Chapter 36 Things take an interesting turn
Ayesha’s POV
“Are we not gonna talk about it then?”, he suddenly said as he waved to the car the manager had arranged for him.
Once we were inside and on our way, I replied,” Talk about what?”
“About how you tried to use me by kissing me to bury your ravaging emotions… how’s that for starters?”, he snarked, his tone edgy.
I pulled my sleeves down to my palms and dug my nails into the fabric… trying to dissipate my discomfort.
“I’m sorry I forced you to keep kissing me after you wanted to stop”, I lowly said, not having it in me to look at him.
I looked out the window, anticipating his response.
“Don’t twist my words. We both know I would never say no to kissing you… no man possibly could! What I have a problem with is why you wanted to kiss me…. if it would have been because you just wanted to kiss me or couldn’t control yourself around me…. that would’ve been fine…. heck, it would’ve been fucking great! But that wasn’t the reason, was it?”, he asked, disappointment tinging his voice and making my stomach drop.
I gulped hard, squeezing my eyes shut as I responded, feeling the cool air against my face,” It wasn’t. And I am sorry for that. I won’t ask you to kiss me again.”
“Fuck me! You know I don’t mean that… you fucking know it. I’m not telling you to not let me kiss you… fuck, all I can think about is holding you and kissing the fuck out of those pretty pink lips of yours”, he spoke, almost wanting to not admit his wants to me.
I felt my skin warm and flush in response to his crude words.
I was glad he couldn’t see my face.
“All I ask of you is that you talk to me about how you’re feeling. And not try to bury those emotions of yours in sensual contact…. pretty much like the rest of our generation. Because I know you’re not like that”, he said, his voice softening at the end.
I felt him move toward me as I felt the seat dip in my direction. My body tightened of its own accord as our proximity increased.
“And I apologize again for saying the things I said…. I shouldn’t have. I was way out of line then”, he was right next to me, his words now barely a whisper. His knee nudged mine as he placed his one hand on my clasped ones… breaking the steely grip I had on my sleeves. Cupping my palm in his, he rubbed at the skin where I’d dug my nails in, wincing at the marks.
I didn’t pull away. I should have but I didn’t. Like the million other things that I should have done but didn’t.
“It’s not that the things you said were false or untrue. But it’s just that it’s not your place or business to judge those things”, I tried to keep my voice cold and calm.
But I was still afraid I was being too bold with my statements. I had just agreed to what he said about his uncle earlier…. which were pretty filthy and revolting things. But it didn’t change how true they were, I wistfully thought.
“Wait…. are you agreeing with me?”, he asked, enthusiastic surprise coating his voice. He placed my hand in his lap, still holding it in his as he continued to draw circles on my palms, almost erasing the temporary marks.
“Now you are twisting my words”, I persisted. I had agreed with him but I needed him to focus on the latter part about the whole thing being none of his damn business.
“No, I don’t think I am”, he argued.
It was hard for me to formulate a response with his whole body pressed against me, his stark warmth flowing into me, comforting me all the same.
“Daniel, do you consider yourself my friend?”, I asked him out of the blue, feeling exhausted from this back and forth argument that we’d had so many times.
“Of course I do…. but I would say I’m more than a friend to you, wouldn’t you?”, he husked out, his body suddenly shifting away and then his head came down to rest on my shoulder as he leaned himself entirely into me.
I sucked in a breath when I felt him tilt his head down and rub his nose into the skin just above my collarbone. Letting out a sigh, he kept my hand clasped in his as he rested himself against me, careful not to put all his weight on me.
As his hot breath fanned against my neck, goosebumps peppered on my skin and I hoped to God he didn’t notice that.
“So if you’re a good friend to me, you wouldn’t force me to talk about things I did not want to talk about. Do you agree?”, I finally asked, ignoring his jibe at the end of us being more than friends… for both our benefits.
“Mmmhmmm”, he mumbled his approval, his body relaxing against mine.
