Asher pulls back and looks at me in my eyes. “Because he looks at you and thinks he can have you. Because he doesn’t understand that you aremine.”
“I’m not some toy that belongs to you.”
“You are not a toy—but you belong to me just like I belong to you.”
“I . . .”
His words hit me. Asher and I haven’t really visited that idea, but I can’t help it, the thought of it makes me melt. I want him to belong to me.
I want that so much.
I wish we could forget everything that wasn’t just the two ofus and give in to what feels right. But too many things stand in our path.
My mind is in such a spiral that I don’t notice that with a flick of his fingers Asher has popped open the top button of my blouse until he nips at the skin right between the tops of my breasts.
“Asher,” I whisper.
“What, baby?”
I groan. Damn him using that word with me. It gets me every time.
“We can’t,” I somehow choke out.
“Why not?”
“Because we need space.”
“I don’t recall ever agreeing to needing space.”
“Okay,Ineed space.”
“And why is it that you need space, Ms. Hale?” His voice is a purr that rumbles against my breasts, making my nipples harden. Damn him again. Asher and I haven’t been intimate since before the Kyle situation. And after experiencing something so awful, it’s been miserable going without Asher. I’ve craved his presence and the safety and security he makes me feel. Too many times over the past three days, all I’ve wanted was to be near him. I’ve missed him, but I’ve also missed his physicality. Denying myself of him has felt like dying of thirst and yet refusing to drink the water in front of me.
I feel my resolve crumbling by the second, like a house of cards.
“B-because everything has happened so fast . . . and this is an arrangement.” Asher flicks another button open and another, then he runs his tongue over the swell of my breasts. “. . . and this will end . . . and . . . I don’t want to get hurt.”
God, Asher is a master at making me come undone. I can’t think straight when he touches me.
“I believe you owe me some extra credit,” he growls against my skin. “And I’m cashing that in now.”
“Extra credit?” I say through a confused shiver.
“Remember the night we played our game of truth or dare?”
I nod. I had come up with the game to try to get to know each other better.
“Then you’ll recall that I earned extra credit. You agreed to comply with a prize of my choosing at a future date.”
“Th-that’s not fair.”
“It’s perfectly fair.”
“And what exactly are you choosing for your prize?”
“Your agreement that we can get back to what we were before that article and your ex fucked everything up. I know you want clarity, I want that too, but it can come with time. All I want right now is you. I want us to go back to how we were before. I want you in my room, in my bed. I want us to spend time together and not avoid one another. This space is killing me, and I hate it.”
“I don’t want to get hurt,” I repeat for what feels like the hundredth time, but with the repetition, the phrase is losing its potency.
