by Elle Luckett
“I want to check your pussy, make sure you don’t need anything to help ease the pain.” He tapped the edge of the tub, and I obediently, albeit slowly, raised myself from the comfort of the water and perched on the side, squeaking when my tender ass met the narrow and cold surface. I pushed it all back, allowing my mind to fall into the liquid fluidity of the heat and relaxation of the bath and his touch. Asher studied me gently, fingertips brushing areas that were sore enough to have me jerking away before falling back into the comfort of my own mind.
Satisfied, he climbed from the tub and went over more of me, slow hands running over tingling skin until he was content. Then, he dried and dressed me slowly. He took care of me, walking me to the locker room, and releasing me hesitantly when I disappeared inside. The club had almost been empty when we’d resurfaced, so I wasn’t needed at the bar, and my bed sounded like an excellent idea.
I never made it.
I must have fallen asleep when Asher had eased me into the passenger seat of his car, declaring me unfit to drive. He’d have been right considering I didn’t wake up until after four-thirty in the morning in his hotel room snuggled against his broad chest and breathing him in.
I reluctantly slipped from the bed to the bathroom, whimpering in pain with every step and yelping when I finally sat to do what I needed. Parts of my body felt too big to belong to me. Other parts felt like they no longer belonged, but I regretted absolutely nothing, even when I started the shower and shimmied under the hot spray to relax my tense muscles.
I was only in there for thirty seconds when Asher’s hot body pressed against my back.
“Morning,” he grumbled and dropped his lips to my shoulder in greeting.
“Good morning,” I mused, slowly turning so I could rinse my hair and grin up at him. “You only a morning person when you’re fucking someone awake?”
“Until I’ve had coffee, that pretty much sums it up. Why?”
“Your daughter isn’t a morning person when she’s disturbed either. Thankfully she normally gets up before anyone else, or there’s hell to pay. School mornings are the worst. This explains a lot.” I pushed up on my toes and pressed a kiss to his lips, grinning at him.
Asher glanced down between our bodies and sighed. “A smarter man would have taken it easy on you last night so I could have that morning sex.”
“No time. I have a field trip today.”
Grabbing the conditioner, Asher motioned for me to turn, and I did as he asked, groaning when his long fingers began working the conditioner through my hair, stubby nails grazing my scalp. I liked being looked after like this.
“Where is this field trip headed?”
“One of the reserves. We’re teaching the kids about respecting the world they live in.”
“We?”
“A parent group I’m part of.” My chin dipped to my chest as he worked the conditioner into the nape of my neck. “I didn’t know anyone with kids, and I wanted Ash to play with children her own age, so I found a group of parents on social media, and we meet up twice a month. The kids get to socialize and learn, and we get to talk to adults for a couple of hours.”
Turning me, Asher backed me under the spray and left me to rinse while he shampooed his own hair. “Any way I can get in on that?”
We swapped places as the image of him in front of the ladies and gents in that group filled my mind, and I grinned. “You think Ashleigh’s gonna have it any other way?”
He kissed me enthusiastically, and though my body felt broken and unable to accommodate him when his erection stroked my stomach, my mouth felt obliged to help him with that wake-up call.
“Okay, where the hell did you find him and where can I get one?” Chelsea said as the kids swarmed Asher.
The whole reserve was a swamp that had closed in walkways that spread out like a labyrinth. Every mile or half-mile, they had small information markers that Asher read to the swarm of children who followed Ashleigh’s lead and climbed on him like a jungle gym. He was great with them all, never leaving one of them out even when Ashleigh demanded his undivided attention. He juggled it all very well, and I found myself as drawn to him as the rest of the group.
“He’s Ash’s father.”
Most of the women and the one other man were utterly lost in studying Asher’s ass as he bent to pick up his daughter, but the two who I considered friends outside of the group made quiet noises of surprise as they looked between Asher and me.
“Shit, girl, you need to tell us everything,” Jenny piped in, sliding her arm through mine, while Chelsea did the same on the other side of me. “You said he didn’t know about Ashleigh.”
I wasn’t in the habit of telling my story to people, but when you’re in a group of parents mingling together and wandering where your baby’s daddy was, you had to give them something. Thankfully, I’d stuck as close to the truth as I could. Jenny and Chelsea had heard a little more than that on a night out together.
“He didn’t, but he came looking for me a couple of weeks ago. He found me at work, and I thought he’d found out and came clean.”
The two women led me to a bench and forced me down. The sudden jolt had me holding my breath to stop me from whimpering when I landed. Pain washed through my body, and it took me a second to recover and clear the white dots in my vision as the two of them rapidly fired questions in my direction.
“It’s so romantic. He wants you back?”
“He said he does, and he also wants to get to know his daughter. We haven’t told her yet. I want to make sure that he’s certain before I tell her.”
Jenny laughed gently in understanding, her eyes swinging to the man who held a toddler in one arm and his daughter in the other as he read a plaque to the rest of the kids.
“He’s a natural, and from the way he looks at your girl, he’s not going anywhere, sugar.”
