Asher (Keepers Of The Lake Book 4)

by Emilia Hartley

  They didn’t need Asher like Zara did. As long as he was around, the old fox-shifter couldn’t bother her.

  “I’m not a stuffed animal,” Zara muttered against his chest.

  He hugged her tight. “But you’re just so squeezable!”

  She kicked him off and rolled out of his grasp and onto the floor. Her hair was wild, and her eyes were fierce when she looked up at him from her hands and knees. His gut clenched. Need slammed him hot and ready. He fidgeted in his seat to try hiding his rising erection.

  This little fox would probably bite his dick off if he tried anything. Oh, but he wanted to reach for her. His hands felt empty. He needed to fill them with her. He needed to wrap his arms around her body and pull her into him until they fit together like they were meant to.

  She tossed her hair out of her face. His dick grew a little harder. He clenched his teeth and tried to think about carrots. Instead, his gaze fell on the gap between her dress and chest, where her breasts were proudly displayed.

  “It’s been…a long day,” he croaked.

  Zara could tell what else was getting long. From where she sat on the floor, she could see the rise in the crotch of his pants. She recalled what it was like to be touched by him earlier that morning, the way he set her on fire. She craved that sensation again. His hands on her, holding her tight, making her feel alive in ways she’d never known before.

  She was starting to suspect that she’d lived life half-dead. A part of her soul had died when she lived with her biological parents. Knowing what lay before her, how she dreaded it, had nearly taken everything out of her. Even now, when she was away from them, she couldn’t escape what they wanted from her.

  Except here, with Asher. In his lake house, she was just Zara. She was a woman, kneeling before the hottest man she had ever laid eyes on. And there was hard proof that he wanted her just as bad.

  She was tempted to crawl toward him, to climb over his lap and straddle him so she could feel the press of his cock between her legs.

  Her mouth grew dry.

  She scrambled to her feet, snatched her phone, and ran out of the room. She should tell Regina and Oscar about what happened. They needed to now. Zara shouldn’t be rolling around with a dangerous dragon shifter.

  Still, as she locked herself in the bathroom, she remembered the look on her ex-fiancé’s face when Asher showed up. She couldn’t help the small smirk of satisfaction on her lips. She turned her phone over in her hands and fantasized about letting Asher chase the fox-shifter out of Michigan.

  There was an opportunity before her. She could see where things went with Asher, if this feeling that sparked and crackled in her chest like a bonfire was something more. Zara didn’t know if it would be worth it, though. Tying herself to someone as violent as Asher wasn’t the future she dreamed for herself. She’d seen his fights. He was made to inflict pain.

  Confused as ever, Zara unlocked her phone. Just like she thought, there were a million messages from Oscar. He asked how she’d met Asher, if she could get him to sign something and mail it back to California. He even asked if she could arrange a meeting between them, maybe even a sparring match.

  She rolled her eyes. Her adoptive father was way too excited about Asher. Maybe she could let Asher romance Oscar. No, Regina would scratch Asher’s eyes out. They were the most unlikely couple, a red-haired vintage vixen and a tough Hispanic alpha bear, but they were the most in-love couple Zara had ever known.

  She sent a text to Regina, regarding the reappearance of Zara’s ex-fiancé. She sent a follow-up text assuring her adoptive mother that everything was fine. Asher wasn’t going to let anything happen. And, it was true. Zara knew that Asher would do anything to keep her safe. Why else would he go through all this trouble to bring her to the lake house?

  Asher cared.

  Not wanting to field any responses, she turned off her phone and tucked it away. When she unlocked the bathroom door, Asher was there. She ran into him, but he pulled her into his chest before she could stumble back.

  “You ran away,” he said, his voice husky.

  She put her hands on his chest, intending to shove him, but her fingers curled in his shirt instead. The hunger she felt earlier resurged. It was a never-fading thing. She didn’t know if she could ever quench it.

  Asher lowered his head. His nose grazed the skin of her neck. She let out an involuntary moan. Every small touch was so much more powerful when no one ever touched her. She couldn’t tell if she felt this way because of the lack of physical affection in her life, or if it was purely Asher’s effect on her.

  His hands slid down her back. They found her ass. He hesitated, as if waiting for her consent. This was new territory. If she pushed him away, he would back off. She didn’t want him to go away, though. Now that he held her, she wanted more.

  Asher cupped her ass and squeezed. The growl in his chest radiated through her. It was possessive and greedy. She gave in to it, letting it fill her, letting it take her. She wanted him just as bad. Her fox yipped with delight. This was what it had been pushing her toward all along.

  “I don’t know how much more of this I can take,” Asher whispered. “You’re all I want. You’re all I think about.”

  His other hand roved over her body, like he was trying to memorize her curves in the moment she gave him. She wanted to give him more. In return, she would get more. With him, she was safe. He wouldn’t let anyone dictate her life. No one was going to get past him.

  Knowing that gave her a bit of freedom. She felt like she could breathe for the first time in her life. Excited, she leapt to wrap her legs around his waist. Asher staggered back. She thought she’d done something wrong until she realized he was spinning toward the bed. She fell back into a pile of pillows, feeling like a queen as he looked down at her.

