Altercation (Playmaker Duet #1; Prescott Family #4; Love In All Places #6)

by Mignon Mykel

  The only person who couldn’t see she’d been using him though, was him.

  I was in the lake with my brothers, playing a cut-throat game of Dodgeball, but I could see Asher on the beach in her skimpy white bikini, laughing and talking with Teagh.

  The bikini looked fucking fantastic on Asher’s naturally golden skin.

  Both girls were on their stomachs, so I couldn’t see much bikini, but I could see a lot of skin.

  Skin I wanted to kiss later.

  Rub my hands up and down.

  I was lost in thought about Asher and getting her out of that bikini later, when I was smacked in the head with ball.

  “In the game, Baby Brother,” Caleb taunted.

  It’s nice to know that the label will stick until I’m dead, I thought sarcastically.

  “Whatever,” I answered back as I gathered up the ball, winding up and chucking it back at my oldest brother. “It’s not a game if there aren’t any rules.”

  Mom’s shrill whistle pierced the ear.

  Dinner.

  Or rather, clean up because dinner was almost ready.

  My brothers and I headed back to shore, where Caleb immediately ran up and scooped a giggling Brielle to his chest. She was sitting in the surf playing under Sydney’s watchful eye. I watched as Caleb leaned down to kiss Sydney, their boys jumping all around them. Brooks must have been in the house with Mom, because I didn’t see their youngest anywhere.

  I moved toward Asher, who was in the middle of saying something to Teagh. Bending down when I reached them, I put my hands on a trunks leg and—

  “Don’t you dare, Porter!” she said, falling out of her conversation and turning her head toward me. She scrambled to sit on her knees with a glare on her face, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

  “Damn. I wanted to get you wet.” I straightened my stance and offered her a hand.

  “I’m going to pretend I didn’t just hear that innuendo, and will see you two inside,” Teagh said, getting up with a smile on her face. She gathered up her towel and, after shaking it out, stepped over to pat my arm.

  “I’m glad to see you happy,” she whispered to me, before heading up toward the house with my brothers and the kids, wrangling Brody into her arms and swinging the boy around in a giggling circle.

  Asher took my hand and stood, and I bent down to get her towel. I used the side that saw Asher and not sand, to wipe off my face and chest.

  “I like her,” Asher said, her voice slightly far away.

  “She likes you.” I bent to her so I could lick her lips. When she parted them, I took her mouth with mine for a kiss I’d been wanting since the moment she came down to the beach in this fucking bikini.

  The top was one of those bands with frilly fabric hanging, and the back was made up of three tiny strings. It cupped her tits perfectly, even if it left a lot to the imagination—more than one of those triangle numbers would.

  Her bottoms, though.

  Lord have mercy, her bottoms were tiny and kept together with strings on the side. If I wanted, I could just…

  “Keep your hands off those strings,” she warned against my mouth. “Your family can easily see us from the kitchen.”

  I grinned against her mouth. “Spoilsport.”

  She pulled her head back and smiled up at me. “Yeah, well, you love me so…”

  “Damn straight, I do.” I rubbed my hand over her hip. “Let’s shower.”

  We walked up to the house, hand in hand, but I knew Asher wasn’t going to let that slide. “You mean, you’ll shower and I’ll change.”

  “Nope, I meant, let’s shower. Let’s,” I enunciated, “You and me. Let’s shower.”

  “Your entire family is in this house!”

  “And if they don’t know we’re doing it, they’re living under a rock. You did notice that Mom shoved your bags into my room with a smile on her face, right?”

  “She knows we sleep in the same bed.” Which was exactly all we’d been doing the last two nights we’d been up here, but I was so changing that tonight.

  The last two nights had been late family nights, and Asher had headed up before me, zonking out long before I made it to the room. I knew better than to wake her up for some sugar, so I’d fall asleep with her wrapped up in my arms, only to wake in the morning to find she already slipped out of bed.

  This was the longest we’d gone without sex since we went and got piercings last month!

