“Anytime,” I said, my eyes flashing from his to his lips.
Asher grinned at me before slanting his mouth over mine again. I fisted his shirt, the swing swaying back and forth from our movements. And when we broke apart, my body was practically buzzing with need and joy and all the things that I couldn’t define but had a pretty good idea what they meant.
“It’s beautiful,” I said after a few minutes, gazing at the sky, which was now a burnt orange color, through the trees.
“Yeah,” Asher said. “You really are.”
I glanced at him, finding him looking down at me. I leaned my head against his muscled chest as he tucked his arm around me, a content sort of silence wrapping around us as we rocked back and forth on that swing and watched the sunset.
And I couldn’t remember a time when I'd been happier.
* * *
“You sure you want to go to your apartment?” Asher asked me an hour later from the driver’s seat of his car.
We’d finished the hike and were on the road again. Normally, we’d go back to his place, but tonight, I wanted him to see just how much he meant to me, not his mansion and private chef and all the perks of being wealthy.
“Absolutely,” I said. “Unless you don’t want to spend the night with me?”
He flashed me a look that screamed don’t be ridiculous.
“Good,” I said as he drove toward my high rise. “We’ll order takeout and you can sleep in a normal-size bed. Live like the other half does for a night.”
Asher laughed. “You act like I was born with money,” he said. “Fact-check, I wasn’t.”
I rolled my eyes as he parked outside my complex. “Yeah, yeah,” I said. “It’s easy to forget.” I tugged him through the lobby, into the elevator, and then finally hauled him inside my place.
Asher’s eyes scanned the small space, noting the piles of books scattered in any given area around the apartment, the dishes in my sink, and the array of pink post-it notes stuck all along the walls near my desk.
“You breathing okay?” I teased as I kicked off my shoes. “I know it’s not pristine and orderly—”
“It’s you,” he said, smiling at me. “I like it.”
My heart expanded, and I reached for the hem of my shirt, hauling it over my head.
His eyes flared as I dropped my pants too, leaving me in nothing but my panties and sports bra.
“Want to shower with me?” I asked.
“Hell yes,” he said, tugging his shirt over his head as I spun around, walking into my bedroom and the connecting bathroom.
“I have to warn you,” I said as he followed me into the bathroom in nothing more than his boxer-briefs. “It’s not as big as yours.”
“Nothing is as big as mine,” he said, and I laughed as I turned on the hot water.
Once it was steaming, I shed the rest of my clothes and we stepped inside the small space. It wasn’t cramped, but we certainly didn’t have our own benches to go to like in his shower.
We both stood near my lone showerhead, taking turns under the hot stream of water. Asher grabbed my body wash and lathered up his hands before working on my body, and I did the same for him. Each pass of his soapy hands had warm shivers dancing across my skin, but we took our time, savoring each other. Once we were rinsed, I grinned up at him.
“How bad do you hate this?” I teased, wringing out my hair.
“I don’t,” he said, wrapping his arms around me and drawing our bodies flush. I sighed happily at the feel of his slick skin against mine, his muscles hard against everywhere I was soft.
“But…” I let that hang there, knowing he had a but.
He shrugged, leaning down to kiss me before answering. “This is just a little too small for what I want to do to you.”
Heat licked up my spine at his words, my heart soaring.
“Say no more,” I said, shutting off the water and grabbing our towels. I hurried to dry off, reaching for a fresh set of clothes in my bedroom—
“Don’t bother getting dressed,” Asher said, a wolfish grin on his lips as he tossed his towel in the bathroom. He stalked over to me, taking the towel out of my hands and throwing it in the bathroom too.
I motioned to my queen-sized bed. “Is that big enough for what you want to do to me?”
“It’ll do,” he said, sliding his hands along my body as he guided me back to the bed until the backs of my knees hit it. I fell atop it, scooting back as he climbed on the mattress, stalking me until he was on his knees above me.
He reached for me, but I shifted, surprising him by sitting up and taking his cock in my mouth in one movement that made him hiss.