Unfriended(Love in New Highland Book 1)(46)

Coming pussies are a favorite of mine, I may or may not have mentioned.

Finally she slumped back, exhausted. I'd worn her out. Satisfied her utterly.

I slowed, stopped. Lifted up, checking on her. Good, strong breaths,  each one making her nipples quiver. Her eyes were shut and her  expression was pure happiness.

I bent and licked her mouth and her eyes opened.

And I literally reeled back. Charis … liked me. A fucking lot. I'd never seen such emotion in a woman's eyes.

"Good?" I said tenderly.

"So good," she whispered. "I'm full. No more room." Her hand fluttered  up to my cheek and she stroked my stubble down to my chin. "How do I  make you feel as fabulous as I'm feeling, dude?"

I grinned, feeling like an emperor. "More praise first. I am the one. The only. Say it."

"You're the one, the only. Totally."

"I need my phone. I have to record this."

She giggled. "Come on, Ash. I want to make you feel good. What can I do?"

"Truth, with my dick in you, everything feels good, Sloane."

"Even your hair follicles?"

"Those especially."

"Good. I … "

Her eyelids drifted shut. Her arm fell to her side and she made happy little murmurs.

I didn't want her to pass out. "Char. Watch me."

On an indrawn breath, she opened her eyes. "Yes."

"You don't need to do anything," I soothed. "Just lie there and watch me fuck you. I want you to see what you do to me."

A shiver rippled through her, and she stared at me as I started to  thrust again, slowly at first, keeping my gaze locked to hers. Only this  time as the need rose, I didn't hold back. This time I let myself go  with a harsh groan. I gripped her hips, bruised them no doubt, and drove  into her so deep her body jerked with the impact.                       
       
           



       

The orgasm that washed over me then was a fucking tidal wave, not  surprising after how long I'd held back. It was up there among the best  of my life, but that wasn't what blew my mind.

It was how safe I felt. How right this was. How absolutely mine she was.

Fucking about time.





CHAPTER 26





One Year Ago-Safe



Charis: Do you believe in emotional polarity?

Asher: So I'm guessing this isn't anything to do with the earth's magnetic charge at the poles.

Charis: Nope. I'm talking about happiness and sadness, love and hate,  fear and comfort, that kind of thing. Some people think you need one  emotion to experience its opposite. So, do you?

Asher: Sure, sounds reasonable.

Charis: Oh, it is. But I think it has to be balanced and it's usually not.

Asher: Explain.

Charis: Well we learn when we're kids that if we trip and fall, we won't  be safe. Safe only has meaning for us after we trip and fall, right? We  learn what fear is and then we crave safety.

Asher: Right.

Charis: But then we spend all our time staying safe. We never let  ourselves trip and fall again. And that's maybe going too far with the  safety lesson. Maybe we'd be better off with a more balanced approach.  Say, letting ourselves trip and fall once a year or something. Just to  see if maybe there's another lesson there.

Asher: O-kay. And all of this pertains to what exactly?

Charis: I like being safe.

Asher: And?

Charis: I'm just saying.

Asher: All that convoluted shit was to say you like being safe.

Charis: Yeah.

Asher: Fucking pulling teeth here … are you saying you'd rather be unsafe?

Charis: No, well, I don't know. It's just sometimes … you don't know what  to do and you get scared and so you stick to the safe route. And other  times, you think, if you just take that leap, choose the dangerous  route, things could be kinda sorta awesome. But then you realize it's  stupid.

Asher: Take the leap.

Charis: No, I don't think so. Because ultimately I know it's stupid.

Asher: You're way overthinking things.

Charis: Yeah, probably …



Asher



"MAYBE I DIDN'T THINK THIS through," Charis said humbly.

Too late.

Yeah, I had no sympathy. No amount of humbleness on her part could make  me not be pissed about this. Talk about a radical shift in mood. "Maybe  you didn't."

