30. Luke

THIRTY

Luke

F resh from a shower, limbs entangled, we lay naked on my bed while Ornette Coleman’s The Shape of Jazz to Come album turned in my record player. The central heating made the room nice and toasty.

Bliss.

Asher brushed strands of hair from my forehead. I stroked his neck, floating on a heavenly cloud.

“What music are you into?” I asked, drawing whorls on his chest.

“Chillout stuff.” He put his hands behind his head. “I don’t really listen to anything else.”

I snuggled against him, resting my head on his chest. “No?”

“Actually, I like the Beatles.”

I lifted my head. “Oh. Okay.”

He beeped my nose. “Give me their Rubber Soul album any day.”

“I like that one. My dad used to listen to it a lot.”

When he wasn’t hating on me.

He stroked the side of my face. I loved it when he did that.

I clung to him, wishing I could climb inside his body. Or a pouch. Kind of like a kangaroo pouch but different and made for lovers.

No, not weird at all.

He ran his fingers up and down my back, turning me to happy mush.

I loved his touch.

I loved how he snorted when he laughed.

I loved his smile.

I loved it when he sat beside me watching a movie.

I loved everything about him.

“I love you,” I blurted, immediately shrinking in horror.

Crap. I didn’t just say that. I did not let those three words tumble so carelessly out of my mouth.

Asher didn’t move, his stroking paused. I heard no breathing, only the music. My pulse raced, stress heat blooming everywhere.

Fuck.

If I kept my head down, it’d pass. No acknowledgment, no meeting his stunned expression. In fact, I searched frantically for a swift subject change.

“Luke…”

Dammit. Why were those words so troubling? I’d just bounced on him like a space hopper, my face a canvas for his semen. Yet I get all daft over this?

Sort yourself out!

“Look at me, Luke.” His sensuous voice enchanted me, the stress heat rising.

What if he rejected me? Saying he wanted more of me might be fleeting. I wouldn’t blame him for changing his mind.

Oh, God. Had I been crap just now? Did my actions turn him off?

“Luke?”

No. He’d enjoyed himself. I’d felt it, seen it, heard it. My delicate places still hummed from his touch.

“Luke? Please look at me.”

I did, meeting a face full of starlight. I blinked, sitting up further.

“I love you, too.”

Wham. An incredible bolt shot straight for my core. I listed to the side, a hand out to steady me.

He sat up. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m… I’m…”

He came closer. “Talk to me.”

“I…” Wow. Wow. Wow. “You love me?”

His divine smile brought tears to my eyes.

Ugh. Here we go again. At least they were the happy variety for once.

He cupped the back of my head. “Yeah. I do. Is it too much?”

I’ll become a puddle of love right now. I will. I’m melting…

“Too much?” I managed.

“Too much too fast?” he clarified.

I shook my head, wrapped in silky bewilderment.

He loved me.

Asher loved me.

“I think you just know when it’s right,” he said, keeping his hand on my head.

I shuffled, crossing my legs. He spoke for both of us. This was so new, a cocktail of sensations in constant flux. Lust and butterflies and safety. That feeling of home—the special kind reserved for a lover with increasing importance.

“It’s not too fast,” I said.

“No?”

“Why waste time when we know we want this?”

Without Seth hanging around like a bad smell, we could express this, make it real.

“I’ve fallen so hard for you, Luke,” he said.

I’m about to roll off this bed and breakdance.

“The marking is one thing. This is another. I want to be your man.”

“L-L-Likewise.” My hands moved to his face, tears streaming down mine.

“Don’t cry.” He caught my tears, his eyes glistening.

“Good tears,” I responded.

“I like those.” I watched his throat bob.

“You’re my strength,” I said, bashful shackles breaking. “We’re in this together, from the darkness to the light. We’re a team, and we’re…this. Sorry, that sounded corny, right?”

He snorted. “Rosy cheeks.”

“Damn.” I rubbed them as if to clear the redness.

“Be mine,” he said, grazing his stubble against my cheek. “Please be mine. Let’s put a label on this love.”

I swallowed. “Boyfriends?”

“If you wanna be. Unless you really think we’re rushing things. Man, I sound like a teenager.”

I ruffled his hair, open wide for his love. “Yes, please.”

His beaming grin could melt the ice caps. He kissed me, sealing the deal.

I’d landed myself a boyfriend.

Wow.

After copious amounts of kissing, I delivered a big speech about fulfilling my purpose, smashing my training, and saving his kind from that charcoaled arsewipe.

He French kissed me for ten minutes in response, on top of me, his hands on either side of my head. Our cocks touched and rubbed, my body calling for him to be inside me again.

He ended the kiss. “I’ll be right there with you.” He sat up, thumping his chest. “My Lukey is amazing.”

I laughed, poking him in the ribs.

His eyes flooded with mischief. “I see.” He wriggled his eyebrows and launched a tickle attack.

“Ohmygod!” He got me under the arms—there and my feet my biggest tickle spots.