  “Ergo…”

  “Well this is awkward,” she mumbled, rubbing her hand over her face and making me laugh. “Don’t laugh at me!” But she was smiling and a laugh was on her lips too, so the words held nothing.

  I bent down and pressed my lips to hers in a quick, hard, yet unfulfilling kiss, before opening the house door and, my hand on her bare back, pushed her in. “Upstairs.”

  “Walk with me,” I whispered into Asher’s ear.

  The sun had sunk an hour ago, and now, the last night we were all at the lake, everyone was outside surrounding a bonfire. Brandon and Ella were roasting marshmallows and my younger nephews and Bri were already tucked into their beds.

  I sat in a lawn chair, Asher on my lap, nestled into me. We were close enough to the fire that I could feel the heat on my legs and face, but I was comfortable. I did want a little alone time with Ash before we headed upstairs though. I had things I wanted to talk to her about.

  Because let’s be honest, she’d probably fall asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.

  She tilted her head and looked back at me. “Okay.”

  “We’re walking,” I announced to the group after Asher stood. I followed suit and took her hand.

  “Mom and I are heading in soon,” my dad said. “Have a good night, you two.”

  “Night,” I answered, as Asher said, “Good night, Noah. Ryleigh.” Hand in hand, we walked down toward the lake.

  In silence, we walked the shoreline, heading toward the wooded area. Finally out of view, I stopped and pulled her in front of me. With a smile on her face, she put her hands on my shoulders and tilted her face up toward me.

  “Hi,” she whispered into the dark night.

  Between the dark waters and the wooded area surrounding us and the lake, if it weren’t for the half-moon in the sky, it would be pitch black. The voices of my family could still be heard, but the song of the crickets was louder. The lake was even quiet tonight.

  “I’ve been thinking,” I said, my hands moving from her hips to her lower back. “I know you enjoy working with Mom, but I really want you to be in South Carolina with me.” She opened her mouth, but I kept going. “You’re busier in the summer, Ash.”

  “What am I going to do in South Carolina, though, Porter? I can’t just sit around the townhouse all the time.”

  “I don’t know, maybe still shoot? Just not with Mom’s studio?” I hadn’t really thought that part out. I just knew I wanted her with me more than just ten days out of the month.

  “I’ll have to think about it.” Her smile was gone, but I didn’t think I completely lost this battle. I really thought it was a possibility. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, looking out to the dark lake. I thought she was going to follow up with something, but she said nothing.

  “Yeah, just think about it. We have time.” I tried shrugging it off. “Like, six weeks.”

  She took another deep breath.

  Still, she said nothing and this time it made me frown. “You okay? Have something to say?”

  She pinched her lips together and turned her head back toward me, but shook her head. “I’m fine. Just a little tight,” she said, pressing her hand to her chest.

  Tight? “Tight where?”

  “It’s just a little difficult to breathe. Allergies, probably.” She gripped the top of my jeans then, this time it was she who was holding me close. “But I’ll think about it. I need a plan. I can’t just…” She shrugged. “I just need a plan.”

>   I wondered if she realized how far she’d come in the last two years. She’d been a girl with no destination, and now she was planning. So long as I stayed in those plans…

  Which I had every intention of.

  I was waiting until her birthday, waiting until she turned twenty, but I had every intention of giving her the permanence she craved. Hell, her ring was already being designed back in Charleston.

  If she could figure out how to make life work in South Carolina, it would certainly make the question easier because there wasn’t any damn way in this world I was living in one state while my wife lived in another.

  Some of my teammates did it—hell, some of them lived in a different country than their wives, but Asher was literally my better half.

  On the ice, I was a smart-ass foul talker who was starting to throw his weight around. But at home, when Asher was around? I was just normal Porter, the guy who grew up in a good neighborhood with a great family. I enjoyed keeping Asher happy. I liked spending my time with her. And yeah, maybe there were things in our sex life that would take time to get over, but we still had a great one.

