Undeniably Asher (The Colloway Brothers Book 2) (2 page)

“Fuck you. You don’t own me,” I spit.

A slow, sexy smirk spreads his lips as he leans close. His lips brush against the shell of my ear when he speaks. I’m unable to hide the shiver that his scorching words produce. “Not yet I don’t, sweet Alyse.”

Pulling back, he pins me with a smoldering, hungry stare that feels like a sweet breath against my wet sex. I have to bite my lip hard to keep from moaning. Leaning in again, I think he may kiss me and I haven’t made up my mind if I will give him my mouth or a swift knee to the jewels, but just as he’s a hairsbreadth away, he reaches behind me, grabs his beer off the counter, and turns, walking away. I stare after him, practically panting like a crazy bitch in heat.

“Egotistical asshole,” I mutter under my breath. Apparently not quiet enough, though, because I hear him laugh as he enters the living room.

I broke up with Finn later that night. Something that was long overdue, despite what I’d led everyone else to believe. It was a bad decision to let him move in with me in the first place, but he’d just lost his job and couldn’t afford his rent, so I caved. Chalk that relationship up to another grand failure, but it had absolutely nothing to do with Asher Colloway and his whispered promise that went to that dark place between my thighs.

Nope. Nothing at all.

Hearing my cell buzz, I look down to see it’s my sister, Livia, and hesitate. Despite the fact that we’re slowly mending our relationship, I can admit I still have a fair amount of resentment toward her. She up and abandoned everyone she loved when she disappeared without being seen or barely heard from for over three years. Livia was my rock. I still feel enormously betrayed that she left me, just as everyone else has in my life, especially when I needed her most.

“Hi Libs. How are you?” I say, right before the call rolls to voice mail. It’s rhetorical, because I know exactly how my sister is. Giddy, madly in love, and still battling morning sickness.

“Hey, Lysee. Better, actually. You?”

“Great,” I inject with as much enthusiasm as possible.
Juuuust great.

Livia’s expecting twins in a little over six months and is engaged to the love of her life, Gray Colloway, who also happens to be Asher’s older brother. I’m happy for her, but I’m also admittedly a teensy bit jealous. At one time long ago, I thought I had what Livia now has with Gray. Oh, how very wrong I was.

“How are my nephews?” I ask, trying to get out of my own head.

“And why do you think I’m having boys?” she laughs.

My laughter joins hers. “Look at our families, Libs. Twin boys are practically a pandemic.” Livia’s husband-to-be is a twin, along with his younger brothers, Asher and Connelly, plus Livia said that Frank Colloway was an identical twin. And though I didn’t know her well, our grandmother was a twin. Basically anytime Livia gets pregnant, she’d better watch out.

“Well, I’m still a few weeks away from being able to tell yet.”

“So you’re going to find out?”

“Yes. Both Gray and I want to know. Planners that we are and all.”

Wanting to get off the subject of babies and the twins she’s having, I ask, “So how are the wedding plans coming?”

“Funny you should ask,” she hedges.

“Uh oh…did you guys decide to elope?” When Livia first called to tell me about her engagement and pregnancy, I asked if they were going to fly to Vegas, but she was adamant she wanted an actual wedding. Small, but complete with the works. Dress, cake, dancing, family, and friends, and they wanted to get married before the babies arrived.

“No. But we did set a date.”

“Oh my God, that’s great!” I can practically hear Livia’s smile. For the first time since she told me she was getting married, I feel a twinge of real excitement for my sister.
About time, you selfish bitch.

“You may not think so when I tell you. I’m really going to need your help to pull it off.”

“Oookay.”

“December twenty-seventh.”

My stomach drops. “Livia! That’s in five weeks!”
The worst day of my life
, I think.

“I know, I know, but…I just want to get married before I get too fat. Despite the morning sickness, I already can’t fit into my jeans. You’ll be my maid of honor, right?”

