Chapter 35
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Asher crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, eying Jessica as she kicked off her boots and sat on the hotel bed. “You sure you don’t want to take Samantha and Owen up on their offer to stay with them while you’re in D.C.?”
“No, and surely it’s for the same reasons you’re at a hotel.” A grin touched her lips. “Eva warned me you can hear everything through their walls.” She wet her lips. “I have no interest in listening to Owen have sex.” She cringed. “He’s like a brother, so . . .”
“Yeah, I don’t blame ya.” He lowered his hands to his sides and pushed away from the wall. “What time are you meeting your friends tomorrow?”
“Ten a.m. brunch. So, we have plenty of time to finish our conversation from earlier.”
He angled his head, and she reached for his forearm. The same distress appeared in his eyes. Maybe he was worried she was going to write him off again? He really did love her, didn’t he? She only hoped she hadn’t messed everything up.
“I fought for Samir today, to save the life of a man who had me strapped with an s-vest. A man who murdered my friend.” Her lungs burned with the memory. “And yet, for a long time, I’ve been scared to fight for the one thing I’ve wanted more than anything.”
“And what’s that?” His tone was rough. Hard. And it had her legs growing weak.
She rolled her lips inward, her heart beating wildly. “You.” She lifted her shoulders. “I want to fight for you.” She forced her eyes on his. “For us,” she corrected.
His thumb swept over her bottom lip before he cupped her cheek, but he remained quiet.
“I want you, Asher Hayes. I want you to have every part of me. I always have. Always will.” Liquid pooled in her eyes, the admission freeing. “If you still want me, that is.”
“Jessica,” he whispered and lowered his face near hers.
His lips hovered, tauntingly close, and despite the crazy turn of events of the day, all she wanted was for this man to wrap his arms around her.
“Be with me,” she whisper-said. “And not just for tonight.”
“There’s, uh, something I have to tell you first.” Emotion squeezed his words. “It could change things.”
She shook her head and focused on his dark eyes. “Nothing could change how I feel.” She was desperate for his touch. “Please.”
His lips parted as his hand went to the small of her back. There was a fight, or conflict of some sort, in his eyes.
“Whatever it is, I promise it doesn’t matter. We’ve waited so long and . . .” She let go of her words when he hooked her leg up to his hip with his free hand, holding her tight. His length hardened against her, and a sharp ache of need settled between her thighs.
He sucked at her bottom lip and grunted as he rotated his hips, pressing her pelvis into him.
D.C. or New York. Hell, anywhere—it didn’t matter. With Asher, she felt like she was home, a feeling she hadn’t known she’d wanted until today. Until him.
“I need you,” she whispered when he tore his mouth from hers, both of them gasping for air. “So much.”
He lightly tugged at the braid resting over her shoulder and tipped her head back. He lost hold of her leg with his other hand, and his rough palm skirted up her neckline to her chin. “Tell me what you want.” His eyes possessed hers, and a shudder of excitement rocked her body.
“You. Inside of me,” she said when he eased his hold on her braid and sucked at her neck. Her eyes rolled skyward. “However you want me.”
He lifted his mouth from her neck and found her eyes, his other hand tracing a line down the side of her body before he grasped her hip. “No. Tell me how you want me.”
“On top,” she nearly breathed out. “Hard and fast.” Heat flooded her stomach and traveled south. “No protection. I want to feel all of you.”
“Fuck.” The word died inside her mouth as he ravished her lips again before kissing her neck. Cheek. Throat. His teeth at her earlobe.
“On the bed,” he commanded a minute later. “Naked.” His eyes narrowed as he removed his clothes, and she hastily stripped.
He sat on the bed, and she straddled him, looping her arms around his neck as she shimmied on his lap, anxious for him to fill her.
A hard pulse of desire tore between her legs, and she was sure he could feel it.
“I’ve never wanted anything more.” His velvety words had her breasts puckering, and she kissed him, harder and full of more intensity than ever before.
When he flipped her to her back a few minutes later, her fingertips skirted over the hard lines of his chest, and she whispered, “Make love to me.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He lowered the weight of his body onto her. Their eyes remained connected as he pressed his tip to her center.
She nodded. “I’m on the pill,” she told him before he filled her.
His beard scratched a path up her neck before his lips found hers again. He continued to kiss her as they made love, as their bodies moved together.
No regrets. Not anymore.
Life was too short to go without the person she needed the most in this world. And maybe it’d taken her a while to get to this place, but she was grateful she had finally gotten there.
Her stomach muscles tightened, and her body tensed. The need to release and let go had her hanging on the edge.
“Asher,” she sputtered his name as she fought to hang on to control.
“Oh, God.” There was no way she’d last any longer.
“Yes. Yes. Yes!” Everything inside of her built up higher and higher, and then .
. . “Asher,” she cried as she came, her body rocking with his as she released, unraveling in his arms.
He spilled inside of her, warming her from head to toe, and then slowly lowered his sweaty body closer to hers but without crushing her.
Bracing above her with one hand, he moved her braid off her chest, and his fingers skimmed up the slope of her shoulder to her cheek. “This day didn’t turn out as I expected.”
“I—” Her phone shrieked from the end table, but he didn’t take his gaze off her.
“Ignore it,” he said. “We have two weeks off, remember?”
“Right.” She kissed him, but the moment the call ended, her phone began ringing again. “Let me turn it off. One sec.”
He grabbed it for her, but then cocked his head to the side as he eyed the screen. “It’s my mom. I, uh, gave her your number for emergencies.” He shifted off of her and to his feet. “Mom?” he answered.
Italian floated from the other end of the line. Jessica’s Italian was decent from having lived on a base in Naples as a kid for a few years, but she couldn’t make out enough to translate what Asher’s mom was saying.
She didn’t have to, though. Based on the clench of his jaw and the blanching of his skin, something was wrong.
“I’m on my way.” He ended the call. “I must’ve left my phone at the hangar,” he said in a daze. “She’s been calling me.”
She gripped his forearm as he blinked a few times. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
His forehead creased, and he stared down at her phone, still tight in his hand. “There was a shooting.” His eyes flicked back to hers. “Sarah was shot.”
“What?”
“She’s . . . okay.” His arms hung heavy at his sides, the phone slipping free from his hold. “But Angelo’s dead.”