The Space Between Us (13 page)

  
“Asher.” That was all I needed to say. He knew what I was asking for. He also wasn't going to give it to me so easily. I saw him tilt his head up just enough so that I could see the smile in his eyes. I tried to maneuver myself to find something that would help me relieve the pressure. My knees spread wider and I could feel his hardness between us. My hips thrust upwards, searching for him, and I swear I heard him chuckle as he moved his body farther down mine, making the friction I was looking for impossible.

  
I won a small victory when I felt his breath on my core – hot gusts of air. He was contemplating, weighing his options, trying to decide if he'd rather taste me or continue his torture. I smiled because I knew what his decision would be and I was happy to wait the few seconds until he came to the same conclusion he always did. I felt his hands on the insides of my thighs, holding me open. A low and guttural moan escaped me as his tongue took its first glide along my opening. My back arched and my hips tilted as if to eliminate the space between us. The swirling of his tongue only intensified as he used his thumbs to spread me open further. There was nothing left between us, just him and me. And then I watched as his dam broke, his floodgate opened, he crossed his line.

  
He sucked at me with unmatched fervor. The rhythm he created, switching between teeth and tongue, licking and sucking, was enough to make my legs quake and eyes roll back in my head. All I could do was thread my fingers through his hair, tug on it to hold his mouth to my core, and try not to scream and shout loud enough for anyone else in the house to hear.

  
“Oh, God. Asher...” This was my mantra. I wasn't religious, but everything became holy when I was with him.

  
“You taste so fucking good,” he murmured against me, then went back to his ministrations. It could have been seconds or hours or minutes, but eventually I came. I crashed. I fell.

  
I breathed heavily as he made his way back up to me with his eager smile because he knew what was waiting for him.  I tried not to smile back at him, but it was impossible.

  
“Hi,” I said softly as I swept my hand through his hair damp from sweat.

  
“Hey,” he replied with an equally soft voice. His forehead came to my cheek and he rubbed along me until his face came to rest in the crook of my neck. I felt the tiniest kisses along my skin as I wrapped my ankles around his thighs, tilted my hips to just the right angle, and guided him into me. Once he was all the way in, once I could feel him stretching and filling me, he paused. I felt his breath, hilted and uneven, against my neck.

  
“Why does it feel this way?” He whispered against my skin. His voice sounded strange – strained and emotional.

  
“Feel what way?”

  
“So perfect,” he answered. My arms came around his back and I tried to pull him closer to me, but I couldn't. We were already pressed together fully – nothing between us.

  
“It's perfect because it's right,” I replied, running my fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck. My breath was stolen from me as he started to draw out and slowly pump back in. He started a torturously slow rhythm that my body both loved and hated. I met every thrust and was still needing more.

  
“Asher, please, faster or harder. I need something.” He took my request and quickened his pace and strengthened his stride. He pushed me higher and higher.  His strong thrusts coupled with his loving touches never ceased to create a frenzy within me.  I was gripping his back, tilting my hips up as if to offer him every part of me, and he was always willing to take.  His hands were never still, always searching for the touches that set me off, the caresses that made me tremble.  Our bodies fit each other, sliding against one another, coated in a sheen of sweat. When his thrusting hips found the spot within me that made me cry out, he honed in on it and drove into me with fiercely sharp blows.  He groaned as he drove into me and I couldn’t hang on any longer.  I felt my muscles clamp down on him, my legs quaking as my orgasm ripped through my body.

   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, p
rickling 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.

.

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.

  
“Yeah. It was under our bridge at the park. Why?”

  
“I've loved you, in one way or another, since the day you stopped Ryan from throwing rocks at me in fifth grade. There's never been anyone else for me, Asher. And there never will be.” I saw as his smile grow and I saw the light come back into his eyes. “Who we are right now – college students, boyfriend and girlfriend – this isn't who we are meant to be; this is simply one of the bridges we have to cross to get to the rest of our lives together.” I saw his head begin to dip towards me and I raised up on my toes to kiss him. Our hands were still linked behind my back but he pressed them against me, pulling me further into him. I sensed people walking past us, a few people grumbled that we were blocking the path, but none of it mattered. He matters. We do. His mouth moved against mine and my mind went hazy as his tongue slid against the seam of my lips. Slowly, we used our mouths to affirm our love to one another. Nothing was as perfect as the way Asher kissed me. His teeth pulled gently on my bottom lip as he ended the kiss, sending shockwaves down to my belly.

  
“I love you, Bit.”

  
“I love you, Ash. One hundred percent.” He chuckled and then turned to ease back into the stream of people heading towards the stadium.

