Page 51 of Outside The Wire

Three knocks on the glass broke the silence and my face flushed bright red. I had no idea what to do, so I ducked down behind the counter, knowing that whoever was out there could still see me since the window was right behind me.

I huddled in the corner, pulling my knees into me as I rocked back and forth.

“Um…Holly, I think you’re going to want to answer it,” Noelle said, her voice filled with laughter.

I didn’t need to look at her face. I already knew who was there. “Nope. Tell him I’m not here.”

“He’s staring at you through the window.”

“Tell him it’s not me.”

“He’s laughing.”

“It’s still not me.”

“Fine. I’ll let him in,” she sighed.

I jumped to my feet and raced to the door, but I didn’t beat her. She had the door unlocked before I could reach her and she was letting him in.

“Hey, would you look at that? We were just talking about you.”

“You were, huh?”

There was so much laughter in his voice that there was no escaping the teasing that was sure to follow. His eyes slid my way, and then they continued a path over my body, heating every inch of me along the way. See, right there. How could he look at me like that and not tear my clothes off and sleep with me? I didn’t understand it!

“Hey,” I said as nonchalantly as possible.

His eyes twinkled as he stepped closer to me, slipping his hand around my waist and tugging me closer to him. I swore he was lingering on purpose just to tease me as he pressed a kiss to my cheek.

“I have something for you.”

“You do?”

He held out a brown paper bag in front of him with two fingers, grinning from ear to ear. I couldn’t believe he bought something for me. It was so unexpected. I took it from him, pulling at the tissue paper in the bag until I pulled out something extremely soft. It was a blue hat with a white snowflake pattern that wrapped around it. Earflaps adorned either side with braids and a pom pom at the bottom of each one and another at the top of the hat. There was also a set of matching gloves. It was absolutely adorable.

“I told you I was going to find you a hat you could wrap around your arm.” He took it from me and tied the braids in a knot around my arm. “See? Now you can’t lose it.”

I had no words. He was just so freaking perfect. I flung my arms around him, making him stumble backward and slam into the wall. My mouth fused with his as I climbed him like a monkey, desperate to have all of him.

A low rumble came from his chest as he practically tore himself from me, holding me up by the ass as I wrapped my legs around his waist and held on. “If I had known you were going to react like that to a hat, I might have considered getting you something bigger.”

“Yeah? Like what?”

“Not sure. I’ll have to think about it.”

I licked my lips as I felt him growing against me. He had to be ready now. He was hard. I could feel it.

“I think maybe I’ll leave. See ya Monday,” Noelle said, slipping out the door.

I vaguely heard the door shut, but I only had eyes for Asher. “You wanna go to my place?”

“I’m pretty sure I do.”

“You said next time there would be a much happier ending.”

The sexiest smile curved across his lips as he leaned in and whispered in my ear. “Baby, you won’t want to get out of bed when I’m through with you.”

The door slammedagainst the wall as he carried me inside, kicking the door shut behind him. The mirror rattled on the wall, crashing to the floor.

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