I finally got the courage to peek at him. I let out a whoosh of relief when I noticed that his eyes were closed. My heart almost jumped out of my chest when I took in the relaxed face of the unguarded, non-conceited, vulnerable Daniel. It might’ve been the absolute first, seeing him go so soft on me and just so relaxed.
“So you won’t bother me about your uncle then?”, I softly asked, not wanting to set him off. I wanted him to stay like this for as long as I could manage.
“Whatever you want, baby. It’s taken care of anyway”, he fumbled on his words, holding onto my upper arm as he made himself more comfortable on me, using my shoulder like a pillowcase.
“What’s taken care of?” I asked, confused.
I went still when I felt his lips trail against the insides of my collarbones. I absentmindedly brought my hand up from where it rested by the elbow on the window pane of the car. I pushed his messy hair out of his face, looking down at him lying on me.
“Nevermind. You said you didn’t want to talk about it so let’s not talk about it”, he grumbled against my skin. I couldn’t help but slightly jerk up in my seat as I felt his tongue dive out to my skin when he spoke, leaving a cool sensation in its wake whilst other parts of my body heated up in protest at not getting the same attention.
I really sometimes hated my body’s desires… wanting to squash them from existence.
“Okay then”, I agreed, still confused but not wanting to question him further.
Daniel suddenly lifted his head from me, giving me a grumpy frown as one of the sides of his mouth quirked up into a half smile.
“Now that we’re done with that”, he started to speak as he, much to my shock, made himself comfortable on the long plush seat of the car, lifting his legs onto the very end as he placed his head on my lap.
“What are you doing?”, I glared at him, my hands flailing in the air, not knowing what to do or where to rest in order to not make contact with him… which was extremely difficult because his gigantic frame was taking up all the space that was available.
I grew more irritated when the idiot grinned up at me.
“My head is pounding from arguing with you all day, starting right from the morning. So how about you be a doll and give me a massage?” he kept grinning that idiotically wide grin, looking up at me as if he was just waiting for me to grant his wish.
God! That entitled jerk!
“Please love”, he widened his eyes at me, puckering his lips. Giving me the most adorable puppy-eyed look, he blinked at me hopefully.
“I hate you to your very soul, Daniel Kane”, I faked a grim tone as I shot him a stern look as if I was very opposed to touching him. In reality, my stomach was doing flip flops inside me. As if my whole body was eager to bow at his every command.
“I love you too Ayesha Wilson”, he replied, not loosing his contagious smile. His smile grew more in triumph as I placed my palm on his forehead, tracing it horizontally with my fingers, following it with consecutive palm rubs to loosen up his tightened skin.
“You might wanna stop grinning like the Joker or your face will be deformed forever”, I airily commented, trying to mask the fact that my heart thudded against my chest, almost stopping to beat so that it could strain its metaphorical ear to make sure it heard correctly.
D…did he just say he loved me, my stupid heart thought.
My brain told it to shut the hell up…. he was just saying it platonically. I had just talked about us being friends. So he was saying he loved me as a friend… isn’t that what friends do?
But my stupid, stupid heart continued to beat even faster, taking his words to ‘heart’. Like his words were the reason it even continued beating. God, it could be so dramatic sometimes!
“Are you blushing?”, he asked, fixing his eyes on me, wading off my hair from face to look at me.
I tried to swat his hand away but he caught it in mid-air, smirking at me,” You are blushing.”
“No, I am not…. It’s just hot in here”, I grumbled, throwing him a nasty look for putting me on the spot.
“The heat isn’t turned on”, he arched a brow at me, not letting me off the hook. “And it’s pretty cloudy and windy outside…. so the only reason your skin is turning that lovely shade of red is because your blood is thrumming against that beautiful porcelain skin of yours… now why is that?”, he went on, making me blush even harder as I felt my face heat up in response to him.
