Chapter 36 Busted
BUSTED
RAYA
I slam down, driving Asher’s hard cock into me with a low moan as he takes another pull from my neck.
The combination of the two have me losing my mind, and my thoughts trip over the reality of Asher drinking my blood.
The sensation sends fire licking up and down my nerves, igniting my skin.
I’m delirious with pleasure. Pulse after pulse, it’s like shots of adrenaline-infused aphrodisiac directly to my clit with each swallow he drinks from me.
Distantly, I wonder if this is what getting high feels like. If so, I can see why people are so easily addicted. I never want this to end.
Right as that thought surfaces though, Asher pulls away, delicately slipping his teeth from my skin, then licks the bite mark closed.
“No,” I moan, throwing my head back in protest, hoping to tempt him with my bared neck.
“Shh, little shifter. I don’t want to take too much.” Asher strokes his hand up and down my spine even as I shake my head in vehement disagreement. “Besides, I can feel you’re getting close.”
What I feel is completely overwhelmed, and my entire focus is narrowed to two points on my body: where he’s thrusting up into my pussy, and where I wish his fangs were still piercing my neck.
My wish is partly granted moments later when his lips go back to that same sinful spot, but he simply kisses and sucks, barely scraping his teeth over it in the worst sort of tease I’ve ever experienced.
I don’t have the mental capacity to be embarrassed about the needy whimper that escapes my lips, but this is Asher, so I don’t need to be.
His hands grip my hips as he takes control, flipping me to my back and pounding into me with ruthless strokes. My whimper turns to a moan.
Writhing beneath him, I try to slow his pace, overwhelmed by the sensations he’s sparking in me, but he’s having none of it.
“I don’t think so, little shifter. I know you’re almost there,” he says, and his husky voice devastates me. My heart swoops in my chest, stuttering before picking up its pace.
Adjusting the angle, he reaches new depths, and my orgasm looms overhead, barely out of reach.
“So tight and wet. Perfect, my perfect girl,” he growls into my ear. “Give it to me, Raya. Show me how good you are.”
“Oh, fuck. Asher.” I’m panting, chanting, maybe even praying, I have no idea.
“Come for me, little shifter.”
His fangs scrape down my neck once more and stars explode in my veins.
I scream my pleasure, never having felt anything like it before as the orgasm obliterates me, and my entire body pulses.
My senses are hazy, my mind in the stars as bliss smothers me.
In another realm, I feel him meeting my climax with his own, hear his groan of release, sense his hands stroking my hips.
It’s to that tender, affectionate touch as I start to come back to earth that my world darkens, and I black out.
“What the—”
My eyes blink open and it takes me a groggy moment to reconnect with reality. I’m lying in Asher’s bed, wrapped up in his arms with a blanket covering us both.
“Welcome back,” he says, and I can hear, practically feel the satisfaction in his voice.
“Blessed Moon, I did not just pass out from the best orgasm of my life.”
I twist around to face him and am not at all surprised by his smug expression.
“Oh, you most certainly did,” he says, voice playful. “And you’re welcome. Also the vampire venom may have had something to do with it, some people respond more strongly than others.”
I laugh and smack his chest, then hold up my perfectly healed hand.
“That’s wild,” I say.
He drops a kiss to my knuckles in reply and I shake my head.
It’s going to take some getting used to, that’s for sure.
I never realized how much Zuri kept from me about being a vampire.
Not that I’d want my friend to be licking me or anything…
Then again, maybe she doesn’t know. Licking a wound would mean licking blood, and her family is vehemently against that, so perhaps it’s not something she considers an option, even if she did know.
My thoughts are interrupted when my stomach rumbles. And rumbles. And rumbles some more. My cheeks, then my neck and ears heat up, until I’m fairly certain my whole body is going to be tinged pink at this rate.
“Let’s get you some food,” Asher says with a chuckle, sitting us both up and then tossing me a clean shirt from his dresser.
I don’t want to wait for him to make anything, nor do I feel like cooking myself, so I snag some fruit and a yogurt cup from his fridge.
“So… Last night was pretty crazy,” I say, then pop a raspberry in my mouth.
Asher nods and his eyes turn wary. I reach across the counter to take his hand in mine.
“I guess I see now what you meant about your family.”
“Shit, Raya. I’m so sorry.” Asher walks over and folds his arms around me. “So very, very sorry. That should never have happened to you. If I get my hands on that asshole again—”
“You’ll do nothing,” I say.
His arms tense, and I sense his protest forming.
“You already nearly beat him to death. That’s enough. I don’t want any more blood on my hands.”
“It won’t be your hands, it’ll be mine.” He practically snarls at me and I turn in his arms to face him.
“No. It’ll be because of me, and I won’t have it.” I cup his jaw in my palm and lock eyes with him. “Please, Asher. No more violence on my behalf.”
He sucks the fangs that have extended, then runs his tongue over the point of one as he exhales.
“Fine,” he says, then adds a grumble under his breath. “Bastard better stay away, though.”
“I heard that.” I poke him in the side and he sends me a glare.
I beam at him, pleased he gave up his vendetta so easily.
Asher rolls his eyes, but I’m pretty sure his lips twitch before he turns away.
“Ugh, what are we going to do about work though?” I say.
Apprehension settles in my gut at the thought of going into the office where his parents and evil cousin will be. Asher eyes me, seeming to search for something.
“What do you think about it?” he asks.
I twist my lips. “I’m not sure. I mean, I never saw the previous CEO until that party, so I can’t imagine I’d run into your parents all that often, right?”
