Chapter 37
Chapter
Thirty-Seven
ANABELLE
Every day with Asher just gets better and better.
And though I try to stop myself from falling for him, it’s impossible at this point.
After his speech in his office last week, I was a goner.
Sometimes late at night, I lay awake and wonder, could this really be our happily ever after?
Can two people so opposite from one another find love so true? Time will tell, I suppose.
We spend our days working side by side and our nights tangled up in the sheets.
The only downside has been that I’ve had to lie and tell him I’m going for a run when really what I’m doing is running through the maze to try to tend to the rose bush.
I think I’m really making progress. There are new buds, and the roses look healthier and more vibrant.
Lately I’ve been talking to the roses as though they’re Asher’s deceased mother, telling the plant how I’m falling for Asher and all the things he makes me feel. It’s silly, but it’s working, so I keep doing it.
Tomorrow night is the masquerade ball, and I’m as nervous as I am excited. Asher bought me a gorgeous yellow ball gown to wear, and I can’t wait to spend the night on his arm.
I’m reading in Asher’s bed when he comes out of the ensuite, having just had a shower. He doesn’t bother putting anything on before he slides under the covers. I love his confidence as much as I love his body.
He picks up his own book from the nightstand, as has become our routine over the past week, and we read in silence for a bit. But as always, he proves distracting.
I shut my book and set it on the nightstand. “Can I ask you something that’s been niggling on my mind?”
He gives me an amused grin and arches a brow. “Niggling?”
“It’s a word.” I swat his chest.
He uses the opportunity to tug me closer to him. “By all means. Ask away.”
I trail a finger down his hard chest. “Why were you so mean to me at first? You said that you were into me the first day I came here, but you were so mean. Not just that day, but for many days after that.”
It’s the one thing I keep running through my mind, the only reason I’ve held myself back from completely and utterly falling for him.
Asher frowns, running the pad of his thumb over my bottom lip. “Because I knew you were special the moment I laid eyes on you, and you represented everything I couldn’t ever have.”
My chest tightens. “Why would you assume you couldn’t ever have me?”
“Because you’re too young. Because I’m not deserving. I’m not what you’d call a good man. I’m damaged. But when I’m with you… you give me hope that I can be more than just those things. At least with you.”
He cups my face and kisses me. His pace is languid and thorough and doesn’t feel like any other kiss we’ve shared. I pour all my emotions into the kiss, hoping that he can feel how much I care for him, how much he means to me.
Asher trails kisses down the line of my jaw, softly, sweetly.
This is a side I haven’t seen from him in bed yet, and I savor every second of it.
His hands drift down to the hem of my tank, and he pulls it up and over my head, tossing it somewhere on the floor beside the bed.
Then his lips find my nipple, and he sucks it, twirling his tongue around the peak.
My breath hitches in my throat, and my hand dives into his mop of hair, threading through the tussled strands.
He worships my breasts for what feels like hours, unhurried and content. When he turns me so my back hits the mattress, he trails his tongue on the underside of my breast while he tugs my sleep shorts down my legs.
“I’m so happy I found you,” he says as he dips lower until his tongue sweeps between my folds.
He brings me to the brink of orgasm with his mouth before he’s moving back up my body and sliding inside me. Our gazes lock and hold as the slow, steady roll of his hips pushes me higher and higher.
My arms are wrapped around his neck, and I play with the hair at the back of his head. Neither of us looks away from the other, and it feels like so much more than our bodies are joined. It feels as though our souls are entwined, braided together, never to be torn apart.
My climax builds, brick upon brick, layer upon layer, until my orgasm rolls through me like a thundercloud, crackling with power. Asher comes at the same time as I do, pressing his lips to mine to swallow my moan until the rhythm of his hips slows to nothing.
He pulls back a bit and gazes at me, brushing the hair off my temple. There’s so much in his eyes that when he places a chaste kiss on my lips and pulls out of me to roll off the bed, I’m surprised. After what we just shared, I thought we’d bask in the afterglow a little longer.
He doesn’t say anything as he heads to his walk-in closet, still nude. I can’t help but admire the bunching and flexing of his ass, even if I did just have an orgasm. When he returns, he’s holding a white box. I know it’s not a ring, and quite frankly I’d be shocked if it were.
“What’s this?” I ask.
“I bought you something. I was going to give it to you tomorrow night before the ball, but I want you to have time to think about it. It needs to be your decision.”
My forehead wrinkles. “I don’t understand.”
He takes the lid off the box and inside, nestled in black velvet, is a thick diamond choker necklace. My hand flies up to my mouth.
“You remember the collar you wore in the sex club?”
I nod, my gaze flicking from him to the necklace.
“This is a day collar. Something you can wear in front of others, outside of the club. It’s a symbol of our connection and of our Dom/Sub relationship. Think of it as a promise or a contract between us, that there will be no other, that we are committed.”
My heart swells in my chest, and I can’t help smiling. “I don’t have to think about it, Asher. I accept.”
The twinkle in his eyes when he smiles at me is more beautiful than the necklace. I can’t imagine how much this exquisite piece of jewelry must have cost him.
“Thank you.” He kisses me. When he pulls away, he takes the collar from the box and sets it aside. He nods toward my neck. “May I?”
I turn and hold my hair up so that he can fasten the collar. Once he does, I let my hair fall down and turn back to him. “I want to see what it looks like.”
His deep blue eyes shine like the sun glinting off the ocean. “It looks perfect.”
I leap off the bed and rush over to the standing full-length mirror, gasping when I see the collar on me.
I’m still naked and somehow that suits it.
My hand trails up to my neck. The collar is thick enough that it covers almost the entirety of my neck, and the diamonds glisten in the dim light of his room. “It’s beautiful.”
Asher comes up behind me in the mirror and sets his hands on my shoulders. “I realize you won’t wear this for everyday life. I’ll get you another single strand of diamonds for that. But I thought this would be perfect for tomorrow night, and other nights like it in the future.”
The mention of a future makes my stomach feel as if it’s full of champagne bubbles.
“I love it. Thank you.” I turn and wrap my arms around his neck, drawing him down for a kiss.
It doesn’t take long for the press of our naked bodies to register and for things to become heated. Unlike our first joining tonight, Asher reminds me who’s in charge when he draws two more orgasms out of me.