TWICE SHY (A SECOND CHANCE ROMANCE)

by Ivy Spears

  In that moment I saw Paul Ryan for what he really was; a single dad with a bunch of kids that he loved but never could seem to control, caught in a life that would pull the rug out from underneath him the second he felt like he was starting to get ahead.

  But he wasn’t a bad person or a vicious person…

  If he had been he would have called the cops out of spite.

  Out of the need for revenge.

  Asher put his hand on my shoulder, guiding me toward the door and not stopping until he had pushed me out onto the porch. He closed the door behind us and latched his deep eyes on to mine, slipping his hands behind my neck and forcing me to look up at him. “Have you lost your damn mind, Bella? What the hell were you thinking? Pulling out a gun!”

  “I wasn’t thinking, okay?” I snapped. “Clearly.”

  Asher shook his head, still offering up no explanation as to why he had a gun in his car in the first place. “Bella, you can’t do shit like that, do you understand me?” He looked angry and stern like he was talking to a child who hadn’t listened one too many times.

  “Why not?” I huffed. “If you can carry a gun why can’t I?”

  Asher shook his head, frowning. “We aren’t playing this game, Bella, not right now. If anything would have happened in there you would have been giving up your own life, not just that kids in there do you get that? Did you think about that? Did you think about what would happen if your dad woke up to that?”

  My heart stopped in my chest.

  Of course, I hadn’t thought about that. I hadn’t thought about jack shit.

  Asher sighed when he saw the look on my face and yanked me toward his broad chest, letting the heavy beating of his heart take over the rhythm of my breathing. “You don’t get it… if something happened to you…”

  He let his words hang in the air, letting the wind fill in the spaces.

  He didn’t have to finish, the fear was one I was starting to share. I wasn’t sure how I had made it this far but I was starting to be very aware of the fact that it would feel a million times harder without Asher by my side. The thought of having to face any of this without him was suddenly terrifying to me.

  The sound of tires on the dirt as they neared us snapped me out of my emotional daze and forced me to look up at the police cruiser that was pulling down the drive.

  “What the hell?” I whispered, taking a step forward.

  The police car wasn’t the only one present, seconds later three more cars followed. Doors were slamming loudly, men in uniforms coming toward the house in all different directions. The sheriff was at the head of the line, leading the pack with a pile of documents in his hand and a serious look on his face.

  “What is this?” I looked at Asher.

  Had they called the cops on me after all? The idea made little sense. Paul seemed like the kind of guy who was true to his word and even if he had, no way they would have gotten here that fast.

  He kept his eyes locked on the sheriff. “No idea.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me after him, using his body to shield my body from the mob of angry looking men in blue heading straight for us.

  “Asher?” The sheriff looked surprised. “What are you doing on this side of town?” He stopped in front of us, using his hands to pull his belt up over the roundness of his stomach.

  “Just checking in on Paul…” he trailed off, letting the words hang the same way he did moments earlier on the porch with me, not wanting to show all our cards until we knew the hand the sheriff was about to play. “Everything okay, Sheriff?”

  The sheriff held his hands up, stopping the group of men behind him and looking back and forth between Asher and me before letting his hands linger on my face for a few beats. “I was going to give you a call once we got back down to the station, Bella, but since you’re here I guess I can let you know now.”

  I moved closer to the sheriff. I had known him since I was a little girl but back then he was just a young deputy, trying to prove he had what it took to play ball with the big shots. His hair was gray now, his skin wrinkled, and his teeth tinted with a slight yellowness. The one thing that reminded me of his one-time youth was his smile that somehow managed to remain young after all these years.

  Asher held on to me tighter, bracing me for neither of us knew what.

  “What is it?” I gulped and squeezed back.

  “We’re here to serve a warrant for arrest in regards to your father’s case.” The sheriff shook the papers in his hands up and down as if to prove his point. “The evidence is in and we’ve found the person responsible.” He patted me on the shoulder and waved his men around him. “We’re going to get your pop some justice.”