Nodding in agreement, I watched him with the same enthusiasm as the rest of our group as he knelt and pointed things out to the kids gathered around him. He’d been the last person I’d expected to fall into the role of parent and fit as well as he had. He’d never shown interest in a family or kids when we’d been together the first time, and we’d spent hours talking between sex. The topic of a family had always led to disparaging remarks about his parents and memories of their cruelty. There wasn’t much building on that. So, I hadn’t expected his natural ability to merge with his daughter or the hoard of children swarming him.
“You know, now you’ve told us who he is, I can totally see it,” Chelsea said, eyes still following the man. “Ash has the shape and color of his gorgeous eyes, and you can see some of the same mannerisms. It’s kind of adorable.”
“You can. In the same way that she narrows her eyes when she’s mad or the twinkle of mischief before she does something she knows she shouldn’t. And what about you?” Jenny asked. “How does he get along with you?”
Jenny raised her eyebrows, and there was no misunderstanding her meaning. I’d always listened politely about their sex lives. However, I hadn’t contributed to that conversation in the past because I had nothing to offer, but now… I would have to edit heavily even when I did participate.
“She’s asking how the sex is,” Chelsea clarified, bluntly making Jenny guffaw.
“Yeah, she’s right. How is the sex?”
I smiled, my eyes meeting Asher’s when he glanced back to check on us. “Out of this damn world. Then again, it always was when we were together.”
“Jesus, with a man like that, how could it be bad?” Jenny bit her lip and faded into her own thoughts as she stared at Asher wistfully.
“I have to draw Brandon a map of my lady parts,” Chelsea said it longingly, but Jenny’s snort dragged her eyes away from Asher and back to her. “What? You think I’m joking?”
“No. No, I don’t. You’ve said it before. It was the look you were giving Shauna’s man while you said it that had me laughing.”
“Like you’re not mentally undressing him y
ourself. No offense, Shauna.”
“None taken. I have a point of reference and I’m doing the same damn thing.”
The women laughed, drawing Asher’s attention to us again. He smiled at me, sweeping Ashleigh into his arms again before heading back to the small group of us who had been watching him. He looked damn good, his damp, sweaty hair sticking up in every direction, eyes alight with mischief and happiness, and his mouth in a genuine easy smile that melted me in ways that didn’t touch sexual yet. He was himself out here. No public persona, no socialite son seeking approval, and it looked damn good on him.
“We have a request for food,” he said when he was close enough. He gave me a smile and lowered himself in front of me, leaning back against the bench so he was resting between my legs with Ashleigh on his lap. We were in the shade, but he dug in my backpack anyway, using the zinc sunscreen stick on Ashleigh’s nose. Jenny and Chelsea made a throaty noise on either side of me as they gathered their kids to them.
We ate lunch together, the ladies beside me politely asking questions and eyeing me when Asher was vague. We made it through the entire conservation with only one bloodied knee from a little boy who swore he saw a gator and two sets of hysterics from exhausted children who had run themselves into the ground.
By the time we made it back to the car, Ashleigh had fallen asleep on Asher’s back, and I had a hand on her to make sure she didn’t topple.
We said our goodbyes to the group when we managed to get her into the car and belted up, the cold air blowing without much effort as we’d parked in the shade. The swamps’ sounds began coming to life as the day drew closer to an end, and Asher seemed reluctant to get into the car as he studied the area around him.
“You okay?”
“Never better,” he admitted, throwing an arm casually around my shoulder and pulling me close. “Just not ready for today to be over.”
“There’s plenty more where this came from.” I wrapped my arms around his waist and studied the cypress and Tupelo trees growing from the swamp’s murky water, wondering what he could see that I couldn’t. It was beautiful, and I had often come out here when I needed to be alone while I was pregnant and when Ashleigh had been in a pushchair, but the faraway look in his eyes told me he could see so much more than that.
“I got a text earlier.”
I stiffened a little, something he countered by rubbing a circle against my arm with his thumb.
“My condo’s sold.”
I stayed quiet and let him work through what he needed to say.
“My assistant said my sister called looking for me almost as soon as the buyers made an offer.”
“What does that mean?”
“Audine knows I’m not where I said I was by now, and she’s not so dumb that she won’t know that selling my condo means more than me making a change. It’ll take her a while since she has no way of following a paper trail yet, but she’ll get pissed off enough eventually to hire someone to do what she can’t.”
“She’s that hell-bent on sinking you?”
“I have a dick. She hates me on principle alone. Anything she can do to make my life hell means she’s won another round.”
“Did she have anything to do with your marriage?”
Asher glanced at me.
“Did she know about me?”
“She knew I loved you, and she told my parents. That was when they gave me the ultimatum.”
“I was the reason your life—”
“Don’t.” Asher pulled me in and kissed my temple. “I wish things could have been different, but I wouldn’t change where I am with you or Ashleigh now. I just wish I could have made your lives easier and watched her grow up.”
“Asher…”
“Do you think about having more kids?” he asked, shutting me up before I could begin to apologize for something I had no control over.
“W-What?”
“More kids. If you and I stay the course and you one day agree to marry me, you think you’d want more kids?”
