Her silence is alarming. I’m used to her sweet murmurs—the snarky bursts of fiery attitude she normally keeps closed off from others—and most importantly, that deep-rooted desire that is usually blazing in those brown-gold pools.
I hate this closed-off, scared version of her, and I’m almost afraid to believe that it could be me she’s afraid of.
We pull up, park, and silently make our way past a smiling Joe and into the elevator. She goes to press the button for her floor, but I grab her lightly, pulling her flush with my body.
“No,” I growl, the primal sound shocking even my own ears.
“Please,” she pleads, her eyes round with what I can only guess is panic.
“Sunshine, would I ever hurt you? Get that look off your beautiful face,” I murmur. Lightly pressing my lips to hers, I take a deep, reassuring breath when I feel her body relax slightly in my arms.
“You scare the ever-loving shit out of me, Ash. We need to talk, and right now, I’m just trying to take a moment to get over the fact that when you hear what I have to say . . . you could hate me forever.”
“A little dramatic, don’t you think?”
She doesn’t say anything, just looks up at me with pain very evident in her eyes.
Even with the anger from Fat Jacks still surfing through my body, I can feel the trace of apprehension starting to take hold of my skin.
“You don’t get it, Ash. There are things I haven’t told you, things that could change the way you think you feel for me. Things that could change everything, and I have no clue how to get past this. Don’t you see? Don’t you see how much you mean to me? I’m not sure I could handle you not wanting to be a part of my life anymore—even if it is just as friends.”
My brow creases with her words. “You’re going to realize real soon that when I say you’re mine, I mean it. We’ve been dancing around this for way too long.” The earlier feelings of uncontrollable anger over her being out with another man threaten to take hold of me again. It’s taking every thread of control to keep myself calm. To stop myself from throwing her on the floor of the damn elevator and showing her just how mine she really is. “And before the day is over, there will be no fucking doubt in that pretty little head just how much I mean that.”
Her eyes darken, but not out of the desire I wish I saw. No, this time they get darker with her sadness, and I wish there was something, anything, I could do to take that from her.
Chelcie
While sitting in the car on the way back to the apartments, I busy myself with trying to figure out what just happened. I’m almost positive that Asher just . . . claimed me? My ankle is killing me from where crazy Phil had his hands crushing deep into the muscles and tendons. I’m pretty sure I’m going to have a huge welt-like bruise when I get a good look at it.
The ride up is more heavy silence. The tension between us is so abundant that I keep shaking uncontrollably. I don’t fear Asher. Even when he was at his drunkest, his meanest, and his worst, I never feared him. It’s almost been as if his pain was my own, which even to my own mind makes no sense. Sure, we’ve grown as close as two friends who have red-hot chemistry can get, but ever since the day that I met him, I knew there was potential for something so powerful that I’m not sure I would come out the same person in the end.
He makes me feel alive. And completely untethered to my own sense of reality.
I’m not exactly na?ve when it comes to men and relationships. I’ve had a few steady boyfriends, but nothing that I was really willing to invest myself one hundred percent in. I haven’t been avoiding being in a committed relationship, but I’ve also been unwilling to give myself to someone who clearly wasn’t eager to look at me as anything other than a warm body.
Which is one of the main reasons I’ve avoided acting on the attraction between Asher and me.
That and the obvious elephant in the room.
And in the back of my mind, I have to be honest with myself. Sure, we have a friendship—as precarious as it seems at the moment—and the combustible attraction . . . But when he finds out about the baby, how do I know that, if he still wants something from me, it isn’t going to be just because I’m carrying a part of his brother.
With a deep sigh, I lean back against the elevator car and mentally prepare myself for what is to come.
CHAPTER 13
Chelcie
“How did you know I was there?” I question when Asher all but slams the door, trapping me in a room I’m not quite sure I want to be in. Well, that’s a lie—my body wants to be here, but my mind wants to run.
He doesn’t turn around right away. He stands at the door, his hands braced on the thick wood and his breathing hard and heavy. His very presence alone is so strong and demanding that the air around us feels alive.
I wouldn’t have been able to control the thick shudder that flies through my body if I’d tried.
“Dee—well, Sway. Dee and Sway.”