Prologue
Beth – Saturday
This was supposed to be easy, but who was I kidding. Being with Ash like this brought back memories of six years ago when life seemed perfect. Oh, how I wished we could be like that again.
But no. I was here in the club he owned with my brother to complete a mission. I needed Ash to buy my brother’s half of the business to save us financially. It was a shame, I thought as I looked around Jet and saw how popular it was. Knowing my brother had checked out of the business a few years back, I had to credit Ash for the club’s success. I hoped he wouldn’t lowball an offer to offset how little my brother contributed over the last few years. I couldn’t blame Ash if he did, since my brother wasn’t involved in the club’s current success, but I hoped he’d be generous considering their friendship. Or I should say, their past friendship.
I was there to look over my brother’s holding and to negotiate the sale, so I wasn’t sure why I agreed to dance with Ash, except that it was loud and crowded on the dance floor which made it hard to talk. Despite needing to strike a deal, the last thing I wanted was to talk to Ash about anything but business because I knew my resolve around him was weak. He was everything and more than I remembered. He’d lost the boyish softness in his face that he had at twenty-one and was now a full-fledged man, with a chiseled jaw and day-old stubble. His hazel eyes watched me as I danced with him. Like a Svengali, his eyes captured me and I slowly got lost in them until we were the only two people in the room.
That’s how it had been that summer in the Hamptons six years ago after I graduated from high school. Ash had just graduated from college, and he and Ben were planning to open a club in Manhattan. Our families had been friends for a long time, and so I’d known Ash, but it wasn’t until that summer that I saw him as anything but my brother’s friend.
All of the Raven boys were ridiculously handsome, and so they were always very popular at the beach, including Ash. But there was something different that summer about him. Or maybe it was me. I remembered seeing him walk out of the surf by our beach house and thinking “yum” as water dripped from him. I’d been sunbathing on the beach and he came to sit with me as my brother continued to boogie board. We laughed at my brother as he crashed into the waves. Then we discussed our plans for the summer and beyond; his involved opening a club with my brother, and mine was attending college. He was funny and smart and sweet and within minutes, my friendly feelings started to turn.
Within a week, I was sneaking out at night and meeting him on the beach, where we walked and talked about nothing and everything. Despite my animosity towards him now, I couldn’t help but think of those times as anything but magic. It was the stuff of teenage romance movies. My mother said that it was a sure sign that we wouldn’t last. To her, I had a crush on Ash We had a summer fling, but that was all it was. She’d insisted that over time I’d meet a man that would show me what lasting love was really about.
So far, I hadn’t met that man. Instead, when I thought about romance, my mind always went to Ash, even though my goal was to forget him. To this day, I could still remember the taste of him when he kissed me. He wasn’t the first boy I’d ever kissed, but up until him, I hadn’t understood what a kiss could be. Or what it could do to the libido. After that first kiss, I knew I wanted him to be the one to take my V-card.
The only problem for us was that no one knew about us. Initially, we’d just been friends, but when it was clear something more was going on, we agreed to keep our blossoming romance on the down-low. For one, who knew what would happen once the summer was over? Second, neither of us was sure how Ben would take it and since Ash was getting ready to start a business with him, we didn’t want to mess that up.
I was okay with keeping us a secret because it added to the romance of it all. Each night, we’d meet in secret on the beach, walk and talk, kiss and feel each other up, and then walk and talk some more. As the summer progressed, he’d use his fingers on me, giving me glorious orgasms. He taught me how to jack him off with my hand. I loved how powerful it made me feel to give him pleasure.