Page 125 of Crave Me

“I love that sound from you,” he said, wrapping his arm around me and tucking me into his side. “I’ll come play in a few. I’m just gonna get dressed and have a smoke.”

“Sounds good,” I said, sinking into him.

We stayed that way in comfortable silence for a few moments, before he spoke unusually quietly for him, “Can I ask you something? Something difficult?”

I looked up at him. “Of course. Anything.”

I felt him tense around me as he drew in a breath, then asked me, “After Jett did what he did to you, did you… did you still feel it on you for a while after the fact?”

I swallowed hard at his question.

Yeah, it was definitely difficult subject matter.

But if what I’d been through could help him, I’d delve back into the whole thing if I had to.

I turned to the side to face him head-on and took his hands in mine. “Yeah, I did. That’s why you’ve been showering so much, yes?”

He nodded.

“It will go away, I promise you. It just takes time. With him still out there, it’s harder to get closure and to put it behind you, like it was for me with Jett. I think that’s why it took me so long. I also didn’t get help with it and I even kept it to myself, I kept it all inside. It was a bad move. It also felt like instinct to do that. But it was a detrimental one. The fact that you’ve started to talk about it with Caspian will take some of its power away. It will help.”

“I should see Doctor Granger too, yeah?”

“You should. I hated being pushed to do it at the time, as you know, but getting that sort of help has done a lot of good for me.”

“Okay, I hear you, darling. Thank you,” he said, pulling me against him again.

“I’m here for you. Anytime with anything.”

“I never doubted it.”

“Sorry to interrupt,” Caspian’s voice came from the door, and we both turned as he walked in decked out in his full suited getup—a sleek Armani pinstripe this time, with his hair in a half-up, half-down do. He looked sexy as fuck as usual. And that sexiness turned up a whole other notch when his eyes flamed with need as he took in the sight of me and Caleb on the bed, his shirtless state adding even more fuel to the proverbial fire there.

“I thought you were working on consolidating the spoils of Bane Industries?” Caleb said.

“I was. I’m just taking a brief timeout so we can say a proper goodbye.”

“Goodbye?” I asked, frowning.

Caspian grimaced at Caleb, then revealed, “Lovely, Asher is getting ready to head out.”

Caleb jolted. “What? No, he… you’re sure?”

“It’s time, I’m afraid,” Caspian told him gently, laying his hand on his shoulder.

It took a moment, but then Caleb gave a slow nod. “Yeah. I know. I know it is.”

It was a long goodbye.

Mainly because of Caleb being conflicted about Asher leaving.

First, Caleb had headed out to the patio and they’d chain-smoked together for a while, and then Asher had brought his bag down from his room and they’d moved to the courtyard where they’d now been for over thirty minutes still talking and saying goodbye.

It was sweet.

Well, as sweet as it could really be with that dark horse involved.

Actually, we’d all learned that there was more to his reputation than met the eye. Much more. He’d really helped me since he’d been here. And he’d proven to be an amazing ally too.

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