A Love Like This

Anastazja

Ace’s eyes drifted lower to my body, now jammed firmly against his.

I couldn’t even take a deep breath to calm my racing heartbeat because we were hemmed in so tightly.

Our bodies were squashed against each other, with Ace’s arms on either side of me, holding on to the damned mattress.

I made the mistake of looking up into his smoky eyes.

“Fuck,” Ace cursed quietly, “I didn’t think this through.”

I giggled and tried to slide the rest of the way into the room. Ace groaned, and I froze in response.

Did I hurt him?

I looked at him anxiously, and his eyes were closed. With his jaw clenched, he looked fucking gorgeous.

“Don’t move, Ana,” he said tightly.

“Why? Did I hurt you?” I asked with concern and moved back a few inches, to my original position.

This made me blissfully aware of the enormous erection pressing against my crotch.

His eyes snapped open and he looked intensely at me.

“Don’t move, little one, or this will become a whole lot more complicated,” he warned.

My cheeks heated up and I lowered my gaze, staring at the giant tent in his jeans.

“Holy shit,” I whispered.

He tensed up. “Sorry for making you uncomfortable; just give me a second, and he’ll go down,” he muttered.

I could hear the embarrassment in his voice and suddenly felt bad for him. I placed my hand on his hard chest, feeling his pecs through his white T-shirt.

“It’s okay; it’s a compliment, I guess,” I said with a giggle.

Ace, too, chuckled and shook his head.

“I can think of better ways to compliment you, beautiful,” he said huskily, “and I’d rather press you against a mattress in a very different scenario.”

My face went from pink to fire-engine red.

“Sorry, I guarantee your boyfriend wouldn’t like you in this position,” he muttered.

I frowned at his comment.

Boyfriend?

“I don’t have a boyfriend,” I denied vehemently with furrowed brows.

Now Ace looked confused. “But you wore a ‘Taken’ band at the club?”

Realization dawned on me, and my mouth formed an O.

“Oh, no, I’m single, no boyfriend.”

Ace frowned. “You need to explain that later.”

My gaze stayed riveted on his erection; it was less embarrassing than seeing his face right now.

“Stop watching him; he likes the attention, and it’s not helping me get him down.”

His voice was strained, but I couldn’t help but laugh at his words.

“Sorry,” I replied with a laugh and raised my eyes to his.

The air crackled around us again, the chemistry palpable.

Ace’s eyes lowered to my lips. His tongue darted out to wet his lower lip, and my eyes hungrily followed the movement.

“Do you feel it?” he asked softly.

My sarcasm couldn’t help but ruin the moment. “What? Your huge dick pressing against my stomach? Yeah, I can.”

Ace burst out laughing, and I joined him. Our chests rising and falling with laughter made us rub against each other some more. I quite enjoyed it.

“Thank you for noticing his size,” he said with a wink. He sobered up and pinned me with a serious look. “But honestly, do you know what I mean?”

My breath caught in my throat at the intensity of his gaze. “Yes, I can,” I admitted quietly.

Ace closed his eyes briefly and inhaled deeply. “God, little sub, you have no idea how much I want to kiss you right now,” he groaned and leaned his head back against the doorjamb.

I knew he could tell I was a sub last night—it was my natural demeanor when I was around doms I liked—just like how I could sense he was a dom.

Hearing him call me out as one changed the dynamic between us, and the air fizzled again. Daringly, I reached up and ran my finger over his full bottom lip. His eyes flashed open, and he looked down at me passionately.

“Maybe I do,” I muttered quietly. “Maybe I want to kiss you too.”

“Ah, fuck it,” Ace muttered.

He released the mattress and pulled us both into the bedroom. We stumbled forward, free from the confines of the doorjamb.

I watched with wide eyes as the mattress, no longer held up by Ace, slid along the steps and thundered to the bottom of the staircase.

Ace grabbed my chin and turned my head back to face him. I barely caught my breath before he pressed his lips to mine hungrily.

If I had thought the air crackled when we looked at each other, it practically exploded when we kissed. Desire—wickedly hot and dangerously potent—coursed through my veins.

One of Ace’s hands tangled in my hair; the other gripped my chin, holding me exactly where he wanted me.

He completely dominated the kiss, plunging his tongue into my mouth and kissing me with confidence and unrestrained need.

He was tall, at least half a foot taller than me. He leaned down, and I went up on my tiptoes for locking my lips with his. My fingers held on tightly to his T-shirt and my body leaned against his for support.

He seemed to welcome the contact and pressed back against me.

We both pulled away when we heard Rowan shouting from the bottom of the stairs, “What the fuck is the mattress doing in the foyer? Are you two all right?”

My breathing was ragged, and my lips were swollen from our intense kiss.

