“Marissa is here with Colton,” I tell him. “Probably over there telling your aunt that I’m a serial killer. Just wait until I go over there. I’m gonna—”
“Come to Colorado with me,” Asher interrupts. His voice rumbles through his chest. I feel it in my hand that rests there.
It catches me completely off guard. I look up at him. “What?” Small droplets of rain come down sporadically, like a warning.
“Come with me. Get away from all of this.”
I can’t help the laugh that escapes me. He’s messing with me. He must be. “So we can what? Argue all the time?”
“If that’s what you want to do.” Asher looks down at me andthere’s no amusement, no playfulness in his features. “I leave next week.”
A light sprinkle falls around us, and people begin to walk to the nearest tent or the bar pavilion. “Next week? What about the rest of your classes?”
“I graduated in the fall semester; I’ve been done with school.”
I didn’t know that. He never said anything. “Then why have you been here all spring?” I ask him. He gives me another look, tilting his head to the side just slightly as if to saycome on, Sloane.
I stop swaying with him and drop my hands. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me, Asher.”
He finally smirks at my tone. “Here we go.”
“I asked you back in January how you felt. How could you let me go on with Wes and then turn around and ask me this?”
It’s full-on raining now, and I turn to leave him on the dance floor, but I don’t want to huddle underneath a crowded space with random people. I need to be alone. I walk through the yard to the front of the house, hoping to find a spot on the wraparound porch. Sheets of rain come down now as I run to the front of the house. A group of people stands on the porch, and one of them is a still-pregnant Kate Russel. Great, everyone really is here. I run to the detached garage, through the side door. It’s spacious enough in here to be mistaken as a second home. I wring out my hair on the floor, wrapping my arms around myself as I pace the room. Colorado with Asher. I can’t even imagine. It’d be a disaster.
“There you are.” Asher walks in the side door after me.
“I want to be alone.”
He ignores me. “I was wondering if they still had this,” he says,walking up to the large structure covered in a tarp. He removes it and before us is a sailboat.Of coursethey have a sailboat. Asher climbs up the wheel of the tow it sits atop and over the silver railing. Then holds out his hand for me to join him. I look back at the door, where the rain and wind blow furiously outside. I slip off my heels and take his hand, climbing onto the boat with him. “Good memories on this thing.”
I lean back on the railing with my arms crossed as he messes with the steering wheel. Thunder rumbles outside, shaking the structure.
“Tell me why,” I say.
He clears his throat. “I think you know why.”
“Then say it.”
He looks at me for a while, before walking to the back part of the boat and disappearing down the stairs. And I should just leave. Go and find Wes. But the rain still comes down hard outside and I’ve never seen the inside of a boat. So I follow him down the stairs. Wood-paneled walls push in on me in the small space below the deck, and I think that boat living is definitely not for the claustrophobic.
“Asher?” I say his name when I don’t see him. But then his hands are on my waist from behind, and I startle. He turns me around and lifts my chin up to him and puts his mouth on mine. I pull away. “Tell me why,” I say again.
He grabs my hands and walks back, through a door that practically blends into the wall, and into a small bedroom. It’s nearly pitch-black in here aside from the small porthole window that looks out into the garage. He sits on the edge of the bed, pullingme between his knees. “They say actions speak louder than words, don’t they?” He starts to untie my top and I grab his hands to stop him. He stands again, leaning in so our foreheads are touching. “Let me show you why.”
He kisses me softly, then kisses me again, and again. Each one sweeter than the last. And I’m waiting for the moment that his hands start grabbing me, pulling at my clothes. Waiting for his teeth on my skin. Waiting for him to take, like he usually does. Waiting to be fucked. But this time is different. When he reaches down to untie my top again, still wet from the rain, I let him. It falls to the floor, as he removes his blazer and unbuttons his shirt. I slide them down over his shoulders, running my hands over his chest, his shoulders, his arms. He lays me gently on the mattress and lies over top of me, planting these foreign soft lip kisses on my lips and my jaw. I reach down for his pants but he grabs my hand and threads his fingers through mine. He continues down my neck, over my chest, to my stomach. He lets go of my hand and starts to slide down my skirt, leaving me totally bare in front of him. His eyes roam over my body, really looking at me now, and usually I would want to shrink in on myself. But instead I open my legs for him. He unbuckles and unzips his pants, kicking them off and adding to the pile on the floor. We both inhale when he pushes into me, and I know in the way he holds me tight to his body and whispers my name that Asher Collins McCavern is in love.
He just won’t say it.
We lie there, and for once, Asher holds me in his arms. He strokes my rain-soaked hair while my head rests on his chest.
“What are you thinking about?” I whisper.
“That we could do this in Colorado instead of arguing.”
I sigh and shake my head as reality sets in. “I’m dating your cousin.”
“Break up with him.”
