Until Series: Box set (19 page)

“Hey, guys,” November says to Cash and Nico. They both stand to hug her. “Where’s Trevor?” she asks, looking around.

“He’s picking up Liz,” I tell her and her eyes light up. I shake my head. I have no idea what’s going on with Liz and Trevor. I know he likes her, but I think her innocent-vibe is throwing him off. He doesn’t know how to deal with a girl that has no experience. When he found out she needed a ride, he quickly volunteered to pick her up. Maybe they just need some time to get to know each other.

“Liz is coming?” Cash asks, rubbing his hands together. He’s been fucking with Trevor every chance he gets. Anytime Liz is around and any guy even looks at her, Trevor looks ready to snap.

“Be nice, guys,” November says quietly, taking off her jacket and revealing the low cut shirt she’s wearing under it. I feel my pulse speed up and I look around.

“You’re not cold, baby?” I hint for her to put the coat back on. I know if I tell her to put the coat on, she’s going to tell me where to shove it.

“Nah, I’m good.” She smiles sweetly. Her eyes go over my shoulder and I see her body get stiff. I turn to see Becky making her way over to us.

“Fuck,” I mumble, pulling out a stool, trying to get November to sit down.

“Asher!” Becky squeals, throwing herself at me. I remove her arms and hold her back.

“Where have you been?” she asks, looking around the table. Her eyes land on November and her face goes hard. “Oh, never mind. I see you’re still roaming the streets with the pussy peddler.”

“Excuse me?” I feel November stand beside me. “What did you just say?” she asks, trying to get around me.

“You need to leave, Becky,” I say, blocking November. Cash and Nico are now standing on either side of November, showing where their loyalty lies.

“Your daddy sells pussy,” Becky snarls.

“No, my dad sells entertainment.”

“You know some of the girls there sell pussy to their customers when no one’s looking,” Becky says, glaring at November.

“What’s your last name?” November asks and Becky puts her hands on her hips.

“Hudson,” Cash says. November looks at him then back at Becky.

“So, you were one of those girls who was selling pussy while no one was looking, weren’t you, Becky Hudson?” November smirks and Becky takes a step back. “My dad’s club is clean unless trash like you comes in to dirty it up. But then, you know what happens to trash, don’t you, Becky? It always gets thrown out. Don’t talk about my dad’s club again. You worked for him until you tried to make money on the side, and he threw you out like the trash you are.” After landing her final blow, November walks to the bar.

“I can’t believe you’re with a girl like her,” Becky says, shaking her head.

“You need to go and don’t come back,” I say, turning to the bar. When I reach November’s side, she’s already got her Corona.

“I hate women like that,” she says, shaking her head and not looking up from her beer.

“Yeah,” I agree, thinking that I wasted a lot of time on women like that. “You okay?” I ask, pulling her into my side and tilting her head back to kiss her.

“I will be when I finish this Corona and can order another one,” she mumbles against my lips and I smile against hers. I want to tell her so badly that I love her, but I keep telling myself to let her set the pace. “Let’s go back to the table and enjoy the rest of the night.”

I
t is Christmas
Eve and I’m standing in the bathroom, trying to finish getting ready to go to Asher’s parents’. It’s been a month since I found out that I am a millionaire. The only person who knows about my inheritance is my dad. I finally agreed with him that I wasn’t going to give my mom half the money. She hasn’t even called since I’ve been in Tennessee. I tried to call her and even left a couple messages but she never returned my calls. I’m sure if I had mentioned the money, I would have gotten a call back, but I didn’t want that to be the reason she reached out to me.

My other dilemma is trying to find a way to tell Asher about the money. Every time I am going to bring it up, I wonder if it will change our relationship. I don’t think it will, but you never really know.

We’ve been together for over a month and I still sleep in his bed every night, not that I have any choice in the matter. Anytime I mention staying at my dad’s, he gets a look that tells me if I tried, he would drag me back to his house caveman style. But really, I don’t mind. I love going to sleep with him every night and waking up to him every morning.

“Hey, baby. You okay?” Asher asks, coming to stand behind me and placing his hands on my waist and his mouth at my neck. My hands are rolling my hot rollers into my hair. I haven’t even gotten dressed yet. I still have on my tank top and sleep shorts. We got up early and had breakfast, and then crawled back into bed.

“Yeah,” I whisper as the scruff from his jaw runs down my neck to my shoulder. “Um, actually. I need to tell you something.” I breathe deeply, hoping that I’m doing the right thing.

