Page 65 of Outside The Wire

“I’m laying next to my woman after driving all around the fucking state looking for her.”

“No, I understand that, but what exactly do you think you’re doing?”

I didn’t understand the question. I glanced down at the blankets and then back at her. “Am I missing something?”

“You mean other than all your body warmth?”

I snorted in amusement. “Hold up a second. Let me get this straight. If you were cold, I would warm you up in a second. I would wrap my body around you and make sure you couldn’t feel an ounce of cold, but when I’m cold, I can’t snuggle into you?”

“Have you seen the size of your thighs?”

“Actually, I have,” I grinned.

“Then you know that each of those thighs is like a giant slab of beef pressed up against my body. I won’t have a chance of warming you up. Instead, I’ll turn into a popsicle.”

“Ah, I see how it goes. I’m only good for one thing.”

“Apparently not,” she muttered under her breath.

She was such an impatient little thing. “Is this payback because I left you the other morning?”

“What? No.” She shook her head, but wouldn’t meet my eye.

“I think it might be.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Just a hunch,” I replied, not calling her out on her bullshit. “You know why I left you.”

She sighed heavily, grabbing another blanket and tugging it around her shoulders. “If I did, maybe I would understand all of this better, Asher.”

“Do you remember what you found in that box?”

She stilled for a moment. I didn’t want to make her feel bad or bring up bad shit. I just wanted to explain myself. And the only way for her to truly understand me was to see where I was coming from.

“I remember.”

“That was part of me I hadn’t shared with you yet. And I wasn’t hiding it from you, but I wanted for us to really know each other before I jumped into bed with you. I didn’t have that with Jade. Things were…nothing like this.”

She ducked her head, her cheeks staining red. I really didn’t want to have this discussion with her, not when I might say something that could either push us in one direction or another, but maybe that was the only way to make her really understand.

“I told you what I had with Jade was complicated, and I did love her, but what we have is so much different. It’s real andspecial. I don’t want to screw that up. I have never met anyone like you, who I wanted to just take my time with and really get to know. So?—”

I didn’t get to finish my sentence because she tackled me in the next instant, throwing herself at me and laying a kiss on me as she wrapped her legs around my waist.

“Baby, I?—”

“Doesn’t matter,” she panted. “I love you.”

“Fuck, I?—”

“Shit, was that too soon?” she gasped, pulling back and slapping her hand over her mouth. “Oh, to hell with it.”

Then her lips were on mine again and she was kissing me, sliding her tongue against mine and refusing to let me answer. Which I would have if she gave me a chance.

“Asher,” she moaned against my lips.

“Yeah, baby.”

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