15. Charleigh
FIFTEEN
CHARLEIGH
My eyes snap open at the shrill sound of the incessant beeping coming from the kitchen. I shoot straight up and gasp, wondering how long I’ve been asleep. I must have only been out long enough for the water in my kettle to boil since it’s still beeping. Standing from the couch, I look out the sliding door to my patio. Water is pounding against my balcony. It’s started raining, the clouds blanketing the sky with a deep gray. Perfect time for tea, anyway.
Once in the kitchen, I reach for the small wooden cup of honey I have sitting on the counter and swirl some of the golden liquid into my tea using the dipper.
My heart shudders, and a chill slithers down the back of my neck when I hear my doorbell ring several times in succession. The dinging sound is quickly followed by heavy knocks reverberating off my wooden door.
I drop the honey stick and stare at my front door. Waiting for what, I don’t know. No one ever knocks on my door or comes over.
Then the pounding continues, its incessant knocking echoing off the walls inside my living room .
“I’m coming!” I shout, hoping it will stop whoever is at my door from knocking more.
It doesn’t. The pounding continues, even up to the point of me unlocking my door and opening it.
Asher stands on the other side, his fist raised in the air. My mouth falls open at the sight of him, every inch soaking wet. His white button-down shirt is nearly translucent, clinging to his tan skin. It’s wrapped around the muscles of his arms and chest, contracting with every heavy breath he draws in. Water drips from his hair, the ends mussed and resting against his forehead.
My gaze lowers to his mouth, a single drop of rain falling from his bottom lip.
“Asher.” I manage to croak out his name, leaning forward and peering down the hall before looking back at him. “What are you doing here?”
“One week. One week, and you…” He breathes out but doesn’t move, clenching his fists at his sides, jaw clenched tightly.
When my eyes catch his, I notice they’re burning with fire.
“You,” he says again. This time, he runs his hand down his face, attempting to wipe it dry, but it’s impossible with how wet he is. He presses his mouth together, grinding his jaw once more. The muscles there tick, then he quickly pushes past me, stepping into my apartment without having been invited in.
Stunned, I watch him pace back and forth in the space between my living room and kitchen. He has one hand planted on his hip, while the other is gripping the back of his head as he keeps his head down. He watches his feet leaving wet footprints on my carpet.
I close the door behind me and cross my arms over my chest. “By all means…” I stand, flabbergasted. “Make yourself at home.”
Asher spins around, cutting me a sharp glare .
“You don’t have anything to say?” His eyebrows create a hard line above his golden eyes. My breath hitches in my throat, and I hiccup. Not because it’s finally occurring to me why he’s barging into my apartment after apparently racing here in this rainstorm, but because his eyes are giving me an all too familiar feeling. The one that makes my heart skip like I’m seventeen again. Like that first time he looked at me while standing in the middle of my street. The gold flecks in his eyes are just as bright like they’re on fire.
I weave my arms across my chest, not wanting Asher to catch on to the way I’m suddenly willing to overlook his tantrum just because my entire body is reacting to him.
His chest continues to rise and fall, still trying to catch his breath, water dripping from the stubble on his chin.
“No,” I say as evenly as possible. “I think my text said everything that needed to be said.”
His nostrils flare before he closes the space between us. In what would normally take ten steps, he meets me in five. Towering over me has him invading every one of my senses. He smells like fresh rain, the heat practically steaming off his body, warming mine. I step back until I’m flush against the front door. Square shoulders and hardened muscle.
Asher presses his hands against the door, caging me in. His eyes meet mine, the flames of gold flickering in them.
“I would disagree,” he growls, the heat radiating from his skin.
I narrow my eyes, defiant to my core. I shove the instinct inside the walls of my chest to stand on my toes and press my lips to his. My body aches to touch his, but I refuse to reward him when he’s acting like an ass.
“Too bad,” I tell him, and I duck out from under his arm and make my way back into the kitchen.
I’m humming with nerves. I need to do something . I spot my cup of tea still sitting on the counter. The honey dipper didn’t quite make it back into the cup. A line of the sticky, amber liquid drips from the side of my mug down to the puddle of honey pooled under the dipper resting on the marble surface. I open the drawer for a spoon but quickly shut it at the first glance of Asher’s note. I slam the drawer with more force than intended, smashing the ends of my pointer and middle finger.