“Tell me.” He bites my earlobe, distracting me.

“I, uh…um.”

“Babe, uh and um isn’t saying much.”

“You’re distracting me. I can’t think when your mouth is on me.” His head comes up and we make eye contact in the mirror. His dimple is out and he has a cocky grin in place.

“You like me distracting you with my mouth.” He reminds me of something that I didn’t need to be reminded of right now. Not when I’m trying to tell him something serious. I glare at him in the mirror and he chuckles. “Okay, baby. Tell me,” he says, putting his chin on the top of my head.

“I’m a millionaire.” Okay, I didn’t mean to blurt it out quite like that, but now it is out in the open. I feel his body tighten around mine.

“What?” he asks. I swallow and bite my lip. There is no going back. I turn in his arms and put my hands on his chest.

“My mom’s parents left me their estate and it’s over a million dollars.”

“When did you find this out?” I really didn’t want to answer that question. I look over his shoulder towards the door.

“Eyes on me.” I look into his eyes again. “When did you find out about this?”

“Um…I…” I bite my lip and look away again.

“Eyes!” He growls this time. “When did you find out about this?” I look into his beautiful eyes and see sadness there and my heart hurts.

“When I went to the lawyer,” I whisper.

“Why didn’t you tell me then?” he asks as he steps back, taking his warmth with him.

“I didn’t want it to change us,” I whisper again, looking down at the tiled floor of his bathroom.

“Have I ever given you that idea?” he asks. I feel like a horrible person for not telling him from the start about the money. It was stupid to hide it.

“No,” I say, looking up at him. I can tell he’s hurt.

“You’re right. I haven’t. And I have to say I’m fucking pissed that you would even think for one minute that money would change how I feel about you.”

“I know it was stupid. I just wanted to make sure.” His eyes narrow and I know that’s the wrong thing to say.

“Make sure of what? That I wasn’t with you for your money? Jesus, what the fuck? I don’t understand what goes on in that head of yours sometimes.” This kind of hurts, but I know he’s right. “I’ve never asked you to pay for shit. I never want you to pay for shit.”

This’s i true. Anytime I’ve tried to pay for something, I get the look that promises I won’t like what happens if I don’t put my money away.

“You’re right. I know. I should have told you.”

“You should have but I understand why you didn’t. It doesn’t make me happy, but I understand.”

“Thanks,” I say, wrapping my arms around his waist and laying my head on his chest.

“Just don’t keep shit from me. I don’t like knowing you have kept that secret for over a month.” Crap, I never thought about it like that.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper into his chest, feeling like a total dork.

“When you move in, we’ll talk about your money.”

“What?” My head jerks back so I can look into his eyes.

“You heard me, and know that shit will be soon. I don’t like you having to travel to your dad’s every few days to go get clothes and shit.”

“Asher,” I say, glaring at him and putting my hands on my hips for the full effect. “You are not going to boss me into moving in with you.”

“There will be no bossing, baby. You want to move in. Don’t you love feeding me breakfast in bed every morning?” he asks and I shiver. Every morning, he has me for breakfast before he gets out of bed, and yes, I do love feeding him. “Don’t you like lazing on the couch, watching movies at night?” I do love that too or even just lying on him while he watches a game. “Don’t you love cooking in my kitchen?” Yes, I love his kitchen. It is my favorite room in the house. I love baking in there or just sitting at the counter and reading on my Kindle. “Don’t you love me fucking you whenever you need to be fucked?”
Um, yes!
I bite my lip and look over his shoulder.

“Those are just a few of the reasons why I won’t have to boss you to move in with me.” He has a point. He won’t need to boss me into it. It is just too soon. Maybe in a few months, but right now, I like knowing that I still have my dad’s house to run to if I need it.

“Can we not talk about this right now? I need to get ready to go to your parents’ house.”

“Yeah, we can wait to talk about it, but we will be talking about it.”

“Great.” I roll my eyes. “Something to look forward to.” He kisses my nose and gives me his dimple smile then leaves me to watch him walk away. I shake my head. He’s such a jerk but I love him. Wait, what? I love him? Oh my God, I love him. Oh no, I love him. Crap! Oh my God, does he love me? I turn to look in the mirror. “So what, you love him. He doesn’t have to love you back,” I whisper to myself.

“What, baby?”

“Shit!” I jump and look through the mirror to see Asher watching me. “Um, nothing. I just, um, burnt myself.”