“I haven’t thought… I mean to say, I never considered because…” I trailed off, and Asher waited with patience, a small smile curling his lips and making him look lighter. Kids… he was thinking about kids? “Maybe.”
I’d answered on instinct. It had crossed my mind only once when Ashleigh had been miserable having no siblings to play with. She’d been two, and my heart had hurt for her because our future had been so empty. That was when I’d gone back to the club in an attempt to move on, but I hadn’t really believed that I’d have any more kids because I couldn’t imagine letting a man in close enough to even meet Ashleigh.
“Just something to consider.”
“Yeah, I guess, but it’s only been a few weeks since you came back into our lives.”
“I wasted seven years being miserable without you.”
“But—”
“I’m done wasting time, kitten. I’m done living without y’all in my life. I’m just waiting on you to catch up.”
Kissing me on the forehead, Asher pushed from the car and opened the door for me before heading to the driver’s side, leaving my mind reeling. I was still standing between the car and door, the cool breeze washing over me from the interior when he climbed in and leaned over the console. I glanced down at him and saw the grin before anything else.
He was serious.
He’d already made up his mind.
How the hell had I missed that?
After putting Ashleigh to bed together, Asher sat with me at the club all night while I worked. Between filling orders, we spoke about things that had gone on in our lives while we’d been apart. About the people we’d both known from the Gatlinburg club and several other light topics that filled in the silence as my mind kicked its legs over his earlier revelation and trod water.
Asher drove me home after my shift and promised to be there first thing in the morning for brunch and our trampoline park adventure. True to his word, he arrived early and spent the morning with my family, where he continued to win my brother over, then took Ashleigh and me to the trampoline park. Asher joined in bouncing through the park alongside our daughter, carrying her in his arms or on his back as he climbed the walls over a foam pit. When he left at almost midnight after talking with me for hours in our back yard, I felt that loss of him, the gap he left behind. I’d offered to go with him, knowing that I shouldn’t, while half of me craved it.
Asher told me he was keeping his hands to himself so I’d be all the way healed when he had me to himself. I’d also promised I would stay the night with him at his rental outside of the city, and from the deep blue in his eyes when he spoke about it, he had something in mind for me. Something erotic and sensual that made my stomach dance when I allowed my mind to wander in that direction.
He was on my mind all day, a small distraction that always perked up in the back of my mind while working on projects. When Asher arrived to ride with me to collect Ashleigh from the gym, the smile on his face did nothing to ease my curiosity or nerves. My trepidation only pleased him more, so he studied me, only allowing himself to be distracted when Ashleigh called out his name and sprinted to the car to throw herself in his arms, leaving her coach looking momentarily bewildered. She barely saw me until she came to herself and realized Asher wasn’t on the approved list and waved at me in relief before moving on. I always found it insane to see the effect he had on people, especially when he appeared to be oblivious to it all.
The two of us left after dinner, with a promise to Ashleigh that she could come on a trip the next time we went. My mom distracted her with a movie, and we slipped out and left the city together.
The hot summer sun hit the horizon when we finally pulled into the property, and I could see why Asher had chosen this place to stay. The swampland that I assumed rolled out into the Gulf was lined with the usual cypress and tupelo trees that framed the gold and red that hung in the mist hovering over the water. Bald cypresses were dotted throughout with southern mag
nolia’s, which scented the air with their citrus smell. Framing them were several varieties of oaks, and my favorite was a gnarled live oak tucked just behind the house that twisted and curled in interesting patterns. It was a climbing tree, the limbs reached out and dipped to the ground, the higher boughs sprinkling Spanish moss like a curtain of privacy. I fell in love with it on sight.
“That’s what drew me in,” Asher said, arms winding around my waist as I stood in awe. I hadn’t even seen the house yet, but I was with him. This would have drawn me in, too. “There’s a screened porch at the back of the house that overlooks it. They have several spotlights directed at the boughs. They use the lights mostly for parties.”
I hadn’t considered anything other than long hours curled up in a rocker with sweet tea and great music, and the sounds of our daughter laughing as she played on the springy tuft of grass rolling from the oak. The mental imagery surprised me though. I’d been building a life on this little plot of land with the man now resting his chin on my shoulder.
“I knew you’d love it.”
I hadn’t said a word, but I’d felt it, and I wondered for a moment if that had reflected on my face. I’d always adored Asher’s cabin locked away up in the smoky mountains, secluded in nature and surrounded by trees. I would have stayed there for the rest of my life if I could have. I may have grown up in a city, but my summers had been spent in my parents’ summer home just south of Bayou Boeuf, where I’d volunteered to help on some of the swamp tours during high school. It had been a way to stay outdoors... and meet boys.
Nature was a love of mine, and this checked every box I had. This adoration was another one of those things he and I had shared and spoken about for hours while we’d been locked away together.
“How did you find this place?”
“Christopher knows a lady. He comes to Gatlinburg, and when I knew you were here, he and I got to talking about the wonder of New Orleans and the swamps. I expressed some interest in exploring while I was there for communion, so he gave me a card.”