  “Alright. I’ll let you plan. But I’m not letting it go,” I added with a cocky grin which, thank God, she returned.

  “Yeah, I know.”

  I sat against the headboard in the dark, fighting to get air in my lungs. Porter slept beside me, on his stomach, like he usually did if he wasn’t holding me.

  In through my nose, out through pursed lips.

  In, out.

  My shoulders were stiff from holding them up, and my chest felt like an elephant was sitting on it. The only other time I’d felt this way…

  Tears filled my eyes—from the memory, or the fact I couldn’t breathe, I didn’t know.

  What little breaths I could get in were shaky, and now that I was silently crying, getting the air in and out was even harder.

  My chest itched on the inside, an itch that literally could not be scratched.

  I should wake him up.

  I looked over at Porter, sleeping soundly.

  A few more minutes. A few more minutes, and I’ll be fine.

  I reached up to press my fingers into the muscle where neck meets shoulder, digging deep, but to get the deepest press, I had to drop my chin and that wasn’t very conducive to breathing.

  I was to the point where I couldn’t get enough air in through my nose. But even mouth breathing, I could feel my breaths weren’t full.

  Reaching over, I shook Porter’s shoulder. “Porter,” I whispered, my voice shaky.

  He moaned in his sleep, turning his head away from me. I shook him again. “Porter.”

  “Hmm?” he answered sleepily.

  “Porter, I h-have t-to go,” I tried another breath. “To go. To the. Hospital.” The tears were falling faster now. Talking took too much energy.

  “Yeah?” He was still sleeping.

  This time when I said his name, it was on a broken sob. He had to wake up. I couldn’t drive myself.

  I’d hit him, but I didn’t have the energy. “P-Porter. You’ve gotta. Wake up.”

  He shifted and moaned in his sleep, taking a deep breath that I was incredibly envious of.

  My chest heaving, I swung my legs over the side of the bed. I sat there a moment, breathe in, breathe out, before standing. I had to squeeze my eyes shut, immediately light-headed and my vision fading to black. Breathe in, breathe out. When my head stopped spinning, I opened my eyes again.

  Using the bed as a guide, I walked toward the end, reaching out for the wall on the opposite side of the room. Like I did with the bed, the wall was my guide until I reached the light switch.

  The small bedroom we were in was immediately filled with light and Porter groaned at the obtrusion. He rolled to his back.

  “Porter,” I tried again, moving to lean against the wall. Standing was too much.

  “Yeah?” he asked, and I could tell he was actually waking up. The light worked.

  “I need.” Breathe in. Breathe out. “Help.” The word was nearly a whisper.

  I watched as he reached for my side of the bed and frowned when I wasn’t there. “Door.”

  He rolled over and sat up, rubbing the sleep from his face. “What’s up?” He lowered his hand and his sleepy face turned into one of concern. “You look like shit. Why are you crying.”

  Now the dam broke. Instead of a few tears, they were now free falling. “I can’t. B-breathe.”

  He was out of bed in a heartbeat, crossing the room toward me. He took my face in both his hands and searched my eyes. “Do you need the hospital?”

  I nodded in his hands.

  “Fuck, you’re wheezing badly.”

  I hadn’t noticed. All I could hear was the rushing in my head but now that I focused…

  Yes, I was wheezing.

  Porter went into overdrive, throwing a sweatshirt on over his bare chest and digging through a drawer. He came over to me with grey sweatpants in hand, kneeling in front of me. “They’re gonna be huge on you.”

  It was embarrassing, him helping me dress, but there was no way I was going to put these on, on my own. I leaned against the wall, with one trembling hand on his shoulder, as I stepped into the much too large sweatpants. He pulled them up and tightened them, rolling the waist to help with the length.

  If I wasn’t so oxygen-deprived, I would comment how sexy it was, him taking care of me.

  But I was oxygen-deprived, and more than that, I was fucking scared.

  The only other time I’d felt like this was in boot camp.

  Two seconds in the gas chamber, and I was done.