His shoulders tense as I talk and his face turns hard, unyielding.
“Besides,” I say, “I’m sure they all have better things to do than talk to me.”
Asher sucks in a breath, visibly trying to regain his composure.
“We should quit," he says, then nods as if it’s decided.
“What? No!”
“What do you mean no? Raya, you can’t work there.”
My body jerks back. He did not say that.
“Excuse me? I most certainly can.”
“No. No way. I won’t let you.” He’s shaking his head and pacing around the kitchen now. “We’ll both quit, and we’ll start our own company. Together. Yes!” He snaps his fingers and spins back to me.
My eyes nearly bug out of my head.
Start a company together? He must be joking. That’s huge. And absolutely insane.
“I mean, I guess that’s one way to piss off your parents.” I dredge up a pathetic excuse for a chuckle, but he isn’t laughing. I blink at him, dumbfounded.
“Okay. Asher, listen to me.” I step right in front of him. “I know you’re scared. I know you don’t want me to be hurt. But you also don’t get to run my life. It’s my life, not yours. I’m an adult, and I have the right to make my own choices.”
I’ve come to love this job and my coworkers, and I don’t want to give it up just because of a couple power hungry vampires who I likely won’t even see. He looks away, eyes distant as he gazes past me with his fists clenched at his sides, and then he’s shaking his head again, so I continue.
“Yes, I do. Even in this.” My voice is steel, and he finally seems to hear what I’m saying.
The breath whooshes out of him and he deflates like a balloon.
“Raya…”
I rest a palm on his chest and soften my voice.
“I’d rather stay, see if I can make it work, but I understand if you can’t.” As I expected, he doesn’t like that idea and is already shaking his head again.
“No, if you stay, I stay.”
“Okay then. Let’s go in tomorrow and see how it is. Maybe nothing will change. Maybe we won’t see them, we never saw Mr. Trowlen.”
I know it’s unlikely that he won’t see his parents or cousin. I do think that I’m beneath their notice though, or at least I hope I am. Especially after Asher beat up his cousin. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
I make my way into my apartment later that day still dressed in Asher’s clothes. I trashed the gold dress, never wanting to see it again. Reverie is eating a marshmallow in the kitchen when I walk by; the little miscreant stuffs her cheeks full in a guilty attempt to hide her thievery.
“Where did you even get that from?” I ask, dismayed at my friend’s resourcefulness. To my knowledge, we haven’t had marshmallows in the apartment in years.
Reverie gulps until her cheeks aren’t bulging anymore, then shoots me a wicked smile.
“Why do you look like you were railed to within an inch of your life?”
“What?! I do no—”
“Ooooooh, you so do.” Zuri saunters into the kitchen in time for the two of them to gang up on me. She tosses a marshmallow into her mouth with a smirk. “Spill it.”
“Fine. Maybe I was.” I can’t help but grin at the memory.
Best sex of my life.
Zuri’s eyes turn wary as she narrows them, eyeing me up and down like she’ll find evidence of a crime or something.
“What?”
“I…” Zuri starts, then pauses when she sees the warning daggers I’m shooting her way. “Be careful.”
I roll my eyes as Reverie scoffs.
“You gotta relax, Z. Raya’s fine! If you ask me, she knows how to pick ‘em.” Reverie turns to me as she continues to run her mouth. “Soooooo, was it the best you’ve ever had?”
My face flames, and Reverie cackles. She leaps from the counter with a flurry of wings, sending glittery dust flying as she shoots straight at me and comes to a halt in midair, hovering inches from my nose. My eyes go a little cross-eyed trying to look at her.
“It. Totally. Was.” Reverie claps her hands together with each word and flicks her wings excitedly. “Tell me everything. I want all the details.”
Reverie snags some of my hair and tugs on it, trying to pull me into the bedroom and away from Zuri’s pursed lips.
“How big is he? What did it feel like? Did you go multiple rounds?”
The questions pour out of her, and I wonder if such tiny creatures don’t need to breathe, because she doesn’t seem to be stopping for air.
“Reverie,” I sigh, “I know you want the details, but I’m not ready to share them. This is… different.”
Reverie flutters down to my shoulder as I close my bedroom door behind us.
“Different how?”
“I mean, I really care about him. I think I might be falling for him. It feels too special to gossip about like it doesn’t matter, I guess.”
Reverie runs her hands through my hair in a soothing gesture.
“I think I get it. I wasn’t trying to say it didn’t matter.”
She hops from my shoulder to one of the fuzzy pillows on my bed.
“I guess I just want to know what it’s like.” Reverie turns away from me, breaking eye contact as she watches her hands sweep back and forth on the pillow. “I don’t know if I’ll ever have anything like that.”
“Oh, Rev.” I crouch down next to her and cup her in my hands, bringing her up to my cheek for our version of a nuzzle-hug. “I’m so sorry. I wish we knew more about your kind, if there are others like you, or more about where you came from so we could look.”
“Do you think Asher’s family might know anything?” Reverie’s voice is tentative, more halting than usual enthusiastic self. “I mean, they’re like, super old right? So, maybe they know something.”
I shake my head. “I don’t know. I’ll ask Ash, but no promises. His family is kinda shitty.”
Reverie gasps and jumps from my hands. “You cursed! You never curse. Are you ill?”
I grin. “Oops.”
Reverie scowls, but can’t hold it for longer than a couple seconds, and soon she’s back to her normal chaotic self, pestering me with questions and ideas as I try to mentally prepare to return to work on Monday.