Chapter 3Asher （18） #2
The last thing I wanted to do was kiss a girl.
I’d spent all of high school avoiding the girls who’d made it very clear that they were interested.
We weren’t kids anymore, and I dreaded the idea of getting myself into a situation where I’d be expected to hook up but couldn’t.
That was a fate worse than death as far as I was concerned. Everyone would know about me then.
“Theo, you and Asher should make out!”
Who the fuck said that? No! No! No!
“Oh my God, that would be so fucking hot,” someone else squealed.
Terror consumed me. I shook my head and hollered, “No. Absolutely not. ”
The girls sitting on the Jacuzzi booed, then one draped her arm over the other with a lascivious look in her eyes and said, “We’ll make out if you two do.”
The girls around them were screaming now. The chanting for Theo and me to make out grew deafening.
“Seriously? You’ll really kiss if we do?” Theo asked.
What? No! No, Theo! Don’t do this to me!
The girls looked at each other, their mouths curved into wicked smiles, and kissed.
“That was just a preview,” the one said. “You two first.”
Before I could protest, Theo grabbed the sides of my head and pulled me in for a kiss.
Oh my God. No, this can’t be happening…
It’s happening…
It’s finally happening.
I couldn’t stop myself. There was a salty aftertaste from the chlorine of the Jacuzzi as I sucked on his luscious lips. His big body enveloped me, one arm wrapping about my waist while another cupped the back of my head. Without thinking, I wrapped my arms around his shoulders.
“Fuck! That is so hot.”
I don’t know who said it, but it was enough to cause the lightning bolt of arousal ripping through my body to start burning.
What the hell was I doing? I ripped myself away from Theo, the force of it sending me sailing backwards and falling over the ledge of the hot tub and spilling onto the hard stone of the patio floor.
The cackling of the girls around us made me shake with fear.
This is it. I’m so fucking stupid. I should have pushed him away.
I rose to my feet, making a huge show of wiping my lips. “ Ew! You fucking weirdo! What are you doing?” I made my voice comically low, trying desperately to seem as macho as possible. Anyone with a brain would have known I was acting, but everyone at the party was trashed.
The girls were giggling and squealing, saying how hot it was. Theo looked at me while touching his lips, his head cocked to the side. Soon, his tongue traced the seam of his mouth, almost as if he were tasting…me?
Is he smiling?
All at once, the other guys on the team spilled onto the patio to see the show. It seemed like the whole party had emptied out of the house to witness the spectacle taking place in the jacuzzi.
Guys on the team started chanting “make out” to the girls on the ledge, but one of them screamed, “Not until Asher gets naked in the Jacuzzi with us!”
“Get in there, Lachlan!” Two guys on the team had flanked my sides and were tossing me back into the bubbling water.
Theo, still in a daze, seemed to snap out of it once he heard the guys chanting. He shook his head and yelled, “Get back in this sex soup, Red!”
He approached me in the Jacuzzi and attempted to pull off my shirt. That’s when I nearly puked.
No. I couldn’t let them take off my clothes.
I pushed Theo hard, harder than I meant to. I hated that I did it because no part of me wanted to push him away, but I had to protect myself. I scampered out of the Jacuzzi and bolted into the house, ignoring the echoes of everyone screaming for me to come back.
But I couldn’t.
I found Rowan making out with a girl in his entertainment area and demanded that he give me a dry set of clothes. He told me how to get to his bedroom and said I could take whatever I wanted as long as I left him alone.
He didn’t need to tell me twice. I wanted nothing more than to hide in his room for a minute and collect myself.
Abstract art covered the winding walls of the second floor. There wasn’t a single photo of the family. The whole place felt like a weird art installation.
I found Rowan’s room—it was hard to miss, considering it had a homemade Off Limits sign taped to the front. I thought it was pretty laughable that Rowan didn’t give two shits about people fucking in his parents’ bedroom, but his room was apparently sacred and deserving of a ridiculous sign.
The sign worked because Rowan’s room was the only one that didn’t have the sounds of sex in it.
I crept in and sank to the floor.
That was close. Too close.
I took a deep breath, collecting myself, as I sat on the floor. After a moment, I got up and looked inside Rowan’s massive walk-in closet.
This rich little fuck.
My mind couldn’t get over the sheer number of shirts and pants he had hanging in there. They all hung on these weird-looking hooks, and I realized that there was a button on the far left wall. I pressed it, and the clothes started moving like they do in a dry cleaner’s.
Jesus. Fucking. Christ.
It was wild. To have just a fraction of the money he had would change my life. Hell, if I could sell just half the clothes in this closet, I could probably put a down payment on a shitty apartment and free myself from the horrors of living with Mom and Louie.
I took off my wet clothes as Rowan’s wardrobe whirred around me like a toy train when I heard a gasp. I turned around and saw Theo, in all of his naked glory, looking at me with horror in his eyes.
No, no, no, no!
“Duuuude! Wadda ffffuck happened?” he slurred.
No, please, God.
Theo approached and turned me around, gently brushing his fingers over the welts I knew were on my backside. Louie had taken a belt to me two nights ago, and the bruises were still there. I shivered in panic.
“Who ffffucking did this to you?” Theo asked.
I turned to face him and was met with eyes that were pained yet woozy. His eyelids drooped, and I thanked my lucky stars that he was so trashed.
“Nothing. Nobody, I mean. It’s nothing.”
I started backing away, but Theo approached. I would have pushed myself against the wall to hide my back, but Rowan’s outfits were still soaring on their Goddamn conveyor belt.
Theo looked at me again and whispered, “Asher, who hurt you?”
The tears were about to spill down my cheeks, but Theo’s head suddenly rested on my shoulder.
He pulled me in for a hug, running his fingers along the bruises on my back.
“Tell me who. I’ll ffffucking…” he squeezed me tighter, then planted a kiss on the top of my head.
I wrapped my arms around him, not wanting to ever let go, but then the big boy went limp in my arms.
“Ugh…soooo drrrruunk,” he groaned.
I was crushed when the moment ended. I felt so safe in his embrace—like I could just collapse into him and he’d carry me away from all of my troubles. But I was also relieved that there was a chance he might not remember any of it. He was so damn drunk. “Come on, Big Boy. Let’s put you to bed.”
I helped Theo to Rowan’s bed and lay him down.
Even in the king-size bed, Theo looked massive.
His eyes slowly closed, and he fell asleep.
His face looked so serene—everyone always remarked about Theo’s hulking, muscular body, but nobody ever took notice of how truly handsome he was.
He was perfect. I lowered myself and kissed his forehead.
I wanted to kiss his lips, but he passed out, and that would be creepy.
As I rose upright, he whispered, “Who hurt you?”
Oh no! Did he feel that? Did he know I just creepily kissed him as he slept? Could this night get any worse?
I spoke on a hushed whimper. “Theo?”
His head didn’t move, and his breathing slowly morphed into a cute snore.
Thank God.
I rose from the bed and made my way back to Rowan’s illustrious closet. I clicked the button, stopping the absurd clothing conveyor, and grabbed a top and shorts to put on. As I passed the bed, the urge to lie down and cuddle with Theo was palpable, but I squashed it.
Like I did everything.
I needed to go back downstairs and act normal. I had to have looked like a weirdo as I ran out of the party after Theo kissed me.
I’d go downstairs, play it cool, and pretend that kissing my best friend, who was also the love of my life, wasn’t the most incredible feeling in the world. I’d pretend like his fingers caressing the welts on my back weren’t the most soothing feeling I’d ever experienced.
I’d pretend, because that’s what I had to do.