Page 92 of Chasing Your Ghost

“Yeah, I wouldn’t touch either of you with a ten-foot pole,” Noah added, unfortunately but predictably, ensuring that whatever satisfaction Ella had gotten from messing with them vanished instantly.

She stood up and slipped her sunglasses back on, hiding the sheen in her eyes. “Right, well, I need to get home, feed Archie, and spend the next few hours avoiding light and trying not to vomit, so what’s the plan?”

“Is it okay if we come over around five?” Riley asked.

“Sounds good. Call me if anything changes,” she replied, glancing at the spot where Asher was. “Please don’t disappear on us again,” she asked with a brittle smile.

“He says he’s not going anywhere,” Riley told her, wishing Asher’s words were pure truth and not an unkeepable promise.

After Ella had left in an Uber (her migraine made driving impossible), Noah and Chris stayed to try and speak with Asher. Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that the two of them felt awkward with Riley acting as an intermediary. She didn’t blame them for it, especially when she herself felt like an interloper in what should have been an unobserved talk between friends.

“I’m sorry if I made things feel weird,” she apologized to Asher after Chris had left to have lunch with his family and Noah had left to go back to his mom’s. “I’ve never done the whole being a medium between the living and the dead like this before.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” he asked, a frown tugging down the corners of his lips.

He walked up to her and placed his hands on her waist, the casual way he did so making her want to squeal and jump up and down like a teenager at a BTS concert.

“Without you, they wouldn’t even know I was here. I should be thanking you. Which I am, by the way,” he added with a sheepish smile. His hands moved down to her hips as he stepped closer. “Thank you, Riley. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t seen me that day.”

“You don’t need to thank me,” she argued in a whisper, shivering when his thumbs started moving in small circles. She’d changed into denim shorts and a light gray T-shirt before the others had arrived, but it didn’t seem to matter that there was a barrier between his fingers and her skin. She felt every stroke as though there was no material beneath his hands. “I’ve met a lot of ghosts, but you’re the only one whose company I’ve really enjoyed.”

His head lowered, but instead of meeting her lips with his own, he brushed them against her neck with a touch so light she almost wasn’t sure he’d done it.

“I’m glad I could be such good company,” he said, and she could feel him smiling against her skin. “And I’m really glad that I can do this,” he added, lifting a hand to her face and softly brushing his fingers over her cheek. “And this,” he whispered, kissing her neck again before lifting his head so that she was looking into his eyes. “And most of all, this,” he said before his mouth met hers in a dizzying crush of lips and tongues.

They ended up on the bed, Asher hovering over her with his hands on either side of her face and Riley’s legs wrapped around his waist. They remained fully clothed, and Riley briefly wondered if this was the kind of thing she would have gotten up to had she been a normal teenager. However, her musing was swiftly chased away when Asher shifted against her, the movement sending a zip of electric heat down her spine.

It was pure pleasure, and she was too caught up in him and the feel of his lips on her skin to even consider feeling insecure over her lack of experience or embarrassed by the sounds she was making. It helped that Asher seemed just as lost in her as she was in him, his movements gentle but hungry, his kisses urgent and desperate.

Were it not for the sudden realization that if anyone walked in, they would see Riley writhing on the bed and making out with thin air, they might have continued for hours. As it was, the unwelcome and unignorable thought popped into her head, and Riley found herself giggling against Asher’s lips.

He pulled away to look down at her with his eyebrows raised in question.

“I’m sorry,” she wheezed out.

“This is not quite the reaction I was going for,” he told her, but his eyes were dancing with mirth.

“You mean you didn’t realize your kisses were laugh-inducing?” she asked, feigning shock even as she grinned up at him.

He narrowed those green eyes at her, not looking very amused anymore. “I’m not usually insecure, but I find myself wounded.”

“Don’t be,” she assured him, lifting her hand to trace the line of his jaw with her fingers. She bit her lip and cringed. “Honestly, I was just thinking about what this would look like if someone walked in.”

He chuckled as his eyes lit up with understanding. “That would be a very interesting sight indeed.”

She groaned and covered her face with her hands, just the thought of it so mortifying that she wanted to hide. “I don’t think I could live with the humiliation. I’d have to change my name and flee the country. I hear Canada is lovely.”

“Riley,” Asher said teasingly, tugging her hands away from her face. “If you’re so worried about that, why don’t you lock the door?”

“Right,” she replied, her cheeks warming further, the pink of pleasure mixing with the red of embarrassment. “Good point.”

He rolled to the side and watched her do just that, laughing when she tried to open the door to ensure the lock had engaged.

“Just double checking,” she told him with a sheepish grin. “Can’t be too careful when it’s my reputation on the line.”

“Mhm. Now, get back here. I have a very important question to ask you.”

Riley joined him on the bed again, this time lying beside him and resting her cheek on his chest. She uncertainly placed her hand on his stomach, feeling less confident now that she wasn’t so distracted by his sinfully skillful mouth. “Okay, I’m ready. What’s the question?”

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