Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 76541 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76541 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
I lay it out there, so he knows I understand. “You’ve cut yourself off from relationships, so you won’t get hurt again. It’s why you go to a sex club. Why you wanted to keep distance from me. I understand it. I really do.”
We stare at each other a moment while the words hang in the air.
Then, Asher steps into me, sliding one hand to the back of my neck. Peering down at me, he asks, “Do you think you could free up a night sometime in the next week to have a night out with me? And I’m not talking about to the club. I was thinking dinner. Maybe a movie.”
An amazing feeling of hope and light fills me that this man is really putting his past in a drawer and is taking that first tentative step outside of the fortress he’s built up around himself.
“Yes,” I tell him with a firm nod of my head. “Nelson is going to take Hope from Saturday morning until Sunday afternoon, so if that works for you?”
“It works great,” he says, and then his mouth is on mine. It’s so atypical of the type of hot kissing we normally engage in. It’s thoughtful, somewhat hesitant, and yet there’s no mistaking the yearning within it.
My chest constricts, and I am fully aware I’ve fallen for this man. I have to admit it now—at least to myself—since he’s taken the huge step of opening up to me.
And despite the hell I went through getting out of my marriage with Nelson, and with being bullied and intimidated by him, I don’t find myself hesitant at all in giving myself to Asher. I trust that he will not hurt me the way Nelson did.
I just don’t think he has it in him, to be honest.
My arms go around his neck. While I make the kiss no sexier than what it is, I want him to feel from it that I’m ready for him to take that risk with me.
CHAPTER 23
Asher
Hannah’s pussy squeezes my dick so hard I believe she might be coming again. That knowledge sends me over the edge, and I plant deep inside of her before I explode.
My forehead drops to hers and I groan out the release, relishing the ripples of pleasure that roll up my spine.
“Goddamn,” I huff out as I let some of my body weight down onto her.
Those beautiful eyes of hers flutter open, locking right onto me. One corner of her mouth pulls up into a smirk. “You outdid yourself that time.”
I can feel my ego swelling. “Did you come a third time?”
She nods with a dopey grin on her face. It makes me laugh as I gather her in my arms and roll us to the side.
We’re practically nose to nose as we settle in, still trembling and huffing from that marathon of a fuck-fest. Christ, I think Hannah has completely ensnared me into her web of sexuality laced sweetness. I’m pretty confident sex with anyone else would be so lackluster I’d want to become a monk.
“Stay the night?” I ask.
“Okay,” she replies with a tiny smile. My arms squeeze her to me a little tighter.
Tonight was perfect. Despite the fact we’ve been having sex for weeks, I was still anxious over what would be our first true date. It had all felt a bit new to me.
Nelson had picked up Hope this morning, and Hannah spent most of the day looking at new housing for them. I spent the day watching the clock tick by while working at the office because I have no life and nothing better to do.
And then it was time for our date, and the evening was a revelation.
Hannah dressed up—classy, not sexy—and looked magical. We had an amazing dinner that lasted almost three hours, not because the food was slow but because the conversation was never ending. While I’ve been able to put together bits and pieces of Hannah over the last several weeks, I finally got the complete picture tonight.
Let me tell you… she’s a force to be reckoned with.
She grew up dirt poor in rural South Carolina with an absentee father and a mother who worked her hands to the bone to put food on the table. Hannah had to work at an early age while helping to raise her siblings. She told me she felt incredible guilt when she met Nelson, had a whirlwind romance, and then realized that meant she’d have to move back to Vegas where he was from. She felt terrible leaving her family behind.
Throughout it all, the one thing they were never lacking was love. It’s an interesting juxtaposition to my family. We had all the money in the world and lived a lavish lifestyle, yet we weren’t overly close as a unit. Sure, our mother was loving, and Christina and I were close because we’re twins, but that was it. I can tell, though… Hannah, her mom, and her brothers were a team.