Chapter 21
Asher
I was so wound tight I didn’t know what to do.
I lay on my bed staring at the ceiling, hands behind my head, trying to breathe through the aching need in my body.
I was hard as a rock, and all I could think about was Claire.
The way she looked tonight. The way she kissed me outside like it was the most natural thing in the world.
And Elise catching us. That thought alone should’ve been enough to make me stay put.
Claire was my employee. I was supposed to be the responsible one. The guy who didn’t blur lines.
Instead I was lying here replaying the way her mouth felt against mine.
I scrubbed a hand over my face. This wasn’t me.
I didn’t get tangled up or attached. I sure as hell didn’t sit awake at night thinking about one woman and only one woman.
But Claire was different. She got under my skin in ways I didn’t understand.
I talked to her about things I didn’t talk about with anyone.
She made me want to be honest. Made me want to slow down.
And those blue eyes. Every time she looked at me, it felt like I was caught in something I didn’t know how to fight.
I groaned and sat up. Sleeping wasn’t happening.
I pulled on a T-shirt, shoved my feet into boots, and stepped outside the cool night air hitting my skin.
My plan was simple. Walk it off. Clear my head.
My feet ignored the plan completely. They carried me toward her cabin.
Halfway down the path, a figure stepped into view.
Claire.
She stopped just as abruptly as I did. For a second, we just stared at each other.
“Asher?” she gasped.
“I was coming to see you,” I said before I could stop myself.
Her eyes widened slightly. “Me too.”
Well, hell. The silence between us hummed.
“I couldn’t sleep,” she said softly.
“Me neither,” I admitted.
I glanced around automatically, making sure no one was watching, no curious eyes peeking through cabin windows. The place was quiet, dark, everyone else turned in for the night.
“Come on,” I said quietly, nodding toward my cabin. “Let’s go inside.”
She hesitated for half a second, then followed me.
I shut the door behind us, and the air shifted instantly.
Neither of us spoke. I reached for her first. Her hands slid up my chest as our mouths met, slow at first, then deeper.
The kiss felt hungry but not frantic. It felt familiar, which was dangerous.
My fingers curled at her waist, pulling her closer until there wasn’t any space left between us.
I couldn’t get enough of her. She sighed against my mouth, and I felt something soften in my chest that had nothing to do with lust. I broke the kiss just enough to breathe.
“I need to take you on a date,” I murmured against her lips.
She blinked at me. “What?”
I brushed my forehead against hers, smiling faintly. “You deserve more than secret late nights in my cabin.”
Her laugh surprised me, light and warm. “Are you becoming soft on me, bossman?” she teased.
I huffed a laugh. “Don’t start.”
She pulled back just enough to look at me, eyes sparkling. “You,” she said, poking my chest lightly, “are definitely getting soft.”
I caught her hand, pressing a kiss to her knuckles.
“Maybe,” I admitted quietly. “Or maybe you’re the exception.”
Her expression softened. And just like that, the teasing faded and the space between us grew charged again.
I kissed her slowly this time, taking my time, trying to memorize the way she fit against me.
Because for the first time in a long time, I didn’t want to rush anything. And that scared the hell out of me.
I walked her to the bed until the back of her knees touched the edge. “I want to have sex with you,” she said. She was making me unravel and she didn’t even know it.
“I want that too, but not tonight,” I said.
She replied with a low playful sound. “You’re playing hard to get.”
I laughed. “You’ve waited this long. There has to be a reason you did.”
“Maybe I just never felt this kind of pull,” she said. “Or maybe it’s annoyance.”
She clucked her tongue. She knew how to pull my strings and get a reaction out of me.
I flipped her on her back and she squealed. “I still plan on having you writhe beneath me.” I nipped at her bottom lip.
“I won’t say no to that,” she replied.
“Good.” I sealed the word with another kiss. This time her arms went around me and we got lost in each other, but we also couldn’t move up the bed.
“Shoes,” she said. I got up and took off her shoes. “And while I’m at it, clothes.” I took off my boots before undressing her.
“This isn’t fair. In show and tell, everyone needs to participate,” she said.
“That was corny,” I laughed.
“OMG, I know. I need to work on my seduction,” she giggled while blushing.
“No, I think that comes naturally to you. The way you look into my eyes, the way your breathing changes when I get close. You have me hooked,” I confessed.
And with those words I sealed my mouth on hers.
Our tongues twisted and I groaned into her mouth.
She was sweet and open. That was the thing, Claire was an open book, and I liked that about her too. She pressed her chest against mine.
I took off my shirt so I could be skin to skin with her, and she ran her hands over my ass, removing my shorts and boxers.
I was rock hard, but I wanted tonight to be about her because I was learning how selfless she was.
She had put her own life on hold to find answers for a friend that was long gone. She had a big heart.
“Asher,” she moaned as I kissed a path to her breasts. I sucked her nipple into my mouth and she groaned and wrapped her arms around my head. “OMG.” Her hips thrust into my cock.
