Page 49 of All Right No

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Ash woke surprisingly refreshed the next day, and devoid of the sub-machine gun nerve volleys firing in his arm. That night, they ate on the veranda overlooking the lake after a long day of pampering. Previously, Ash had no idea that girls spent so long on this stuff. One or two of Ginny’s nails even looked good, and he had freshly painted black fingernails of his own now, that Ginny had coated with a sort of metallic sheen. She’d helped him with his mousy brown roots too. Afterwards they lingered on the porch swing sipping no-alcohol punch and cuddling. He’d attempted everything she’d given him today, and while his success rate wasn’t exactly where he’d like it to be, he had to admit, he’d enjoyed the trying. They’d never been able to spend time together like this before, just doing their own thing with no one else around making demands on their time and generally interfering. Actually, he’d never spent this much quality time with someone he wasn’t in a band with since his student days.

“Four stars so far today,” Ginny said. She’d disappeared to the loo and come back wearing a dressing gown. “Want to see if you can make it all the way to five?”

“Hm, maybe. What are you hiding under this?” Ash tugged at the edge of the towelling robe.

“Incentive,” she teased, slapping his hand away.

Unrelenting, Ash tugged her onto his knee and trapped her there by entwining his arms around her waist. “So, what is it I have to do?”

She wriggled around so that she could see his face.

Ash ran his hand over her stocking covered legs. He’d taken extra care when he’d performed that particular task today. There weren’t any snags or twists, just two perfectly framed legs. “You should wear these always.”

“If I did that, you wouldn’t appreciate them.”

“Oh, I’d appreciate them. There’s no risk of that not ever being the case.” His fingers walked under the hem of the robe. “Am I correct in thinking there’s beautiful lingerie hiding underneath this horrid thing?”

Her teeth raked over her red-stained lower lip. “What on earth gives you that idea?”

“Call it male intuition. Is it pretty?”

“It’s magenta.”

“It sounds pretty.”

“It’s probably more sleazy than pretty. If it was pastel pink it’d be pretty.”

“Are there slits over your nipples?”

“No,” she laughed.

“Damn,” he drawled, but he was laughing too. “So, about getting this robe off you.”

“I thought we should give your tongue a work out, like you suggested, seeing how it sometimes gets in a tangle.”

He frowned. Honestly, the issues with his speech weren’t really an issue. They only reared when he got irate about stuff. “As long as we’re not doing tongue twisters.”

“Imagine an imaginary ménage. Imagine managing an imaginary ménage.”

“Ginny,” he groaned.

She grinned and kissed the tip of his nose. “Actually, I was hoping you’d twist your tongue into a place or two.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes, really! Are you game, or do you have a headache again?”

He waggled a finger at her. Crashing out last night certainly hadn’t been the plan.

“Seriously, you have another headache,” she mock moaned.

Ash cuddled her closer. “No, I’m game.”

***

“Thank heaven and hell for that!” Ginny was seriously looking forward to this task.