Falling for the Fire

Chapter 36

*Brooklyn's POV

"I'll see you at my place in a bit then?" I asked Ariana.

She nodded as we both walked our separate ways to our cars.

I honestly wasn't sure what had gotten into me when I asked if she wanted to come over for dinner, it had just kind of come out. Not that it was a huge deal, but we had been staying away from anything like that for the most part.

It just seemed like the smart thing to do with the arrangement that we had. I wasn't trying to complicate anything, but I didn't think that one dinner would hurt.

Once I got home, I changed and decided to order us pizza. Ariana knocked on the front door a few minutes later.

"I have to say," she said, "getting here and not going immediately to your room feels a little weird."

"Only because you're making it weird," I teased.

I grabbed on to her waist and pulled her against me, placing a slow kiss on her lips.

"We could do that if you want cold pizza," I said.

"Oh no," she shook her head, "definitely don't want that."

She returned the favor with a kiss of her own, but the doorbell ringing cut it short.

"Pizza," I sighed.

I pulled away from her and went to grab it.

We sat down on the couch and I put the pizza on the coffee table in front of us. I turned on the television and let it play in the background as we ate our dinner.

"How are you feeling about everything with the event?" I asked her, "it's getting closer."

"I think I'm good with it right now," she responded, "but no work talk."

"Fine," I said as I leaned back against the couch, "whatever you say."

"Is work all that you think about?" She asked me jokingly.

"No," I muttered, "but - well yeah it's most of it...that's what most of my time is taken up by."

"So that means when you have free time, you should relax and not think about it," she said.

Ariana leaned back next to me and rested her head on my shoulder. She put her hand on my lap and lightly traced her fingers back and forth over my thigh.

"I guess you're right," I sighed, "I don't have much of that though."

"Then I feel honored that you find so much for me," she teased.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I laughed, "don't get too big of a head over there."

I leaned over and gently kissed her temple as I heard her quietly laugh.

This whole interaction, hell, this whole night so far was so different than anything that I'd been used to in a very long time, but something about it just felt right.

I didn't want to be thinking about it that way, but I couldn't shake the feeling.

We sat on the couch in comfortable silence for a few more minutes before we both got up and started putting everything away from dinner.

Ariana was standing by the sink when I brought the last of it into the kitchen, and I came up behind her and wrapped my arms tightly around her waist.

"Now," I said as I kissed along the base of her neck, "it's time for the bedroom."

She tilted her head to the side and let out a quiet sigh as I held on to the loops of her jeans.

"Unless of course, we don't make it that far," I whispered in her ear.

She laughed quietly as I reached over and unbuttoned her pants, sliding a hand inside of them.

She playfully slapped at it and pulled it away before turning around to face me.

"I would prefer the bed," she said, "thank you very much."

"Lead the way then," I grinned at her as I motioned back towards my room.

She grabbed on to my hand and we walked down the short hallway. I shut the door behind us once we stepped inside, and I started to pull her already unbuttoned pants off.

I leaned in to kiss her as we both pulled them down her legs until she was able to step out. The heat grew between us as my tongue parted her lips and began to explore her mouth.

I only pulled away long enough to take her shirt off over her head before I continued the kiss. Her hands fumbled over my clothes as she worked to get me out of them.

We'd left a trail of discarded pants, shirts and underwear on our way to the bed. I gently tossed her down on to it and looked into her dark eyes as she waited with anticipation.

I crawled over top of her, our bodies pressing together as I went, and I kissed her intently. My thumb trailed along her jaw as the friction between us only made me want her more.

After a moment, I pulled away with a gentle tug at her bottom lip. I looked down at her and debated on if I should ask her what I'd been wanting to try.

I wasn't sure if she'd be up for it or not, but I'd been fantasizing about it for weeks. Hopefully it didn't hurt to ask.

"How adventurous are you feeling tonight?" I questioned.

"Um," she said hesitantly, "that's a hard question to answer when I have no idea what you're going to say."

I gave her a smirk before I swung my legs off of my bed and walked over to a dresser in the corner of the room.

"If you don't think you'd like this or don't want to do it," I started, "you have to promise that you'll tell me that, okay?"

"Well now you're making me nervous," she said, "but yeah...I promise."

I opened the top drawer and reached for the harness with the strap-on, and I pulled it out, carefully holding it up in front of me.

It wasn't like this was anything that crazy, but I knew that Ari was still new to all of this. I had no idea if it was something she would want to try or not.

I saw her eyes widen slightly as I walked back over to the bed and waited for her response.

"I mean I've never - but I've been with men so..." she trailed off nervously.

"If you don't want to I'll put it away," I laughed, "I've wanted to do this too badly to not even try."

"You have?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

I nodded back at her, a smirk curling across my lips as I set the strap-on down on the bed.

She glanced at it, and then looked back up at me before responding.

"Yeah fuck it, why not?"

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