CHAPTER 56
Olivia
“ I ’m sorry about that. I know we have to figure this out. The whole of Laurel Creek thinks we’re together, my parents think we’re together, but now, with my house done, I know we can’t keep this up any longer and I have no idea how we’re going to get out of this …”
I know I’m talking a mile a minute, but with my parents now questioning why I’d keep my house, I know we’ve come to the end of Asher and I playing house. I just don’t know how I’m going to—
“Liv.” Asher’s calm tone settles me instantly. “I can see your mental gymnastics from here.”
“It’s just …” I take a deep breath. What I’m about to say is gonna make me feel either better or worse. But at least I’ll feel like I’m speaking the truth. Fuck it.
“I haven’t been very honest with you, Asher,” I blurt out, staring out the window as the countryside passes us by in a sea of oranges and reds.
Running a hand over my swollen belly, I hope with everything in me this doesn’t make him feel trapped or like I broke our pact.
Most of all, I hope it doesn’t make him feel obligated to agree to something he doesn’t want to.
“I’ve been pretending that I’m okay with right now and temporary. ”
I turn to face him. “But, Asher, I’m not,” I say softly, my heart thudding in my chest as if my entire future rests on this moment I definitely didn’t plan.
“I know we were supposed to stay friends, co-parents. But—and I think this is entirely your fault because you’ve been so damn incredible—I think …” I look down at my lap. “I know, I’m falling in love with you.”
My voice is a whisper, and the moment the words leave my lips I start to panic. Because Asher is silent, a tic in his jaw, as he turns down his driveway. The mere moments it takes us to park feel endless, until he cuts the engine, turns to face me, and reaches out to cover my hand with his.
“I think there’s something you need to see, Liv.”
He gets out of the truck and comes around to my side. That’s it? I confess my love and there’s no “I’ve been pretending too” or “I feel the same way”?
“ Stop spiraling,” he reiterates, kissing my forehead with a chuckle as he opens the door.
His big hand swallows mine and I have to remind myself that he’s always been a man of few words as he leads me up the steps to his house.
The smell of freshly fallen leaves and wild winter pansies drifts through the crisp fall air as we walk, reminding me of all the nights he’s made me hot apple cider with cinnamon, and the mornings we’ve explored the creek with Duke.
All these small moments that have made this house feel like home.
I don’t know how I’m ever going to say goodbye to it.
Once inside, I toe off my sandals as Asher does the same with his boots. My heart flutters in my chest as his knuckles come up to graze my cheek, and then his hands move through my hair to pull the orange scarf from my head before folding it into a blindfold.
“You know I’m not the best at expressing my emotions, Liv.
When I was young, I was told it was a sign of weakness.
But, for you, I’m learning.” He pauses for a beat before pressing on.
“I’m much better at working with my hands when I’m inspired.
And I’ve never been more inspired than I have been since you tripped into my life … ”
Asher lets out a chuckle and I smile softly as he ties the blindfold securely over my eyes. When he’s sure I can’t see anything, he runs a hand down my arm, sending goosebumps over my body, before peppering a kiss on my cheek.
“Now, come with me, mama,” he whispers, “and watch your step.” I can almost hear the smirk as he leads me to the end of the long hallway where his office is.
I hear the door open. “If you think for one second, Olivia, that I’ve been doing any kind of pretending with you, then you’re wrong.”
Asher places his hand on my lower back as his lips move to under my ear.
“All I’ve wanted to do is respect you. I never wanted to push you; I wanted you to want me.
I just never in a million years thought I’d be lucky enough to get to keep you.
I always thought there’d be a time when I’d have to give you back, let you go, because I’ve never had anything good … ”
His words trail off as the scarf is untied and slips from my face. At the same time, he flicks on the light and my eyes fly open. I’m standing in the doorway, only his office isn’t his office anymore, not really. I swear my heart stops beating at the sight before me.
Asher’s desk has been moved against the wall beside me and, in the center of the room, amid some storage totes and a filing cabinet, sits the most beautiful crib I’ve ever seen. It’s been crafted from natural wood and engraved with intricate sleigh details.
“It’s olive wood. Rare.”
I watch as he moves closer, running a hand along it. I follow suit. The wood is so smooth and the design is breathtak ingly beautiful. I can tell how much time, care, and love he must have put into making it. “As rare as someone like you giving me a chance.”
My heart stutters with the raw honesty and, when I lift my gaze, I notice two words laser-cut in cursive hanging above the crib.
little bear
My eyes grow wide. It’s too much. All the emotions this man is making me feel; cared for, safe, wanted.
“A-are you asking me … to stay?” I stutter out.
He grips both sides of my face, stroking my cheek with his thumb and looking deep into my eyes. They’re so intense—vibrant gray—and his pupils are blown wide.
“I’m not just asking you to stay, Liv. I’m trying to tell you that living with you, loving you, is the easiest thing I’ve ever done.” He bends down and presses his lips to mine. “I’m fucking begging you to stay.”
My entire body tenses. The words are so unexpected, so raw, that I feel them everywhere.
“Say it again,” I whisper, tears spilling over my cheeks as I close my eyes.
He takes his time. Kissing one cheek.
“If it isn’t painfully clear, I’m so madly, insanely in love with you.” He moves to kiss the other. “I’d die before I let you go, Olivia. I made this crib for our baby, and I’d really, really fuckin’ like it if it lived here in my home, instead of going back to yours.”