“What’s wrong? You ticklish?”

I howled with laughter, fighting to get away. “Stop!”’

“Stop what?”

“Stop… hick …stop!”

Hiccups. Damn.

He stopped, grabbing the bottle of water from the bedside table. “Here.”

“Thanks… hick .” I gulped it down.

His flip phone rang, buzzing across the floor. He spread himself across the bed to fetch it.

I played his butt cheeks like a pair of bongos.

“So firm.” I bent to kiss them.

I’d so be eating him out later. He loved that.

Come on, peachy pudding.

“Hey, sis. What’s up? Gossip? I’ll put you on speaker.”

He sat up, clicking a button.

I settled in behind him, wrapping my legs around his waist, my chin perched on his shoulder.

“Luke’s here,” he added.

“Hi there,” Eden’s jolly voice said. “I have a tidbit of Seth gossip.”

“Do tell,” I answered, kissing Asher’s collar bone.

“He caused a scene with Anita, telling her this is all a sham. That it’s his tower, frothing at the mouth, you know?”

“Knob,” Asher muttered.

“I lurked around the corner to listen, as you do.”

I giggled.

“She didn’t raise her voice, just told him this is the king’s wish to make a better weapon. He says he can’t stay in the tower anymore. Makes a big thing over moving out. She lets him. He’s gone.”

“Really?” Asher questioned.

Seth leaving the tower? Did every corner of hell just freeze over?

“He’s in a hotel along the seafront—The Laughing Whale.”

A few doors down from Midas Cherry, which meant he wasn’t far from me. If his room faced the sea, he’d have a view of my lighthouse.

Ugh. He always managed to stay close.

“Billy and Luna went with him,” Eden added.

Asher tensed. “Gods only know what he’s up to now.”

“Fuming. Licking his wounds. He’ll come back at her, for sure. The disrespect is vile. She’s got the seal, for fuck’s sake.”

“Yeah,” Asher agreed, his neck muscles throbbing.

I kissed them, being his warmth.

“Well, I’ll leave you to it,” Eden finished. “I’m off to watch some reality TV. The worst kind.”

Asher’s laughter reverberated through me.

Good. I liked to hear him laugh in the face of Seth and Billy.

“K. Bye.”

“Toodles, sis.”

He dumped his phone beside him. “Well…”

“Are you okay? We haven’t really talked much about Billy. It can’t be easy seeing his face again.”

He turned his head, giving me a peck on the cheek. “Yeah. Billy… Billy’s not a bad guy.”

Erm, hello shock. “He’s not?”

“Cheating aside, of course.”

Honestly, Billy didn’t come across as nasty. If anything, he seemed quite kind.

“He’s always been good with humans,” Asher said.

I stayed in position, holding him through this.

“As much as I hate admitting it, he’s got a good heart. He messed up with me, begged me to forgive him. But I couldn’t, and I can’t. I’m not there yet.”

I held him tighter.

“He wouldn’t come here maliciously. That’s not his MO. He might have dallied with Seth, but he knows what he’s like. And he wouldn’t wanna hurt me.” He snorted. “A joke, eh? Why let the weaver blow you if you never wanted to hurt your boyfriend?”

A growl of my own rumbled in my chest. “His loss.”

“Thanks.”

“Welcome.”

“So, yeah. I don’t get it. I want to hate him completely, because it’s easier. But I can’t. There’s some ulterior motive here. One day soon I’m gonna have to talk to him.” His sigh sounded painful.

I moved to sit in his lap. “I’ll be right by your side.” I kissed his nose.

He smiled, nuzzling my neck. “By the way, what’s this lemon slice thing?”

My cheeks flared once again. I’d forgotten about that.

“I was trying something out.”

“I like it,” he said. “Suits me. And it puts a real spring in my step.”

My God, how cute. “Yellow. Lemon. Definitely suits you.

“Delicious?” He tickled me under my arms.

I giggled, batting him off. “If you say so.”

“If the lemon slice fits.”

I pushed him onto his back and slid on top of him. He moved his hands down my back, my skin sizzling under his caress.

“What are you doing up there?” His baritone never failed to get me as sticky as syrup.

“I like it up here.”

“Stay as long as you like, Mr. Strawberry.”

His sheer adorability crushed my lips to his again. We made out on the bed for a good five minutes before coming back up for air.

The skin of our lips would wear down soon if we didn’t tone down the snogging.

“Mr. Strawberry. I love it.”

“And I love you.”

As we basked in the ongoing afterglow, I held onto this happiness. My inner voices mocked me for believing it’d last, asking about the end of his rotation. What would happen then? Would I move to Gula? Or would he stay here?

Fuck those questions. This was the present. Whatever lay ahead, I’d fight for our future to create a life of love with this gargoyle.

And Finn’s return would be the cherry on top.

Energized, ready to take on the world, I gave him my best puppy dog eyes, asking for a second round of sex.

He obliged, fucking me in the missionary position.

For round three, he did me doggy style.

God, he was good.

So, so good.