“Are you okay?” he asks, smirking, and I wonder if he heard me admit to myself that I love him.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Great. Just fine.” Great, now I’m blabbering like an idiot. He tilts his head and smiles. My heart starts thumping double time.

“Uh huh. I thought I heard you say something?” he says, taking a step closer to me.

“Nope, not me. I didn’t say anything. Maybe you heard the TV or something.” I cross my arms over my chest.

“The TVs are off.”

“Hmm, that’s strange. Maybe you have a ghost,” I say, tilting my head.

“This house is built on an old graveyard, so I wouldn’t be surprised if there are ghosts.”

“What?” I whisper in shock. I hate ghosts. Not that I’ve met any, but I don’t like the idea of them. I watched the first
Paranormal Activity
movie and got so scared that I had to sleep with the lights on for a month. Let’s just say my college roommate was not happy about that. “We can’t stay here,” I yell. “We have to hire a ghost buster person to come get rid of it. Then, we have to bless the house, and if the ghost doesn’t leave, we need to move.” I am panting and Asher’s lips are twitching. “Oh my God! This is not funny. We could end up dead, don’t you know that? Haven’t you ever seen the exorcist?” I yell.

He throws his head back, laughing. “Baby, there is no ghost. I was kidding. The house is not built on a graveyard.”

I smack him in the arm. “That’s not funny. Why would you say something like that?”

“You wanna admit what you said when you were in here talking to yourself?”

“I wasn’t talking to myself,” I snap at him. “I was talking to Beast.” I’m a genius. I forgot about Beast. He’s the perfect cover up.

His eyes narrow. “So, what were you saying to Beast then?”

“Nothing. Just that I love him and he’s a good dog, even if he doesn’t love me.”

“Trust me, he loves you. Even though he thinks you’re whacked.” Does that mean Asher loves me? Wait, what the hell?

“I’m not whacked.” I growl at him.

“Do you love me, baby?”

“W−wh−what?” I stutter, shaking my head. Then, he is crowding me against the counter.

“Don’t piss me off, baby,” he growls. I bite my lip to keep myself quiet. His eyes drop to my mouth and narrow. “Tell me you love me.” I start shaking my head and he holds my face between his hands. “Tell me you love me so I can say it back.”

“What?” I whisper in shock, searching his face to make sure he’s telling the truth.

“Tell me, baby.” I swallow the lump in my throat. “Say it, baby.” He lays his forehead against mine.

Squeezing my eyes closed, I whisper, “I love you.” My heart feels like it might beat out of my chest. I hear his sharp intake of breath then his hands fist into the hair at the sides of my head.

“Open your eyes.” I swallow then open my eyes. “I love you too, baby. Jesus, I’ve loved you since I saw your beautiful face standing at the bar in your dad’s club. I knew then that you were it for me.”

“You were a jerk,” I remind him, smiling.

“Yeah,” he smirks. “I was pissed that I was gonna have to beat up Mike.”

“What?” I say through my laugh.

“I was going to have you one way or another,” he says, biting my bottom lip. “If that meant beating up Mike, I was willing to do whatever was necessary to stake my claim.”

“You’re serious?” I giggle and shake my head in disbelief.

“You’re worth it,” he whispers. I feel my nose start to sting and a tear slide down my cheek. His thumb catches it. He kisses me softly and lays his forehead back against mine. “Now I wish I had time to show you how much I love you. But if I did that, we would be late and I don’t want to piss Ma off on Christmas Eve.”

M nipples go hard as tingles race through my body. I want him to show me how much he loves me. He kisses me again, this time a little deeper but still not enough. When he pulls his mouth away, I want more. “We can be a few minutes late. I’ll take the blame,” I say breathlessly as I scrape my nails over his abs, watching his eyes grow dark at my touch. I lean forward and touch my mouth to his chest, running my tongue up to his collarbone.

One of his hands fist in my hair and the other pulls me closer to him so I’m on the edge of the counter. The hard length of him is pressed to my center. He takes my mouth in a hard, deep kiss then his mouth leaves mine, traveling down my neck. I wrap my legs around his waist, pulling him closer. He puts my arms around his shoulders then picks me up, carrying me out of the bathroom. I fly through the air, and then my body hits the bed so hard, I bounce twice. I hear my hot rollers hitting the hardwood floor. Then my shorts and panties are off. His hands travel up my thighs and my legs fall open.