Asher: A steamy contemporary military romance (Project Arma Book 3)

by Nyssa Kathryn

  Evie and Lexie laughed before her friend asked her a question about baby clothes. Lexie turned to her, excited to tell her about the hundred and one things she’d ordered from Amazon.

  At the same time, Luca and Asher split off into their own conversation. It wasn’t until Lexie overheard a mention of prints from last night that she turned back to the boys.

  “What prints?”

  Both men fell silent. Luca’s gaze went down to his food, while Asher didn’t seem to know where to look.

  A sinking feeling came over her. “What is it?”

  “It’s nothing. We saw some tracks outside last night. Someone was walking around the house.”

  Lexie’s eyes widened at Asher’s words. That was definitely not nothing.

  “A stranger was walking around this house last night?”

  Asher nodded.

  “Where were the prints?” Lexie asked, glad she’d almost finished her food, because her appetite had vanished.

  Putting his fork down, Asher scrubbed his hand over his face before answering. “By the kitchen.”

  By the kitchen? Holy heck…above the kitchen was the room Lexie had slept in.

  A chill crept over her skin as her hand began rubbing her baby bump. “That’s pretty brave of them, isn’t it? To stalk me with both of you here.” A wave of anger washed over her.

  “Lexie, look at me.”

  She turned her head to look into Asher’s eyes. He looked just as angry as Lexie felt.

  “Nothing and no one is going to hurt you or the baby. Got it?”

  “Oh, I got it, Asher. If anyone even tries, I’ll be kicking their ass all the way to Antarctica.”

  A smirk pulled across his face. “There’s my Lexie.”

  If anyone wanted this baby, they wouldn’t just have Asher and his buddies to go through. They’d have her.

  * * *

  “Why can’t you just tell me what it is you want to show me?” Lexie grumbled.

  Asher wanted to chuckle at Lexie’s impatience. He restrained himself, though, for fear of angering the pregnant lady.

  That was possibly the fiftieth time in only ten minutes that she had begged him to tell her. Same old Lexie. She couldn’t blame her impatience on the pregnancy.

  “Do you really want me to tell you? Wouldn’t you prefer to see it with your own eyes?”

  “Yes, I do want you to tell me, and no, I don’t need a surprise.”

  Keeping his eyes on the road, Asher shook his head. “Too bad, Lex. You can wait another five minutes. Also, maybe we should work on your patience before the baby arrives.”

  Crossing her arms over her chest, Lexie sulked for a moment. “I don’t know why you would tell me you have something to show me then refuse to tell me what it is. It’s like you want to torture me.”

  The woman was cute when she sulked. Scratch that, she was cute every minute of every day. “Yeah, wanting to surprise my girlfriend with something nice is akin to torture.”

  Lexie’s head whipped around, her lips pulling into a huge smile. “Did you just call me your girlfriend?”

  Asher admired her smile for a moment before pulling his attention back to the road. Christ, she was gorgeous. He hadn’t seen that smile enough lately. He sure would be working harder to see it more.

  “Girlfriend. Partner. Whatever you want to call it.”

  Lexie cocked her head to the side. “I thought you hated labels?”

  “I do. But you don’t. And it’s my job to keep you happy. The point is, I’m yours and you’re mine. Call it whatever you want.”

  Lexie’s hand slid over to grasp his knee, Asher’s hand immediately covering it. “I am yours.”

  “Good.”

  Asher held her hand for the remainder of the drive.

  Arriving at his place, Asher pulled into his parking spot before they made their way to his entrance. Once they’d reached the front door, he stopped.

  Lexie’s gaze flicked from Asher to the door then back again. “Aren’t you going to open it?”

  “Nope.”

  “Then how are we—”

  Lexie stopped talking when Asher held out a key. He was immediately rewarded with another of those megawatt smiles.

  “You’re going to open it,” Asher confirmed. “With your key.”

  Lexie’s gaze flashed up to Asher’s. “You’re giving me a key to your home?”

  “No. I’m giving you a key to our home. Our family’s home. If you want to live here, that is.”