“Be careful,” I warned. We were both naked, and there was only so much control I had left.
“I like seeing you lose control. You always seem so deliberate, it’s a nice change,” she smirked.
“Not tonight, beautiful,” I said. She was a virgin. She deserved more than a lust filled night. “I want to do better by you when the time’s right.”
“Have you always been this chivalrous?” she joked.
“No,” I deadpanned.
“So, it’s me,” she said, almost like a question.
“It’s you,” I said as I sucked her other nipple into my mouth and then circled my tongue over the hardened bud. She bucked off the bed.
“Asher,” she cried out.
“I know what you need, baby.” I licked two fingers and slid them inside her.
“Oh.” She moaned. I lowered my head to her thighs and used two fingers to spread her lips before I pressed my mouth to her center, sucking and licking. Her hips moved against my tongue. Her fingers tangled in my hair.
“You’re going to be the death of me,” I rasped.
“That sounds cryptic,” she laughed.
I slid my fingers in and out of her as my tongue worked her over.
I felt her pussy clenching around them, and dreamed of having my cock inside her.
But that was something I would have to earn another night.
She came apart like a firecracker, crying out, and when she came down from her high, I gathered her in my arms, but the moment she saw my cock, rock hard, bobbing against my abdomen, her head dipped and she took me in her mouth.
“You don’t need to do this,” I urged as my fingers tangled in her blond hair.
“I want to,” she said, and then she shifted lower on the bed and licked my cock like she couldn’t get enough, moving up the side, sucking me down, swirling her tongue on my tip. I was already lost and her mouth pushed me over the edge.
“I’m going to come, Claire. You don’t have to keep your mouth on me,” I said. She moaned like she was turned on.
“I want to. I want you to come down my throat,” she said, and damn, those were the sexiest words I’d ever heard, and coming from her it made it even more intense.
She went back to it. Taking me down. My hips thrust into her mouth, and I gathered her hair together and held it in a ponytail so I could watch the way she was taking me.
I lost it, falling over the edge grunting as I spilled into her mouth.
I was completely winded by the time I came down from my high.
I had a lazy smile on my face, and Claire curled into me.
We got under the covers since the room suddenly went from hot to cold.
Claire lay curled against my side, her head resting on my chest, her breathing slowing as the rush between us faded into something softer.
My arm was wrapped around her automatically, fingers tracing lazy circles along her back.
The kind of closeness that made me feel grounded instead of trapped.
She shifted slightly, her fingertips brushing over my chest.
“What’s this one?” she asked quietly of my tattoo.
I followed her gaze. The ink stretched across the left side of my chest, black lines worn slightly softer with time.
“That one’s old,” I said. “Got it when I was nineteen.”
Her fingers traced the edges carefully. Respectfully. It was a compass. Simple. Clean lines. The needle pointed north.
“A compass?” she asked.
I nodded. “Yeah. Back when I thought I’d spend my life wandering.” I exhaled quietly. “I didn’t really have a direction. Figured maybe I’d need one.”
She smiled faintly against my skin. “You don’t seem like someone who gets lost.”
I let out a soft laugh. “You’d be surprised.”
Her hand moved down my arm, following the ink there.
“And these?” she asked.
The first was a small set of mountains etched into my upper arm. “Those are for Maple Valley,” I said. “For home. I got them when Eric asked me to take over the orchard. Felt like… committing to staying instead of running.”
She was quiet for a moment, absorbing that. “You really love it here,” she murmured.
“Yeah,” I admitted. “Took me a while to realize that.”
Her fingers drifted lower to the second tattoo, which was a thin line of script along my forearm.
She squinted slightly. “What does this one say?”
I hesitated for a beat. “It says find your peace,” I answered quietly.
She looked up at me. “Did someone say that to you?”
I swallowed, eyes drifting toward the ceiling for a moment. “Not exactly.”
Her fingers stilled, waiting.
“My mom used to say it,” I said finally.
“Before she left. Whenever things got loud in the house or me and my brothers were fighting, she’d tell us to go outside, breathe, find our peace.
” The words felt strange out loud. Like something I hadn’t touched in years.
“I was eleven when she left,” I added quietly. “Almost twelve.”
Claire’s expression softened instantly. “So it’s… a memory?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Not something she wrote down. Just something I remembered.” I exhaled slowly. “Guess I didn’t want to forget the good parts.”
Her thumb brushed over the letters gently, like she understood exactly how heavy that was.
“That’s really beautiful,” she whispered.
I shrugged lightly, though my chest felt tight. “Didn’t feel beautiful for a long time.”
She rested her chin against me, her voice soft. “It does now.”
Silence settled between us again, quiet and warm.
Her fingers kept tracing the ink absentmindedly.
I realized I didn’t mind the vulnerability.
She shifted closer, her body melting into mine.
I tightened my arm around her, pressing a kiss into her damp hair.
Her breathing slowed. Mine followed. And somewhere between the steady rise and fall of her chest and the warmth of her against me, we drifted off tangled together, the world finally quiet.