Page 21 of Can't Help Growling in Love
Chapter
Ten
JUNE
Asher’s confession sits in the silence between us.
I’m a virgin.
I figured as much, or at least suspected it might be a part of why he’s been so nervous to touch me from the start. His kisses were almost hesitant until I responded to him and let him know how much I wanted him, too.
“Thanks for telling me.”
I keep my voice as neutral as possible. He obviously disliked having to say it out loud, but I’m glad he did.
He lets out a huff of breath. “That’s it? You don’t want to know more?”
I raise my chin to look up at him.
“Sure, if you want to tell me.” I pat his chest, trying not to get distracted by the thick slabs of muscle. “If you’re wondering whether I’m bothered by it, I’m not. It would be good to know your limits, though. So I don’t trample over them.”
I barely resist glancing down to where his erection is still straining under the fabric of his sweatpants. When I felt him grow hard earlier, I wanted nothing more than to pull his cockfrom his pants and sink down on the hard length, but it’s good that he stopped me. We haven’t even discussed contraception yet. I should have stopped before he had to do it, since I’m clearly more experienced. But he’d seemed so into it, holding me firmly, I let him lead our kiss.
My pussy clenches at the memory. My lips are still tingling from Asher’s short stubble, and my skin holds the echo of his touch.
Beside me, Asher groans. “What are you doing?”
I glance up at him, eyes wide. “Thinking about how you kissed me.”
“Gods, woman, your scent is out of this world.” He squeezes me closer. “Okay, my limits. Uh, I don’t have any. Just a bad track record.”
Pushing away from him slightly, I grimace. “You’re going to have to explain that. At least the basics.”
“Yeah, I know,” he admits. He leans back against the couch, and some of the tension leaches out of him. “It’s kind of a long story.”
I shrug, indicating that I’m not going anywhere.
He’s silent for a moment, as if considering his words carefully. Finally, he takes a deep breath and says, “So, I was an Army kid. We moved around a lot, and I acted out in the way any teenager would after being forced to uproot his life for the sixth time since he started school.”
I settle in beside him, turned so I can watch him. “That must have been rough.”
“It was, but my parents weren’t really the talking kind. As a Summers, I was supposed to grin and bear it, that sort of thing.” He grimaces and adds, “I wasn’t so great at that. So my dad ended up sending me to military school.”
“Ouch.” I try to picture a much younger Asher in a military uniform. “All boys?”
“Yep. It was a weird time for all of us. We had next to no contact with the outside world, but we were all walking hormonal disasters, of course. For me, it was hell, especially because I couldn’t shift and run like I wanted to.” He scrubs his hand over his hair, a thoughtful expression on his face. “I think maybe Dad forgot how it is when you’re that age. Or maybe he just didn’t care and wanted to toughen me up. Anyway, those years were confusing, but I was eighteen when I graduated, with no sexual experience to speak of and years of having to repress my true nature under my belt.”
My heart squeezes at the neutral way he says this. My childhood seems so uncomplicated by comparison, even if my efforts in school were never quite excellent enough for my parents.
“Of course, Dad expected me to enlist the moment I graduated,” he continues. “I wanted to at least attend a military academy, but Summers men were grunt soldiers for generations, fighting for their country, so that’s what I was expected to do. I applied anyway and got a scholarship, which pissed him off to no end. You’d think he’d be proud of me for achieving something like that, but he wasn’t. He just saw it as me going up against him.”
I try to put on a neutral expression, but something of my thoughts must show up on my face because Asher lets out a soft huff and rubs his cheek over the top of my head.
“I’m not bothered by that anymore. There’s people who had it much worse than me. Anyway, there were three women in my class at the Academy. One was gay, one was engaged to her high school sweetheart, and the third was the daughter of one of our professors, so no one in their right mind would touch her.”
I push down my outrage at his father and grin. “Ooh, a tale as old as time.”
He shakes his head but can’t hold back a smile. “Laugh all you want, but those two years were some of the best in my life. The Academy had a strict set of rules but nowhere near as bad as the school I attended before that, and I hadfriendsfor the first time. Not many, but it was nice. I didn’t suck at the classes either, and I thought I was going to show my father that Summers men could be more than just cannon fodder.”
