Hanging by a Moment

By the time Thanksgiving rolled around the following month, Ash was back on the road with the rest of the guys as they embarked on yet another tour. Since they’d finally found a house that could work for them and their daughters, Rebel’d stayed behind in LA with said little girls this time instead of coming with them. They were in the process of doing the physical moving since they’d taken care of all the paperwork before he left, or on the rare few days he got off to come back home if he wanted.

Today was one of those rare, highly anticipated days off, and he was going to enjoy it with every fiber of his being. His grandparents had flown into LA to celebrate the holidays with his sweetheart and the girls, none of them thinking he’d be able to make it back in time. Things were just hectic, and he honestly wasn’t sure he’d get to himself.

Now that his flight had landed at LAX and he’d collected his luggage, he set off to find a cab back to his new house. After all, he refused to leave his car at the airport for months at a time, and besides, he wanted to surprise his lady love, or he’d have just called her to come get him. But he was Hell-bent on surprising her, and even their daughters, so he refused to make such a call.

It took a while, but Ash finally managed to hail a cab to take him home. The cabbie could tell he was exhausted, and since he’d left all his instruments and gear back with the road crew, he just let him think he’d been on a long business trip. Considering that he owned his own clothing line, it wasn’t unlikely that he could’ve had to go out of town for business concerning that at some point. Therefore, as far as he was concerned, he didn’t necessarily have to be in a band to end up going out of town. That was how he kept his mouth shut and avoided really talking to the cabbie taking him home on the ride.

“I just wish he could actually be here to celebrate with us,” he heard Rebel sigh sadly as he finally closed the front door to their new home a while later.

“Who ever said that he wouldn’t be, dear?” Leana asked, clearly wondering why she thought she’d ever think he wouldn’t at least try to come home to her and their girls.

“I’ve been on tour with them, Grama,” she answered. He wasn’t surprised to hear her call his grandmother Grama, considering what she’d told him of her own family the day after her birthday. “Even if he tries, he doubt he’ll manage to make it back until Christmas, and even then, I’m not sure he’ll be able to.”

“And miss out on my only baby girl’s first Thanksgiving? Or gods forbid, her first Christmas and visit from Santa Claus?” he asked, grinning as he revealed that he was home.

“Ashley?” Rebel asked, skepticism lacing her excited voice.

“Sí, mio acciaio rosa; it’s really me,” Ash answered, grinning as she stepped into the front hall.

“Oh, mio subdulo angelo!” the young woman cried, running into his arms. “I’ve missed you so much!”

“Just as I’ve missed you,” he answered, burying his nose in her pomegranate-scented hair as he wrapped his arms tightly around her. “I’ve missed you more than I could possibly tell you.”

His sweetheart hummed her agreement as she buried her face against his throat.

“Now tell me…where are the girls?” the bassist asked curiously.

“They’re upstairs napping while we were working on Thanksgiving dinner,” his grandmother answered from the kitchen.

“What about Grampa?” he asked curiously.

“Napping in the guest room since I had to smack his hand with a wooden spoon a few times,” she answered.

“Sounds like the Grampa I used to know,” he laughed as he headed into the kitchen with his sweetheart.

“Now you keep your hands outta that food, ya hear?” Leana said, her eyes narrowed in a glare.

“I might’ve just gotten off a plane, but sheesh, Grama, cut me some slack,” Ash said, pouting. “I know better than to try getting into anything you’re making before you put it on the table since I like my hands and arms intact.”

“Good boy. And you’d think your grampa would, too, as long as he’s been married to me,” the elderly woman grumped.

“But it just smells so delicious,” Daniel piped up, sounding like the little boy he hadn’t been in quite some time.

“Daniel Allen Purdy! Behave yourself and act your age!”

Rebel obviously couldn’t help a snicker at her admonishing tone, as she sounded as if reprimanding a young Ash.

“Yeah, I think it’s funny, too, mio acciaio rosa,” the bassist chuckled. “They bicker like this all the time, especially when they think no one’s listening.”

“I’d say we do not, Ashley, but I know better. Your grampa can be so irksome sometimes,” Leana said with a soft hmph.

Ash chuckled as he chose to ignore his grandmother’s comment in favor of pulling his sweetheart into his lap as he sat at the dining room table. Aside from having missed her in a Biblical sense, mainly because it’d been so long since he’d gotten laid before her birthday, it was just the little things about her that he missed.

