“Yeah. Sure. I’ll call you.” He smiled at her, but even I could see his smile was forced and fake. She smiled at him, lingering on the bottom step, but eventually turned towards us, heading for the door. Her eyes stopped on Asher and her smile grew even wider.
“Hello, Asher,” she crooned at him.
“Hey, Tracy,” he said politely. Her eyes wandered down his body as she took him in and I found my hand sliding into his, gripping it tightly. She winked at him and then pushed past us, leaving through the sliding door.
“Hey, Asher. Giving the grand tour?” The guy on the stairs asked with a smile. He was obviously older, an upperclassman. He had blonde hair that swooped over to one side and striking blue eyes. I saw Reeve perk up at his entrance and she adjusted her posture, pulling her shoulders back, pushing her chest out even further. Shameless.
“Hey, Caleb. I was just showing the girls around. This is Charlie, my girlfriend, and our friend Reeve,” he said gesturing towards us. Caleb smiled at me but his eyes moved over to Reeve with interest.
“Reeve, huh? That's an interesting name. Is it short for something?” Her eyes lit up with his attention.
“Nope. My parents were just trying to make sure I didn't have the same name as anyone else.”
“Gotcha. Do you go to CU?” He leaned up against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Charlie and I are freshman this year,” she said.
“Will you be rushing a house?” The side of Caleb's mouth turned up with his question. Reeve absentmindedly started twirling a piece of hair around her finger.
“Charlie and I are both going to rush, and just pray we get into the same house.”
“Ah, I'm sure you'll be fine,” he said.
I felt Asher's face come in close to mine and his breath on my ear sent shivers down my spine.
“Come on,” he whispered. “I'll show you my room.” He tugged on my hand as he pulled me towards the stairs. As we walked past Caleb he gave Asher a nod and I heard him ask Reeve if he could give her the rest of the tour. I smirked because I couldn't decide which of them was in for more trouble. I followed Asher up two flights of winding stairs and then we walked down a long and narrow hallway lined with closed doors. It looked very much like our dorm. He stopped at a room and used a key to open the door. He swung the door open and let me enter first.
I was surprised, and relieved, that his room seemed much cleaner than the rest of the house. It was pretty simple – two beds, two dressers, one window. I could tell which side was his because I recognized the familiar comforter on his twin-sized bed. I sat down and ran my hand over the bedding, not expecting to feel so homesick all of a sudden. I'd only been gone a matter of hours. Asher knelt down in front of me and pushed my knees open so he was wedged in between my legs, his hands spread on top of my thighs.
“You ok?” He asked, always ridiculously in tune to how I was feeling. I put a smile on my face.
“Yes, I just didn't expect to see your bedding here. Made me sad for a minute.” He looked a little confused and started rubbing his hands up and down the tops of my legs.
“Why sad?”
I shrugged.
“I guess it just caught me off guard. Seeing something from home mixed in with your new room – it just makes it really obvious that we're not at home anymore.”
“Bit,” he said sweetly as he tucked a piece of my long hair behind my ear, “It will be ok. We will go home and visit all the time. You'll see. In a few days you won't even notice that you're not at home.” I smiled at him, not willing to tell him that it would take more than a couple of days to convince myself that my dad would be ok by himself. “Besides,” he said as he leaned in closer to me. “There are advantages to being here.” My eyes closed by their own will when his lips connected to my neck.
“Hmmm, and what would those advantages be?” I asked, my own voice sounded breathy and far away. He didn't answer with words but with his mouth trailed kisses up and down my neck. Like every other time he had his mouth on me, my heart beat wildly in my chest and my breathing came in rapid short pants. He pressed my shoulders back until I was laying on the bed and he pulled my shirt up so that it bunched up underneath the edge of my bra. I felt his big hands glide over my stomach and then his lips were on the sensitive skin around my belly button.
“Ash?” I groaned.
“Hmm?”
“Ash, Reeve could come up here any minute.” I don't know why I even tried to stop him, especially when I knew I really didn't want him to. I wanted his hands on me, his mouth. I always felt the connection between us, even in the mundane. Sitting on the couch watching a movie, I felt it. Holding his hand as he drove us to dinner, I felt it. Fighting with him about stupid shit, yeah, I felt it then too. I always felt it. There were invisible cords that tied us together and I loved feeling the pulling and tugging on them as we navigated through life together. But when we physically connected, everything was in Technicolor. His breath on my skin was a thousand feathers. His hand running along my thigh was a thousand hot and knowing hands, overwhelming and welcomed. He was the first person I ever let touch me, the only one to ever touch me. I knew I'd do anything to make sure that stayed true for the rest of my life.
“Caleb is with her and she'll never be able to find this room anyway,” he said between kisses on the soft tissue of my waist, his mouth skirted too close to the top of my shorts to allow my body to do anything but writhe underneath him. “Please,” he whispered against me asking permission, his nose inhaling me as it swept across my skin. I reached down and took his face in my hands and pulled him up to my mouth. Once our lips crashed together everything intensified and was frantic. His hands were no longer enough; his lips not giving me the relief I was searching for; the weight of him on top of me not heavy enough to keep me from floating away.
I tugged on the hem of his tee shirt, pulling it up over his head, and allowing him to do the same to me. At the sight of me in my bra I heard a groan escape from him before he came back down to kiss me senseless once again. This is how it was between us. There was always a line, and once we crossed it, there was no going back. There was inevitably some floodgate and once opened, everything came crashing through. Then, most of the time, it was a competition. Who could kiss the deepest? Who could make the other moan the loudest? Who could last the longest before they gave in to the pleasure? It wasn't a bad game to play, but it had gotten us into some tricky situations in the past. And I was well aware that I usually lost these battles. Asher and I had spent the last year exploring our sexuality with each other, and there was nothing about my body he wasn't absolutely and acutely tuned in to.
His hands moved down to the button of my jean shorts and he expertly pulled them open and slipped them off of me, not even leaving my panties behind. He was obviously in a hurry and who was I to slow him down? He leaned back onto his knees with his trademark smirk on his face. He knew he'd won the first silent contest; he'd gotten me to give in. He slowly unbuttoned his jeans and pushed them down to his knees, then fell forward again onto his hands so he was hovering above me and I used my feet to push them the rest of the way off. He began his slow trail of kisses again, down my belly, choosing one leg to follow all the way to the knee, then made his way back up. All the while I reached behind my back, unclasped my bra and threw it to the floor wanting to be rid of it. As soon as my breasts were free from the lace, they were covered again by his hands.
Looking down at him, all I could see were his brown locks of hair and strong shoulders. His mouth was still working on my stomach and thighs, and now his hands were kneading my breasts feeling heavier by the minute. This was all very lovely, but it wasn't nearly enough.
“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, prickling 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.
The Space Between Us Page 10