  
Not only did we win the game, but our house won the float competition. Who knew that getting cute co-eds to recreate scenes from
Magic Mike
would garner such an enthusiastic response from the crowd? Luck was in our favor that so many women came to the game and they screamed louder than their male counterparts when the time for voting came. No one out screamed college girls when faced with shirtless male strippers – no one.

  
Reeve and I were at the frat that night for the after party and things, as I was growing accustomed to, were getting a little crazy. The frat had what they called an “Around the World” party. All the doors in the house were shut and locked aside from a few sprinkled throughout. Each unlocked room was assigned a different country and liquor accordingly. The idea was to visit each room and get a drink from each country, completing your trip around the world. Each room had a brother assigned to it who gladly took part in getting girls drunk.

  
I attended a few parties at the house since school started, but this one seemed to be a little wilder than the rest. Every once in a while I caught a glimpse of Reeve bouncing around the dance floor or getting a drink from one of the guys.  I caught sight of Tracy, the girl who’d not-so-subtly checked out my boyfriend as I stood right next to him.  She was at the frat a lot and seemed to be making her way through a lot of the brothers.  I rolled my eyes as her long blonde hair swished around at her animated flirting.  She irritated me more than I liked to admit. 

  
Asher did his duties as a brother and made sure everyone was having a good time. Periodically he stopped as he passed by me and asked if I was enjoying myself, kissed my temple, and then left me to tend to all the partygoers. I walked through one of the main rooms of the bottom floor when one of the brothers came up to me with a bottle of peppermint schnapps in one hand and a bottle of Hershey's syrup in the other.

  
“Open wide,” he said to me with a slimy smirk on his face. I rolled my eyes in disgust and turned away.

  
“Charlie, I'm kidding. Really, here,” he held up both bottles like they were a prize. I looked at him trying to put a name to his face. I recognized him because he was a part of Asher's frat, but I couldn't remember ever really talking with him. The fact that he knew my name told me he knew I was with Asher, so he was more than likely not trying to use a smarmy pick-up line on me. I relented and moved closer to him, pointed my face up, and opened my mouth like a baby bird, much like I'd seen many girls do in front of him tonight. He smiled. I closed my eyes. I felt the sting of the schnapps as it hit the sensitive skin under my tongue, then I smelled the sugary sweetness of the syrup as it mixed with the cool peppermint liquid.

  
“Close your mouth and shake.” I heard him say loudly into my ear to combat the noise of the music. I followed his instructions and shook my head back and forth, mixing up the contents inside. My mouth tasted like a peppermint patty. It was delicious. I swallowed and then blushed slightly when I opened my eyes to find him still staring at me.

  
“Which country is that from?” I asked, partly trying to be a smartass and partly trying to hide the fact that I was uncomfortable. He hadn’t moved back from me, even though there is no need for him to be standing so close anymore. I stepped back to try and put some distance between us but I bumped into someone. My stomach dropped because I knew exactly who I’d backed into. I felt the hardness of his abs and chest up against my shoulders. His hands came up to my arms and gripped me sturdily, helping me keep my balance.

  
“Blake.” That was all he said. I figured that was the name of the guy I was standing too close to. Blake nodded at Asher and walked away. I felt Asher's hands spinning me and I turned my head up to look at him.

  
“I was just taking a shot from him,” I yelled over the music. His finger came to my chin and tipped my face up towards his. I thought he was coming towards me to kiss my lips and I involuntarily licked them, tasting the chocolate and peppermint still lingering on them. His mouth bypassed mine and moved to my ear instead.

  
“I know, Bit. But that doesn't mean I have to like finding you staring up at him with your body so close to his.” My heart dropped hearing his words. I never wanted to give him a reason to feel like I was not completely his. I was nothing if not his. I pressed my cheek into his, putting my lips right next to his ear.

  
“Take me to your room.”

  
He pulled back and looked in my eyes for a few moments, then his hand slid down to lace his fingers between mine. He turned and led me to the staircase. Once we were to his room, he pulled out his keys, unlocked, and opened the door. I walked in first and breathed a small sigh of relief to see his roommate was not there. I sat on the edge of Asher's bed and watched him as he placed the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the outside doorknob. That sign usually bothered me. I didn't like the idea of the guys in his house walking by his door knowing or assuming anything was happening inside. It was none of their business. But in this case, I was glad he pulled it out and announced to the world that we needed some privacy.

  
I watched as he walked to his dresser and as he faced away from me, he reached behind his neck and pulled his tee shirt over his shoulders. His bare back was strong and muscular. I could see each individual, defined muscle move as his arms free themselves of his shirt. He was beautiful.

  
“I'm sorry.” The whisper was out of my mouth before I even had a chance to realize I said anything. He stilled, but eventually turned his head over his shoulder to look at me.

  
“You have nothing to be sorry for, Charlie. I know nothing happened. You just took a shot from him; that's the whole point of this party.”