Chapter Twenty-Five
Echo
Asher had been quiet as we had eaten the burgers he’d gotten us. The silence continued as we made our way back to my apartment.
I hadn’t decided where I was going to go yet. I’d been caught up in trying to find other evidence that Amanda’s killer was Robert Burke, but I wouldn’t be able to talk to him again until tomorrow, and then it would be with his lawyer. I wanted it to be him, I really did, but something deep inside me said that this was too easy.
“Do I need to call a moving truck for tomorrow to come grab your furniture?” Asher looked around after we’d entered my place, apparently noticing there really wasn’t much as far as furnishings went. I shook my head. Let them sort it out. My books, clothes, and a few little personal items were all I truly cared about.
“I’ll rent a pickup tomorrow and get it all in there.”
“Figured out where you’d going to stay?” he asked while standing by the door, waiting for me to see if I told him to go or not. He’d been oddly distant from me, and I wasn’t sure I was fond of it.
“No. I’m not used to needing to depend on people. I could always go back to my childhood home, but I don’t want to do the long drive back and forth from the reservation to the city.”
While part of that was true—about the drive sucking—I also didn’t care to be in the house where my last memory of my parents dying on the rug would pop up like it happened yesterday.
I’d thought about him offering me a place to stay with him or going to the Society. He’d mentioned he’d run into Phillip at the diner, and that Phillip had space for me. I could choose the easy way and stay with them. Maybe even build on the small friendships I was beginning to form with them. Or I could take a leap of faith and choose him. Choose that this thing between us was real, continuing to give it a shot.
I walked slowly toward his tall frame.
His eyes watched mine as I stopped a few inches in front of him.
“Do you want me to stay with you?”
I wanted to know what his choice was, what he wanted.
“I want you in my home, in my bed, and in my arms. I’ve never wanted anything as badly as that. I want you, period.”
His words were what I didn’t even know I needed to hear.
“I’m scared as shit, choosing a fate that’s been picked for me, rebel and all. Echo Cross, I want you to know that I’m choosing you, even if it kills me in the end,” he added, and while I didn’t quite understand what all he meant, I didn’t care right now. All I cared about was that he was claiming me. He was choosing me over whatever question had been plaguing him.
I reached out to touch his soft ebony hair, running my fingers through the waves and over his prickly five-o’clock shadow.
“I choose you, too.”
I knew there was something big between us, and even though I was scared as shit like he apparently was, I was taking that leap.
His lips crashed against mine, and there was nothing stopping us from the frenzy that took over our bodies as we grasped, groaned, and touched like there was no moment past right now.
His hands slid up my waist, then back down, finding my ass and lifting me up to be pressed between the wall and his hard muscles. My legs wrapped around his hips, and the contact of his cock against my core, even with both of us wearing jeans, was enough to drive me over the edge.
My hands gripped his hair as we fucked each other’s mouths with our tongues.
“This is so much, and so right,” I groaned, and he continued kissing me anywhere his lips could touch. This was so right.
Until a dead man broke into our sexually charged air.
“Take it inside your apartment, Cross. Oh, wait. You don’t have one anymore.”
Asher’s lips left my skin, and his head whipped around to give bandaged-nose Kevin a look that I bet would melt metal.
Kevin was a dead man.
His bugged-out eyes showed he knew it too, since he quickly slammed his door, and we heard the sound of locks clicking.
“I’m tempted to change into a bedbug tonight and ruin his week,” I remarked.
Whatever anger Asher was feeling toward Kevin disappeared completely. He was back to looking at me with a huge grin on his face, which made my own light up, knowing I put it there.
“Let’s grab whatever we can and take it to my place. We can get the rest in the morning.” Asher put some space between us and started walking around the house.
“Anxious to get me back to your lair?” I teased while grabbing the three extra boxes I had stashed behind the couch for emergencies.
The look on Asher’s face promised there would be more happening between us once we got back to his place. My body tingled in anticipation.
We grabbed what we could and drove to his apartment. The bar was decently busy, so as soon as I got my few boxes up into his living room, he kissed me hard against the wall then had to go down and work for the rest of the night.
I was cool with the alone time. That was one thing Asher wouldn’t have to worry about, a needy woman. I was great being on my own, and sometimes craved that solitude.
He’d told me I could put my stuff wherever I wanted, and to take over the whole apartment if I pleased. But I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. So, I hung up some clothes in the closet, our scents mingling together pleasantly, then took a shower before I grabbed my laptop and continued reading the mystery diary Janie had transcribed.