Page 111 of The Ruse

I swallowed and tried to form a response, but the way he was towering over me and staring at me like I was the only thing he ever wanted in the world had me tongue-tied and feeling like I might burst into flames.

He slipped his hand behind my neck, tilted my head back, and whispered, “If you couldn’t tell how much I’ve been wanting you the last few weeks from any of that, then I guess I bettershowyou how I feel.”

Before I knew what was happening, he was pulling me into his arms and pressing his lips to mine.

I went still, my brain needing a moment to catch on to what was happening.

“Let me show you just how much I want you, Elyse,” Asher mumbled against my lips, letting his finger trace a line of fire along my jawline. “Let me show you how real everything is to me.”

He pressed his lips to mine again, and this time I was ready for it. I wrapped my arms behind his neck, and when he backed me against the stage wall, I pulled him closer to me. Pulled him so close that there was no space between us, just his muscled torso against my body.

And it felt incredible.

His body pressed against mine.

The way his fingers tangled in my hair.

The way he kissed me like I was the only person in the whole world that he ever wanted to kiss.

His lips were so soft, softer than anything I’d ever known. Like the first fall of snow. Like biting into a cloud that tasted like cinnamon gum.

And I suddenly loved cinnamon gum. Cinnamon was my new favorite flavor in the whole world.

I might have kissed Asher twice before, but there was something different about the way he was kissing me this time. This was him laying everything on the line. That this was him and he was here, and that he wanted me and had wanted me for longer than I knew.

Maybe since we got snowed in at the cabin.

Or the night before that, when we had our first kiss.

Or maybe from the moment we first met.

He kissed me again and again, as if trying to memorize the feel of my lips against his. Like this might be the last time he’d ever kiss me, and he wanted to remember exactly how it felt and how I tasted.

And the more he kissed me, the more I wanted everything. His heart. His mind. His body. His soul. All of him.

I wanted him to be mine and for me to be his, and to have a lifetime of moments like this. Days and weeks and years where we were tucked away in our own little bubble, soaking up everything we had to give to each other.

I slipped my hands down his chest, beneath his jacket, and then along his sides. He felt so good. So strong. So perfect. So right.

I slid my hands to his back and was just about to pull him even closer when he broke the kiss and pulled himself away.

He stared at me, breathing hard, and searched my eyes for something. Like he was trying to figure out what I was thinking and if this was okay, and if I wanted him to keep going.

Like he wanted to make sure this was as real to me as it was to him before he fully exposed everything he usually kept locked deep inside his heart.

He didn’t open up to people easily and wanted to know if I was a safe place for him to fall.

And as I gazed into his beautiful, deep brown eyes, trying to catch a decent breath of my own, all I could think was that I wanted to drown in him. I wanted him to show me everything that made him Asher Park and kiss me until I could no longer breathe.

So I pulled him back into me and told him with my kiss what I didn’t dare say out loud.

That I wanted him. Wanted to know everything about him and for him to know everything about me.

That I was afraid that I wanted him more than I should.

More than he wanted me.

He came back to me and kissed me urgently, as if we were running out of time. His hands went to my hips, up my sides, and along my back like he was trying to learn my every angle and curve. He kissed down my neck and along my collarbone, and I frantically unbuttoned his sport jacket and pushed it down his shoulders because I needed to feel and squeeze and memorize his amazing arms that I’d been drooling over since we first met.

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