Page 74 of Crave Me

“You need to get some rest.”

I broke the stride of my pacing and spun to see Asher leaning against my bedroom door, his arms folded across his chest, concern all over him.

He wasn’t putting on a front, a fake air of nonchalance, he was giving me the real him. No bullshit.

“I’ll be fine,” I answered tightly, just wanting to go back to my pacing, and not to have to deal with certain growing complications when it came to him. Not least of all was the sight of him leaning there in nothing but a pair of black jeans, all that cut muscle and black ink of his snake tattoos bared in all their glory—the fact that it was affecting me.

“You won’t be able to help anyone if you don’t sleep and recharge,” he pushed.

He stepped across the threshold, his eyes roaming over me with just a towel hanging low on my hips on account of the cold shower I’d taken thirty minutes ago.

“You underestimate me.”

“Because your stamina is superhuman, huh? Your ability to withstand every brutal hit thrown at you as well? You’re above all the trauma, the mammoth weight bearing down on you? You can just roll with it all?”

I shoved a hand through my hair. “I have to.”

“Hmm. I see.”

“I know you do, so what’s the point of taking things down this conversational path?”

His indomitable presence slammed up against mine, a silent battle taking place with them both trying to overrun one another and consume the entire space.

He took a seat on the foot of my bed and leaned back on his hands. “Being the one they all look to, their protector, their strategist, their leader… it’s a lot. And in times like this, in times of crisis, the weight is virtually unbearable.”

“You’re not really going to sit here and tell me you would do anything different? I know you didn’t during the war you just fought.”

“Right, I didn’t. But you’re not me. I shouldered everything alone. Until the last leg. I was too controlling, too paranoid to do it sooner, to share the load properly with Aurora, Jonah, and Killian. And it cost me, Caspian. It damaged me. I won’t watch what happened to me happen to you. Your dynamic with your foursome is very different to how I operate with mine. You’re full of love and care to those within your inner circle. And you’re very open about it. You’re not just their protector, you’re their comfort. If you allow all of this brutality and blackness to consume you, you’ll completely lose sight of that. It will break the relationship you have with your loves. And, believe me, it will break you right along with it. Not everything that’s lost can be recovered. You need to let Skylar and Sebastian back in and you need to do it now. Your rage, grief and fear for Caleb is poisoning everything. It’s divided you from your allies at a time when you need to draw on them more than ever to win out here, to bring Caleb home and eliminate the enemy threats.”

When I merely stared right back at him as his heavy words settled over me, he rose to his feet. “Consider what I’ve said. You know you need to.”

He gave me a chin lift and then he strolled to the door. “Oh,” he said as he reached it, looking back at me over his shoulder. “It’s also painfully obvious to me that you’re extremely on edge—sexually speaking. You might want to tend to that before you implode. All the cold showers in the world won’t cure it.”

“I can’t.”

He stilled at the threshold, then turned back around fully. “Can’t?”

“It’s dangerous. I’m dangerous. Dangerous to Bastian and Skylar, when I’m in this headspace. I won’t risk it.”

“I see. Well, I would suggest violence as an alternative outlet for you to let all this pent-up shit out, but we can’t risk injury before a coming battle.” He smirked. “Not the kind I could subject you to if we went head-to-head.”

“And there’s that Asher Monroe arrogance come back out to play.”

“Supreme confidence actually. Tried and tested, well-earned, and absolutely well-deserved.”

“I would beat you down if we went head to head.”

“You think so?”

“I’d destroy you, no doubt.”

“I’ve been training since I was a young boy and I haven’t stopped.”

“Right back at you.”

“One person taught you. Your ex-military security chief.”

“Several different fighting styles. I’ve also self-taught myself a couple of others.”

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