Page 114 of The Ruse

Seeming like he believed me, he lowered himself again and kissed his way along my jawline, down my neck, and nuzzled his face into the curve of my neck like he was breathing me in.

“You smell so good,” he said into my skin, sending tingles racing across my neck. “Like apples and happiness.”

Like apples and happiness?

I couldn’t keep a smile from my lips because I’d never thought of happiness as having a smell before, but that was kind of the best thing a person could say to describe how you smelled, wasn’t it?

Did I make Asher happy then?

Was that what it really was?

Because I suddenly wanted to make him happy all the time.

“You smell like happiness, too,” I said, running my hands along his sides. “Hotness and happiness, that is.”

He chuckled and pulled himself up to look at me again. “I’m ninety-nine percent sure you’re just making fun of me right now, but I’ll take it.”

“Not making fun of you at all,” I said.

“Well, good.”

I was just about to pull his lips to mine again when the sound of a stage door opening caught my attention, followed by footsteps.

Who’s here?I wondered before turning my head to see who was about to discover Asher and me.

Did Nash come back? Or Miss Crawley? A feeling of dread washed over me, but then the person came into view a second later.

I sighed with relief. It was just Ava.

But when she saw Asher and me lying on the couch together, she stopped and said, “What the heck?” She shook her head like she wasn’t sure she was seeing things right. “Elyse? AndAsher?”

Yeah…probably not the guy she expected to see me cozied up with.

Asher looked at me with wide eyes, as if not sure what he was supposed to do. So I whispered, “I’ll handle this.”

Asher backed himself off me so I could sit up. I smoothed my hands over my hair and looked at Ava, saying, “Hey.”

“Hi.” She stared at Asher with wide eyes, watching him as he re-buttoned his shirt. “Um, this is quite the interesting discovery.” She looked back at me. “Were you guys rehearsing a scene for the musical? Working on the chemistry Raoul and Christine have, by chance?”

“Um, sure… Something like that, anyway.” I decided to go with it for now since my mind was still reeling from the past few minutes.

Had that actually just happened?

Had I just made out for who knows how long with Asher in a way that had definitely not been for the play?

I peeked over at Asher who had finished buttoning his dress shirt and was now reaching for the tie that I’d tossed to the floor earlier. And I was suddenly embarrassed that I’d done all of that.

I’d totally been undressing Asher!

I mean, I’d been doing that with my eyes for a while now since I’d been so curious about the kind of body he had hiding under the dress shirts and T-shirts that he usually wore.

But to literally unbutton his shirt, and then basically pull him on top of me?

I wanted to cover my face with my hands.

What was happening to me?

It was like I’d completely let go of my usual inhibitions the moment Asher kissed me, and it had released a side of me I usually kept under control.

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