Whatever the end result, if I lost out to Joanna, I was going to go down fighting. Tonight I was going to knock ‘em dead. Giving Cody two gorgeous women to choose from - well, isn’t that what every rising star deserved? If Joanna won, I’d lost nothing, because Cody would still be there for me… I knew that. But my feelings for him were growing. I knew I didn’t want him as just a friend. I needed the whole Cody package, everything – heart body and soul.

I made my entrance when the performance was about to start. Cody was billed to come on at 8.15pm. My wages from Purdy’s was down to the last fifty pounds saved for drinks and spending money to see my through until home time. I hoped it was worth it. Back in the room at my B&B I had taken a long time to get my look together. I’d spent far longer on preening for Cody than for any other guy in my life. But this was different. I had staked my heart on it – I needed Cody, I wanted Cody – there was high-class competition and I was determined to beat it.  I had bought some new make up to rival Joanna’s except mine was less than a tenth of the price. Then I had gone to town in York’s fantastic shops, using my keen eye from working in a fashion store. I had good taste, and I knew what suited my body shape and what didn’t. I had a good figure, but I wasn’t ultra-tall so I played to my strengths. I found a fantastic blouse with stylish baggy arms, frilly collars and cuffs with a low cut top which pressed tighter than the rest of the outfit against my body, emphasising my chest, which I knew was one of my best assets. I bought a grey shortish skirt which had a swirling line of embroidery all the way around. If I twirled the skirt was baggy enough to fly up and reveal some leg action. The skirt finished above the knee. I’d bought new knee length brown boots to complement the expensive grey skirt and the creamy white blouse. I finished my look with a bangle and a high necklace which was snug around my neck. The necklace had a green teardrop gem which drew the eye to my neck, and down my chest. I looked pretty good. I had done what I could, but who knew if it would ever be enough to top Joanna Laws. If it came close, I had a chance. Back in my room, I’d felt confident, but out on the street, I wondered what the hell was I doing! Since when did I ever
really
dress up for a guy? And what happened if he fell for me hook line and sinker? I suddenly freaked out about my cheap undies. Would my underwear would disappointment in relation to my outfit – would Cody see a champagne box only to find a bottle of Tizer inside? The horrible thought pinged around my head so much I had to hunt out a lingerie shop and spent forty of my last on a knock’em dead pearly grey coloured set, complete with a suspender belt.  It was here that it started to get fun. I went into the changing room and decked my body out in my new purchases and threw some porno poses in the mirror just for kicks. My heart fluttered as I saw how good I would look – and I imagined the desire in his eyes. I imagined him touching me, peeling my bra and panties away hungrily, and immediately I tingled inside at the prospect. I was getting damp just thinking about it. Such thoughts were so much better than feeling inferior to Joanna Laws. By 8.15pm I was ready to do battle. In spite of my own personal stage-fright I walked into the red velvet-lined venue with my head held high and bought a glass of wine, feeling appreciative and pondering eyes on me from all over the room. I guess it could have been my imagination. I raised the glass and said to myself “Here goes nothing.”

Cody Barnes walked out on stage looking all new-folk in his shirt, braces and snug trousers which finished high enough to show his blue socks and desert boots.  He looked good. Especially in the spotlight, which gave definition to his body. I saw the slim yet muscular shape of his trapezium torso, and athleticism in his strong thighs. He had a flat stomach and I indulged a moment in imagining him topless. Yes, he was built differently to Brandon, but Cody was still very easy on the eye…

“I’m going to read from the little book that’s getting all the attention, Seismic Girl,” he said. “And there’s a chance that the girl I wrote this about is here tonight. Anyway, here goes…”

He looked in my direction but didn’t see me. When he started to read, but his voice was different that before. It was full of passion, Cody’s quirky, fun-loving quality was replaced with emotion and emphasis. I looked around. He had the small audience eating from his hand by the end of the first paragraph.

“She stared at you like winter, cold and harsh yet full of awesome appeal and natural beauty the kind which startles you when you first notice. In her winter, you realised there was a glimpse of summer, the warmth of the sun waiting and wanting to wash over you. When you caught a glimpse of her smile, you knew the winter was just a cloak she wore to protect herself. But when she saw she was connected to you - when she knew you’d seen her shining - she became the beauty of spring before your very eyes. The lush new blossom, filling the trees with a bomb of colour – the full tulips standing up in the soft breeze. She was beauty which called you. And as soon as you’d experienced that, you wanted, you needed to experience the glory of her summer. I was waiting for summer. And I was prepared to wait as long as it took to get there.”

Cody blew me away. I sipped my wine as I felt his appeal to my heart – as if his hand was outstretched to my skin. I had to take a breath because his words had stolen it, and I wiped a tear away from my eye before it spilled. No person in my whole life had ever spoken such words about me. But Cody Barnes had written an entire book of them. I wanted to kiss him. More than anything, I wanted to be alone with him then, kissing him, pleasing him, letting know that I was his. Joanna Laws lingered at the edge of the stage, her arms folded. Her beautiful face was tainted with unhappiness, but I couldn’t help be a little glad. Cody looked up from his reading, and his eyes found mine. His face froze and then he smiled and regained his composure. Joanna Laws followed his line of sight and saw me. I smiled over my glass of wine and raised it at both of them and Cody continued to read with a new smile emblazoned on his face. Joanna Laws shook her head and walked out of them room, right past me, without taking a look. What a shame.

“Where’s Joanna?” asked Cody nervously as he made his way through the applauding crowd. He looked around. I stood up and struck a little pose, just to ensure he noticed what I wanted him to notice. Cody’s eyes met mine.

“She left, Cody.” He looked at me, his eyes falling across my face. I saw his eyes settle on my chest a beat too long and I didn’t mind at all. My blouse was designed to get that look, with its low curving neckline emphasising my soft curves.  From there he took a step back to take a full appraisal.

“Wow!” he said shaking his head in disbelief. His writing made me feel like a princess, but his eyes and reaction to my outfit was making feel like a fox. My confidence was growing.

“You like?”

“You look amazing, Ashley! That blouse, that skirt… I mean just amazing.”

I downed my wine and tapped the glass down on the bar.

“So, are we drinking here, or are you taking me for dinner so we can finally talk?”

He looked around and I waited for him to look back at me. I gave him a sassy little eyebrow raise. He got the message. “I suppose I can just send Joanna a text.”