My head is reeling at the date Livia’s chosen for her wedding, so when I don’t respond immediately, I hear her calling my name. “Yes, of course I’ll be your maid of honor, Livia,” I mumble.

Livia’s silent for a few beats. “Alyse…I understand if—”

“It’s okay, Livia,” I interrupt. “It will be a good distraction.” Ever since the accident eight years ago this December twenty-seventh, I take that day off and wallow.

I cry too much.

I drink too much.

I remember too much.

I’m surprised to find that I’m actually sincere when I say it may be a good distraction. Eight years is long enough to mourn. I need to move on. Maybe a good memory on that day to replace the bad is exactly what I need.

“I wanted to pick a different date, but this worked best with Gray’s schedule and—”

“Stop. It’s fine. It’s your day and I’ll do everything I can to make it special for you. I promise.”

“Thanks, Lysee.”

We spend the next twenty minutes talking about wedding details and splitting up duties. Livia’s two friends, Addy and Kamryn, will also be helping with the planning, so no one person becomes too overwhelmed with all the tasks that need to be completed in such a short period of time. The wedding will be small: only family and a few very close friends. Regardless of the wedding size, there is an overwhelming amount of detail that needs to be considered.

“So…who is standing up for Gray?” I ask. Livia told me each of them would have only one attendant.

“Asher.”

My stomach flutters. I’m ashamed at the rush of desire flowing thickly through my body at the mere mention of his name. “Really? I would have thought Luke would have that role.”

For as long as I’ve known the Colloways, we all thought Gray’s twin, Luke, was dead. Turns out he was just disowned for some unsavory life choices, but now he’s back in the family fold, somewhat. I think. It’s all very confusing.

“It’s…complicated. Gray and Luke are slowly working things out, but it will take a while. Gray had a hard time choosing between Asher and Conn, but Conn insisted it be Asher.”

I’m glad he did.

We hang up a few minutes later, after I agree to Thanksgiving dinner at the Colloway house next week. It’s not like I have anything else to do. I had planned to spend the day in ratty sweats, curled up on the couch, watching football and drinking wine. Guess I’ll be doing all of those with the Colloways instead. Minus the ratty sweats. Luckily for me, it’s here in Detroit and only a thirty-minute drive from my house.

Looks like I’ll be seeing quite a bit of the sexy, irresistible Asher Colloway over the next several weeks. And I’m not sure if I’m excited or nervous.

Both, I think. Definitely both.

I pull myself from my daydreams and back to the problems at hand—getting more clients so I can stay in business past year-end.

Chapter 2

Asher

“So how was your
date
last night?” I ask my fraternal twin, Connelly, breathing hard from my physical exertion. I’m bent over, arms on my thighs, winded from our quick five-mile run. It’s early in the morning and the traffic in the gym we offer as a perk to our employees is pretty light. Exactly how I like it. The fewer people around, the better. Actually, I prefer to take my runs outdoors, regardless of the weather, but the half inch of ice and three inches of snow on the Chicago sidewalks overnight make for treacherous conditions, even for the most skilled outdoor runner.

His mouth quirks up on one side. “Satisfying.”

“You’re such a manwhore.”

“We’re cut from the same cloth, brother,” Conn replies darkly, wiping the sweat collected on his forehead with his drenched shirt. Heading over to the free weights, Conn grabs a pair of fifty-pound dumbbells and begins his bicep curls. I grab the eighty-fives, laying down on the bench for chest presses.

“What about you?” he grunts, rapidly curling the weights up to his shoulders, alternating one after the other, muscles bulging with each stroke. “Haven’t bragged about any conquests lately. Why is that?” Conn looks down to where I’m lying and gives me a knowing wink.

Apparently my
feigned
nonchalance about a certain dark-haired, brown-eyed petite beauty who is consuming my every single waking thought is just that. Of course, my twin knows me better than anyone. I’ve not been this enthralled by a single woman since Natalie, and I don’t even think I was this way with her. That scares the fuck out of me.

