Chapter 6 #2
“Stop it,” she whispers, but I can hear the amusement in her tone. “Please tell me you bought more than one outfit and have dropped them home already?” she asks, and I nod as well as I can with my head in a basin.
Why does her calling it home sound so good? I know she means her home, but I’m going to pretend she means my home, too.
Lily’s fingers dig in deeper to my scalp then, and again I moan, not able to hold back.
“Fuck, Lily. It feels so fucking good. My cock is hard.”
“Asher, stop it.”
I chuckle. “Why? I know you want me just as much as I want you. I think we both made that clear last night.”
She stops massaging my head and turns the water back on, rinsing the shampoo from my hair.
“It was a mistake,” she says firmly, but I don’t believe her. Not for one fucking minute.
Even so, her words bite.
“Really? It felt like a mistake to you?” I can’t hide the edge in my tone.
I know I shouldn’t let her reaction to what happened bother me, but fuck, all I’ve ever dreamed of is Lily Bennett loving me the way I love her.
She stays quiet, so I decide to keep talking. Fuck it. I may as well lay it all out there. How else will she know how fucking serious I am?
“Last night, it felt like I finally woke up,” I admit. “It’s like I’ve been walking around not really living, and for the first time I can recall, last night, with you, I felt alive. Like I finally arrived home.” I shrug against the basin. “It felt right to me.”
Again, Lily stays quiet, and I think she’s not going to speak, but then she shuts off the water and grabs a towel, tossing it over my head before rubbing some of the water from my hair.
“It probably felt right to you because it’s cool for someone your age to fuck a cougar. I remember how the boys were at your age, Asher. Some even made it a competition to see how many older women they could hook up with.”
I sit up abruptly, turning to face Lily, her expression shocked at my sudden change in position.
“Firstly, we didn’t fuck. Not yet, anyway,” I point out, letting her see my anger.
“And I don’t give a fuck what anyone else thinks.
What we do in the privacy of your house is no one else’s fucking business.
I’m not doing this because I’m trying to snag a fucking cougar.
I’m doing this because I want you. I have wanted you even before I understood the feelings I was having for you, back when I was just a young lad.
And yes, I know the thought of that is going to freak you out, but it’s the truth, and I’m not fucking holding back anymore.
I want you, Lily. And I’m going to have you.
I can be patient. I’ve waited this long, so stop trying to convince me that this isn’t happening. Because it is.”
Her brows shoot high, and her cheeks flush red, and she opens her mouth to speak, but then snaps it shut again.
On the inside, I’m grinning. On the outside, I’m nothing but stone-cold seriousness.
Lily raises her hand, and I realise she’s gesturing for me to leave the basin seat and move to a cutting chair, so I slowly stand, keeping my eyes on her as she walks over to the chair she wants me to take.
When I take the seat, my gaze returns to her face in the reflection of the mirror, studying her every move, trying to get a read on her.
Taking a comb in one hand and her scissors in the other, she starts combing my wet strands, remaining quiet as she starts to trim.
Fuck it. I’ve said too much. Pushed too hard.
Maybe my immaturity is showing through.
Fuck.
“You’ve gone quiet.”
She doesn’t speak.
“Come on, Lil. Talk to me.”
Her blue gaze briefly darts to mine in the mirror before she moves in front of me, still trimming my hair. The new position puts her tits at eye level, and I bite my lip, wondering how long I can hold back from touching her, and if she’d stab me if I tried.
I can’t hold back for long apparently, because the next second I find myself reaching out and gripping her waist, tugging her close.
She gasps, “Asher.”
Oh fuuuuck. Her Aussie accent is thick today.
“Lily.”
“Stop. This isn’t right. You’re my sons’—”
“Don’t fucking say it,” I snap, my fingers digging into her waist. “I know who your sons are to me. That doesn’t change how I feel about you. How I have felt from the day you picked me up from school, scared the shit out of the principal, and threatened to kill my old man.”
Her brows shoot up. “You know about that?”
“Yes.” I grin. “I kind of disobeyed you when you asked me to stay in the car. I saw how you made my dad cower, and I saw my mum passed out on the couch, not hearing a word.”
“Asher, I—”
“I don’t need an explanation of why you did it.
I’m glad you did. You’ve always looked after me when you didn’t have to.
And I know you’re going to say that’s because you’re a mum and you would never let a child suffer, but I don’t care.
I’ve never looked at you like a mum. Only the woman I’ve been crushing on for years, and who I now have in my grasp. ”
She pulls away, successfully breaking my hold on her before circling behind me to finish cutting the back of my hair.
“I won’t be home until late tonight. I have a committee meeting.”
I narrow my eyes at her words. They sound like a lie. Is she trying to avoid me?
“Haven’t those committee things stopped now that the twins don’t go to school?”
“Sadly no. I’m still on a few boards. They wouldn’t know what to do without me.” The lie falls so easily from her lips.
“You want some help? I could get you fired from those boards pretty quickly, and then you wouldn’t have to worry about them anymore,” I say playfully, and she grins, shaking her head.
“No thanks. Those committees keep me busy. Since the twins have been gone, things are more… lonely. The committees keep me occupied so I don’t fall into a depressive dark hole.”
Shit. Her words are laced with loneliness. It’s fucking heartbreaking.
She stops cutting my hair then, her eyes focused on the comb as it glides through my now shorter hair as she examines it. Then, any chance of me talking to her further flies out the window as she turns on the electric trimmer, its buzzing making it hard to hold a serious conversation.
Once she’s done cutting my hair, she turns her back on me and makes up an excuse about running late for the committee meeting, so I reluctantly leave.
I’ll give her the space she’s obviously trying to put between us for now, but if Lily thinks I’m going to give up, she’s sorely mistaken. I have something planned for her tonight, and I’m counting down the hours until she comes home from her so-called committee meeting to make it happen.