Undeniably Asher (The Colloway Brothers Book 2) (18 page)

The second we walk over the threshold of my apartment, I have Alyse pinned up against the wall, my mouth on hers, my hands frantically searching to find naked skin. I kick the door shut on a slam, not quite ready to share her with the rest of the world yet. I have that planned for later.

Four fucking days since I’ve been inside of my woman is too goddamn long and that’s not going to happen again. I’ve thought of nothing else all week. I almost ditched dinner tonight to be with Alyse, but I couldn’t. We’re in the final stages of a major acquisition under GRASCO Holdings that we need financial backing for. Although I should have pulled a Gray and brought Alyse with me. Only she had other plans.

“I need to fuck you, baby. Hard. Now.” My teeth nip the delicate flesh along her neck. My tongue laves the tiny hurts I’m leaving behind. Her choppy gasps and breathy moans ignite a raging inferno inside my groin that can only be put out by the silky wetness I know is waiting for me between her toned thighs.

Quickly I pull the baby blue sweater over her head, dropping it on the cold tile beside me. Her jeans and panties are gone in a flash and she’s managed to push off my suit jacket, but I can’t wait a second longer.

I yank down the cups that are keeping her pert nipples from my view so I can watch them bounce up and down while I fuck her, and as I pull one into my mouth, I reach between us to free my straining cock. Then I’m pushing inside her in one hard stab. She’s wet, but not enough, because I was too impatient to prepare her properly. It takes two more thrusts before I hit the end of her womb, going as deep as her body will allow.

My eyes roll back at the feel of her bare skin on mine.

Fucking. Nirvana.

“Alyse, baby. So tight. Fuck, your pussy’s scorching me, it’s so hot.”

I have jacked off to thoughts of her every single night this week, fantasizing about being inside her raw, but it’s like I haven’t come in days, because within seconds of immersing myself in her snug heat, I’m about to blow. I haven’t been inside a woman without a rubber since Natalie, but absolutely
nothing
compares to the feel of Alyse’s tight, wet, velvety pussy hugging my dick.

Nothing.

Being inside her, skin on skin, is like I’ve reached the pearly gates early.

“Hard, Asher. I want hard.”

“Beg. Beg me to fuck you harder.”

I expect words. What I get instead is a sharp tug as she jerks me to her mouth in an explosive, aggressive, demanding kiss. Dragging my bottom lip between her teeth, she bites so hard I taste blood. When she finally pulls back, her smoky eyes don’t beg.

They challenge.

And I fucking love a good challenge.

“Palms against the wall. Keep them there,” I growl. Jesus, it makes me swell even more when she readily complies, and by the gush of wetness I feel at my command, she loves it when I control her like this.

Smirking, I withdraw slowly until just the tip remains inside. “All right, baby. You want hard, you’ll get hard. Hang on.”

Hands underneath her bare ass for support, I grip tight and slam her down on my straining dick.

Hard.

Filthy.

Rough.

Her breath rushes out on an exhale and I watch a small smile of satisfaction break through the hazy lust.

“Tell me this is okay,” I demand gruffly as I withdraw fully and pound into her again and again. My hips are like pistons and if she says no, I’ll stop, but fuck…it will take a giant feat of willpower, and I left that at the front door.

“Don’t…stop…” she gasps.

That’s all I need. As tightly as I’m gripping her, she’ll probably end up with bruises, but damn if I’m not dying to give her everything she wants. Everything I
need
her to have. The thought of leaving my marks of passion on the woman I’m falling in love with hits me someplace deep and primal.

As impossible as it seems, I think I’ve already fallen
. I have to push that thought to the back of my head. All I can concentrate on right now is bringing us to the brink of rapture so we tumble over together.

