Page 102 of Ashley & the A-Listers

Ashley shook her head, blinking the sleep from her eyes. “Your room.”

His gaze jerked down to her as his feet came to a stop. “Yeah? Really? You’re sure?”

Ashley nodded again.

On her own front step, it had felt wrong to imagine them driving off without her.

Maybe a small part of her was afraid, after sharing another kiss with Dylan, that he would run again.

In this moment, with him carrying her so gently, knowing he loved her—had loved her since they were teenagers—she knew he wouldn’t.

It made Ashley want to hold him tighter, now that she knew he didn’t regret it.

Dylan spun, changing direction and taking her to a room that was lit only from the light of the moon out the window. It was dark, but the bed he laid her on was soft.

As his arms began to slide from under her, Ashley gripped at his collar before he could pull away.

They both paused, eyes meeting briefly in a moment ofis this happening?before Ashley tugged him down to her.

Their lips met again, yet it felt different than either of the times before.

Maybe this would be a mistake. Maybe this was too fast.

Or maybe this was the first time both of them were giving into what they wanted without letting the consequences scare them, and there was something fucking special about that, too.

His right hand slid from the mattress to cup her face, thumb stroking slowly over her cheek in a distractingly slow rhythm as their lips parted, as they met in the middle.

“I missed you,” he said a moment later, mumbling into the kiss, then pausing, leaning back to stare down at her.

With her eyes adjusted to the dark, she read the truth in his expression.

“I missed you, too,” she said, and barely stopped herself from letting the rest spill out, too. That the past two days had been something downright magical. That it’d felt like no time at all had passed, because being together was justright.

It was a lot to feel in her own chest, and also to lay at the feet of someone else.

So she kept it in, and hoped he saw even a smidge of it in her eyes.

“I’m not running this time,” he said, voice low and deep, and here in the dark there was another layer to it, one that made warmth flutter in her belly.

“Good.”

Ashley pulled him back down to her, feeling the bed dip as he joined her, knees framing her hips, scent surrounding her.

She threaded her fingers through his hair, gripped it and messed it up because she could, because she’d always wanted to.

Even if she hadn’t quite known what all those feelings meant when she was eighteen and awkward, she did now.

She knew what the warmth deep in her gut meant, and she knew who caused it, and she wantedmore.

They parted for air, and Ashley dragged her hands down his neck, over his shoulders, and down those strong arms. She slid them to his sides before dipping under his shirt, searching for bare skin, hot to the touch.

His stomach was flat beneath her hands and she spread her fingers apart, wanting all of him at once. Wanting to discover every part of him.

“I want so much,” she admitted, voice quiet as they breathed together.

“Whatever it is, you have it,” he promised, and leaned up, gripping his shirt at the back of the neck with one fist and pulling it over his head.

Ashley swallowed.

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