  “Sheriff,” I called out after him. “I…” Even I could hear the desperate tone in my voice. Something felt so unsettling about this entire thing. Trevor hadn’t looked guilty of anything other than being a scared kid keeping secrets from his dad. But what did I know? If someone was guilty of something the cops were more likely to figure it out than I was. They wouldn’t just arrest someone without a heavy amount of evidence. “Are you sure?”

  He shot me a sad smile. “It’s okay, Bella, we got him.”

  And then he turned around and walked up the steps toward the house ready to tell a young boy that his life was completely over. It was a punishment equal to the crime they were so sure he had committed, yet somehow, all I could do was clutch on to Asher for support as they carried him out in handcuffs seconds later.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The door to my father’s front door slammed shut hard behind us sending a shutter up and down my spine. Asher moved closer to me, wrapping his arms around my stomach and pressing my back against the top of him. We had barely said a word to each other on the drive back to the house.

  It was a comfortable silence, one that felt anything but awkward. Asher hadn’t mentioned anything else about the gun but I had a feeling that discussion was just getting started. Once I wasn’t so worked up about everything that had just happened he would bring it up again and put me in my place about it.

  Even if he was willing to let it go for the moment, I wasn’t.

  “Why did you have that gun?” I turned toward him.

  He put his hands on the waist of his jeans and leaned backward on the wall. “Not that again, Bella. I had the gun for reasons that don’t concern you.” He looked exasperated.

  “So, let me get this straight… you’re allowed to have as many secrets as you want but I’m not tilted to have any? Is that pretty much what you’re saying?”

  “Now you’re starting to understand,” Asher chuckled.

  I turned away from him, not wanting to play into his games.

  He moved after me, grabbing me by the wrist and swinging me around to face him. “Where you going?” He slipped his hand around my waist and pulled me closer to him.

  “Away from you,” I said but made no effort to get distance from him.

  “Really?” He ran his hand back and forth under one of my eyes, calling my bluff. “There are certain things I can’t talk to you about right now, Bella, for both of our own goods. Can you just try to put a little faith in me and understand that?”

  I looked down at the ground, sucking my breath in. “Like I’m supposed to have faith that the cops caught the right guy?” I forced myself to look up at him when he didn’t answer after a few seconds. “You feel it, too, don’t you? Something feels… off?”

  Asher let his eyes travel up and down my body slowly before he linked his hands through the outside of my coat and let it fall to the ground. “The only thing I can think about coming off right now is your clothes.” He moved his lips down my neck slowly, planting kisses all over my skin.

  I let the tingling in my legs run wild, thankful that for once I didn’t have to control the heat Asher put in my body every time he was near me now that we were finally alone.

  “Asher,” I moaned, turning my head further into his taste.

  He pulled up and locked h
is eyes on mine. “I know it’s hard but the cops did their job, Bella, you have to try and take at least a little peace in that.” He took my hand in his and intertwined our fingers, pulling my hand to his chest. “You deserve, at least, that.”

  I looked up at him in awe, reminded of how he was the only man I’d ever come across who could truly take my breath away, not just with his looks but with his soul. In that moment, if there was ever a part of me that doubted it or pushed it below the surface, I was positive of how in love with Asher Dawson I was.

  I always had been and I always would be.

  I threw my arms around his neck and latched my lips onto his, wanting to feel him in every part of my being. Asher didn’t fight me on it, pushing my legs around his waist as we continued to make out.

  He wasted no time bringing me to the bedroom and throwing me down on top of my bed so hard that the headboard shook back and forth. He pulled his shirt over the top of his head and looked down at me, letting his chiseled chest rise and fall with anticipation.

  “You remembered where my room was,” I whispered.

  Asher smirked. “That’s what you’re thinking about right now?”

  I shook my head. “No. I… I don’t know what I’m thinking.”

