Chapter Twenty
Echo
We didn’t need words as we sat by the cold stream after playing with each other. It was just nice to be us.
I knew I’d be cold if I shifted, but I didn’t care. Strong feelings were running through my veins, and I needed to do something so badly that I felt like I would combust.
My body started to transform, and in seconds I was a naked woman sitting on a rock next to a man that had accepted all the sides of me he’d seen so far and hadn’t run away.
His eyes were on the babbling waters as they flowed, even though I could sense he was very aware of what was sitting next to him.
I scooted closer and raised my hands to his shaved jawline. His features were so sharp and precise, as if he was carved from stone.
His eyes met mine as I gently turned his face to mine.
Without another thought, I leaned in and married my lips to his.
It was slow at first, the need to feel each other connected warming up my soul.
Then the desire hit, that strange tingling that flowed from his body to mine, that feeling of pleasure than ran down my skin, making goose bumps rise.
When our mouths opened, and tongues met, a spark went straight to my heart, jumpstarting me into a frenzy of need.
His hands touched my skin all over, feeling every curve, every rise and fall of my labored breath.
I wanted him everywhere—over me, around me, inside me.
The need to touch—to connect—was driving me wild in a way I’d never known was possible.
His lips moved from my lips to my jaw and to my neck, his hands bringing me closer to his body. In a matter of seconds, I was straddling his lap, his strangled groan only fueling me more as my bare sex met with his jean-clad hard-on.
I felt like an animal in heat, and I couldn’t find the will to stop it. I didn’t even know if Iwantedto stop it.
We were consenting adults and working on a relationship. Sex was a good idea, right? I was ready, wasn’t I?
As if he’d been reading my thoughts, Asher started to slow our frenzied movements.
When he pulled back to look into my eyes, I saw the answer to my questions. I wasn’t yet. There were still more layers to my self-preservation that we needed to remove before sex.
But the look on his face made one of those layers melt.
He would wait. He would be patient with me until I trusted him enough to give myself to him.
“I’m not a blushing virgin, you know.”
I did feel the need to throw that out there. I had sex once when I was a rebellious teenager, and it sucked. I was angry about my situation and thought that if I’d screw someone then I’d feel better. Turned out I felt worse, especially after I realized the boy I chose just wanted to add me to his list of chicks on the reservation he’d banged.
I did get a teeny bit of revenge, though. When he was at football practice, I turned into a big bear and made him pee his pants in front of everyone. I was satisfied after that.
Asher grinned. The warmth from that smile settled over me like a warm blanket, fresh out of the dryer.
“So you’re saying I have to protect my virtue around you?” He wagged his eyebrows, and I laughed.
“What are you doing to me?” I asked, and he thought for a moment before hitting me with an answer that tattooed itself on my heart.
“I’m making you fall in love with me, one smile at a time.”
I didn’t even do it subconsciously this time.