  His beast was in his eyes. She wanted to pull him down to her and kiss his eyelids.

  “If we do this…I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to go back,” Asher warned her.

  She didn’t know what that meant in the moment. All Zara wanted was Asher. She dragged him down to her, lifting so that their lips collided. He immediately opened to her. This was what she could have had that morning. Now that she’d denied him once, their motions became frantic. They couldn’t take their time with their beasts pushing them forward.

  Zara broke the kiss just long enough to say, “Touch me.”

  Asher did as she asked. He ran his hands down her waist, over her breasts, over her hips. He slipped under her dress and found her skin. His warmth seeped into her and eased a bit of the frenetic need that had frazzled her. Her kiss slowed.

  She drew him over her and cradled him between her legs. Even with their clothes on, she could feel the length of him. He was huge. She remembered seeing him naked the day he’d brought her to the lake house and thinking that she could never handle all of him. They would have to be slow.

  Zara didn’t know if she had it in her to be slow. Asher, though, seemed to have enough control for the both of them. He leaned back and searched her face. She arched into him, missing his touch. His smile was more than worth it.

  “How do you fight with that in your pants all the time?” she asked.

  “Well, for one, I’m not always rock hard. That just happens when I’m around you.”

  Zara didn’t have enough sense to be awkward. She was consumed by need. Asher gently rocked against her. The length of his cock rubbed her in all the right places, touching where no one else had ever bothered to touch.

  Not that she’d been with many men. Every time she slept with someone, she felt dirty. She knew that was caused by some trauma leftover from her biological family’s dated values but acknowledging where it came from never made it go away.

  With Asher, it was different. Zara didn’t feel like she was wasting herself or ruining her future. There was potential between them. Passion flared bright and hot when he touched her. She could see just how much he wanted her in his eyes. He didn’t treat her l
ike an entrance or a means to a climax.

  With Asher, she felt like a goddess. He worshiped her. With his tongue, his teeth, his hands, his cock.

  Zara suddenly couldn’t stand wearing clothes anymore. They rubbed against her skin in all the wrong ways. She craved the silk of his body on hers and the rough caress of his calloused hands. When she explored his body, she could feel all the bumps and scars of his life. Some she could remember watching on television.

  While she watched him fight, she never once thought she would be alone with him. Not once did it cross her mind that she would find this kind of affection in the hands of a man capable of such destruction. Yet, he handled her like she was made of glass, careful to keep from breaking her.

  “I want to…” The word stuck in her throat. Zara didn’t know exactly how to say it out loud. She was afraid it would sound stupid or like she was trying too hard.

  As she struggled to express herself, she wound her hands around the back of Asher’s neck. He waited patiently, laying kisses across her exposed collarbone while his fingers tugged the hem of her shirt over her head.

  “I know what I want,” Asher said to fill the silence. He kissed her jaw. “I want to make love to you.”

  “Yes,” she breathed. “That’s what I want.”

  But he didn’t do what she expected. She waited for his cock to touch her entrance, but Asher dipped lower. He looked up at her from between her legs. The sight of him stole her breath. His eyes were bright with his beast and a smirk highlighted the dimple in one cheek. Then his tongue parted her folds.

  Zara let out a sound of surprise that turned into a moan. He gripped her thighs gently, holding her to his face so that he could bury himself in her. She dug her nails into his sheets while he teased pleasure from her.

  No one had ever done this for her. Guys expected it from her all the time. She was supposed to sit on her knees and do all the worshipping. Instead, Asher worshipped her. He brought her to climax with his tongue alone.

  While her core clenched and spilled sensation through her body, Asher lifted himself over her. He slipped inside her wet warmth before her orgasm faded and filled her with another series of aftershocks. He groaned, too, as she clenched around him.

  He rested on his forearms, head ducked. The sounds she heard from him filled her with delight. She wrapped her legs around him and bucked beneath him. He cried out, hands clenching her shoulders. She had power in bed with him. She could make him feel just as good as he made her feel.

  It was a revelation. The only problem was that she didn’t quite know what he liked. He could have been the kind of man who wanted weird positions or one who craved a bit of pain. Zara found that, with Asher, she was willing to try anything. Just to be with him was something new and wonderful.

  Asher began to thrust in earnest. Pleasure radiated through her. She lost all sense of thought as he brought the sensations to their peak. She cried out and dug her nails into his back. Just when she felt bad about marking him, he groaned.

  His thrusts became faster, almost frenzied. The sensation grew frantic, tighter and tighter. She thought she would shatter under the pressure inside her. Asher drew back and palmed one of her breasts. He cupped it and brought the nipple to his mouth. A whole new feeling uncurled inside her. It blossomed through her entire body.

  This was what lovemaking should have felt like all along. She never realized just what she was missing out on. Now, she didn’t know if she would ever be able to give it up.

  Just when she climaxed for the second time, Asher pulled back. His seed dribbled over her thigh, hot on her skin. The scent of their lovemaking permeated the air around them. It took them a long moment to return to their senses, still intoxicated by each other.

  “Why did you pull out?” she asked.