“Fuck off. I entertained Gabriella recently.” And by recently, I mean more than a month ago, which is like a drought for me. I’m surprised my dick hasn’t fallen off for lack of use. But the problem is, the entire time I was inside another woman, I thought of Alyse’s caramel eyes glazing over with pure ecstasy as I pushed her body to the very limit. Christ, just thinking of the pleasure that would etch on her beautiful face as I force her to give me orgasm after orgasm gets me hard, which won’t go unnoticed by my brother, even in my baggy gym shorts.

If I thought my attraction to her at twenty-one was intense, it’s a blip on the radar compared to what I’m feeling now. It’s been two long months since I’ve last set eyes on Alyse. I’m trying to figure out how the hell I can see her again before my brother’s wedding when Conn drops a gift in my lap.

“You know she’s coming to Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday.”

No. No I did not.

I struggle with my last two reps, my shaking muscles protesting the heavy weight I’ve intentionally chosen. “Who?” I pretend to have no idea what he’s talking about, but at the inference that I’m finally going to set my starved eyes on Alyse again my dick twitches involuntarily and, noticing, Conn barks a laugh.

Fucker.

Conn racks his weights. Leaning against the mirrored wall, he gauges my every reaction. “I haven’t seen you act this way about a woman since…”

“Don’t,” I snap.

I let my weights drop to the floor and sit up, suddenly feeling too vulnerable with where this conversation is going. I don’t talk about Natalie. Ever. Conn knows this. I keep that young and foolish part of my life close to the forefront of my mind so I don’t make those same mistakes again. Since the woman I’d planned on marrying crushed my very heart underneath her five-inch cheating stilettos four years ago, I don’t let women into that exposed space, choosing to take Conn’s route of moving from one willing bed to the next.

So manwhore is a pretty apt title for me, too, as much as I’d like to argue otherwise.

But somehow I find myself thinking that if I ever
would
let a woman worm her way into that dark, broken space again, it would be Alyse Kingsley. Same as it was years ago, there’s just something about her innocence that inexplicably draws me to her like a moth to an open flame.

Innocence I want to corrupt.

Badly.

And repeatedly.

Her innocence is about as compelling as her fire and tenacity and intelligence. Add to that the whole outer beauty with her insanely sexy and fit body and drop-dead-gorgeous face, and she really is the whole package. She’s grown into an incredible woman. I find myself wondering why someone hasn’t married her yet, but at the same time I’m glad they haven’t. Because I want her like I haven’t wanted another woman in a very, very long time. I have to wonder if I’ve ever wanted a woman as badly as I want Alyse.

As I’ve
always
wanted her.

I’ve known Alyse since my older brother, Gray, started dating her sister, Livia, over eight years ago. Even then I was irrationally attracted to her. I shouldn’t have been. She was seventeen, in high school. I was twenty-one, in college. She was jailbait, but that didn’t stop me from having a brief summer fling with her. I’ve had a lot of women over the years, too many, in fact, and I’ve pretty much forgotten all of them.

Except Alyse Kingsley.

She’s simply unforgettable, as is that Fourth of July where we almost made the biggest mistake of my young adult life. Being attracted to Alyse was one thing. Actually acting on it was something else entirely. Except we did. Had my twin not caught us in the boathouse at that moment, I don’t think anything would have stopped me from taking her that night. Right or wrong.

I saw her briefly a couple of times after that, but we never acted on our attraction again. Ever since I saw her just two months ago at a family dinner in Detroit, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Livia’s baby sister. Or the fact that she’s no longer a baby, but a twenty-five-year-old fucking hottie that my cock is begging me to take on a long, sweaty ride.

When I saw the bruises on her arm, I about lost it and pounded her meathead boyfriend’s face into the concrete. Just thinking about it now makes my blood boil with rage. I wasn’t kidding when I told Alyse I’d kill the fucker if he ever put his hands on her again. If I so much as glimpse one mark next time I see her, I’m sure my brother Luke can hook me up with someone who would be all too happy to make that happen.