Page 73 of Forbidden Hearts
But he’s more than that.
At some point in the last few weeks, he’s started to be more. The single father who loves his daughter with his whole heart. The protective brother who will do anything for his siblings. The sheriff who leaves his house in the middle of the night without question to help a woman stranded on the side of the road. More than that, he’s become the man I want more than air.
The thing is . . . he can’t be mine. Not ever.
Instead of embarrassing myself even more, I suck in a breath, sit up straight, and move off his lap. “I think I’m just exhausted.”
“Don’t,” he warns.
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t pull away from me or tell me this is just exhaustion. I saw you when I pulled up, and it’s not about being tired. I saw your face as you talked about someone hurting Olivia. I know there’s something hurting you and can see it play across your face when you don’t think anyone is watching.” He shifts closer, and his hand moves to my cheek, rubbing away the trail of tears. “I see everything, even when I wish I didn’t. So, don’t lie to me.”
My throat is tight as I look at him. “You see me?”
“Everywhere I look.”
A riot of emotions moves through me, and I wonder if anyone ever has really seenme. After my mother died, my father only sees her when he looks at me, and I’m a constant reminder of the woman he loved and lost. Jonathan made me think he saw me, but he never did. He only saw what he wanted and then took it, leaving me the fool in the end.
But Asher . . . he’s different.
“And what do you see?” I ask, afraid of the answer but unwilling to let this moment go.
His eyes close, and he brings our foreheads together. “I see a selfless girl. I see a smart woman who is going to change the world. I see a woman who is so fiercely protective of the people she loves that she’ll do battle for them. I see the most beautiful and desirable woman in the world. What I can’t have. What I want. What keeps me up at night. What has my entire belief system at war, trying to convince myself that I can’t give you what you want, even if I wish I could.”
Each word is like a balm over my battered soul. I want him. I want us and this and him, consequences be damned. “What if I wasn’t asking for anything?” I say, my heart pounding.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
I bring my lips closer, just a breath apart. “What if you can have it? What if it’s just ours until I leave? We have a limited time, and I don’t know that I can keep resisting this. Not after the last time. Not when you make me feel like this. We can have this, even if only for a little while.”
His nose moves against mine, causing a shiver to run through me. “No one can know.”
“I won’t tell if you won’t.”
All the things I told myself, all the reasons this is a bad idea, seem inconsequential. All that seems to matter is him and the bone-deep desire I have for this man.
We can be temporary. Sure, he’s my boss, but only until I leave to go back to school. Yes, he works for my dad, but if we keep this between us, then my father will never know. Asher isn’t married, and he isn’t one of my professors. We wouldn’t be breaking any rules unless they are ones we set for ourselves. So, why can’t we do this?
His hands move up my arms and then cradle my neck. “Our secret.”
eighteen
ASHER
Mine. That word vibrates through me like a tuning fork. I need to make her mine. She offers me what I want, what I need, and I am going to take it.
My mouth finds hers, and she opens to me, so trusting, so sweet. I revel in the taste of her, knowing I could drown in it.
Despite all the reasons this is wrong, this feels so right. This is an agreement between adults, and she wasn’t wrong when she said that no one else needs to know.
For the next few months, though, she’ll be mine, and then she’ll go back to school while I go back to my life. It’s as simple as that.
Phoebe’s hands fist in my hair as I shift her so she’s straddling me. The heat of her is almost too much, but then she leans back, her eyes finding mine in the haze of lust, and she rips her top off, leaving her in her sports bra.
My dominant side kicks in, needing control. “Take the bra off,” I order.
Phoebe doesn’t like to be told what to do, and I want nothing more than for her to learn that I’m in charge here and now.