He’d missed the scent of her skin, her hair, especially when she was fresh out of the shower—or a long bubble bath she’d taken to relax after a long day. He’d missed her natural softness against his hands as he caressed her, regardless of whether he meant to comfort her or get her riled up. He’d missed the same softness of her beautifully feminine curves pressing against him as she either damn near used him as a mattress or he spooned her in bed at night after putting their daughters to bed once they’d worn themselves out.

Not only had he missed all those things about his beloved Rebel, but he’d missed waking up to hearing her playing with said aforementioned daughters. He’d missed hearing her sing, regardless of what song she was singing, be it from memory or because she was listening to it. If he were honest, and he was when it came to this woman, she had the voice of a siren, enough to cause an erection in the pants of even the most sated man.

Just her mannerisms in general made him acutely aware of her absence, which just made him miss her more. Ash’d missed how she’d almost always have some kind of music playing in the apartment, mostly because she could focus better while cleaning or something else similar, and he could imagine there’d been a lot of music playing lately as she unpacked and got everything organized. He’d missed how she seemingly danced around while cleaning, or trying to calm one of their daughters if they were crying. To put it lightly and simply, he’d just missed everything about her.

“I wish I didn’t have to go back out on tour,” he said, sighing softly in her ear.

“I wish you didn’t, either,” Rebel agreed, hugging his slim waist tightly. “I missed you, and I mean everything about you, way too much while you were gone.”

“Really, now? And just what did you miss about me?” Ash asked teasingly. He’d rather see her smile while naming what she’d missed about him than pouting sadly.

“The way your body wash clashes with, yet compliments your shampoo and conditioner. I’ve never seen or heard of a man who used Axe’s Dark Temptation and Herbal Essences’ Tousle Me Softly in the same shower before,” she giggled. “But as far as I’m concerned, it’s a combo as unique as you are, and it suits you.”

“Awww, you sweetheart, you,” he said teasingly, chuckling at how she blushed.

“I missed hearing your music either complimenting or clashing with mine from down the hall, depending on what we were listening to. Hell, I just missed hearing you play some of the most random shit on your bass or guitar when you were bored.”

Ash couldn’t help the soft chuckle that obviously vibrated through her as he held her close.

“I missed being able to snuggle close to to you when we went to bed at night since I’ve gotten so used to doing so.” The young woman in his lap—his arms—sighed almost inaudibly. “I missed just hearing you breathe long after you’d fallen asleep if I couldn’t do the same myself…it helped me eventually drift off if I could hear your soft breaths and feel the gentle rise and fall of your chest.”

“Awww, sweetheart.” He doubted there was much he could say to top that since he hadn’t realized just what an effect his mere presence had on her. “I know you said you loved me, but I didn’t realize just how much of an effect I had on you.”

“Not even Logan’s father made me feel like this, so you’re definitely special,” Rebel admitted, her cheeks flaring a deep red as she did. “I love you so much it’s almost like our souls are bound together, even though I know they really aren’t.”

“Well, how are we to know that? For all we know, they might just be,” the bassist said. “I mean, they might not’ve been the same things, but I missed the most mundane things about you, too.”

When she gave him a quizzical look, Ash eagerly told her just what all he’d missed while he was touring and living his dream with his brothers.

“Oh, Ashley,” she breathed, tears welling up with her eyes. “Even if I weren’t before, I’m definitely thankful I met you this Thanksgiving.”

Unable to really say anything to the contrary or agree with her, he gently captured her lips with his in a sweet, chaste kiss. No matter how much they both wanted it, there was no sense in starting anything they couldn’t finish just yet, and he knew it. Even with his grandparents in the house, there’d always be later that night to sate their desire.

It wasn’t long afterward that Leana had the thanksgiving dinner ready, and he insisted on helping to set the table. He didn’t care that he’d just gotten home from his and the guys’ most recent stop on their tour; he’d been raised to get off his ass and help out any way he could. As far as he was concerned, his exhaustion could be damned; he’d drive himself into the ground helping out before he let his elderly grandmother do everything herself. He didn’t notice it, but that earned him a tender and thankful smile from Rebel and Leana, respectively.

* * *

Later that night, after seeing his grandparents off to bed and tucking their daughters, who were excited to see Daddy again, into bed, Ash retired to the master suite with his steel rose. He’d accidentally caught a nap, as had Rebel and the girls, after they’d finished eating, if only because his exhaustion and jet-lag were exacerbated by the tender, juicy turkey Leana’d slaved over a hot stove all day to cook.

