Chapter 203: Asher
My mind hasn’t slowed since we walked through the door.
Night’s voice still echoes in the back of my skull, pulled from old memories and the words he left behind. My chest feels tight, like my lungs are trying to hold everything in the guilt, the ache, the goddamn helplessness.
But beside me, Penny is quiet.
Soft.
Present.
Her body is tucked gently into the corner of the couch, knees pulled close, one hand resting over mine. Her face is tilted toward the glow of the window, eyes glassy, cheeks flushed. And there – catching in the curve of her cheekbone is a single tear. It hasn’t even fallen yet.
And somehow that undoes me more than everything else tonight.
She’s here.
After everything – the tension at dinner, the way Mac looked at her like she was something disposable, the risk I took just bringing her to the base she’s still here.
For me.
Because of me.
And I don’t deserve her. But I need her.
God, do I need her.
–
I turn toward her fully and reach out. My hand finds her waist – small, warm, soft beneath my fingers and I pull her gently, carefully. She looks at me, eyes widening just slightly.
“Asher…?”
I lift her onto my lap, slow and certain, until she’s straddling me.
–
Her thighs bracket mine, her hands bracing on my shoulders, and the air between us thickens instantly. But it’s not just lust it’s something deeper. Something raw. Something broken, reaching for something whole,
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, resting one hand on her hip. “For all of it. For bringing you there. For leaving you alone. For Mac. For everything.”
Her brows knit, but she doesn’t pull away.
“I’d do it again,” she says, quiet but firm. “All of it. For you.”
That-
That shatters something in me.
I cup her cheek with one hand, the back of her neck with the other, and I pull her down to me like I’ve been starving for this. For her. My hers and she melts into the kiss like she’s been waiting for it, too.
It’s not slow. It’s not soft.
hinto
It’s needy.
Her hands slip into my hair as I kiss her deeper, parting her lips and breathing her in. My fingers dig into her waist, guiding her closer. Closer. Until there’s
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Chapter 203: Asher
no space betweeen us.
Het body presses against mine and I feel the way she arches slightly, instinctively, her breath catching when I trad bisset down the rate of her beat slang hrt neck. She smells like vanilla and something floral something sweet that disent belong in a place is dock is tonight has been
1 gtip her hips fighter and roll mine upward, just once, slow and deliberate.
She gasps into my mouth.
“You’re so beautiful,” I murmur against her collarbone, tugging the strap of her dress aff one shoulder with my sath
Her skin tastes like heat and sugar and something that feels dangerously close to home.
She moans softly, her fingers dragging down my chest, tentative but eager, like she’s trying to memorize me in the dark. I tug her dres tigh
just enough to grip the back of her thighs and pull her harder against me.
She feels everything.
et of yet
So do 1.
I nip at the curve of her shoulder, her pulse fluttering beneath my lips, and she rocks against me, just slightly, just enough to make me fat it
And god, I feel everything.
I press my forehead to hers, breath ragged, eyes locked on hers.
“You sure?”
Her answer is a breathless nod. “Yes.”
I don’t waste another second.
I push her dress down her back and over her thighs, slow but firm, until the fabric pools at her waist. Her chest rises and falls rapidly as she shifts in lap, her thighs squeezing around me, her breath soft little huffs against my cheek.
She’s so small against me. So delicate. But her hands are bold – sliding under my shirt, dragging across my stomach, tracing muscle like she wants to claim me as much as I want to claim her. She pulls my shirt up and I let her – raise my arms and toss it aside.
Her eyes drift down, over my chest, the scars, the muscles. She bites her lip.
I cup her cheek again and tilt her face up.
“You’re not scared?”
She shakes her head. “Not of you.”
God. That-
That makes everything in me burn.
I drag my hands up her thighs, feeling goosebumps/rise under my touch. I let my thumbs sweep over her hips, around the dip of her waist, until they Yeach
her ribs and then finally her bra, 1 ease the fabric aside, and hell – she’s more beautiful than I remembered, if that’s even possible.
She gasps when I take one of her breasts in my hand, gentle but possessive, my thumb brushing over the soft peak. She arches into the touch, her lips parting, eyes fluttering shut.
I kiss her again. Deeper, Hungrier. Like I need to make her feel how badly I want her.
—
And she does
she moves against me, slowly rocking her hips over mine, dragging heat and pressure right where I need her most. Her thighs are trembling. her hands back in my hair, and I grip her ass, guiding her rhythm just the way I want it.
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Chapter 203: Asher
pull her dress up and over her head, letting it fall somewhere behind the couch.
Now she’s just in her underwear, straddling me in the dim light, her skin glowing like moonlight, her heath shallow and quick
She reaches down and unbuckles my belt fingers a little shaky, but determined. She pulls the leather free, pops the barton, lowers the rippet. Lay suck a hard, throbbing beneath the fabric, already straining toward her.
I lift my hips and help her push my jeans down just enough. The air is cooler now, and I groan softly as her hand slides beneath the waistbond of my bo wrapping around me.
“Jesus, Penny,” I whisper, head falling back for a second.
Her hand is small, warm, tentative at first
then surer. She strokes me slowly, watching me, her mouth parted in awe or curiosity or maybe inst need.
I reach between us and hook my fingers into the waistband of her panties.
“Off,” I say, voice deeper than I’ve ever heard it.
She nods and shifts back, lifting her hips so I can pull them down her thighs and let them drop beside the couch.
And now she’s naked in my lap.
Breathing hard. Blushing. Perfect.
I wrap one arm around her lower back, the other gripping her thigh, and I pull her close again. Our bodies aligned, nothing between us now but skin and heat and want.
She looks into my eyes
vulnerable and open and waiting.
I guide her forward, slowly, one hand steadying myself, the other holding her hip.
Her body is tight, warm, wet she gasps as I press into her, inch by inch. Her nails bite into my shoulders, and I groan as I slide deeper.
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