I hold her tight, setting a fast, brutal pace and within only minutes, her walls clench moments before she closes her eyes and her body convulses in pure bliss. I watch her unravel and I’m thoroughly, hopelessly lost. She’s so damn beautiful my breath stops. My legs shake from my effort as I continue to pound into her, not slowing a bit. I stave off my own climax so I can watch the waves of euphoria wash over her gorgeous, flushed face.

I don’t think I’ll ever tire of the light blush that takes over her fair skin when she orgasms at my hand. It’s quickly becoming my favorite color.

“Baby, I’m going to come,” I rasp. Finally, unable to last any longer, I let the last of her orgasm milk me. I throw my head back and with a howl follow her into the Promised Land.

I empty everything I have into her.

My seed.

My love.

My very fucking essence.

It’s official. Somehow within a matter of what seems like only days or months, but what has really been years in the making, I have found the one woman who has the power to outright decimate me. I was wrong before. It wasn’t Natalie.

It was Alyse.

It’s
always
been Alyse.

And I’ve just handed her the golden keys, whether she realizes it or not.

Chapter 18

Alyse

“Tell me something about your childhood I don’t know.”

It’s dark, it’s late, and I’m exhausted. Asher’s fingers lightly trailing up and down my spine have me nearly lulled to sleep when he quietly asks his question. We haven’t been able to get enough of each other and spent the last three hours indulging everywhere in Asher’s apartment. He may be almost thirty, but the man doesn’t seem to need much recovery time, that’s for damn sure. I’m deliciously sore and unbelievably sated, but I need the healing effects of sleep now.

Once again he’s insisted I stay and sleep in his bed. This time I don’t argue. He’s sexed the fight right out of me. In truth I really
want
to stay.

“What do you want to know?” I ask groggily, trying to blink away the mist of unconsciousness that’s almost claimed me.

“Anything. Everything. The good, the bad, the ugly. I want it all, Alyse.” His soft words almost undo me. I tilt my head from its resting place in the crook of his muscular arm and even in the dark, I see him looking at me.
Into
me. I want to close my eyes to keep him out almost as much as I want to invite him in. I want to let him root around and find all my hiding places so I don’t have to reveal them on my own.

I’m finding I want Asher to know everything about me, because somehow I think he’ll accept the bruised parts of me. Wanting it and getting the words out, however, are two completely different things. That’s the hard part. That’s always been the hard part. I don’t know where I inherited my inability to let people all the way in, but I hate it.

And somehow Asher seems to know this about me.

“Let’s start with an easy one. Tell me a story about you and Livia.”

I smile when I remember a particularly funny story. “Okay, well one summer when I was ten and Libs was fourteen we went to a park about a mile away from our house. My bike had a flat tire, so we took Livia’s, riding together. But we weren’t supposed to do that, because we had crashed before and if Dad caught us, we would have been in big trouble.

“Riding to the park, I sat on the seat and Livia stood, peddling the entire way herself. We must have stayed at the park for hours. Getting out of the house was not only an escape, but a necessity sometimes.” I sigh heavily, wishing my childhood was different. Happy. Like Asher’s. Rubbing my back gently he’s silent, letting me continue at my own pace.

“Anyway, it was starting to get dark and we decided we needed to head home, but this time instead of sitting on the seat, I rode on the handlebars.”

“Uh oh.” He laughs and I join him.

“Yeah, uh oh. So there was this pretty steep hill. We walked it on the way there, but on the way back, we decided to ride it instead. We flew down that thing going probably twenty miles an hour and Libs lost control after catching some gravel. I had on a sundress. Dresses and gravel do not mix, let me tell you.”

“Ouch.” He’s laughing harder and louder, which makes me do the same.

“Livia only had a few scrapes, but I filleted the skin from the right side of my ass, like literally took the first two layers right off. I couldn’t sit down for days and I had to wear thongs for what seemed like a month at the time, but was probably only a few days, because regular underwear stuck to the wound and our neighbor, who’s a nurse, insisted that it ‘get some air’ to heal properly. No ten-year-old should be forced to wear thongs. It’s damage I can’t undo to this day.”

