Page 55 of Chasing Your Ghost

“Right. I’ll see you out there,” he said as though this was new information. He was such an idiot.

Before he could make even more of a fool of himself, he left the pool house, walking through the door like the civilized ghost he was. If he weren’t afraid she might hear him, he would have asked himself aloud why he was such an embarrassing schmuck. Instead, he contented himself with covering his face with his hands and groaning quietly into his palms.

If he were a normal guy, he would have marched back into her room, told her she was the most incredible woman he’d ever met, and kissed her like he’d wanted to for days. But he wasn’t a normal guy.

He had no future. He would never get the chance to travel around Europe like he’d always wanted to. He would never get a job. Never get married. Never be able to kiss the woman he was falling for.

It wasn’t that he wasn’t brave enough to do it or that he didn’t think she’d kiss him back. Because he was pretty sure Riley wanted to kiss him too. It was that he literally couldn’t do it. And even if he could, kissing her when they had no possible future together would be worse in some ways. It would be like getting just a taste of something startlingly addictive only to have it ripped away.

Asher’s shoulders rose and fell with a sigh. He walked to the edge of the pool and dove in. He felt nothing. Where cool water should have met his skin, there wasn’t even a whisper of sensation. Where his lungs should have burned with the effort of holding his breath underwater, he felt not even a flicker of discomfort.

It was only when he finally emerged from the water, his hair still dry and his face without a single droplet of water on it, that his body reacted. Only, it had nothing to do with his body needing air. It had everything to do with him seeing Riley walking out of the pool house wearing a white bikini.

The one-piece she’d worn before had been temptation enough, but the bikini was almost sinful. The bottom piece had ties on the sides that would be all too easy to undo if they found themselves in a situation where he would need to do so, and the top was far more revealing than her one-piece could ever dream of being.

His eyes didn’t know where to look, so they traced over every curve and expanse of pale skin they could brush over. He suddenly felt like he was starving, and the only way to satisfy his hunger would be to run his lips and tongue over every inch of her, starting with the curves of her breasts that were highlighted so perfectly by that tantalizing bikini.

In between kisses, he would tell her how beautiful she was, how brave, how kind. He would worship her body with his tongue, all the while ensuring she knew how grateful he was that he’d met her.

He would flick his tongue over the peak of her breasts, run his hands over her thighs, plunge his fingers between her legs, swallow her moans. He would—

“Everything okay?”

Asher blinked back into reality, his eyes lifting to meet Riley’s inquiring gaze. “What? Yeah, sorry. I was just lost in thought.”

She nodded and stepped forward, lowering herself down to sit at the edge of the pool, her feet and legs dangling into the water. “Penny for them?”

I was thinking about how I want to find out how you taste and what makes you moan. Asher cleared his throat. It was becoming a bit of a habit around her. “Nothing much. Just wondering what Noah and Chris are up to.”

“I think they’re doing weight training. Noah mentioned something about it last night. And they have summer classes, so they’ll be busy most of the day.”

“Right.”

“I don’t know how they do it.” She shook her head, and her eyes caught the sunshine, glinting green in the light. “They must be exhausted.”

“I’d be running on fumes if I were them, but I guess if you love something enough, you’ll do anything to make it happen.”

“True, but I’d hate to know most people are chilling by the pool or lazing around watching TV while I was training and in classes.”

He sent her a pointed look. “You’re not exactly taking the summer easy either. Spending almost every waking minute researching ghosts isn’t usually how people relax over the holiday.”

“True, but I don’t mind doing it.”

He sent her a teasing grin. “I’m glad I’m not too much of a bother.”

She leaned down and swiped her hand through the water. Her attempt to splash him failed because the water sailed through him, but Asher laughed.

“You know I like spending time with you,” she assured him. “I just meant I don’t mind the research part.”

“You like spending time with me, huh?” he asked as he floated closer to her—close enough that he would have been able to move his hands only a few inches to touch her legs.

She rolled her eyes, but there was a shyness behind the motion—a vulnerability. “You’re not the worst company I’ve ever had,” she informed him.

Asher would have grabbed one of her submerged ankles and squeezed it gently if he could have. He settled on drifting closer, his chest and arms so close to her legs that he could almost imagine the feel of her skin against his.

“Good, because I like spending time with you, too.”

She did a terrible job suppressing her pleased smile, and something in his chest lifted, rising like the corners of her lips. With her cheeks rosy and the corners of her eyes crinkled with happiness, she was a sight to behold.

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