  God, did I have to sound like such a child? It was already way too obvious I was such a nervous mess. I prided myself on being this strong and put together woman but somehow when I was around Asher I turned to a big pile of mush.

  I knew what was coming and I wanted it, I wanted it bad.

  I wanted to feel Asher inside of me.

  He moved closer to me before climbing, first, on top of the bed and then on top of my body. His ran his hand down my chest and stopped at the base of my shirt before he pulled it down, revealing my lacy bra. “You don’t even know how amazing you are, Bella.”

  I reached up, running my fingers over his flawless abs. “The feeling is mutual.” His perfectness put me at a loss for words, like no matter what I said it would never really do justice to what I was feeling inside.

  Asher took my hand off him and yanked me forward so my body was against his chest. “You’re so fucking sexy.” He pushed my head into his and rolled his tongue around the inside of my mouth deeply.

  I struggled to catch my breath but refused to pull back, not wanting to break contact with him for a second. I could feel him breathing inside of my mouth heavily, it felt like he was giving me life.

  His hands were up my shirt, pulling back from my mouth just long enough to rip the fabric over my head and toss it onto the floor before he was smothering me with his taste again.

  I wrapped my arms around his neck as I moaned loudly into his mouth.

  Asher hands were around my back and unhooking my bra in seconds, no doubt thanks to experience. He took one of my breasts, smothering them in his large hands for a few seconds before he broke away from my lips and took my nipple inside of his mouth, sucking and licking it over and over again until I felt like my moist panties would melt off.

  I ran my hands up and down the back of his head, letting his mouth get lost even more in the thickness of my breasts as he flicked his tongue back and forth over my nipples.

  He grunted loudly, sucking like a child begging for milk. After a few more minutes of torture, he unlatched his mouth and moved over to the other side, not wanting to leave one nipple out while he had given the other so much attention.

  Only this time instead of just sucking, he bit down on the point.

  I yelped out in shock. “Oh!”

  Asher grinned into my skin and bit down harder.

  “Asher!” I screamed out.

  He chuckled and pulled his head up. “What?”

  “Oh, really the whole innocent thing?” I struggled to catch my breath.

  He shook his head. “Na, you got that down enough for the both of us.”

  I blushed and he grinned wider. “Point proven.” He unzipped his pants and let his huge cock pop out. “See what you did?” He raised his eyebrows and gestured downward.

  I nodded shyly, satisfied.

  “Yeah?” He titled his head to the side. “It’s your job to take care of it now, you know that, don’t you?” He moved his hands up and down his hard shaft a few times.

  I nodded again and bit down on my lip.

  “Take off your pants, Bella, now.” He let his eyes drift down to the top of my jeans in anticipation. “I want to see how much that pretty pussy of yours has already started to drip through your panties.”

  I gasped in shock. He was so raunchy in his words, saying whatever popped into his mind without a second thought. It was so fucking hot it made me feel like I was going to cum on the spot.

  “Now,” he told me forcefully.

  I took a deep breath and forced myself not to burst as I unbuttoned the top of my jeans and slowly slid them down to my ankles. I had felt the liquid from between my legs start to drip through the fabric of my pink lace undies long ago but I wasn’t going to say anything, Asher would be able to see the truth quickly without me opening up my mouth.

  He pulled my pants off the bottom of my legs and tossed them onto the floor next to my shirt. He moved his fingers up and down the bottom half of my leg and pulled them apart roughly. “Spread your legs apart, Bella.”

  I obeyed, slowly opening them to reveal the slit of my panties.

  He shook his head. “Wider.”

  I listened, slowly opening my legs all the way across the bed.

  He licked his lips when he saw the wetness of my juices and shook his head back and forth. “Fuck, Bella, you just can’t seem to control yourself around me, can you?”

  I shook my head back and forth. If only he knew how close I was to cumming all over my bed at just the sight of him. It was literally taking every ounce of my concentration to not release all over my sheets.

  “Say it,” he said. “Tell me.”