I decided to ignore his words, focusing all my attention on relieving his forehead so he would forget all about our ongoing conversation… or more simply his being hell-bent on calling me out and embarrassing me. I pressed harder, focusing on the visible nerves of his forehead and then rubbing at his temples in gentle circles.
He groaned out as his lids dropped automatically and his eyes closed shut, much to my relief. I even felt a little bit of delight at having pleased him or caused him some form of comfort.
The lines on his previously tension-ridden head disappeared as he moaned in appreciation of my technical but soft massaging touches.
I couldn’t help but crack a small smile… I’d distracted him. Well played, Ayesha! Well Played!
He suddenly popped his eyes open and dropped my hand to his face, the one with which I’d tried to swat his hand away. He placed my hand, palm up onto his face and let it go. I cradled one of his cheeks, the one facing me.
I absentmindedly cupped his beautiful face, tracing his high cheekbone with my index finger whilst marvelling at his sharp jawline.
He gave me a sincere look as he leaned into my hand, brushing his nose against my palm but pulling back to lay face up so I could keep massaging his head.
“So now where were we?! Yes… I was telling you why you were blushing. Well, that is just ridiculously simple to answer. Obviously because your body was innocently reacting to my proximity. Honestly, what woman could control her body around me when I look like like I do? It’s just a simple attraction… you can’t control it so you should rather just accept it. Give into it. It’ll make it much easier on you”, he explained to me. I’d clearly celebrated too early on my victory. Not well played Ayesha! Not well played at all.
“Oh so you know my body better than me now”, I snarkily said, shocked by his avid and absurdly confident description of MY body’s reaction to him.
“In some ways, yes”, he cryptically said, a knowing smirk hanging onto his mouth as he gave me a meaningful look. I was confused for a second… but turned even redder when I realized what he was implying.
“I told you to stop bringing that up”, I grumbled in protest, burying my face in my hands in embarrassment.
I could see his smirk brighten at my response through the gaps between my fingers.
“It’s nothing to be embarrassed about, love”, he ‘kindly’ told me, turning his body toward me. His hot breath fanned against the small exposed part of my stomach, not covered by my shirt.
“I’m just trying to educate you on the laws of attraction”, he husked out, his lips brushing against my exposed midriff.
I tried to not shiver from the contact as I paced my breathing, leaning back in the seat.
His one hand suddenly went around my waist, pulling me to his hot mouth. I couldn’t help but whimper out loud, muffling the sound by pressing my hands to my mouth hard when I felt his hot, wet mouth enclose and suck on a patch of my skin right below my belly button as he lifted my shirt up a bit with his other hand.
“D… Daniel? What are you…”, I started to ask but he shushed me with his finger to my mouth.
“This is strictly educational, Ayesha. Now focus. Tell me what you feel right now,” he instructed, dropping his hand back to tap my midriff,” Right here. Tell me what you feel when I kiss you here.”
I squeezed my eyes shut when I felt his lips drag across my stomach, stopping to softly bite and suck at a particular patch of skin, then he moved his tongue to caress and soothe the bitten and sucked part, plumping it up and smoothing it out in the end with his lips… and then repeating the process all over.
I had to bite down on my lip to keep from moaning.
He suddenly sucked especially hard and grazed his teeth against the skin right next to my belly button… almost as if he was warning me,” Tell me what you feel, Ayesha.”
Just as I felt his teeth dig into my skin a little too hard, I quickly fumbled to answer,” I feel butterflies in my stomach…. I.. feel like I’m filled of air or something and I feel light and heady and my skin feels too sensitive and… and it's too much”, I mumbled, moaning from the harsh kisses that he continued to pepper along on my skin.
“That’s all I wanted to hear”, I felt the devious bastard grin against my stomach. He rolled back onto his backside, shooting me a victorious grin.
Frickin bastard! I glared at him with full force. He just wanted to get me all hot and bothered! Conspiring devil that he was!