The Space Between Us(21)

He grunted at my release, still thrusting into me, giving me every  opportunity to feel him as I came. On the tail end of my release I heard  him groan again and then he stilled, his breaths panting out over me,  prickling my skin. After he emptied himself into me he collapsed, his  face finding the crook of my neck, making me smile lazily.

I knew he needed a minute to come back to me. He always did. I took the  opportunity to trail my fingers down his back, trying to soothe him and  also calm myself. I felt him exhale heavily and smiled as he kissed my  neck sweetly.

"Hold on, Bit." He pulled up and jumped off the bed. I watched as he  started digging through a box near the door, pulling out a box of  tissues. He came back to me and used a tissue to clean me up, a gesture  that I found heart shattering and intensely intimate. He threw the  tissue in the trash can and then laid back down next to me. I curled  into his side, resting my head on his chest and throwing my leg over  his. I felt him begin to run his fingers through my impossibly long  hair. The tingles rushing down my spine from the sensations of him not  only touching my hair, but my hair brushing against my naked skin as it  fell from his hand. "This is what our life will be like now, Bit. We  have complete freedom." I looked up at him and saw a wide smile on his  face. "We can be together whenever we want. No more sneaking around, or  sex in the backseat of a car, trying to hurry before you hit curfew," he  said with a laugh.

"Hey, some of our best times have been hurried and in the backseat," I said, pretending to be offended. He kissed my forehead.

"I know. But I'm excited to just be with you. Whenever I want. And I'm  not just talking about sex. We can sleep in the same bed. We can walk to  school together. We can shower together if we want. We can just be." My  heart warmed with his words. I had been thinking the same things all  summer. We had been together for so many years already, but now we were  starting a new reality. Everything would be different. Better.

"It's going to be great," I whispered. Just then we both heard Reeve  calling our names from somewhere in the hallway. I laughed. "But Reeve  will always be around to interrupt, so that's not changing." I heard him  groan in annoyance, but he got up anyway and started putting his  clothes back on. She knocked on the door just as I was putting my shirt  on and pulling my hair free from the neck of it.





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Chapter Two

We had survived our first few weeks at college and Homecoming was this  weekend. Reeve and I got ready for the big football game in our room.  The actual football game wasn't the big attraction, our team actually  sucked. It was a big game because the Greek system held a parade during  halftime and the student body voted on the best float. Delta Phi Beta,  the sorority Reeve and I both ended up rushing, won the last five years  in a row so the pressure was on to deliver again this year. Reeve,  myself, and all the other freshman pledges worked countless hours on the  float and I was confident that we had it in the bag.                       
       
           



       

So far I wasn't finding it difficult to balance classes, Reeve, new  friends, the sorority, and time with Asher. Although, if you asked him,  he would complain that we didn't see each other enough. I loved that he  wanted to see me as much as possible, but sometimes it just didn't work.  I was, however, sad that I hadn't been back home to visit my dad yet.  When I called and spoke to him, I always told him I would come home  soon, and he always told me not to rush and that he was doing fine. He  told me during one of our talks that he went out to coffee with a woman  he'd met on some online dating site. I cheerily said, "That's great!"  and then changed the topic so quickly I almost gave myself whiplash. I  knew it was good for Dad to date, but I guess I wasn't ready to hear him  talk about it. I knew he wanted me to make him feel like it was ok, but  it just wasn't something I could do in the moment and I felt bad about  that.

A knock on the door drew me out of my thoughts. I pulled the door open  and smiled as Asher stood on the other side. He looked amazing with his  dark jeans and black tee shirt that hugged his chest and biceps in just  the right way. I loved it when he wore black. It added to the darkness  of his eyes and hair.

"Hi," I said as I kissed him quickly on the cheek. When I pulled away,  he grabbed my arm and hauled me back to him, my hair swinging around  behind me. One of his hands ended up around my waist and the other hand  gently came up to the side of my face. The smile on his face melted me a  little, and the intense way he looked in my eyes made my belly flip in  way I had grown use to when it came to him.

"I need more than a simple kiss on the cheek," he said and brought his  lips to mine. The kiss started out simple and innocent, but the longer  his lips moved against mine, the longer his tongue teased mine, the  deeper and more intense the kiss became. His hand left my waist and I  felt him grip my hair at the base of my neck and slide it to the end  near the curve at the small of my back. A slight moan escaped me and I  felt him smile against me.

"Guys, seriously, we don't have time for this." As quickly as his smile  spread across his face, it left. I felt his irritation grow. He put his  forehead against mine and he exhaled loudly.

"Do you always have to ruin everything?" He asked of her. I pulled back  and gave him an annoyed look. Reeve definitely had a tendency to  interrupt us, but she didn't do it on purpose and in this instance she  had a point.

"Hey," I said a little more angrily than I had anticipated. "Don't talk  to her like that. This is her room too and she has every right to be  here." He rolled his eyes and dropped his hands to his sides.

"Sorry, Reeve. That was rude of me." Reeve eyed him suspiciously.

"You've been touchy lately, Asher." Her eyes moved back over to me. "You  would think he wasn't getting any." Then she laughed. She called over  her shoulder as she left the room, "I'll see you at the house, Charlie.  Maybe you guys should finish what you started." I heard her laughing all  the way down the hallway and into the stairwell.

"What's your problem?" I asked him as I moved across the room to grab my  purse and jacket. "Reeve is right. You've been particularly grouchy the  last couple of days." I saw something flash across his eyes and  immediately knew he was keeping something from me. I moved back across  the room to stand in front of him. "Ash, if there is something wrong you  need to tell me." He exhaled and when his breath left his body, I saw  his shoulders slouch.

"Things are just a little crazy right now." His hands came up and rubbed  over his face, as if he were trying to wipe away his frustration. I  closed the space between us and wrapped my arms around his waist.

"What can I do to help?"

"Just be you, Bit. And keep calling me out on my shit. I don't want to be an asshole. There's just a lot going on right now."

"You'd tell me if it was something more than that, right?"

"Of course," he said as he bent down to kiss me. He pulled away too soon  for my liking, but we had places to be. "Let's go." He swatted my butt  as I slid past him through the door. Once outside he laced his fingers  with mine and gave my hand a squeeze. I smiled up at him but noticed his  smile didn't make the lines around his eyes form. His eyes weren't  sparkling like they usually were. My mind immediately began to search  for things that could be wrong. Had something happened with his parents?  Were classes getting him down? Pre-law was a lot to take on and his  father had really high expectations for him. Had I been doing enough to  make him feel like a priority? Of all the possible problems I could come  up with, that was the only one I could directly affect. Sometimes it  was very easy to take our relationship for granted. There was a finality  and sense of being settled when it came to Asher. I knew he was it for  me, that we were it for each other. The real deal. The forever kind of  love.                       
       
           



       

We crossed over the pedestrian bridge that led through a small wooded  area. I stopped walking and Asher noticed when my hand tugged on his. He  turned around and gave me a concerned look.

"Something wrong?" He asked, his eyebrows furrowing in the middle. I  grabbed his other hand and pulled them both behind my back, forcing his  chest to come into mine. My neck strained as I looked up at him towering  over me.

"Do you remember the first time you told me you loved me?" I asked him. He gave me a sexy half smile, but still looked confused.