“Ow, fuck!” I yell, jerking my hand back. I hiss, looking down at the now-red-tinted tips of my fingers. I shake my hand in air as if it will magically make the pain disappear, but Asher’s hand wraps around my wrist, stopping it mid-air.
I try to pull myself away, but he resists, yanking me closer. My body slams into his still-wet chest. The shirt is clinging to his muscles like second skin. I watch in amazed silence as he holds my hand delicately in his large ones, rotating it to examine the damage I’ve inflicted on myself.
“I’m fine,” I grunt, trying again to pull away from his grip. Being this close to him is doing something to me. Again.
Like it was last week with our almost kiss, his hand close to my clit, his touch is quick to draw a reaction to me. And I know if I were wearing panties underneath this sad excuse of a robe, they’d be soaked already.
Asher shoots me a glare. “Would you stop acting like a child?”
My mouth falls open. How dare he practically barge into my apartment, demand me to explain my text, then call me a child?
“I told you, I’m fine,” I repeat, wanting him to let me go, yet at the same time, reconsidering.
Asher smirks, amusement sparking in his eyes. He keeps his gaze pinned to mine as he lifts my hand closer to his face. Achingly slowly and softly, he presses his lips to my pointer finger, giving it a gentle kiss. Then he moves to my middle finger, but this time, he parts his lips, devouring my finger. He sucks on the tip, sliding his tongue across my skin and pulling it in past the first knuckle. His cheeks hollow slightly, and his lips pop when he pulls my finger from his soft mouth. Looking at my now-crimson-tipped finger, he then flicks his gaze to mine. “Not as sweet as I remember.”
I’m practically dripping between my legs. My belly hums and tightens.
Dammit.
The spell Asher just cast on me quickly fades. Anger returns to my veins, and my heart jolts with white hot bitterness.
This time, when I yank my hand away, Asher doesn’t resist.
“Why are you here, Asher?”
“I want you to talk to me, Charleigh,” he says, his tone more relaxed than before, but I can still sense his frustration with me. “Why did you send me that text? A week without any word. Not very professional, now, is it?”
“And coming to my apartment, soaking wet, demanding answers is?”
I hate that I want to touch him. I want to feel his mouth on me again. But this time, I don’t want him on my fingers. I want more. Wanting Asher doesn’t just boil down to sex, though. There’s more to my feelings for him. I need to remember that. Emotion is thick in my throat, and my eyes fall to the silverware drawer.
“What is there to say?” My eyes drift back to his. “We made a deal, and you broke it.”
“I didn’t break our deal. We agreed for you to hire me while keeping your options with Cyrus open. I haven’t been doing anything but my job, which, if you’ve forgotten, is to find you a new storefront.”
My heart beats erratically in my chest.
Keep it together, Charleigh .
“Not that deal,” I squeeze out in a tight voice. “The other one.”
The hardness in Asher’s expression relaxes, his eyes softening slightly.
“I trusted you, Asher, when I have every reason not to.”
“Charleigh, I can’t make up for what I did in the past.”
“No, but it’s like I’ve said before… you aren’t the Asher I used to know. You’re only using me to get ahead, or maybe you’re enjoying this. Is that what that was the other day?” I point to the fireplace, then lift my hand up in front of me. “Or this? Was this a test I didn’t pass?”
His eyebrows draw together in confusion.
“You don’t make any sense, Asher. You push me away, then pull me back in. Then you ask about my dad as if?—"
“I didn’t know,” he cuts in. “I didn’t know about your dad.”
I feel the tears coming, but I don’t want them to spill. I promised myself I would never cry over my father. That would make me like my mother.
“I didn’t know about what happened with your family after?—”
“You left,” I interrupt right back.
A stark, hardened expression washes over his face. He presses his mouth into a thin line. He takes a step closer to me, bringing his body to my shoulder until his hardened chest presses against me.
“I’m sor…” he starts but can’t bring himself to finish.
Disappointment and hurt boil inside me.