  Shock rendered Lexie frozen for a moment before she swiped the key from his fingers, then jumped into his arms.

  “Thank you.” Pulling away, she slid the key into the lock before stepping inside, smiling from ear to ear.

  Finally, he was doing something right with Lexie. It was about damn time.

  Asher closed the door behind them. “There’s something else I need to show you.”

  Lexie’s brows lifted but she remained silent.

  Taking her hand in his, Asher pulled her toward the spare room. His former junk room. Reaching it, Asher stood behind Lexie.

  “Open it.”

  Confusion marred her expression before she pushed through the door. She’d only taken one step into the room when she abruptly stopped.

  Her body went completely still. Then Asher heard her heart speed up and begin to race.

  “When did you do this?” she whispered.

  “I started collecting the week I found out you were pregnant,” Asher said gently as he stepped behind Lexie and wrapped his arms around her middle. His hands pressed against her bump. “I wanted to surprise you. I was stupid, though, and waited too long. Last night I wanted to give you something more than words to prove my commitment to you. So, I came back here and put it all together.”

  Lexie looked over her shoulder, her eyes tearful. “You started collecting things for our baby’s nursery the week you found out I was pregnant?”

  The moment it sunk in that he was expecting a son or daughter, he’d begun planning.

  Sure, the news had come as a shock. But it had been the best news he’d had in his life. He was going to have a baby with the woman he loved. It didn’t get much better than that.

  “I did. I’m going to be a partner and father that my family can depend on, Lexie. I’m going to be a man that you can depend on. I won’t let you down again. I promise.”

  Lexie continued to stare at Asher, tears still in her eyes. “You made me cry again. This is the best surprise anyone’s ever given me.”

  “You’re the best surprise anyone’s ever given me.”

  Lexie’s eyes heated before she leaned her body back against his, her gaze scanning the room. “The crib is beautiful.”

  “I’m glad you like it. That was the last addition. I finished it last night.”

  Her eyes immediately swung back to Asher’s. “You built the crib?”

  Asher shrugged his big shoulders. It hadn’t been hard. He’d put time into it here and there. “Some of the guys helped me. It’s been a project I’ve been working on. I didn’t want to show you until it was done.”

  Lexie turned in his arms and buried her head in his chest. Firming his arms around her, Asher held on tight.

  “I love you,” she whispered, her voice muffled against his chest.

  “You have no idea.”

  24

  “Asher, I don’t see why we couldn’t have stopped by Mrs. Potter’s Bakehouse,” Lexie said as she climbed out of the car. “No one ever shows up empty-handed to a family get-together. I feel like a mooch.”

  Watching Asher round the car, she couldn’t figure the guy out. He’d been acting fishy all morning.

  “Lex, you’re thirty-two weeks pregnant. Enjoy the last couple months of everyone doing everything for you.”

  Lexie didn’t need reminding of how far along she was. She felt every one of those thirty-two weeks.

  Rubbing her hand over her belly, the only way Lexie could describe how she felt was massive. Mo
re than massive, she felt like she was pregnant with triplets. If one more person asked her if she had only one baby in there, she would not be responsible for her actions.

  The baby was measuring way ahead of schedule. She didn’t know how she was going to last another eight weeks. Possibly more.

  “Stop overthinking everything,” Asher whispered by her ear.

  Easy for him to say. He didn’t have a giant baby he needed to birth from his body in a couple months.

  Wrapping an arm around her waist, Asher pulled Lexie toward Mason’s backyard.

  Glancing up, she was distracted from her thoughts by the sight of Mason’s house. Mason’s big-ass house. She’d never been to his home before. It was in town but sat on at least one and a half acres of land.

  “This place is massive.”

  The house, the land, all of it was huge.

  Asher chuckled. “Eagle likes to be in the thick of it but still have his space. He also has dogs and wants them to have space, too.”

  Well, they sure have that, Lexie thought to herself. Why did one man need all of this?

  Stepping into the backyard, Lexie’s feet stopped.

  She scanned the area, confused for a moment. All her friends were scattered around the lawn, where they stood smiling at her.

