When we were kissing, color had suddenly burst into my monochrome life. I’d felt more alive in those moments than any other time before that. I’d tried everything to forget Asher in the years since then. I’d buried myself in my studies and friends, but the one thing I couldn’t do was go on a date with a safe college guy. All I ever wanted was Asher. I knew it was wrong, but still I ached to be in his arms again. So maybe I’d started acting like a brat to create some sort of clearing in the fog that thickened the air between us when he was around.
“What’s the matter, Leigh? You okay? Sit down.” He pulled a chair from the corner of the room, picked me up, and sat me on it. He walked over to the bar, looking for something.
“Why isn’t there any fucking water in this damn cellar?”
“Check the fridge. It’s built into the bar,” I said.
Asher walked back to me with a bottle of Evian in hand. He cracked open the cap and passed it over.
“Drink,” he demanded.
When I took the bottle from him, his fingers brushed mine, and chills chased through my veins. Being around Asher was like being in a freezing tundra and a blazing volcano. Some moments were blazing heat, and others were bone-chilling winds.
I knew I wanted to be with him, but being with him would blow up my life in so many ways.
He was forty-three. I was twenty-one.
But the age wasn’t even the issue. The real issue was that his brother was married to my mother.
Asher’s gaze searched every corner of the room as if looking for something.
“Do you have your phone?” he asked while his hands were nervously digging in his pants pockets.
“Where the fuck do you think I would put a phone?” I asked, gesturing to my clothing.
He narrowed his eyes at my flimsy attire. I had to admit, a major reason for my choice of barely there costume was in the event I ran into him. I needed him to see what he was missing, to long the way I had these past three years.
“I told you to watch your mouth.” His voice was laced with venom as he stalked me with methodical, calculated steps.
“What are you going to do? Spank me?”
Before I had the words out of my mouth, Asher had me on his knee. His hand connected with my ass, causing a sharp sting. He didn’t remove his hand right away, cupping my ass cheek and rubbing gently before he struck again.
“Ouch!” I shrieked, but if I was honest, the sting felt good and his touch felt even better.
At the sound of my voice, his hand lingered a little longer.
“What the fuck am I doing?” he whispered, lifting me off his lap to stand. “This is what you’ve reduced me to. So desperate for your touch that I would spank you in my brother’s cellar, like a damn pervert.” He paced the room in rushed, chaotic steps, his hands in his hair with his head tilted down. “The craziest part? I fucking liked it. I liked having you over my knee. I got hard from the heat of your pussy against my thigh and the touch of your ass under my hand. I want to do it again. I want to spank you so hard and then finger fuck you until you can’t think straight, Leigh. I want to get under your skin the way you’ve gotten under mine.”
His words stopped me cold. He did think about me. He wanted me the way I wanted him. He craved me. I stood up, his words giving me a sense of bravado that I didn’t have before.
“You think you aren’t already under my skin?” I walked up to him, directly in his line of sight so he couldn’t ignore me. “You’re in the very fabric of my being. So much so that since that kiss, I haven’t let another man touch me. I can’t let anyone else near me. You fucking own me.”
Chapter Three
Asher
Every muscle in my body stiffened.
I swallowed, making sure I’d heard her words right.
“I own you?” I seethed, one hand around her neck, my lips grazing the shell of her ear. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me with this.”
“I wish I was. Oh, how I wish I was.” She huffed, hands spreading the breadth of my chest. Every nerve in my body was strung tight, the scent of her—everything sweet and naughty on earth—mixing in my senses and leaving me feeling strange.
Compelled.
“I’ve beaten myself up countless nights for that kiss between us.” I locked her in my arms and carried her down to the floor with me, her legs locking around my waist as both of my hands dove into her hair. “And now you’re here, tempting me like a damn vixen.”