I close my eyes again, and this time, I feel his arms around me. "Baby," he says softly. "Don’t cry."
My arms go around his neck as I bury my face into his neck. "It’s why I’ll never give anyone control. It’s why I won’t let anyone pay for anything. It’s why I work two jobs. It’s why my dreams are mine and mine alone. It’s why I have to do this myself. It’s as much for me as a fuck you to him," I say, laughing.
"He doesn’t deserve your tears," Asher says, kissing my forehead. "He doesn’t deserve to have any space in your head." His voice goes lower. "He had perfection in his hand, and he let it go." His voice is almost a whisper.
My head comes out from his neck, his eyes on mine. "Amelia," he says my name, and this time, it’s me who makes the first step. My hand comes out, and I finally touch his face the way I’ve wanted to touch it since I met him. The stubble from his beard is pricking my hand. "You," I say, smiling. "You are the only one who’s tempted me." My fingers go to his lips, touching his bottom lip that I want to kiss. "The only one I’ve ever let myself dream of having.” I move my nose with his, softly side to side. "You were everywhere." The tears roll down my cheeks, past the smile that has formed on my face. "And I mean everywhere." It’s his turn to smile. "It pissed me off so much. I fought with Chelsea today about it," I admit. "You got under my skin, Asher."
"I didn’t mean to," he says softly, and I lean in, kissing his lips softly. Once, twice, and then on the third time, his hand goes to the back of my head, and he tilts his head to the side. My mouth opens, and his tongue slides into my mouth.
Home.
It’s the only thing that comes to mind when our tongues tangle. I kiss him until I’m breathless. I kiss him with everything that I have. I kiss him, afraid I’ll never get to kiss him again.
"I don’t want to stop kissing you," he says, “but …" My eyes open to see him staring at me. His eyes are the color of a rich whiskey. I could spend all night getting lost in them. "I need to take a shower." He kisses me again. "I have dust and sweat all over me." I step out of his arms, and I feel this draft rush up my body, and I shiver. "Don’t go anywhere," he says, and I laugh. He turns around to walk to the bathroom, stopping and then turning back to me. "He’s an idiot." Everything in me stops. "For leaving you." Shaking his head, he smiles. "I mean, if I ever get to meet him, I might thank him." He smirks.
"For what?" I ask, confused.
"For giving me a chance to have the best kiss I’ve had in my whole life." He turns toward his bathroom. Only when I hear his door close do I finally breathe properly.
"I guess I should thank him, too," I say finally. "Because I just had a kiss I will never forget."
Chapter 21
Asher
The soft sound of the alarm wakes me up along with her voice. "What is that sound?" I hear her mumble, and I smile when I feel her snuggle up against me. Her leg hitches over my hips as she puts her head on my chest. "Make it stop," she says, and I lean over and grab my phone off the top of the couch, shutting off the alarm. Her hair tickles my nose as she buries her face in my neck. "I’m fine," she says, and I laugh.
Last night, I walked into this house not expecting to show her all of me. I expected her to change the way she looked at me. I expected to see some disgust that the person staying in her house slept on the fucking street. She didn’t. Instead, she shared with me her deepest, darkest secret. A secret I know killed her to tell me, killed her to relive it.
I watched her struggle through it until I could no longer just stand there and not have her in my arms. When I got out of the shower, I expected to find the house dark and her in her bedroom. What I got was her sitting in the middle of the couch with her feet curled under her and her hair pinned on her head, watching some show on television. I sat next to her and all I did was look over at her and my hands had a mind of their own. My hands got buried in her hair, and we spent the night on the couch making out like a couple of crazy teenagers.
"What time is it?" she mumbles, and I look down, seeing that her eyes are still closed.
"Two," I tell her, and she groans. "If that phone rings again in two hours." I turn her on her side, and my mouth covers hers. Whatever she was going to say was swallowed by our kiss. I spent all night kissing her, and every single time, it felt like the first time.
"Sleep," I say. Opening her eyes, she rubs her nose on my chin and smells me before kissing me softly and putting her head back in the crook of my neck. I want to watch her sleep, but with her in my arms, I fall asleep faster than I ever have.
When the alarm rings again, I know it’s time for me to get up. "Baby," I say softly. "I have to get up."
"Okay," she says, and she doesn’t move.
"You need to get off me." I laugh. When I woke up this time, she had rolled on me. I turn her toward the back of the couch and get up.
"It’s cold," she says, and I grab the throw and place it on her. "No," she says. "Come back."
"I wish I could," I say, bending down and kissing her. "But I need to get to work." I walk to the kitchen and start the coffee machine before going to the bedroom and getting dressed. My cock is hard like a rock as I smell her all around me.
I look at the couch when I walk out and see it empty. "I made you coffee," she says, holding up a to-go cup while she sips the cup of coffee in her own hand.
"Why didn’t you go back to bed?" I ask, grabbing the cup. "It’s early," I say, seeing that it’s just past five.
"Where are you going so early?" she asks.
"I work out with your father and brother," I say.
"Since when?" she asks, shocked.