Asher’s entire body is now shaking.

“Do you know what it’s like to have your dad see your bare butt at age ten? It’s humiliating. I still have scars from that incident, physical
and
mental.”

“Stop, stop.” He can barely catch his breath, he’s laughing so hard. After a few seconds, he manages to ask, “Did you get in trouble?”

“No. We told Dad we collided on swings at the playground. He never knew we’d crashed on Livia’s bike, or if he did, he never let on.”

“You collided on swings?” he asks incredulously.

“It was the best lie we could come up with on our long hobble home.”

We laugh for a few more minutes, before he wipes the tears from his eyes. “Oh my God. That’s a great story, Alyse.”

Now I’m wide-awake. “Your turn.” I prop up on my elbow and gaze down at him. Even in no light he is simply beautiful. His raw masculinity is hypnotizing. I trace the black Chinese tats he has running down the outside of his bulky left bicep.

“Tell me about these,” I say softly. “They’re very sexy.” I think back to just an hour ago when I was tracing each pattern with my tongue and impossibly, I feel myself getting wet again.

He brushes aside a stray hair that’s fallen in my eyes, tucking it behind my ear. The move is soft and seductive. Loving. He treats me like blown glass one minute and a raunchy sex toy the next. I love it.

“The first one means family. The next two stand for older brother, one each for Gray and Luke, and the last stands for younger brother, Conn.”

I laugh. “Oh, I bet Connelly loved it when you got that.”

“Pitched a hissy fit like a little bitch.”

That makes me laugh harder. “I love that you have a great relationship with your family, Asher. It’s very…endearing. And refreshing.”

“I’m lucky, I guess. We have our issues, like any other family, but…yeah. I have a great family. The best parents and brothers a guy could ask for.” He pauses. “I’m sorry you didn’t have that, Alyse.”

I’m sure Asher knows the basics, but I wonder how much he actually knows. His family was idyllic. Mine was…dysfunctional to the
n
th degree. Our voices soften. It feels like story time has given way to confession. And confession is something I am not good at. It takes me a minute to answer. “Me too.”

“Do you miss your dad?”

Do I?

“He had a sickness, you know, a disease, but he tried his best when he wasn’t sucked into his gambling so deep. When he managed to stay away, he was actually a good dad.” I thought maybe he had finally beaten it, until a few months before Livia disappeared, when he seemed to fall back into it. He was at his worst then.

“When Livia was gone for those few years, he was honestly the best he’d ever been and then he got cancer. I wish she could have seen him then. Until he became so sick and weak, those were probably some of the best times I remember with him. But at the same time it made me angry, because I had a glimpse of what it could have been like if he wasn’t an addict.”

“I’m sorry, baby.” His soft lips touch my temple. “Have you told her that?”

“No. Livia has her own jaded views of our father. I mean, I can see where she’s coming from to some degree. He was imperfect. We all are. But I think it’s interesting how two people can grow up in the same house and view their parents in such a different light. He hated the way he was. He just…couldn’t help it. I think Livia saw it as a weakness, but I viewed it more as a sickness. One he just couldn’t find the cure for.”

“I think I know what you mean. I feel that way about Luke. The way he talks, you would think we had different fathers. My parents weren’t perfect, but they were pretty damn close, and I never understood how Luke could feel that way about our dad.” He pauses briefly. “You seem to have a pretty good relationship with your sister.”

I’m not really sure how to answer that. I
want
to have a good relationship with her. Another thing I can’t let go. I hate that about myself. The inability to forgive and forget. “I—It’s complicated.”

“Most relationships are. How did you get this?” he asks, tracing the scar just below my sternum.

“What is this? Twenty questions?”

Laughing, he pulls me tight. “I have hundreds of questions, Alyse. Thousands. I told you I want to know everything about you. Every scar, every wound, every hurt. I’m going to heal each and every one of them.”