Now, considering that they were no longer quite as tired as they had been earlier and they’d been separated what they considered far too long…well, there was no stopping the younger couple. The second he got their bedroom door closed and locked, the bassist couldn’t resist pressing his sweetheart against its solid mahogany surface. His tongue tangled with hers, their lips sealed in a passionate kiss as they both wrapped their arms around one another. He groaned as she gently sucked on his tongue as he ground against her, his zipper already straining.

Rebel was the one to flatten her hands against his chest and push him, though—not to get him away from her, but rather to push him back toward their bed. A grin that matched hers split his lips as he felt his knees hit the edge of the mattress at its foot, making them buckle and his weight collapse on the softness behind him.

Purring like a happy cat whose fur had been stroked just the right way, Rebel stepped between his spread thighs and pushed his chest again. He happily obliged her when he let her push him so that he was laying flat on his back, his legs dangling over the edge of the mattress from the knee down. Granted, he was even happier when she moved so she was leaning over him, although that soon turned into her straddling and laying atop him as their fiery make-out continued.

“Ohhhh, gods…Ashley,” she groaned, her own hips shifting against his as she ground against the bulge straining his fly.

“What is it, mio acciaio rosa?” Ash asked, sounding both curious and teasing.

“I need you, mio subdulo angelo,” the young woman moaned, gasping and whimpering when he leaned up to latch onto her tender nipple through her shirt.

“I need you just as much,” he groaned, gasping as he bucked up against her again.

The two wasted no time in all but ripping their clothes from each other, their hands caressing in feverish patterns as their bodies cried out for one another. In the time he’d been on tour, the bassist hadn’t once thought of even so much as servicing himself, nor had the rebel to his outlaw done the same for herself. In fact, since she hadn’t stumbled across them, she bothered thinking about using her old toys to pleasure herself in his absence.

Within mere moments of flipping them so that she rested on her back, which was arched to press against him, Ash groaned as his grinding led to his tip nudging at her slick entrance. His sweetheart gasped as she felt him gently nudging her, wrapping her legs tightly around his waist as she encouraged his equally gentle entrance to her body.

Both their voices mingled in soft moans and groans, Rebel tipping her head back against the pillow it lay on as she arched against him. Her limbs held him close, as close as she could possibly get him without their sharing a body. Then again, he didn’t want it any other way as he gently nipped, licked, and sucked at the soft flesh of her bared throat, his hips moving against hers as he set their slow, gentle rhythm. He couldn’t stop his soft groans and growls as her hips moved in time with his, her slick channel clamping down on and spasming around him occasionally as she rose toward that precipice.

It was when he reached down to gently thumb her clit as he drove himself home one last time that his steel rose came undone. With one last tightening of her channel—and her limbs—around him, Rebel found her completion beneath him as she tumbled over that figurative cliff. Her soft cry and the gentle contractions of her sheath around him triggered his own eternal pleasure, and with a gasp, the bassist buried himself within her moist warmth once more before following her over that cliff.

Unlike a lot of times when both had their eyes closed tightly as they screamed to the Heavens above, this time was different. One pair of chocolate orbs stared into the other as they groaned and whimpered their way through the pleasure, their bodies unbelievably still when they’d normally still be moving as they rode it out. Only when both their bodies fell limp in the aftermath did they close their eyes, one forehead resting against the other, their breaths coming in somewhat shallow, ragged pants from their exertion. Only then did Ash find the strength, despite their post-orgasmic lethargy, to frame her face with both hands as he gave her one of the gentlest kisses he could ever remember giving any woman, much less her.

Within moments of his softening enough to slip out without forcibly withdrawing himself, the bassist rolled off his sweetheart and pulled her into his arms. He allowed a tender smile to cross his face as she snuggled close, gently nuzzling his chest as she rested her head on it. Before he knew it, Rebel was sleeping soundly in his arms, apparently thoroughly exhausted from her day’s activities, even before now. As exhausted as he himself was, he wasn’t sure why he stayed awake even a few moments after she’d fallen asleep, but it didn’t take him long to join her. Only a single thought crossed his mind as he drifted off for the night: he’d failed to remember protection earlier in their desire to be joined again.

Notes