  Then Lexie spotted the giant banner that was strung above a food table. The words Happy Baby-Q were in bold print.

  “Happy Baby-Q!” Everyone sang the words somewhat simultaneously, repeating what she’d just read.

  Lexie turned her head to Asher. “Did you know?”

  Shrugging his giant shoulders, Asher smiled. “I may have helped with some of the prep yesterday.”

  Lexie swatted him on the shoulder but quickly reached up to give him a kiss. Good lord, she loved him. All of them. Everyone. Lexie was surrounded by the best people.

  “Hey, I made the guacamole, do I get a kiss?” Bodie shouted.

  “Try it and die, asshole,” Asher called over Lexie’s head.

  Laughing, Lexie went around to give everyone a hug.

  “Baby-Q?” Lexie asked as she reached Evie.

  Cringing, Evie’s eyes darted to the sign then back to Lexie. “We wanted to throw you a proper baby shower, but the boys of course insisted that at least one of them had to come.”

  “One?” Shylah interrupted, holding a cup of juice out for Lexie. “I believe their words were ‘at least three of us are present or no party.’ We fought it, Lexie,”

  Evie nodded. “Sitting in the car wasn’t a safe enough option.”

  Smiling as she took the cup, Lexie could just imagine how that went. “I appreciate it.”

  Ever since Asher and Luca had discovered the tracks outside Luca’s house, Lexie literally hadn’t been by herself for a moment. Not that anything had come from the track marks. In fact, nothing even remotely suspicious had happened since.

  Although, that may have been because she had barely been separated from the six-foot-four former SEAL of hers. Asher was attached to her day and night, and on the rare occasions he couldn’t be there, one of the guys was always present to take his place.

  Lexie would have thought she’d feel suffocated. But she didn’t. She felt protected. Safe.

  “So, we compromised,” Evie finished. “A baby shower slash barbecue.”

  Lexie was touched that her friends had gone to so much effort for her. No doubt, Evie and Shylah were the ringleaders.

  “Please tell me we get to watch the men play baby shower games,” Lexie begged, way too excited at the possibility.

  Evie shrugged, similar excitement lighting her eyes. “There may be one or two games in the works.”

  Oh sweet Jesus, if Lexie got to watch Asher eat baby food or pop a baby in the form of a balloon under his shirt, her day would be made. Heck, her year would be made.

  “Before you get too excited, I told them nothing embarrassing,” Asher said into Lexie’s ear as his arms wrapped around her middle. Damn, it was like the man was a mind reader on top of everything else he could do.

  “Well, that’s no fun.” Lexie sulked as she tipped her head up to look at her man.

  Her man. That sounded good. She also liked the feel of his arms around her while out in public. Something that a few months ago had rarely, if ever, occurred.

  Asher’s lips lowered to Lexie’s, causing a jump of excitement inside her.

  Okay, scratch the games idea. Lexie was fine spending her afternoon kissing Asher.

  “You know, sex is a natural baby-induction method.” Kye’s voice pulled Lexie out of her Asher trance.

  “And you would know this how?” Lexie asked, lifting a brow.

  What she really wanted to do was rant at the man for stopping the pantie-dropping kiss she’d just been enjoying.

  “Sage told me,” Kye said with a smirk, eyes shooting across the lawn.

  Following Kye’s line of sight, Lexie saw Sage standing with Wyatt and Bodie, looking beautiful as per usual in a white dress.

  “Sage is here,” Lexie said, more to herself than anyone else. The sight of the doctor made Lexie smile. She was glad they’d invited her. Sage was definitely a friend now. Lexie secretly hoped that after the baby was born the other lady would remain in Marble Falls.

  Not only was Sage a brilliant doctor and incredibly intelligent, she was also a beautiful person.

  Shylah nodded. “Mason invited her.”

  Lexie hoped this wasn’t another way for the guys to watch the doctor. If it was, someone needed to have a not-so-subtle word with them. She thought they’d already concluded that Sage was innocent in all the recent drama.

  “How would that have come up?” Evie asked Kye.

  Lexie was confused for a moment about what Shylah was referring to, only to remember Kye’s comment about sex and induction.