"Something that they roped me into last week." I take a sip of the coffee. "They want to see if I would pass the physical part of police training."
Her hand goes to the counter as she puts her cup down. "Have you decided if you are going to do that?"
"No." I shake my head. "But it can’t hurt to be prepared for it if I do." I walk to her and put my finger under her chin. "Kiss me," I say. With a smile, she turns to me and wraps her arms around my shoulders, getting on her tippy-toes. She tilts her head to the side and gives me the kiss I asked for. Her tongue slides with mine, and even if I don’t try to deepen it, it does anyway.
The phone in my pocket rings, letting me leave her lips. Pulling the phone out of my pocket, I bring it to my ear without looking to see who it was. "Hello," I say, and she tilts her head back as she kisses my neck.
"Asher, it’s Jacob." I step back as if someone threw a pail of ice water on me. "Everything okay?"
"Yeah," I say, looking around. "Why?"
"You’re usually the one opening the gym for us," he says, laughing.
"I’m on my way," I say. "Be there in ten."
I disconnect the call and put the phone back in my pocket. "That was your father." I look at her. "I need to go." I turn to walk away. "How do I look?"
"Um, good?" she says, smirking. "Why?"
"Does it look like I spent the night making out with his daughter?" I ask, and she brings the cup of coffee up to her lips.
"No." She shakes her head. "But he’s going to wonder who you have a hard-on for." She rolls her lips when I look down and see my cock straining to get the fuck out.
"Fuck," I say, looking down, then turning and walking out of the room. "You are going to get me in trouble," I mumble.
"Who are you talking to?" she asks me, and I look over my shoulder at her. "Me or the cock."
"Trouble!" I yell as I walk out the door to my truck. I open the truck door and stop when I see everything in the glove box out. The hair on the back of my neck sticks up. I look in the back and the seats are cut down the middle.
I take the phone out and call Jacob. "Are you stuck?"
"Someone vandalized my truck," I say, looking around to see if I see anything out of the ordinary. I walk toward Amelia’s truck and see that her door is open slightly. "Amelia’s looks like it was broken into also."
"Be there in ten," he sa
ys, and I run back inside. My heartbeat feels like it’s going to explode in my chest. My mouth gets drier than the desert on a summer day.
"Amelia!" I shout her name, scared that someone got into the house when I walked out. "Amelia!" My voice is frantic, and she comes running out of her bedroom in her bra and panties.
"What’s the matter?" Fear is in her voice. Everything in my head is jumbled when I see her standing in front of me. Her hand to her chest, her face white. "What happened?" she says, and the sound of rocks crunching makes me snap out of it.
"Go get dressed. Your father is here," I say, my voice tight, and she nods and turns to walk back into her room.
"Asher?" I hear Jacob call my name.
"In here," I say, and he comes in wearing his workout gear. "I’m not leaving her alone," I say, and he nods at me.
Amelia comes out of her room wearing shorts and a shirt. . Her face is still white, though, and I can tell she is scared. "What’s going on?" she asks, looking at me and then her father.
"Truck has been vandalized, and I think yours has been messed with also," I say, and she raises her hand to her chest.
"Let’s go check it out," Jacob says, and he turns to walk out of the house. She follows her father, but I grab her hand, and she turns to look at me.
"Are you okay?" I ask, and she nods her head, but I know that she isn’t. "It’s okay to say you aren’t."
"Fine," she says. "I’m pissed." I just watch her as she steps closer to me, and her voice goes lower. "I’m pissed that instead of spending the day thinking about us kissing, you’re going to be all in detective mode." I stare at her in shock. "Now, before my father comes back in, let’s get out there."
I follow her outside and find Jacob and Ethan there. "Amelia’s car looks like they only checked the glove compartment and the trunk," Ethan says. "But yours." He looks at me. "They were looking for something."
I walk to the truck and take another look. "Do you think anything is missing?" Jacob asks as I look at all the papers on the floor.
"I have never even looked in the glove compartment," I tell them. "It’s Billy’s old truck. I wasn’t going to snoop in his things." I look in the back seat and see the papers that I keep there for the farm are scattered all over the place, but the big cut down the middle shows that they were looking for something.
"Casey is going through the feed," Jacob says. He props the phone to his ear as he relays what Casey is saying. "Happened at three a.m." I look over at Amelia, who stands there watching her father. "Two guys. One for each car. Faces are covered. Okay, perfect," he says, hanging up.
"From now on, you don’t come here alone." I look at Amelia. "Not to the barn, not to the bar. Not anywhere."
She rolls her eyes at me, and if her father and brother weren’t here, I would kiss the ever-loving shit out of her. "He’s right," Jacob says. "From now on, I want us all to be on alert. Everyone." He looks over at Ethan. "It’s time to get everyone involved."
"But we don’t even know anything," Amelia says, and her father looks at her.
"We know enough that two people were outside of your house when you were in your bed sleeping," he tells her, and I swallow down my guilt. "I’m not taking any chances with you."
"I’ll get her at the bar." I speak up. "And I’ll come back in the morning and get her to bring her to the barn."