“You’re sorry?” I ask. “Sorry for what, exactly? Sorry for leaving me? It wasn’t just you who was broken that night. I didn’t even find out the details of your mom’s death until I went to school the next morning and heard all the rumors floating around. You left me with nothing but a note telling me she’d died. And now, against my better judgment, I let you back into my life as if you weren’t the one person who crushed me. Agreeing to work with you was a mistake. You show me this incredible place to expand my flower shop, promising it’s the one.” I narrow my eyes at him, still bitter that he never showed me the inside. “Then after we come back here to change my shoes, we almost kissed and… it’s like you flipped some kind of switch. You completely check out and take me to a completely different location—one well out of my price range. And for what? All so you can show up at my apartment demanding answers after I fire you?” I scoff, laughing in disbelief. “Then you suck on my finger as if you’re suddenly craving the taste of me?”
“What if I was?” He lifts his chin.
“What?” I ask, blinking.
“What if I was craving the taste of you?” His eyes darken.
I swallow thickly. “You’re… what?”
My breathing is unstable at best when he closes the gap between us. Lifting his hand, he drags the tips of his fingers down the length of my face to my lips, then the base of my throat.
“Every fucking minute since I’ve seen you, I’ve craved you. I want you.”
“You’re not making any sense.” I don’t believe him. I can’t. Not with our history. “Do you know how long after you left, I dreamed of coming back and saying these same things to me? But at some point, I was a fool because you’re the one who left me, Asher. You’re the one pretending our feelings for each other never mattered. You’re hot one minute, cold the next. I don’t know what to believe anymore or how to feel because while seeing you again has stirred up old feelings, I remember the pain that comes with it all too well. I remember it more than I wish I did.” A lump swells in my throat, and my chest pricks with heat. Especially with him this close to me. Every emotion I’ve held the past ten years pours out of me in the form of word vomit. “You played me, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why when I was dead to you already.”
His eyes turn to ice. “You weren’t dead to me.”
“Right.” I scoff. “Because severing our relationship and disappearing like a fucking ghost isn’t treating me as if I were dead. We weren’t perfect, but what I felt for you was real. Yet you continued on as if I meant nothing. I don’t understand how you could be so okay with it.”
“You aren’t dead to me, Charleigh. You never were. And I haven’t been okay.” He swallows thickly, his neck swelling, the emotion evident on his face. “I didn’t…” He sighs, focusing on his hand against the base of my throat, feeling my pulse. “I didn’t intend to ever show you that place that’s over your budget. I don’t know. I didn’t know what to do.”
“What do you mean, you didn’t know what to do?”
His eyes meet mine again. “I didn’t know what to do with the way I’m feeling. But when I got that text earlier, I can’t explain it. I felt hollow inside, and I’m sure you’re thinking I’ve become this shallow person, and you’re right. You’ve shown me that, Charleigh. I felt awful. Like someone had split my chest open, reached inside, and ripped my heart out. It’s all so fucking confusing. You get under my skin so easily, but I can’t stay away. I don’t know what to do with the way I’m feeling.”
“Show me,” I say the words before I realize what they mean.
The darkness in his eyes deepens. With one swift move, he wraps his arm around me, lifting me to sit on the counter. My hand lands on the hard surface, shoving my cup of tea aside. The black liquid spills over the top, but it doesn’t burn me. It’s practically ice cold at this point. I lean back, forcing air into my lungs. Asher’s stolen all of it. Heat swells and aches between my thighs. He forces them apart, settling himself between them.
“You think you’re so innocent in all of this?” He leans closer, dragging his nose up my neck and to my ear. “You think you’re so fucking sweet?”
I tilt my head back and look up at the ceiling. Gasping for air, I feel lightheaded, as if I’ve inhaled a drug.
Asher’s scent of fresh rain mingled with his deep, woodsy scent surrounds me. I lift my hand and thread my fingers through his thick, wet hair. The bottom of my robe opens, and I wrap my legs around his waist, pulling him until my hot pussy presses against his body. He’s cold and still wet, causing me to hiss with the sensation it gives me.
“Do you know how badly I wanted to spank you when you made us walk down all fifty-two flights of my building?” His voice is as deep as velvet. “I wanted to punish you so fucking hard. I considered taking you right there in that stairwell.”
