Asher #3
The real declaration.
Finally.
Feels better than I thought it would. Like a drug. Think my heart just did a line of coke. Can’t stop the smile, but I mold
it into the crooked one she seems to like best. “You luuuuuurve me?”
With a roll of her eyes, she tries to push me away. “Don’t be extra, Asher.”
I grab her before she puts any distance between us and steal another kiss. “I love you, too.”
She melts at once, her arms slipping around me again while she lays her ear against my heart. “I can’t believe you braved
a hurricane for me.”
I glance at the destruction outside the windows. Thirty seconds in her embrace, and I totally forgot about that . . .
“I thought I was going to drown,” she says. “That I’d die today.”
I sort of did, too. Don’t mention that, though. Isn’t good for morale.
Her voice drops to a whisper. “I’ve been so busy fearing other people’s deaths, I didn’t even think about my own until it
was staring me in the face.”
As she sniffles, I hold her close. “You’re safe.”
When she looks up, tears glisten on her cheeks. “I’m always safe with you. I feel like a moron. I fought and pretended and
lied, but it all seems so stupid in the face of this.”
That’s because it was, but if therapy has taught me anything, it’s that fears can’t be conquered until you’re ready. Glad
she came to her senses, though. The whole bit was rather torturous on my end. All those words tangle in my head, in my throat,
and I can only brush my fingers over her wet cheek. Her gaze is open. Loving.
She kisses my chin. “Can you forgive me for taking so long to realize that?”
“Nope. You’ll have to find some way to make it up to me.”
Playful light sparkles in her eyes. “Yeah? How?”
A grin breaks through, yanked from deep within. Is this happening? To me? Such a small thing, in the grand scheme. People declare their love across the world every day. It’s a normal part of life—from
the outside.
I understand now why authors and poets spend their lives trying to capture this feeling on paper. Why songwriters make millions
celebrating love or lamenting the loss of it. Why filmmakers immortalize love stories with perfectly delivered lines.
This feeling . . . It’s everything.
She is everything.
I slide my hands under her thighs and lift her into my arms. “Let’s take a shower.”
Her smile dawns, and she obediently slides her arms around my shoulders, holding fast. “I still can’t believe you did that.
You could have killed yourself trying to save me.”
In my bathroom, I set her on the floor and turn on the water. “You weren’t picking up your phone. I was terrified.”
“I tried to call you. I didn’t have any signal.”
I pull my phone from my pocket. I now have enough service that notifications are coming through—messages from my brothers
and parents, from Geoff, from the National Weather Service. And seven texts from Joss.
“Did you bring your phone with you?” I ask.
She pats down her body, pulling out a waterlogged phone from her pocket. “I doubt it still works.”
Oh, it does. Staring at my screen, I will my rioting heart to calm.
Asher I need you
Asher please I need help
I need you.
I love you.
I’m sorry I never told you.
Just know you were the last thing I thought about.
I’ll love you until the end of time.
She really thought she was going to die, didn’t she?
Poor girl.
I turn the phone to show her.
Her face grows scarlet, and tears spring to her eyes once more. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”
My arm sneaks around her waist, and I kiss her until I can’t breathe. She thought she was dying, and with her last words,
she told me she loved me. That’s a fucking story for the grandkids.
Steam from the hot water crowds us together, but I can’t get close enough.
I drag her toward the shower. Our bodies mix and mesh and fight for purchase.
Talking portion is over. Need her closer.
Wetter. Wrapped around me. Will never stop needing it.
Her. This woman who loves me enough to go to war with her own inner demons and win.
Perfectly imperfect and difficult as hell, but mine.
“Isn’t this a little cliché?” she asks after I have her pinned against the shower wall, my fingers digging into her thighs
wrapped tight around me. I can’t believe I tried to forget what it feels like to be inside her. This is paradise. I’m going
to have trouble ever wanting to do anything else.
Must focus on something else or I’m going to climax before she does. “Cliché?”
“At the very least, it’s unoriginal.”
“You’re about to come,” I say. “Probably multiple times. Why are you complaining?”
“I’m just saying.” She flaps her arms against the tile. “I have nothing to grab onto.”
“Me. You grab onto me.” I shift her higher on the wall, hitting a spot that makes her bite her lip and suck in a pleasured
breath.
She pretends it didn’t happen. “Meh. Shower sex seems sexy, but it’s more work than it’s worth.”
“I’m the one doing all the work. Do you think this is easy?”
She grins, bold and cheeky. “Maybe I want to do something for you for once.”
“Yeah? Like what?”
She licks water from my neck. “Put me down, and I’ll show you.”
My hands clench on her thighs as her eyes glint with challenge. Droplets coalesce and collect in her dark eyelashes, but she doesn’t blink. Our lips find each other while I do as she asks, releasing her legs until she’s on her own feet.
With one wicked smile, she drops to her knees, and I have officially arrived in heaven.