by L A Cotton
“I thought I was coming over to watch a movie?” She deflected and I couldn’t blame her. I didn’t like to talk about my family either.
“We can work up to that.” I led Mya toward the back of the house, pulling open the door to the basement level home movie theater.
“I got a bunch of stuff from the store earlier. I hope you’re hungry?”
She shot me an uncertain smile. “You didn’t need to do that, Asher.”
“I know, but I wanted to. I feel like, after last night, I owe you.” Raking a hand through my hair, I dropped down on one of the couches, chuckling when Mya took the one furthest away from me.
“Do I still smell?”
“You do remember.” She gasped.
“Bits and pieces. It’s very hazy though. What’ll it take for you to put me out of my misery and tell me if I said anything inappropriate?”
Mya hesitated for a second, as if mulling over her answer, then cracked a small smile. “You were ever the gentleman.”
“I highly doubt that.” But I’d take it. I’d take anything she had to offer me.
Jesus, I was so pathetic, begging for scraps of attention from a girl who had made it clear on more than one occasion that she wasn’t going to cross whatever invisible line she’d drawn between us.
But she’s here. And she’s flirting back.
“Listen, I’m sorry about earlier, with your aunt. I guess I didn’t really believe you when you said she had a problem with white boys.”
“She doesn’t have a problem with white boys, Asher. She has a problem with me dating a white boy.”
“Good job you’re not dating one then.” I fought a grin, watching her reaction. But Mya wasn’t like most girls. You had to work for her blushes and little expressions of surprise.
It was one of the things I liked most about her.
“What movie did you have in mind?” She switched the subject.
“Take your pick.” I flicked my head to where I’d sorted out a pile of DVDs. While she was deciding, I went and got the snacks, adding bowl after bowl to the small coffee table.
“Wow.” Mya observed the spread. “That is a lot of food.”
“You have seen me eat, right?”
She laughed at that, sitting back on the other couch.
Screw this.
I stood up and stalked toward her. Mya’s eyes went big, tracking my movements until I hovered right in front of her. “Asher, what are you…?”
“Chips,” I deadpanned. “I need chips.” Shoving my hand into the bowl, I scooped up a handful, winked at her, and sat on the end of her couch. She narrowed her eyes at me, pressing her pouty lips into a thin line.
“Problem?” My brow rose.
“Just play the damn movie,” she mumbled.
But the movie wasn’t distraction enough. It didn’t stop me from watching her out the corner of my eye, stealing discreet glances as she laughed and gasped and buried her hands into her face. There was something so fucking pure about seeing Mya this way. Completely uninhibited and free. It did all kinds of crazy things to me; made my heart race and my palms sweat. It also made me act like a dumbass because before I knew what I was doing, I’d shuffled closer to her and grabbed her hand in mine. I half-expected her to tear her hand away and chew me out. But Mya was full of surprises, letting our joined hands rest between us as if it was the simplest thing in the world.
Then the stars aligned.
Mya almost jumped out of her skin when the bad guy appeared out of the shadows, brandishing a knife and ready to kill. “Holy shit,” she shrieked, her ass lifting at least two inches off the couch. Laughter rumbled deep in my chest as I slipped my arm around her shoulder and pulled her into my side. “It’s okay,” I teased, “I’ll protect you.”
“Asher...” Her hand went to my stomach, my muscles contracting beneath her touch, blazing a path of heat down, down, down. My eyes dropped to hers, hooded and hungry.
“Asher, what are you...”
“Just one taste,” I pleaded, needing to kiss her so much it hurt.
“I—” she started, but my hand slid into her hair, tilting her face to mine. “We shouldn’t...” It was a cracked whisper, her eyes telling me something different. Silently giving me permission.
The movie raged on around us, the explosions and cries from the surround sound system drowning out to nothing but white noise, as I gently brushed my lips over hers. Mya let out a little whimper, her fingers curling into my t-shirt. My pulse ratcheted, my body burning for the girl who tasted like strawberry kisses.
“Asher, this is a bad idea.” Her words should have doused me in cold water, but they didn’t. Because Mya didn’t pull away. She didn’t shove me back and run. Instead, she pressed her lips to mine again, pulling my body into hers. I went willingly, pressing Mya into the back of the couch, learning the shape of her mouth, the curves of her body.
I’d only been half serious when I told Flick I thought me and Mya were written in the stars, but kissing her, feeling her underneath me, I felt a cosmic shift. Maybe this—us—wasn’t destiny but we were so fucking right for each other I wanted to scream it from the rooftops.
So when she breathed, “Stop, Asher. You have to stop,” as if we were doing something wrong, I knew it was a mistake.
Because nothing was wrong about this.
Not one single thing.
I just had to make her see it.
Chapter Nine
Mya
Asher kissed me.
He wasn’t supposed to kiss me.
I wasn’t supposed to let him kiss me.
But the way he looked at me, with so much yearning and hope; it cracked right through the last of my defenses. Leaving me unprotected and powerless against his charms.
I didn’t feel vulnerable the second his lips touched mine though, I felt alive. Warmth coursed through me like wildfire. His weight pressed against me, overwhelming in the best kind of way.