“I don’t think that would have been a good idea. Security probably has cameras all over those stairs.”
“Like I would fucking care. Let them watch. You would have deserved what I was giving you.”
I had no idea Asher’s thoughts were this dirty, or that his thoughts had gone in that direction.
“Is that what you’re doing now?” I ask, trying not to sound too turned on. “Punishing me?”
He doesn’t answer as he reaches between us and tugs on the tie to my robe. The knot unravels, and with just his fingertips, he shoves each side of the fleecy fabric aside until I’m completely exposed. He hisses at the sight of me, taking his time. My nipples harden with the cold air and goosebumps spread across my skin.
Not able to hold back any longer, I pull him closer, wanting to press his lips to mine. But he stops me. I loosen my grip on the back of his head.
He gives me a disapproving tsk, clicking his tongue against the back of his teeth. He shakes his head and looks down at the honey spilled on the counter before he picks up the dipper and sticks it back into the honey jar, swirling the thick liquid. He sinks the dipper farther in and pulls it out, making sure he’s gathered as much honey as possible.
He hovers the dipper over my chest, allowing the honey to swirl and drip around my breast and nipple. I arch my back as my mouth falls open, and I gasp, shivering as the gooey liquid coats my skin.
Asher watches his handiwork, every few seconds lifting his heated gaze to mine. Slowly, he drags the trail of oozing honey down my stomach and to my pussy.
The corner of his mouth lifts into a devious smirk. “The Charleigh I remember used to be sweet and kind.”
“I still am,” I whisper as my eyes flutter, barely able to focus on what Asher is doing to me. Stopping above my center, he brings the dipper to my pussy and slips it between my folds, quickly finding my clit.
“Shit,” I hiss, pulling my bottom lip under my teeth. I bite down and close my eyes.
“Eyes on me,” he orders.
I do as he says, looking down at where the dipper meets my clit. He adds pressure but doesn’t move it otherwise. I roll my hips slightly, begging for him to move it.
“You think it was sweet to send me that text firing me?”
I moan, shamelessly rolling my hips again. I’m aching inside. “You think it was sweet for you to leave a note taped to my window before disappearing?”
Using his other hand, Asher’s fingers slip through my hair as he grips the back of my head. He gently tugs me back, exposing my neck. With the dipper pressed against my clit, and my back arched even more, the sensation inside me builds. I might come right now if he doesn’t start moving.
“I never claimed to be the sweet one.” He growls, slowly and finally starting to work circles on my swollen clit. He brings his mouth to my ear. “What happened to you, Little Flower?”
A shiver breaks across my skin, and the gloves have come off. I roll my hips, the sticky wood bringing me closer to my orgasm.
“You,” I moan. “You happened.”
A switch is flipped.
His eyes flash with heat, carrying the weight of whatever emotions he’s kept inside. He’s hungry, but there’s a vulnerability there. Over the past several weeks, I haven’t been sure if I ever meant as much to Asher as he did to me. Memories become distorted and you start to question your own feelings. For some years, I’ve questioned if Asher truly existed. Did I make up my love for him? Did I love him more than he did me?
But every question is answered when he falls to his knees in front of me. “Let’s see how sweet you still are, Little Flower.”
Before my mind has a chance to catch up, Asher replaces the honey dipper pressed against my clit with his mouth. He’s fast and rough on me, his spit mixing with the honey coating my flesh. He sucks and bites down on the swollen bud. I hiss, feeling like I’m already going to explode.
I gave my virginity to Asher years ago, but I never felt him like this.
I can’t seem to get enough. My legs are draped over his shoulders, and my hands are in his hair, pressing him harder against me.
Heat builds in my belly, and my insides tighten. I want him inside me, but the sensation of Asher’s tongue against me begs him not to stop.
“Asher, I’m going to come if you keep doing what you’re doing.”
He pulls away but keeps his head between my thighs. His lips glisten with the honey and my wetness as he smirks. “What makes you think I’m wanting to stop this?”
His mouth finds my clit again, but this time, he follows it by plunging the honey dipper inside me. He pumps it in and out, finding the spot that ultimately brings me over the edge. I’ve never felt anything like it, and after the initial shock, I can’t stop what’s coming.
