Page 34 of Age of Shade

“Did you get the forks?” My hand splays flat on her lower belly, and I pretend it’s merely so I can kiss her cheek gently.

She isn’t fooled. “You’re teasing.”

“Am I?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm,” I hum, brushing my lips over the slope of her neck. Pressing her body against mine more firmly, I know there’s no way for her to miss the throbbing length of my erection pressed against her lower back.

The food lays inches away from us, but we’ve already forgotten about it. The world has narrowed down to just us two. Nothing else matters.

“Asher,” she breathes, grinding back against me.

“Do you need me, angel?” My hands move to the place on her waist where they fit so perfectly.

Shakily, she nods. “Yes.”

I nip at her pale, perfect earlobe. From my vantage point, I watch as the tip of her tongue darts out, wetting her lips. “You know how to ask.”

“Please?”

“I think you can do better than that.” My hands tighten on her waist.

Adina’s entire body quakes, her eyelids fluttering shut. “Will you make me come? Please, daddy?”

She never sees it coming.

One moment, my horny little thing is rubbing her ass against my hard cock, and the next she’s doubled over in fits of laughter.

“Can’t believe you thoughtthiswas a date.“ I laugh, my hands dancing over her sides, mercilessly tickling her.

Squealing, Adina tries to make a break for it and we both nearly fall through the living room doorway, a chair clattering noisily to the floor in our wake.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” She’s laughing so hard there are tears in her eyes, and still I don’t stop, wrestling with her all the way to the couch.

She’s so much smaller than me that it would be nearly effortless to overpower her, but I let her get the upper hand fora moment, my own laughs joining hers as we tumble onto the cushions in a tangled mess of limbs.

“And you’ll let me take you out tomorrow night?” I gather her wrists in one hand and pin them above her head, grinning down into her shining face. I’ve never heard her laugh like this, completely unrestrained and free.

Adina laughs harder, wriggling helplessly beneath me as her breath comes in big, gasping gulps in between peels of laughter. “Yes!” she manages to squeal, and, triumphant, I decide to give her a whole new reason to lose her breath.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

ADINA

Not many people feel safe at the dentist’s office.

I get it. Best case scenario, you have gloved fingers poking around in your mouth while you’re peppered with questions about how often you floss or whether you’ve thought about buying one of those fancy supersonic toothbrushes that eviscerate plaque. Worst case, there’s something wrong and you need to have someone drill a hole in one of your teeth while you drool all over yourself.

Granted, dental care in the foster care system isn’t exactly top-notch, and god knows I don’t have insurance now, but I don’t live under a rock. Objectively, the whole process kind of sucks, and I’m guessing it says a lot about me that Asher Roth’s practice is my happy place. For three years, it’s been my refuge, my one point of stability that I could absolutely count on. I didn’t have a lease or even a bed, but I trusted the kind doctor in the ridiculous lab coats.

I told myself not to do it. I remembered all the times I thought I was safe and secure but wasn’t, but still it happened. Somewhere along the way, I allowed myself to put down the shallowest, tiniest of roots.

Roots that might be ripped up any day now, because I can’t keep lying to him.I can’t.

Will Asher think I took advantage of him? Will he believe me when I tell him that meeting in that hotel was the wildest, strangest coincidence of all time, or will he think I targeted him somehow? My heart, which has belonged to Asher Roth for years now, trusts him unconditionally. My brain is equally as confident that he’s going to think I’m a crazy stalker and throw me out on my butt.

My only hope is to tell him the rest of the story too. To shine a light into all the dark corners of my life I’ve worked so hard to keep buried.

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