A fighter at heart, I’d always had to fight for what I wanted. A girl growing up, in a man’s world ravaged by drugs and crime. For so many years, I’d stood by Jermaine’s side, defending him, refusing to let him fall deeper into the trap. I’d looked out for him right since we were kids, when I never had anyone looking out for me. But here in Asher’s house, tangled in his arms, his lips hovering right over mine, I felt safe. I felt like he would never let anything hurt me.
It should have been a relief. Here, with him, I could finally breathe. But the strength of my developing feelings for him scared me. Because here, behind closed doors, it was just the two of us. There was no judgment or stereotypes, whispers or glares. No black, brown, or white. No rich and poor. There was only lust and desire and a connection I was no longer sure I could fight.
“Why do you like me?” I blurted out, killing the moment. But fear was a strong motivator.
Asher stared down at me, confusion crinkling his eyes. “I’ve never met anyone like you, Mya,” he said. “You’re strong and beautiful and loyal. You’re not intimidated or in awe of the team, and you are so fucking beautiful it hurts.”
“You already said that.” My lip curved.
“I did?” His eyes danced with humor. “Your beauty deserves repetition.”
“You’re such a cheese ball.”
“Too much?” He grinned. “I’m sure I can think up some other adjectives...”
“No.” My fingers ran up his chest finding his jaw. “I think I got it.”
Asher fixed his mouth over mine again, slipping his tongue between my lips. My little voice of reason silently screamed at me to stop, but with every stroke of his tongue, every press of his lips, it grew quieter and quieter until all the reasons why this was a bad idea melted away.
I let my hands glide over his shoulders, tangling my fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck. Asher broke the kiss, brushing his nose over mine, before tracing his lips over my jaw and down the slope of my neck. Sucking and nibbling and grazing his teeth against the sensit
ive skin, sending thousands of tiny shivers rippling through me.
“I want you, Mya,” he rasped. “I need you.”
The sheer desperation in his voice had me gripping his chin and lifting his face to mine. “What happened yesterday, Asher?”
Indecision flickered in his eyes. He wanted to tell me, but something held him back.
“What happened with your ex?” he countered.
Damn him.
We were back to this. Both of us needing more, neither of us willing to share. But one of us had to make a move, to give an inch.
Something told me it wasn’t going to be him.
Taking a deep breath, I started. “Jermaine is... was my best friend.” I pushed Asher off me gently, needing air. He sat back, raking a hand through his perfectly messed up hair.
“We grew up together, were in the same class at school. Our mamas always used to joke that we were two halves of the same whole.” Asher let out a small breath and my eyes slid to his. “I won’t lie to you, Asher. He was my everything.”
“What changed?” His voice was tight.
“I don’t need to tell you that where I come from, it isn’t like Rixon. When you’re a kid it’s easier to ignore what happens on street corners, but once you hit high school it’s reality. Drugs, gangs...” I hesitated, unsure of how much to tell him. Not because I was protecting Jermaine, that ship had long sailed, but because I was protecting myself.
If I told Asher, if I let him into that part of my life, there was no undoing it. I’d forever be the poor girl from the wrong side of the tracks.
“He fell in with some bad people. Things got out of control and he got hurt.” I got hurt, the words teetered on the tip of my tongue.
Asher’s brows bunched together as he studied me, seeing right through my defenses. “And...”
“And I knew I’d lost him. Next time it wasn’t going to be a gang jumping him, roughing him up. It was going to be a car rolling by with a gun. My mama wanted me out of there and my aunt was all too willing to let me stay with her. Your turn,” I said, wavering under the intensity of his stare.
Asher, like Felicity and Hailee and everyone else at Rixon High, knew one version of Mya. Sure they saw the military boots, the denim overalls, and plaid shirts, but she was still a tamed down version of herself. Because I knew the other version of Mya, the real version, and this place, these people, wouldn’t mesh.
“My dad is an asshole,” Asher deadpanned, his face devoid of emotion.
“Okaaaay. I don’t really know what to say to that.”
“Everyone thinks he’s this awesome self-made man who provides for his family but he’s a mean son of a bitch. A real devil in sheep’s clothing.”
“No one else knows this?”
He shrugged, not meeting my eyes. “Money talks, I guess. And don’t get me wrong, on the face of it, he’s generous. He donates to charity, helps out my friends’ families. Supports the team. But everything comes with a price where Andrew Bennet is concerned.”
“And you have to pay it.” I whispered.
“Four years.” Asher tugged at the ends of his hair. “He gave me four years of high school, but senior year is almost up.”
“What happens after high school?” Dread slithered up my spine.
Asher ran a hand down his face, his expression contorted with pain. “I become his puppet.”
I didn’t know what that meant but I could feel the torment radiating from him.
“My father was never the athletic type. He didn’t play football or run track or anything like that. His talent was computers and tech. Figuring out how things work and making them work better. I was never interested in that stuff and I was always a big disappointment to him. Football... that was my passion, and I was good at it. Not as good as Jason,” he gave me a wry smile, “but I could have had a good college football career. So the deal was I got to play at Rixon if I walked away from football in college and focused on academics.”