  He cursed and ran off to the bathroom to grab a towel. When he returned, he wiped her leg with the warm cloth. To be cared for so tenderly was unfamiliar to her. He was careful not to press too hard, even though he was a dragon man used to hitting people for a living. With her, he was always gentle.

  “We didn’t discuss birth control. You said your bio-parents were pushing you to have kids and that you didn’t want that. I didn’t want to fuck that up for you.”

  Her heart swelled. She pulled him down, into her arms, and wrapped herself around him. Asher, even though he was a massive muscled dragon man, tossed the soiled towel into the nearby hamper and let himself be tugged into her embrace.

  Zara wondered if she’d ever slept beside a man before, let alone in his arms. She lay with him even when he began to gently snore and wondered what her life was becoming. Staying with Asher was meant to avoid her ex-fiancé, but somehow she’d ended up in Asher’s bed. When she searched her feelings, she couldn’t find an ounce of regret.

  She hugged him tight to her bosom and wondered at how she was falling for this dangerous man. He should have been kept at an arm’s length, but apparently, she was weak. Perhaps it was in the way he treated her. With him, she wasn’t a commodity. She was a friend.

  She’d never had a lover who’d also been a friend before.

  10

  Heat washed over her left side. When she cracked her eyes open and found Asher beside her, she smiled. His chest rose and fell in the gently rhythm of sleep, yet he still threw off so much heat that she doubted there was even a need for a heater in the winter.

  The floor, by contrast, was icy cold when she got up. She grabbed her underwear and Asher’s nearby shirt before leaving Asher to sleep.

  Zara figured out how to use Asher’s coffee making contraption with the help of the internet. She didn’t dare wake him so early in the morning. The conical device sat over the top of a coffee cup and required hot water poured over open coffee grounds. She’d never seen anything so pretentious, but when she took the cup of coffee out onto the deck and sank into a relaxing chair, she had to admit that it was the best cup of coffee in her life.

  The day after they brought her things to Asher’s lake house, she was the only one awake when there was a knock on the door. Her fox startled. She nearly scrambled back to the bedroom, thinking there would be a posse of dragons on the other side of the door. Yet, when she peeked beyond the curtains and saw that the front walk was empty, curiosity got the better of her.

  She opened the door to find a stack of boxes. There were so many of varying sizes that she shook her head. When did Asher have the time to go on such a shopping spree? She dragged them in, carrying the boxes inside in several stacks.

  In the corner of the room, her schoolbooks mocked her. They were clunky yellow and red things that screamed at her like goblins. She did her best to ignore their presence in this dream state. She felt like she was outside of time. So long as she ignored the books, then the beginning of the new school year would never reach her.

  And she wouldn’t have to tell Oscar and Regina that she was failing.

  Zara sat on the floor of the living room, the lake and the boxes before her. She bit her lip and glanced back at the bedroom. With the door ajar, she could see Asher fast asleep, one arm and a foot hanging off the edge of the bed. Happiness was a feathery feeling in her chest when she looked at him.

  Since he was still asleep, she figured he wouldn’t mind if she opened some of the packages for him. There was probably another coffee contraption so that they didn’t have to share the single one in the morning.

  But what she found inside the first box confused her. The largest box was filled with canvases of varying sizes. She thought Asher had ordered new wall art, but when she lifted them from the box, she found they were all blank. Reaching for the next box, Zara realized she was holding her breath. She forced herself to draw in fresh air as she sank the blade into the packing tape.

  This smaller box held paint brushes. She scowled down at it before turning that scowl over to Asher. He was still asleep, oblivious to her ire. She couldn’t believe that he’d done something like this. He must have spent hundreds on all these art supp
lies. Inside the other boxes, she found more things.

  Expensive tubes of acrylic paint, palettes, clear finishing resin. The supplies surrounded her like a magical circle. When she looked up from it all and found the blue-green lake sprawled out before her and the sun casting a glorious array of light over it, it cast a spell over her. She got up from the floor and found her easel.

  On her way, she tossed a blanket over the business class books crouched in the corner. The only thing she wanted to focus on was painting the lake.

  Asher pretended to be asleep for a while longer. From where he lounged on the edge of the bed, he could watch Zara as she worked. At some point, she’d French braided her hair on either side of her head. There were hints of paint clinging to the strands, like she’d done it with messy hands. She was just as much a work of art as the painting before her.

  Zara didn’t work carefully. She didn’t hone fine detail out of her painting. Instead, her strokes were broad and sloppy, leaving behind impressions of shapes. Her colors were intense. She used the brightest pinks and most vibrant oranges for the sky. It was the last thing he expected from the goth girl.

  She wrapped herself in darkness, but there was so much vibrant life in her heart that could only be found in her paintings. Asher was proud of her. In the time he’d known her, there had never been a smear of paint to be found on her. Now, evidence of her passion was all over her hands and even smeared on her cheek.

  The degree she was working towards was so that she could make enough money to hide from her biological family. Asher wouldn’t mind becoming the wall she needed. He had enough money to ensure their safety, and when it came down to it, he was a dragon shifter. No fox would ever get past him.