“I’ve waited long enough. I’m not waiting anymore.”
“Let me call my security—they’ll come up if I don’t.”
He groans in disapproval but throws me my bag. “You brought them for Jason?”
“As I said, I wasn’t interested in anything but talking with him.”
Which clearly isn’t the case with Asher.
It takes me a second too long to retrieve my phone with my trembling fingers and dial the head of my security, Gaige.
&nb
sp; “Miss Reina.”
Asher doesn’t break eye contact as he pulls his T-shirt over his head, revealing his sculpted abs. The tattoo ripples over his bicep as he reaches down to his pants and undoes the button, agonizingly slowly. Then he pushes his jeans and boxer briefs down his legs in one go.
Oh, God.
He’s hard, thick, and ready. My own thighs clench in anticipation.
“Miss Reina?” Gaige’s gravelly voice pulls me out of the strip show.
“Uh, yes. I’m good, Gaige. I’m spending the night with Asher. You can go back.”
“We’ll stay here, too.”
“It’s okay.” I try not to sound breathy. “Nothing can happen to me here.”
And I mean it. I feel safer than ever when I’m with this infuriating but deeply wounded man.
I’m wounded, too, have been since childhood, and being with him has given me the hope I’ll be able to heal.
We’ll be able to heal each other.
“Very well, Miss Reina. I’ll stay just in case. Call me if anything happens.”
Asher is stalking toward me and I couldn’t focus on anything even if I tried. “Uh…yeah. Good night, Gaige.”
I tap the hang-up button and push the phone and bag away.
“So you were a virgin, huh?” He crawls toward me, his hard thighs on either side of me.
He drags my jeans and panties down my legs in one ruthless go, and I fumble with my jacket and camisole. The straps get stuck in my hair and I nearly rip the strands out. It’s Asher who untangles it and unclasps my bra, letting it fall to the pile of clothes on the floor.
With a push, I end up propped up on my elbows as his body hovers over mine. The position is so intimate and…right. This is how Asher and I were always supposed to be.
“Answer me,” he grunts near my mouth, hovering but not kissing.
The tease.
“I was.” My breathing catches as I confess. “And you are the only one, Ash.”
“The only one?”
“Yes. No one before you or after you. I know it for a fact.”
Both his palms cage my face as he lowers his forehead to mine. “I thought I was the only one so hopeless for you.”