“Asher, that’s not—”
“Fair?” he scoffed. “My old man doesn’t care about that. All he cares about is his business and making sure I’m ready to take his place and finally become the son he’s always wished he had.”
“What about your mom? How does she feature in all this?”
His expression darkened and I knew I’d hit another chord. “She’s the reason I got four years.”
“What do you mean?”
“Before high school, Dad tried to make me quit football, said it wasn’t becoming of a Bennet. He’d never hid the fact he resented he got me instead of a carbon copy of himself. When I was a kid, Mom sheltered me from a lot of that, but I didn’t realize just how much she protected me until I got older.” His eyes settled on a spot on the floor, his fists curled tight and rubbing against his thigh.
I reached for him, uncurling his fingers and sliding them between mine. Asher looked at me and I smiled. “I’m right here,” I whispered.
“Mom knew how important it was for me to play with Jason and Cam. So she sacrificed herself,” he almost choked over the words.
“I don’t... what do you mean?”
It was her husband, it didn’t seem like that big of a deal for a wife to support her husband, unless… “Asher?” I said when he didn’t answer. His eyes were closed, his chest rising and falling with his ragged breaths.
“When I say he’s mean, Mya.” Asher’s eyes opened. He looked broken and it made my heart ache. “He isn’t just mean with his words.”
“Oh.” The unspoken words hung between us.
“Did he ever… hurt you?”
“When I was younger, he’d get so mad at me. Mom always stepped in though. I thought she tempered his anger, but he’d take it out on her when I wasn’t around. She was good at hiding it but there’s only so much makeup can disguise. Thankfully, he was away a lot for work so it was just the two of us and Serena, the housekeeper. But then the summer before high school he started going on about how it was time for me to learn the business and show more interest in my future.
“We got into a big fight when he said I couldn’t try out for the football team in high school, but Mom intervened, made me leave the house. When I finally returned, they sat me down and told me that they had come to an arrangement. Mom would start accompanying Dad on his business trips and I got four years of football with my friends. He’d always wanted her to be more involved, but she wanted to raise me.”
There was so much I wanted to ask. So much that didn’t make sense. But I could see the emotional toll it had taken on Asher to finally tell someone the truth.
To tell me.
So instead of pushing for more than he was ready to give me, I shuffled closer to him and wrapped my arms around his neck. “I’m sorry,” I said quietly.
“That’s the first time I’ve ever told anyone the truth.” Asher eased back to look at me. “I’m glad it was you, Mya.”
“I won’t tell a soul.”
“I know,” he said. “I have to tell them eventually. They’re already asking why I haven’t formally committed to the Pittsburgh Panthers next fall. They don’t know it’s because my future is already sealed at Pittsburgh, and it doesn’t involve football.”
“They’d understand.”
“Maybe. But I don’t want it to come between us, not when we only have a few months left of senior year. Besides, you know what Jason is like. If he found out the truth…”
He wouldn’t be able to bite his tongue. Because despite all his flaws Jason Ford protected those he cared about, and Asher was like family to him.
“There’s more, isn’t there?” I couldn’t stop the words from tumbling out. But something about the whole thing didn’t sit right with me.
“Yeah,” Asher let out a weary sigh. “If I don’t keep my end of the bargain and go to Pittsburgh like a good little lap dog, Dad will cut me off. No trust fund, no college, no future.”
“There are other ways, Asher. Scholarships for one.” I knew from Fel
icity that he’d been offered at least two athletic scholarships.
“It’s not that simple.” He ground out. “It won’t only be me that suffers. I have to think about Mom. Me and Dad are all she has.”
“I’m just saying—”
“Can we not do this right now?” His eyes were soft despite his callous tone. “It’s been a rough couple of days and I’m exhausted.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry. I should go—” I went to stand but Asher caught my hand.
“I don’t want you to leave.”
“You don’t?”
He shook his head. “Stay.”
“Asher, I’m not sure…”
“Look, I know you don’t want anything serious and I know you’re still hung up on your ex, but I like you. I like you a lot. I can go slow, if that’s what you need.”
He looked so adorable staring up at me with his big blue eyes. “Give me a chance, Mya, please. That’s all I’m asking.”
There were so many reasons it was a bad idea.
So many.
But how could I deny him when he’d trusted me with something he’d never trusted anyone else with?
“I’ll stay but I’m not making any promises. Our lives are both complicated and us being more than just friends will only complicate them further.”
“I can live with that.” He got up and hooked his arm around my waist, drawing me into his body. His eyes homed in on my lips and he started to lean in.
“Asher, friends don’t kiss.”
“Maybe we can be the exception to the rule,” he said around an irresistible smile.
A dangerous smile.
A smile I knew would get us both into a lot of trouble.
Chapter Ten
Asher
Mya stared up at me, lust and indecision swirling in her eyes. She wanted me. She wanted this. But she was still fighting it.
“I promise I won’t fall in love with you, if that’s what you’re worried about,” the words were barely a whisper against the corner of her mouth. “I know we’re heading in different directions. I know this is only temporary, but you make all the shit fade into the background.”