I smile up at him, narrowing my eyes.
“I thought you didn’t believe in love?” I query, my eyebrow raised, though I’m so damn happy I could burst.
“Aye.” He chuckles. “You gonna make me work for this, are you?”
“You know it.” I kiss him.
“Beautiful Olivia, never in all my thirty-two years did I ever think there was a woman for me. A match who would excite me.” He kisses my nose.
“I never believed in soulmates. I thought the men in my family were cursed for love, for true happiness.” Asher lifts his hand so his thumb grazes my cheek.
“But it’s taken you less than seven months to prove to me that I am the man I always wanted to be, with you. My soulmate, in every possible way.”
“I love you, Asher,” I whisper. “Of course I’ll stay.”
Reaching down, I take his big hand in my smaller one and place it against my stomach.
“This is where we belong,” I say, and my heart soars as I kiss him. Every bit of love I can muster up courses through me now, for him, and for our child, as he kisses me.
Asher is warm and inviting as his hands search and knead.
Hunger takes over as the fall wind howls against the roof and Asher groans.
I feel him stiffen with our kiss, and then he’s moving me backward out of the baby’s room and into the hall.
We don’t even make it past the foyer before he’s spinning me around, sliding his hands through my hair, and lifting my head up so that I can look over my shoulder and into the mirror above the table near the front door.
The soft light from the kitchen casts shadows over both of us, and I watch intently as his gaze trails over my back. A look of tortured need lines his gorgeous face as he flips my dress up over my hips and squeezes my ass tight. I moan and his jaw tics at the sound.
His expression has me so turned on that a feeling I’ve never experienced before takes over.
A desire to own him how he owns me. Driven by instinct, I reach back, cupping his cock through his jeans, and his heated eyes flick to mine as I start to stroke him.
I smirk and then slink out of the way so he’s left standing in front of the mirror.
“Take your shirt off,” I tell him in my most sultry, commanding voice, power coursing through me when he listens. “And stay there.”
His muscular chest rises and falls as I move behind him, reaching around his waist and unbuckling his jeans.
I peek at his reflection in the mirror, expecting him to lose his patience with me and take back the control he always clings to. But, to my surprise, he doesn’t move an inch. He waits as I loosen his jeans around him just enough to pull his hard cock out.
“You want me to touch you?” I purr. His cock is so hard and leaking for me, telling me he likes me taking control just as much as I do.
“Yes,” he answers.
“Yes, kitten?” I correct him. He doesn’t hesitate.
“Yes, kitten.”
Holy hell, I’m practically dripping down my own thighs.
I spit into my palm intentionally while he watches me.
His jaw locks again as I reach around and begin to pull on his cock, not moving my eyes from his in the mirror.
His bottom lip is clasped between his teeth, and as I toy with him, running my first finger over his piercing, his eyes roll back in pleasure.
“Uh-uh,” I tell him firmly. “Eyes here, Daddy.”
“ Fuck, woman,” he bites out as I continue my stroke, watching us both in the mirror.
The strain of his thick neck, the veins in his abs, sending all that blood to his aching, solid shaft.
I’ve never felt more high than when he groans a long, deep growl.
This beast of a man, this absolute alpha, handing all the control to me. Because he’s mine.
I’m drunk on this power as I back away. Asher doesn’t dare move as I drop my hand. He pulls in ragged breaths, like his lungs are working overtime, and his eyes are wild as he waits for my command.
“Now you spit,” I order, not breaking eye contact. “Stroke yourself for me, Ash. Show me how you make yourself come when I’m not around.”
Asher smirks, the kind that tells me that when he gets his hands on me, I’m done for. But he listens as he spits into his palm and takes his huge dick into his hand, stroking for me.
“That cunt is crying for me, isn’t it, pretty girl ?” he asks as he continues his steady pulls.
“Yes,” I answer honestly. “You want it?”
“Fuck yeah,” he answers right away.
“Beg me,” I breathe out, lifting my dress off over my head, moving out from behind him, just enough for him to see my lacy white bra and panties. “Tell me when you can’t take it anymore.” I hook my thumbs into my panties, letting them slink down my body and onto the floor.
“Don’t you dare come,” I say as I step out of my panties and cock a hip. His eyes go to the swell of my belly as a low growl erupts from between his lips. His teeth are clenched, his jaw taut.
“Too much yet, baby?” I ask as I ghost my middle finger over my clit.
His eyes are dark as he speaks in a low tone. “Please, my bossy, messy little brat, give me your hot, tight cunt so I can fucking ruin you.”
I move to position myself in front of him, bending down to lean my forearms against the table as he spits onto his first two fingers, running them through my soaked core and pushing them into me.
There is no gentleness, no moment to savor.
Asher is on a mission and I’m so wet already, but the lewd act causes my pussy to throb even more and my head to fall back.
Moments pass as he runs his cock through my arousal, my pussy lips hugging tight to him.
I’m panting, I’m about to beg for him. He knows it.
“Since you asked so nicely, you can fuck me now.” I lock eyes with him in the mirror and a tingle of fear runs up my spine for just a moment as I consider maybe I pushed him too far. Fuck it. I push him further. “Make me scream your name, Daddy.”