"Well, sorry. I didn't know Mel was going. Look, Asher, there's no  reason they have to know we're involved in this thing." Charis played  with the rim of her orange juice glass.

We were at the kitchen table, eating breakfast in sleep clothes. Clothes we hadn't slept in, because we'd slept naked.

I'd awakened from our epic first fuck night spooned against her with  morning wood and a grin that wouldn't stop. When she stirred, rubbing  that baby-soft skin against me, I'd gone and slipped inside her a few  inches before my dopey brain processed what I was doing, and with some  fairly comical panic withdrew before I was too far gone to stop myself  from thrusting.

In. Fucking. Sane.

Where was a chlorine mnemonic when you needed it?

There was no thought of protection. No thought of Aura. Just went right in as if I'd been barebacking with her for years.

Fuck. This fucking-your-best-friend thing was dangerous.

And the sensation of her wetness against my bare skin lingered even  after I got the condom. It made that morning fuck even hotter. All from  behind, with me connected to that pretty little ass. I also whispered in  her ear funny things because I wanted to feel her laughing while I  fucked her.

A kind of amazing morning.

We'd decided against day clothes with the idea of spending a day in bed  together. Between bouts of hot sex, the plan went, I'd work in bed with  my tablet and she'd read. The point was, not leaving the bed except for  absolute necessities, eating being one.

And now she had to ruin it at breakfast.

I wanted to shake some sense into her. First she committed us both to  going to my sister's party on the basis of matchmaking for our  relationship-averse friend, and then she decided we'd go as single  people?

My formerly brainy girl had lost her ability to reason.

"Why don't you want people to know about this thing?" I said through clenched teeth.

"They'll quiz us and say embarrassing things."

"Sloane, that's a crock of shit."

"No, it's not. Your family is ruthless and unrelenting. You know they'll put us on the spot."

"They're nice people. They won't do that."

"Sure they will."

"False."

"True. You know it's true, Asher. I don't want them implying I'm … "

"You're … ?"

"Cradle robbing! Okay?"

I expressed my annoyance that this was still an issue by knocking my mug loudly on the table. "They wouldn't."

"They would too. Mine do."                       
       
           



       

"When?"

She waved her hand. "Whenever they see you, they talk about your boyish  youth. And then they start right in on what a fuddy-duddy I am. No,  really, they do. It's like, hello? Do you even know me?"

"My family is different." All right, they might mention it. But everyone  in my family was crazy about Charis. No one would give her a hard time.  "Who the fuck cares anyway?"

"Me. Especially if Mel does it."

I considered telling her Mel was the one who'd pointed out my blindness  to me. Then again, I wasn't sure if Mel was for or against an  Asher/Charis relationship. "Maybe Mel won't be there."

"I thought you said she was going."

"Might go. It depends on Esteban. He's at a convention in Spokane. Last I  heard, if he can get away and she finds someone to watch the baby,  they're going. Otherwise … "

"Well whether she's there or not, I'd just rather people not know what  we're doing yet. Think about it, Asher. Are you looking forward to the  questions and to having to give long, drawn-out explanations about how  we happened to change our relationship right when … never mind."

"Who cares when we did it? I don't have to explain anything to anyone."

"No, because you'll charm them and turn the tables on them like you always do. But I'm not made that way."

"So you let me handle it."

"Say again? Let you talk for me?"

Clearly that did not compute. Aura would have had no problems with my doing the talking for both of us. I sighed.

"Sloane, you're making this way too complicated. We tell them ahead of  time and warn them not to say shit about it under threat of desertion."

"Sure, then later on they all call me for the real scoop. And you know  they'll gossip with each other. I know you Norrells. Ryanna will  probably be a sweetie about it. Everyone else will make a fuss. There is  no minimizing this."

"There's no hiding it, either," I countered. "Like you said, it's my  family. They know something's up. They suspect I'm with someone, just  not who it is. You want me to have to make up a story about somebody who  doesn't exist?"