"We can take turns in the morning," Ethan says. "You have the nights since you live with her."
It takes us an hour to get everything cleaned up, and Kallie comes over and makes sure that Amelia is taken to the barn.
I get into the truck and make my way over to the barn that holds all the tools. Billy is there waiting for me. "Sorry," I say as I get out. "For being late." He walks over to the truck with his hat on his head. If I ever wanted to be someone in my life, it would be Billy.
He shakes his head and laughs. "Only you would be apologizing for being late because someone broke into your truck."
"I’ll start everything in a second," I say. "I just need some duct tape," I say, walking into the barn, going straight to the shed that holds all the things I need.
"What are you going to do with that?" he asks, and I look back over at him.
"They sliced the back seat," I say, walking back to the truck and opening the back door to the back seat. "I’m going to tape the seats shut."
Billy looks at me as I start to peel some of the silver tape. "Can you hold this?"
He shakes his head at me. "Are you out of your mind, son?" The way he calls me son gets me every single time. Nobody has ever called me that, and the first time he called me that, I had to blink away tears.
"What?" I ask, looking back at him. "It’ll work."
"That truck is twenty years old," he reminds me. "I taught my grandkids to drive in this truck."
I huff out. "I’m so sorry, Billy."
He slaps me on the shoulder. "Do you know how many times Charlotte has asked me to get rid of this truck?"
"It still works fine," I say, and he throws his head back and laughs. I hear the sound of rocks crunching, and when I look up, Casey’s driving a strange truck.
He gets out of the truck and looks at his father and then me. "Hey," he says, raising his chin. "What do you have there?"
"Asher is duct-taping the back seat," Billy says, laughing, and Casey shakes his head.
"Here," he says, tossing me a set of keys, my hand coming out and catching them. "It’s time that you got a new car anyway." I stand here shocked as I look down at the keys in my hand and then back at Casey.
"I don’t need a new truck," I tell them. "I can’t take this." I look over at them and then back to the truck that looks brand new.
"Yeah, that’s what Jacob said you would say," Casey tells me. "He also said to tell you that you are going to be driving his daughter, and he doesn’t want her in that death trap."
"I don’t know what to say." I look at them, my mouth becoming dry and my hands shaking as I look down at the black key. "I can’t pay for this truck," I admit.
"No one is asking you to pay for shit, boy. You show up every single day and work your ass off. You show up even when no one expects you to. Heck, you even showed up when I told you not to show your face," Billy says, and I laugh.
"I think you said if I showed up, you’d fire my ass," I remind him.
"Of course, he did," Casey says, laughing and shaking his head.
I look over at Billy, and there is nothing that I can say right now, the smile on his face is so big. "You’ve earned this."
Chapter 22
Amelia
"Where is your bodyguard?" Reed jokes, walking behind the bar. Emptying the bin of ice, he’s carrying it into the freezer as we get ready for the Saturday night rush. "Usually, I have to ask permission to enter." I push his shoulder, and he laughs. "The truth hurts."
"I’m going to hurt you if you keep talking," I say, and that makes him laugh even harder.
"Momma said I’m not allowed to hit girls," Reed says.
"And if you do, I’m going to kick your ass," Quinn says, and I look over at him. "And then I’m going to tell Mom, and she’s going to kick your ass."
Reed smirks over at him. "Not her baby," he says, walking away, and I look back at Quinn. We both watch him walk out, and then he turns and winks over at a group of girls who have been watching him. They all sigh when he walks by, and Quinn and I look at each other and laugh.
"He’s going to give my mother white hair," Quinn says, and I lean on the bar with both hands outstretched, laughing.
The night is just starting, and I watch as the crowd grows. I look over at the door and see Asher walk in and my stomach literally flips. I watch him laugh with Ethan and then shake his head. I stop for a second and just watch him even though I saw him less than two hours ago when he dropped me off here and waited until Reed showed up. Dressed in dark blue jeans, he shows off just a bit of what he has to offer. After feeling it on my leg, I can say it’s exactly how I thought it w
ould be. A white T-shirt is under the blue-and-white-checkered long-sleeve shirt rolled up to his elbows. His black hair looks like he just ran his hand through it, and his eyes look up as if he knows I’m watching. His brown eyes light up just like the smile that fills his face. He gives me a chin up as he makes his way over to the bar.
The last week has been crazy, to say the least. They still haven’t found the two guys who broke into our cars. He is there in the morning and doesn’t leave until someone else arrives, and then every single night, he shows up at the bar and helps me close it. To anyone watching, it would be like two friends, but when we get into the house, we waste no time lunging for each other. I spend every single night in his arms. We spend the night torturing each other with kisses. I wait for his touch, my body yearning for it.
"Um.” I hear him say when he walks behind the bar. "You changed?" He does the once-over up and down.
"You didn’t think I would wear yoga pants?" I ask, shaking my head. I came in wearing yoga pants and a sweater, but I’m wearing a pair of jean shorts that are loose and hang on my hips with a thin brown and silver country belt. A white tank top with two horseshoes on the center, hang loose.
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