Me .
Slipping his other hand up along my chest, he grips my breast before pinching my sticky, hardened nipple between his fingers. He twists them, and a delightful pain shoots straight to where his mouth is on me.
One lap of his tongue.
Two pumps of the honey dipper.
Another flick of the nipple, and I’m coming.
My legs shake and my hips rock, riding out my orgasm. Asher continues to move his mouth on me until I’ve almost caught my breath. But as he was before, he’s quick to move on. He stands between my still shaking legs, fire still burning in his eyes. He removes the dipper, then swipes two fingers along my wetness before bringing his fingers to his mouth. He shoves them between his lips and licks them clean. Then his hand grips my chin, pulling me up to meet his mouth.
“There,” he whispers. Heated, weighted breaths feather against my lips. “Now I know how sweet you still are.”
When he finally crashes his mouth against mine, he catches me on a breath. I inhale his oxygen, allowing it to fill every crevice of my lungs. I arch my back and wrap my legs around him tighter. I breathe out against his mouth, and it feels as if my body recollects every memory it’s forgotten from ten years ago. His touch feels the same yet distinctive. His mouth tastes the same but different.
My body is still humming from my orgasm, but I’m already wanting to go again. The taste of honey mixed with Asher and myself causes my heart to beat erratically.
I haven’t completely understood where Asher’s feelings for me stand, but when I pull my mouth away from his, I see it in his eyes. I see the love he once felt for me, the pain that ripped us apart, and fear of what this all means.
Our desire to feel one another, to touch one another overrides all logic.
Ten years ago, Asher and I thought we had explored every inch of one another. I’d seen his soul inside and out, but being with him now is different, and I’m feeling him in an entirely different way. He’s stronger, his presence surrounding me, consuming me.
I quickly unbutton his shirt. The wet fabric peels away from his sculpted muscles and hard abdomen. I move to his belt, and with one quick move, I’ve unbuckled it and am shoving his pants and boxer briefs down enough to free his cock. He’s hard and ready. It springs to life, and I swallow when looking at it. I don’t remember it being this big. Maybe it’s grown in the last ten years, or maybe this is another unreliable memory. Asher and I only slept together the one time when we were teenagers, so my memory is mostly likely fuzzy and blurred.
“Are you ready for me, Little Flower?” His voice deepens, and my body hums in anticipation.
I suck in my bottom lip, pinching it under my teeth, nodding.
Asher grabs his length and centers it in front of me before he grips my shoulder and drives himself into me.
He sinks farther, and my head falls back. His mouth finds my nipple as he pulls it in. He laps his tongue, licking up the trail of honey he left earlier. He continues to drive his cock inside me, and with each thrust he buries himself deeper. Harder .
Asher moves his hand from my shoulder to the back of my head, forcing me to look at him. “Watch us. I want you to watch what I can do to you and this sweet pussy of yours. I want you to watch me make you come.”
He starts off with slower movements, eventually picking up his pace, and I watch him bury himself inside me over and over again.
“Asher.” I say his name on a breath, dizzy from him everywhere. We’re a sticky, wet mess, but I don’t care. “Don’t stop. I’m going to come again.”
My insides tighten and my walls squeeze around him. I’m so wet, and when I reach my orgasm, it feels as if I’m suddenly weightless.
I’m living in this moment. For this moment. Feeling Asher for the first time in a way I’ve never felt.
He’s different. He’s older. He’s more in command. And while I’m angry with the way he was last week, I can’t deny the feelings he’s stirred inside me. I was right when I said Asher wasn’t the man I remember at eighteen. This version is stronger, bolder, commanding, and in charge.
Asher pumps himself in and out of me, faster and deeper until his eyes squeeze shut and his body quakes. His thrusts slow as his cum spills inside me. The muscles in his shoulders contract as he struggles to catch his breath. His head falls to my chest for a few seconds before I feel his lips gently press against my skin, and he leaves a trail of kisses up my chest until they land against mine.
When he pulls away, he’s smiling.
“What?” I ask, laughing.
“I think my question was answered.”
“What question?”
“You’re still just as sweet as I remember.”