Chapter 22
He ducked out of the way, and the pencil fell to the ground. Asher chuckled.
“What are you doing here?” I gasped, placing my hand over my heart.
“Coming to see you.” He pushed off the wall he’d been leaning against.
“How long have you been standing there?” I sheepishly asked as he slowly walked my way.
“Probably a good solid forty-five minutes.” He smiled and stopped beside the piano bench. “What were you playing?”
“Nothing.” I quickly tried to shove the papers beneath my butt.
“Uh huh.” He lifted a brow, and I shook my head. Reaching forward, he wiggled his fingers. “Let me see.”
“Really, it was nothing. Just something…”
“In your head?” he finished for me, and I nodded. He wiggled his outstretched fingers again, and I slowly slid the papers out. His eyes scanned them, running over the notes while I quietly waited.
Then, without lifting his gaze from the sheets of music, he plopped himself down on the bench beside me. I slid over a little as he propped the papers up on the piano and began slowly plucking one hand of notes.
He played in beautiful silence. Cautiously, I reached forward, adding the supporting melody and joining in. We did not speak a word, yet there was so much whispering through the air. I took a chance and glanced at him, his amber eyes intently studying the music.
Slowly, his gaze slid to mine, pain blatantly tightened upon his face. “Why?” he finally whispered.
We stopped playing, and I looked away, tears sliding down my cheeks.
“I just need to know why I’m not enough for you, and then I can let you go,” he quietly added.
I shook my head, the tears falling faster. “That’s not it at all.”
“Then what is it? Why couldn’t you have just not said it in the first place?” His voice cracked, and I looked back at him. “You were so concerned the entire time that I was using you, and yet, all this time that’s what you were doing to me.”
“You can’t be more wrong.” I choked through the tears.
“I don’t believe you.” Creases etched deeply upon his face.
“I tried to stop the elevator. I tried to find a way back up to your room that night. I even called you, but you didn’t answer,” I began to explain.
He merely watched me. “It took me a second to realize why I’d upset you so much.
Why you’d gotten so angry with me, and when I did, it was too late.
I didn’t say what I did to make you feel like I used you, Asher.
I’ve literally only ever slept with you and Danny.
That’s it. Nobody else. I don’t just sleep around. ”
His brows furrowed, and he tipped his head. But said nothing. Simply waiting and processing.
“I’m terrified,” I whispered.
He stared at me.
But his gaze began to soften; slowly the tension slipped away.
“And I’m sorry,” I quietly added.
Asher lifted a hand and placed his palm gently against my cheek. Wiping away one side of my tears before raising his other and doing the same on the opposite side. A tender smile spread across his lips.
“What are you saying?” he softly asked.
“That I can’t lose you. That I need you.”
He slowly leaned forward. “Anything else?”
I shook my head with a small smile.
Gently, he tilted his head slightly to the side, and his lips met mine.
Soft and tender. Quiet and simple. And I felt light.
All the heavy burdens that had been weighing on my shoulders took flight, drifting away with one single kiss.
I knew there was still so much uncertainty to come.
But the one thing I did know was that I could handle them with him.
He pulled away, hovering above my mouth.
“Nobody can know,” I said. “Well, other than the guys, I guess.” His lips lifted into a smile.
“So, this is you finally agreeing to date me?”
I kept my eyes closed and shook my head. But I was grinning. “What do you think, dummy?”
“Hell yes.” He kissed me again. This time a little deeper, and I wrapped my fingers around his cut-off, pulling him closer to me.
Once we broke apart, he brushed some hair from my face. “What about Sydney?” he asked.
“I’ll figure that out when the time comes.” I sighed. “By the way, were my parents waiting out there when you decided to come find me?”
He shook his head. “No, they turned in maybe an hour or so ago. Why?”
My shoulders sagged, and I turned away from him. His hands fell toward his lap. “Nothing. It’s no big deal.”
“Doesn’t seem like it’s nothing to you,” he replied, and I shook my head. “Why do you do that?”
I furrowed my brows. “Do what?”
“Take care of everyone else but yourself.”
“I don’t do that.”
He rolled his eyes. “Yes, you do. Since your parents found a way to start a career for you at eleven years old, your money has been their money. They literally depend on you. And now, even as an adult on your own, who just so happened to get elbowed in the nose by your douchebag of an ex, you’re asking if they’re okay when they should’ve been waiting patiently for you, no matter how long it took. ”
“In fact, where were they when everything went down? And then Sydney. You don’t ever drink because you’re in charge of taking care of her at pretty much any point in time.
Yeah, she threw you this birthday party, and you live in a house that her parents bought for her, but still.