Ace smirked sexily and shouted back, “All good, just lost our grip. We’ll come grab it in a second; sorry, Ro!”

He looked down at me and kissed my forehead in an intimate gesture. “As much as I enjoyed that, little sub, we better go get that mattress,” he said teasingly.

I followed him down the stairs, and together, we put the mattress on its side. I pulled from the top and Ace took the majority of its weight and pushed from the bottom.

I was a bit giddy from the kiss and stumbled on a step. As I was walking up backward, I fell flat on my arse on the step above.

“Ana! Are you all right?” Ace asked with all the concern of a natural dom.

I giggled at the expression on his face. He immediately softened and chuckled with me.

I tried to stand up but was still giggling, and my hands slipped on the mattress. It slid down a couple of steps into Ace. I fell backward again, and at the same time, Ace misplaced his footing and fell forward.

The mattress slid past us, to the floor again, as the two of us burst into peals of laughter, prone on the steps.

Rowan emerged from the kitchen with her hands on her hips and a maternal look of disapproval on her face. “What has gotten into you two? Have you raided the alcohol box before me?”

Ace sobered up and looked at me with such passion as to take my breath away. “No, but you didn’t tell me how great your friend is,” he said sweetly.

Rowan awwed and left us to it.

Ace offered his hand to help me up and nodded his head at the mattress. “So, third time lucky?”

With a few more laughs, we managed to get the mattress upstairs and onto the bed.

The kiss wasn’t directly mentioned, but Ace found ways to touch me or brush against me as we assembled the second bed frame in the guest room.

***

At one, Rowan called us into the kitchen. Dale came in and wiped his forehead with his shirt. Rowan practically drooled all over him. I rolled my eyes and Ace grimaced.

The four of us ate together on the patio, enjoying the sandwiches Rowan had put together for us.

After eating, Rowan decided we all needed to be treated with some Pimm’s. Apparently, she had found the alcohol box.

“I shouldn’t,” I told her when she tried to pour my third one. “I’ve got to catch the bus home and I need to make sure I get on the right one.”

Ace laughed at my comment. “Go ahead; I’ll give you a lift home, Ana. Where do you live?”

Rowan winked at me from behind Ace and then poured me another glass.

“Oh, it’s all right; thank you though. I live about ten minutes away, on Silver Birch Avenue.”

“Now I insist; I’m only five minutes from there, on Oakwood Estate.”

I raised my eyebrows at him. It was not cheap to live there. It was a luxurious gated community.

“Well, thank you.”

After my third Pimm’s, we returned to the building. This time, we assembled the wardrobe in the guest bedroom while Dale and Rowan tackled the dining room furniture.

We got it wrong a couple of times and convulsed with hysterical laughter again.

I found myself becoming more and more smitten with Ace.

He’s a dom, who is smart, fucking gorgeous, and funny. How is this man single?

I decided to ask him. Blame the alcohol. “Ace?”

I got his attention while he was tightening up one of the wardrobe doors. “Yeah?” His voice was muffled as his head was in the wardrobe.

“How come you’re single?”

He surprised me by poking his head back out of the wardrobe. His brows were furrowed, but he smiled. “Why do you ask?”

My cheeks flushed. “Well, I mean you’re not exactly hard to look at, and you’re funny, clever, successful… I guess it’s a personal choice,” I told him, and then realized that I might be crossing a line.

“I’m sorry, it’s a personal question. Don’t answer if you don’t want.”

He shrugged.

“It’s all right,” he said, and returned to the door hinges. “I was with my first girlfriend for four years. We ventured into the world of BDSM together, but after we graduated uni, she wanted to return to a vanilla relationship.”

He stepped out of the wardrobe, his face hardened. He threw the screwdriver back into the toolbox with a harsh clang that made me jump.

“I realized that I couldn’t live without some form of BDSM in my life,” he admitted, scratching the nape of his neck self-consciously.

“I guess I need the control. It’s what I need to function; it’s who I am. Anyway, we broke up and it all went a bit mad at the club.”

He sat down on the bed, and I followed suit, realizing that he’d decided to open up to me. I wanted to show him that I was interested.

“I’d been going to the club for two years with Bella, and now that I was single, I was receiving a lot of interest from the other subs. The club wasn’t as big two years ago; there were fewer members, and single doms were thin on the ground.

“It was becoming messy; I didn’t want to keep scening with different subs, and I didn’t have a connection with any of them out of the club. I’m a relationship guy; I don’t like to fuck around, so I took myself out of the mix.

“Last year, I scened occasionally, but mostly I work as a DM and just observe. I miss it, but I don’t want to go back unless I have the right sub to play with. I’m done messing around; I want the real deal.”

His eyes locked on mine, and my breath caught in my throat.

“Tell me if you’re not interested, but I like you, Ana. I want to scene with you.”

Holy shit.