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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 naïve 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.
He still doesn t turn around, and it takes just a second for the blinding anger to take
over my body. Damn them!
 Don t be pissed at them, Sunshine. I m damn happy they let me know where to find
you. Tell me did you like that asshole touching you? He finally turns, and the look on
his face causes me to take a giant step back.
He stalks me predator to his prey and I keep matching him step for step until my
ass hits the wall. My shoulders pressed back as much as I can praying that the wall will
just swallow me whole.
 I ll tell you how it made me feel. Walking in to see his fingers closed around your
slim ankle, the look in his eyes when he was lost in whatever fantasy held him captive& to
see another man with his hands on my woman& Do you want to know how I felt? Look
at me, he demands.  I felt a depth of wrath I didn t know existed. A red-hazed fury
chanting at me to kill. I wanted to rip his arms off his body and beat him with the hands
that dared to touch WHAT. IS. MINE.
I gasp. Of course I do. My words have completely left me. He just looks at me, those
beautiful eyes that show so much of his emotions just taking me in. The emotions
crossing his face go from angry to blazing with desire in a matter of seconds, and before I
can even get a word out, his lips are feasting on mine.
This kiss blows anything we ve ever shared out of the water. This is a hungry
possession of my soul. A claiming of my body. And I love every second of it.
My hands, having a mind of their own, pull at the fabric of his shirt, moving it up his
body, desperate for the feel of his skin against my fingertips. He tears his mouth from
mine, panting with exertion, and rips the shirt over his head. I watch as the fabric sails
over his shoulder and lands on the lamp hanging over the dining room table. When my
eyes move back to his, they re still scorching my skin with the intensity of his need.
His need for me.
 Ash, we need to talk, I try.
 No. What we need to do is stop talking. Talking doesn t help shit, Chelcie. His [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]