  “I can’t control myself around you, Asher.”

  He let out a small groan. “Tell me how wet I make you, Bella.”

  “Just the thought of you, Asher… just the thought of you makes me so wet.” I inhaled deeply at the end of the sentence, desperate to not lose the little control I had left over my body.

  He moved his hand fiercely over his hard pipe again and again as he looked my body up and down, taking in every inch of me. “I want you to stick your hands inside of your panties, Bella.”

  My eyes grew wide.

  “Do it, Bella, put your hands inside of your panties and tell me how wet you are right now.” He reached down and took my hand in his, moving it toward the top of the lace and then pushing it downward. “Come on, Bella, touch your tight little pussy and tell me how wet I made you.”

  I allowed him to guide my fingers down to my center and ran the edge of my fingertips back and forth over my sopping wet slit. My wetness ran so deep that I could feel the wetness soaking the skin of my fingers and I let out a long satisfied moan.

  Asher smirked in satisfaction and kept his hand on top of mine, slowing rubbing it back and forth over my pussy for a few seconds before he picked up the pace, going faster and faster while my legs trembled under his gaze. “Yeah, just like that, you like touching yourself while I watch you, don’t you, Bella?” His eyes burned into me as his touch deepened.

  I felt like my body was going to explode. “Yes! Yes, I love it.”

  He rotated my fingers around furiously, faster and faster. “Louder.”

  “I LOVE IT!” I screamed.

  Asher pulled his hand away and stopped right before I came, somehow knowing right before I was at the point of no return. He pulled my hands out from between my legs and pulled my panties down slowly, bringing them to his lips briefly before he dropped them on the floor.

  I had thought my heart couldn’t beat any faster but the thought of what was coming next proved me wrong. This was it; the moment I had been waiting for since I was old enough to imagine what sex would be like. And, somehow, it was going to be with the man I h
ad always dreamed about it happening with.

  Asher moved his body on top of mine and pushed my legs apart slowly, tracing his fingers up and down the tops of my thighs. He leaned down, tracing kisses up and down my stomach slowly before stopping to look up at me again. “Are you sure you’re ready?” he whispered.

  I bit down on my lip and nodded.

  “I need to hear you say it, Bella.”

  “I want you, Asher. I want to feel you inside of me.”

  Asher growled and crushed his lips on top of mine, kissing me deeper than he ever had before. A few seconds later he pulled back and let his heavy breathing get lost in my hair as he tried his best to control himself. “I’m sorry, Bella, I’m trying to go slow… it’s just the thought of fucking you is pushing me over the edge.”

  I ran my hands through his dark hair and tried not to show how happy his words made me. It might have been the 16-year-old girl inside of me but knowing he wanted me just as bad as I wanted him was thrilling to me. “It’s okay, I… I’m ready.”

  “Yeah?” For the first time, the controlling look was gone from his eyes.

  The fact that he was trying to make sure I was okay when his body was screaming for dominance was touching to me and it only aided in my want to feel his body on top of mine. “Yes,” I told him sternly. “I want you in every way possible, Asher.”

  Asher’s eyes lit up, even in the darkness of the room it was evident. He inched my legs further apart and pulled his body off of mine a few inches while he rubbed the tip of his cock back and forth over my slit. He glanced back up at me one more time for confirmation and then slowly inserted the tip of his huge cock into my most personal areas.

  A surge of pain shot through my entire body and I let out a small yelp.

  Asher froze, trying not to put too much in and pushed the hair out of my eyes. “I’m sorry… I… oh fuck, Bella, you’re so fucking tight.” He pushed my legs further apart and kept going, shoving more and more of his cock inside of my inch by inch.

  My body felt like it was floating on a cloud, shaking back and forth at the shock of having something so big inside of me. I gasped slowly, each time he inserted more and more of himself inside of me the pain would surge through me until he stopped. I could feel my walls stretching further and further around him, going further than they ever had before.