by K. J. Thomas
Everyone seems to give us a wide berth. Well, when they look at Tate, she looks bad. They didn’t even see how bad she looked before. I chuckle, I can imagine us walking down the halls, if she looked like she did before, and people throw money in sympathy at us. Tate gives me a weird look but I just shake my head. Yes, I have issues.
The rest of the freaking morning goes this way. Even the teachers are nice to us, and the teachers are never nice to us. I have so many horror stories I can think of from girls originally starting there. I wonder what the guys told everybody. That we saved twenty orphan children and thirty prostitutes as we brought down a huge freaking drug ring? I want to chuckle again but this time I bite my lip, Tate’s gonna think I’ve gone crazy.
I’ve only got a few small bruises showing, these were the ones that were huge and had every color of the rainbow, plus many more. They’re yellow and very faint, a gnarly looking color.
When lunch finally hits, Tate and I are extremely uncomfortable. We wish everybody would just go back to the way that they used to, not treat us so different.
We make our way over to our usual table. One of the lunch ladies helps Tate carry her food over there, which has me giggling and Tate swearing. But she does need help and she graciously gives her a thank you.
The guys spot us, all three of them except for Asher and Liam. Liam is Asher’s right-hand man, so he’ll go wherever he goes.
Carter, Noah and Walker make their way over to us. Both Carter and Noah are wearing casts from broken bones and gunshot wounds. The one on Carter’s arm is fully marked, I giggle at all these high school people still signing casts. It looks like he got one from everyone in the school. He grinds his teeth when he notices what we’re looking at. Okay, it looks like everybody just signed without his approval, which is even funnier because it’s embarrassing for him. I’m quite sure Carter said no so nobody would sign, but deep down he’s got to love the attention. Especially the attention he’s getting from Tate. She can’t stop staring at him, and he can’t stop staring at her.
We eat in silence for a few minutes. The doors to the cafeteria slam open, causing most of the people to look. I’m still chewing, not even paying attention until I hear the gasp coming from Tate’s mouth. I lift my head up with a huge bite of cheeseburger in my mouth that I haven’t started chewing.
In walks Asher, Liam, a bunch of guards and right in the middle is Vito Romano.
I quickly stand up and chew fast. They know exactly where we’re sitting and head in our direction, but I don’t waste any time. I’ve been so worried that I run and throw my arms around my grandfather. He does the same and squeezes me tight. Half of the students gasp in the lunchroom.
I back away with a sorry look on my face. I was not even expecting that, I missed my grandfather so much. Apparently, the students at Blackwood Academy don’t know that I am Vita Romano’s granddaughter. Apparently, they do now.
Vito gives me a smile, he doesn’t care anymore. I exhale the breath I was holding, thank God.
Next, I turn to Asher and I gave him a huge hug. When I try to pull away, he doesn’t let go, he dips his head into the crevice of my neck and inhales deeply.
“You’re looking so much better, Avery,” he purrs into my ear.
I just want to melt into him, right here. Luckily, I remember that my grandfather and the whole school is watching us. I pull back and he laughs.
Tate and Carter are standing next to each other watching everything unfold. Carter has a, ‘I don’t give a fuck about anything,’ look on his face and Tate has a huge smile with tears coming down.
Asher pulls her in for a hug, and that makes my eyes glisten as I rapidly blink, I’m not going down this road today. Fuck the happy or sad tears, no tears for me.
“We have something to show you guys,” my grandfather says to me and Tate as he puts his arm around me.
We’re both excited. I grab Tate’s hand and start to pull her toward the door. I conveniently forget how disabled she is right now.
Asher walks over in front of Tate. “Get up,” he states as he points to his back.
She doesn’t hesitate for a second as Asher gives her a piggyback ride. All of us work very well together. Great fucking day for those guys to come back on the same day that we are healed up and go back to school.
I look at my grandfather and several of the guards. Half of them are ours and the other half is Asher’s, that’s understandable, but I’m wondering why my grandfather is here. The surprise is something those two must’ve done together.
“Oh shit,” Tate says as I walk into the back of her when Asher suddenly stops.
I start to apologize, but I snap my mouth closed when I look up.
Standing right in front of us is Armani, Rocco and Gino. This isn’t the normal version of them though, no. These guys are beaten into a fucking mess. Each one of them has a cast over at least one appendage each. Armani has a cast on both his right arm and his right leg. Gino has one on his left arm and Rocco has one on his left leg.
I can see where stitches were on their faces, recently removed except for Gino, he stills has stitches on the side of his neck. The other two must’ve healed and they took him out recently, like maybe today. There is tape all over all three of their noses.
The colorful display on their faces from every angle is astounding, it’s actually like a piece of art. They took turns beating these guys to death.
I smile, I’m feeling a little bigger and better than these bitches. Grateful they had the same thing happen to them. I especially make sure to smile at Gino. Even though Armani always seems to be the instigator, the leader, Gino is the one with the most power and the wherewithal to actually want to stop it, could stop it.
All three of them look dejected, and so very broken. I will not feel any sympathy or remorse for these assholes. They’re lucky they’re not dead.