  I spent hours in medical, the docs trying to get my oxygen level back up to normal, before they decided that this…this…adult onset asthma…was too much of a gamble to let me finish boot camp.

  I didn’t even know you could get asthma as an adult!

  I never had breathing problems before. Never had allergies. And I was far from overweight.

  It was the first time I failed while on my own.

  “Here, let me lift you,” Porter said, already bending to do just that.

  I shook my head. “I c-can walk.”

  “Asher, you’re white as a fucking sheet and your lips are turning blue.” His cool demeanor cracked. “Stop being so damn stubborn for one fucking second and let me help you.”

  I tried to pull my lips in and bite them, but I had to open my mouth shortly after just to breathe. So instead, I put my arms around his neck and let him carry me out.

  She was finally sleeping.

  I sat in a chair beside Asher’s hospital bed and squeezed the bridge of my nose, finally allowing myself to feel the rush of emotions running through me. Since I woke up, the only thing I focused on was getting her to the hospital.

  When the staff poked and prodded at her, my focus was on being her strength.

  But now that she was asleep, I let myself feel.

  When we made it to the emergency room, her oxygen level was fucking sixty-eight percent.

  Sixty-eight percent.

  What little air she was managing to breathe in, wasn’t properly exchanging in her lungs. She was immediately put on oxygen and breathing treatments.

  One after another, each one bringing her oxygen levels up, but causing her body to shake. I held her hand through most of it, feeling the tremors wracking through her.

  I had never, not once in my entire fucking twenty-one years, been as scared as I was tonight.

  The doctors called it a severe asthma exacerbation.

  I didn’t even know Asher had asthma.

  But apparently she did, because she didn’t meet my eyes when the doctor announced it.

  Two years.

  We’d been together for two fucking years, and I didn’t know she had asthma.

  Okay, cool, so she obviously had it under control, but wasn’t that something you would think to share with your partner?

>   Just so you know, sometimes I can’t breathe, and it can get pretty severe. No big.

  I slouched in my chair and stared at the tiled ceiling.

  I really thought I knew everything about her.

  What else was she hiding?

  Or was this the last of it?

  Because let me tell you, these shocked surprise glimpses into Asher’s life were not my idea of good surprises.

  “Porter.”

  Her voice was muffled behind the treatment mask, and huskier than normal. I lowered my chin so I could look at her, but said nothing.

  She stared at me. For a long moment, we just stared at one another until whatever Asher saw in my eyes had her own filling with tears. “I love you,” she said quietly.

  I nodded. Did she though? Or was that a lie too?

  “I’m going to call the house to let them know where we went. They should all be waking up soon,” I told her instead, pulling myself up to stand. My body ached from being in that damn chair for the last six hours.

  Six hours, and her oxygen level was hardly hovering around eighty-nine. They started spacing out her asthma treatments though, getting rid of one of the medications and just doing albuterol, so that was promising.

  I walked through the sliding door for her room and moved to an area that had chairs, but was still within the confines of the treatment area. I may be angry with her right now, but I’d be damned if I left this area and wasn’t allowed back in.

  We had told them she was my fiancée—the irony of it wasn’t lost on me—but I wasn’t taking chances.

  I sat down on the hard plastic that was probably supposed to fit your ass better than a regular flat bottom chair, but it was still uncomfortable. I held my phone in my hands, my arms resting on my legs.

  I couldn’t call. Shit, I didn’t want to talk to anyone.

  Instead, I punched out a quick message to Mom. She was usually the first to wake up.

  Took Asher to General. She had an asthma attack last night. She’s ok. We’ll be back later but may miss you guys.

  I pressed send before adding, Love you, sending that too before closing my eyes and hanging my head.

  “It’s a good thing you brought her in when you did,” the doctor told me shortly after Asher fell asleep. “She was borderline life-threatening. Any later, and she’d likely be in the ICU right now. As it is, she’s responding slowly, but well. We’ll reassess in a few hours.”