You’re practically her mom too. And you’re a teacher, which means you take care of all those students as well. ”
Asher paused and swung one leg on the other side of the bench, scooting closer to me. “When was the last time you didn’t have to worry about taking care of anyone besides yourself?” he tenderly asked. I smiled, shaking my head, knowing that part of why he asked was to feed his own ego.
But I answered anyway. “When I was with you.”
He grinned. “Besides then.”
“Oh,” I muttered and paused.
“See, you can’t even think of it.” He wrapped his hands around my waist and pulled me toward him.
“Don’t let that go to your head,” I grumbled, and he chuckled, resting his chin on top of my head. I leaned my cheek against his chest and closed my eyes.
He simply held me.
But he was right. I couldn’t remember the last time that I wasn’t responsible for more than myself.
Excluding this weekend when Sydney did step up to the plate to put together a birthday party for me.
And the only outlet that I’d had growing up had been my music, which inevitably had still been used to take care of someone else.
I wasn’t going to change that; my parents could keep that money.
But maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to be a bit more selfish. To put myself first for a while. To be less of the Cinderella still stuck serving her stepmother and stepsisters and more the Cinderella who became a queen.
“By the way, I have a present for you,” he whispered against my hair.
“You got me a present? I thought you were mad at me.”
“I wasn’t mad—hurt, but not mad.”
“So, why did you ignore me until now?”
“Actually, that wasn’t entirely on purpose. One of the fangirls from the lobby found a way up the elevator and discovered what floor we were on. So, we had to pack up and immediately move.”
I leaned my head back, looking up at his face. He lifted a brow. “Where are you staying now?”
“We rented a house for the time being. Jaxon’s and Drake’s girlfriends are coming tomorrow or Monday to stay for a while.”
“Somebody will find out at some point,” I stated, and he nodded.
“You’re right.”
I gasped. “Did you just say I was right?”
He rolled his eyes. “Don’t expect to hear that again, Princess.”
I grinned, and he leaned down, kissing my lips.
When he pulled away, he pecked my forehead and then smiled to himself.
“By the way, all that stuff on the stage, was that because it was my birthday and you knew Danny was watching?”
He grinned wider. “Sure,” he replied, and I shook my head. “I want to see the pictures you guys took, though. Maybe one of those I’ll use as my background.”
“Sydney took the majority of them.”
“Yeah, but I’m not dating Sydney. Let me see yours.” He pointed at my phone I’d set on the ground beside the bench. Bending down, I picked it up and unlocked it. Handing it to him, he began scrolling through the pictures.
At first, he was expressionless, and then a smile crept across his face. He clicked on a few things, typed in something, and then handed me back my phone. I quickly unlocked it to see what he did and chuckled.
“You changed my background.” I studied the picture he’d chosen.
“Of course. It’s a requirement to have your boyfriend be front and center.” He grinned to himself, scrolling through his own phone.
“You realize that Sydney sent me that one,” I said, smiling at it.
It seemed that despite her jealousy I’d seen when Asher had been dancing with me, she’d managed to take a couple pictures.
His arm was wrapped around my body, the microphone to his mouth, but his eyes were glued to me.
Hunger and desire plainly evident to see if you knew what you were looking at.
“Why that one?” I asked.
“Because it clearly shows that you’re mine,” he mindlessly muttered, still going through his phone. I quickly went to my messages to see what he’d sent himself and found he’d not sent a single one.
I furrowed my brows and glanced over his shoulder. “Where’d you get that?” I gasped as he adjusted the picture he was editing.
“No peeking!” He slammed his phone against his chest.
“Asher!”
“Princess.”
I rolled my eyes.
“I took it while watching you compose some music, just barely.” He pulled the cellphone away from his body.
“You don’t want one of us together?”
He glanced at me and shrugged his shoulders. Wrapping an arm around my waist, he leaned in and lifted his phone. “Say cheese,” he said and took a picture before I had much time to register what was going on. Chuckling, he studied the photo. “That’s actually really nice.”
“Send it to me?” I asked, and he nodded, his attention on his phone.
Suddenly, the door flew open. Asher immediately shot off the bench, stopping beside the piano, and I buried myself in my phone, pretending to be absorbed in it instead of Asher.
“Your friend is getting a bit impatient,” Kieron said, and Asher visibly relaxed. I breathed out in relief and raised my eyes to meet his grinning face. “Soooooo, I’m assuming you two worked your shit out?”
I glared at him.
Asher shook his head. “And you’ll keep your big mouth shut about it. Got it?”
“Obviously. I like her,” he replied as a matter of fact. “Now hurry up, and don’t come out together, or you’ll raise suspicion.” Kieron shut the door and disappeared from the room.
Asher glanced at me, shoving his phone in his pocket. “Well, you ready, Princess?”
No. I would much rather stay in here alone with this hunk of a man who had beaten up Danny for me.
“I need to fix my smudged makeup anyway. Let’s go.”