  “I asked her how to get the baby out early. Sage suggested a few things. I only remember sex.” Kye winked at Lexie. “I mean, I’m not an expert on the matter, but you are looking pretty big for someone who still has two months to go.”

  Lexie wanted to throttle him. Lucky for her, Asher thumped him in the arm.

  “Ow,” Kye howled. “What was that for?”

  Evie placed a hand on her waist. “Kye, you never comment on a pregnant lady’s size.”

  Trust her to put it in the nicest way possible.

  Shylah frowned. “You don’t comment on any woman’s size. Ever.”

  Kye scratched his head. “Even if the woman looks like she’s going to topple over, she’s so big?”

  This time, Asher didn’t just whack the man, he went after him. Kye seemed to be aware that it was coming, because he shot off before Asher could touch him.

  Lexie shook her head. “I’m gonna go feed my giant baby while Asher teaches that jerk some respect.” Lexie laughed as she headed toward the food table.

  On her way to the food table, Lexie spotted some of Mrs. Potter’s cakes. She quickened her steps immediately. Grabbing the largest plate she could find, she began to load it up.

  Thank the lord her baby had come around and didn’t make her want to throw her guts up at the sight of baked sugary cakes anymore.

  Deciding she couldn’t wait any longer, Lexie lifted a cinnamon roll to her lips and took the biggest bite she could. Holy heck, it was good. Better than good. It was orgasmic.

  “People weren’t joking when they said Mrs. Potter’s cakes are the best.”

  Lexie turned her head to see Sage standing next to her. Swallowing her mouthful of roll, she wasn’t the least bit ashamed with how big her bite had been. It was that good.

  “Ah, another convert.” Lexie knew all too well how addictive the cakes were. Not that she’d ever let that stop her. “I don’t know how Mrs. Potter does it. I think she must have secret ingredients that have yet to be discovered by the rest of the world.”

  Lexie took another bite of roll, only to realize she’d eaten over half of the cake in two mouthfuls.

  “That would explain it.”
Sage picked up her own roll and took a much more reasonably sized bite. “Although, I’d better not eat the whole thing. I hear Marino’s pizza will be here soon.”

  Marino’s pizza? Someone better pray for her because Lexie might need to be rolled out by the end of today.

  “Well, no one can tell me I’m not feeding this baby.” Lexie laughed as she finished off the roll in her hand.

  Sage put a hand on Lexie’s arm. “Honestly, I am in awe of how you have handled everything. First the twists and turns with the pregnancy. Then the danger you’ve faced. Lexie, I say this with complete honesty, you are a powerhouse and will make a wonderful mother.”

  She paused at the other woman’s words. Sage had spoken with so much conviction that Lexie felt the words deep down. Asher had said it to her a hundred times over, but he loved her. He had to say it. Sage was Lexie’s doctor, and they had only known each other a few months.

  “Thank you. That really means a lot to me.”

  Probably more than the other woman would know.

  “Game time!”

  Shylah’s loud voice echoed across the yard. Lexie’s excitement increased tenfold when she saw the other woman holding up diapers and baby food.

  Heck yes! It was time to see Asher eat some baby food. Lexie would be savoring every minute of this.

  An hour later, she had not only watched Asher’s face screw up in distaste as he ate ten different flavors of baby puree, he’d also attempted to change a diaper while blindfolded, chug apple juice from a baby bottle, and waddle across the lawn with a water balloon between his thighs.

  It was like ten Christmases rolled into one. Based on the looks on Evie’s and Shylah’s faces as they’d watched their men, Lexie assumed they agreed.

  The sound of a car engine caused Lexie to turn her head. She quickly realized the boys were already looking that way. The fact that they weren’t concerned meant that whoever had arrived wasn’t a threat.

  In fact, rather than appear on edge, they had smiles on their faces. Giant, something-great-is-about-to-happen smiles. That could mean only one thing.

  “Pizza!”

  Lexie’s stomach growled at the sound of Oliver’s voice. Since Sage had mentioned it, the cheesy slices of heaven had been firmly rooted in Lexie’s mind.