Everybody is staring at me, and I realize I said the last part out loud. I shrug my shoulders, it’s true.
“Now,” Vito snaps at the three broken guys. All of them have their heads low as they walk towards Tate and me.
Normally, if this would’ve happened, I would have jumped back, but I feel a little bit stronger with everybody by my side.
Only Rocco can drop his knees, the other two have to go down at an awkward angle on each side of Rocco. It looks like some cheerleader’s pose and it’s picture day. Before we get a chance to even think, a litany of, ‘I’m sorry’ comes our way.
“I am so sorry.”
“Please forgive me.”
“I got carried away.”
“Sorry.”
“I apologize.”
“Will you forgive me?”
It just keeps going on and on, they don’t stop until Vito stops them with the movement of his hand.
“You may leave now, we better never see you again. When and if I need you, I’ll call upon you. Now go to your different residences,” Asher snaps out at them.
Different residences? I bet he’s not letting them all hang out together anymore. This will be good for Gino, but will suck for the other two.
I move over and give Tate a hug. We both share a couple tears. Both of sadness and happiness. This is the kind of closure that we needed. This is still going to be a process for Tate, that’s still family for her. I don’t think she’ll ever be able to look at or see her brother’s again.
I am hoping with everything I have that one day they might realize their mistakes and Tate will have her family back. Maybe, we should just concentrate on getting her to marry into a big family. Her and I both need big happy families to marry into.
Asher grabs my hand as we make our way inside and back to class, I don’t think the day could’ve gone any better.
Seventeen
AVERY
The glass tapping and movement against my bedroom window startles me awake. I glance at the clock, it’s two a.m. It’s probably nothing. I could yell for Mac, but I don’t feel a weird vibe.
I smi
le when Asher’s head peeks through the opening. I know that window is locked because I locked it, and all the guards always keep checking it. That little shit broke into the house.
I grab my phone and pull up our house alarm app. I quickly enter the code since the window is open. We have an option to do that before the alarm starts to blare.
When I stand up Asher pulls me into his arms, devouring me in a kiss that proves we haven’t seen each other for an exceedingly long time. I didn’t get much time with him earlier because everyone was around us and my grandfather was there for a bit.
The kiss is passionate and needy. I moan pushing further into him, I can’t get enough.
He laughs and moves back with my hands still in his.
“You know nobody’s here right? You could’ve walked through the front door, you didn’t have to go through the window.” I expect him to look embarrassed when I tell him this, but he doesn’t.
“I know. I thought it would be sexier if I went through the window.” He gives me a wink, followed by an award-winning smile.
I start laughing, that was corny as hell.
I grab Asher’s hand and we both make our way down to the kitchen. At first, he stops. “Mac has always known and so have the other guards.”
He laughs as we walk out of my bedroom door and downstairs to the kitchen. Nobody’s in there right now, but I’m sure they know that we’re in here. They’re just giving us privacy, thank God.
It may be two in the morning, but I am hungry. Asher can always eat, from what I’ve seen, anyway.
I lay out everything I need for spaghetti including the bread and salad. I get to work and Asher takes care of the bread and salad. Chopping everything we need, even boiling eggs.
My stomach growls, but not loud enough for anybody to hear. I could feel it. I’m glad we came downstairs, I am fucking starving.
We cook and then we eat in yummy silence, never more than a foot apart.
“You’re like my boyfriend now, aren’t you? I haven’t had many of those, I’m still waiting for a good one.”
Asher laughs and pretends to stab me with his fork. I don’t need my next boyfriend to be a fork stabber.
When we finish eating and start to do dishes is when I finally get enough nerve to ask the question that’s been on my mind for a while. “What happened in those two weeks?” I glance sideways at him before I continue. “Even my grandfather was gone for a while.”
“All of us were mad, we couldn’t calm the fuck down,” Asher says as he dries the dishes, then carefully puts them away.
“Your grandfather asked me if I wanted help, and I told him I did, a lot. He’s a good guy, really good guy. I have a lot of respect for him.”
I know I have a ton of respect for him, too, he’s an awesome man. I hate that feeling of sadness that hits whenever I think of what might’ve been. He should’ve been in my life from the beginning, but at least I have him now, and I’m gonna be grateful for that.
“Come on,” Asher grabs my hand and leads me to the living room grabbing a bottle of wine and two glasses on the way. “Those fucking pussies went into hiding. It took us a week to find their location.”
He pours us both a glass as I curl around him on the couch, and he turns on the TV. Even though it’s after three in the morning, a movie sounds awesome. We can sleep in tomorrow.
Everybody’s gone back to work. Arya and Garrett were thrilled, but then they looked crestfallen when they saw me. I did everything I could to convince them to go, and finally they gave in. It warms my heart that they were more worried about me at that time.
My grandfather has also gone back to work. He was staying to keep us safe, not for family bonding, and I understand that.
We will all have more time together one day, I just hope it’s not too late.
“When we finally caught up to them, they were in Connecticut, of all places.” He laughs and then continues. “Anyway, we took them back to your grandfathers compound. He wanted them close, and Chicago is so fucking far away from California, but not as far as New York. But when you’re on the east coast and west coast, everything is fucking far.”
Asher drinks half of his glass in one gulp then wipes his mouth. He leans down and gives me a kiss.
“The first thing we decided to do is to make sure they got everything they gave to you and Tate.” Asher laughs for a second then continues, “I shot Armani in the arm, but it ended up breaking and shattering pieces of his bone. That’s like killing two birds with one stone right there.”
I laugh, I could tell Asher wanted to say more, so I control myself. “Basically, we righted a wrong, then brought the guys back to the school so that they could apologize. I wanted you both to heal more before we brought them around. That sick fuck Armani would get pleasure from looking at how bad you two were still.”
I almost spit out my wine remembering back to earlier today. I swear the whole school was crying from watching those three guys. And those guys even beaten and broken still looked fucking scary. They’d have looked scarier if they didn’t look so dejected.
Both of us settle on a comedy. I like a lot of action, but I think we’ve had too much action lately.
The bottle of wine is gone halfway through the movie. I start absentmindedly rubbing my hands up and down Asher’s chest.
Maybe he was waiting for some kind of signal, who knows. Within a second I’m being dragged up and placed right on his lap.
He starts to ravage me. He kisses me with renowned urgency, his hands are exploring everywhere groping and feeling. A bolt of electricity shoots straight through me, straight to my core.
Asher grabs the back of my head with his hand making a fist, leaning me back enough so that he can kiss up and down my neck, nipping and licking. God, it feels so good.
He lets go and yanks the tank top up and right off over my head. I didn’t even feel it, not sure what I was wearing, and I’m slightly embarrassed. At least I’m dressed and I’m not wearing a giant onesie, I guess.
His finger trails down the curve of my breasts. “Gorgeous,” he says, memorizing the swell of my breasts down to my nipples. Asher puts his head down to taste, but immediately snaps his head to the left side.
“Fuck,” he says as he stands up taking me with him. My chest is pressed against his, and my legs are wrapped around his waist, it feels like I’m going to freaking fall.
We are chuckling as he takes off toward the stairs getting me out of view.
“Oh my God,” I say as I put my head on his shoulder and start to laugh.
I totally forgot about all the guards, and those fuckers hide in the damn shadows. My eyes are wide at the thought of that.
I have to believe that the guards have enough decency to say something if we would’ve gone further, but I think my boobs being on display is a big enough thing.
I find a sliver of relief with the fact that Asher’s big hulking frame probably blocked everything from sight, my boobs anyway.
When we get into my room, he deliciously slides me down to the floor.
Asher walks back and shuts and locks the door. It’s still dark and my light is off, but he follows my every movement, like he’s hunting prey. He’s some kind of strange creature that’s able to see in the dark.
I laugh and scream as he runs after me. When he finally catches me, I melt right into him. I want to feel every part of him, to be connected as one, it’s like I can’t get close enough to this man.
He slams me against the wall next to my bed. His hips are pressed into mine keeping me in place and keeping his hands free.
I can’t take it anymore, I am throbbing everywhere. I just want to feel him. With Luca I never felt like this.
I push back on him and he lets me down. I quickly work on getting his jeans undone. His tight fucking jeans that take forever to get around his damn plump ass and his thick thighs.
I’m still on my knees and he’s right there in front of me, practically dripping wet. My main intention was to kno
ck him on the floor, go for a ride, only taking what I want.
His shaft is veiny, angry and very thick. His dick is looking right at me waiting to be tasted and teased.
I’m moving forward, before I even think about it.
“Fuck,” Asher growls when he sees what I’m doing.
He stiffens right before spreading his legs further apart. I never cared to do this with Luca, but with Asher I can’t stop myself, it’s all I wanna do.
I lick the tip and then work my tongue slowly up and down his enormous dick.
Asher takes a deep breath right as I swallow him completely into my mouth. I place my hand at the root and continue to stroke him tightly up and down, as I suck and tease him with my mouth.
My free hand grabs and holds his huge and heavy balls in my hand. I tug and squeeze doing whatever I can think of to make him feel good.
“God damnit Avery,” Asher spits between clenched teeth as he grabs me under my arms lifting me up.
We are both so turned on right now, Asher leaves me on the bed and rips off my leggings with no problem, including the thong that’s underneath them.
I’m shaking, I am that turned on, I’ve never felt this way, so euphoric. I whimper as I watch him slowly stroke himself.
He knows he’s putting on a show for me and loves it.
“You sure?” My eyes are wide open to his insulting question.
“Please fuck me already.” My legs are spread, waiting for him to position himself, god he’s such a fucking tease.
He swipes his thick velvety head through my folds, up and down.
Asher gives me no warning when he relents and slams himself inside my very tight and waiting channel. We both groan and shake. At first, it’s too much, but when he starts to move, all rational thoughts I’ve had up to this moment fly out the window. I would agree to anything this man wants right now.
Asher starts to kiss me as he moves back-and-forth, not fast, not slow, like he’s making love to me.
“God you’re so fucking tight.” I barely make out his words while he continues to cherish me.