Page 62 of Immersed
“Just for a second,”Asher said to the room, his voice perfectly reasonable.“We can do some breathing exercises.”
The team barely glanced up as Asher steered Levi toward a side corridor, too focused on their equipment setup to pay attention to what looked like a routine work discussion.
Once they were out of sight, Asher’s grip tightened. He pulled Levi into what looked like a small office—empty except for a metal desk and broken filing cabinets.
“Now,”Asher said, closing the door behind them.“Why are you being so mean to me?”
“Are you serious?”Levi backed against the far wall.“You f-fingered my mouth while I was dying and paralyzed.”
“I comforted you,”Asher corrected, stepping closer.“You were scared and in pain, and I wanted our last moments to be—”
“Shut up.”Levi’s voice cracked with fury.“Just shut up. We had rules. Clear boundaries.”
Asher’s head tilted, genuine confusion flickering across his features.“Rules?”
“The temporary alliance. No killing, no touching without permission. We agreed.”
“Oh.”He still looked confused.“You mean when I touched your face while we were dying?”
Touched my face?.Levi felt sick.“Are you kidding me?”
“I was trying to comfort you,”Asher insisted.“You were scared, and I thought—”
“You thought what? That violating someone while they’re paralyzed and dying would be comforting?”
Asher went very still.“That’s not what it was.”
“Then what was it?”
“Intimate. Romantic.”Asher’s voice dropped to something softer, almost tender.“I wanted our last moments together to be special.”
The disconnect between Asher’s perception and reality was staggering. He genuinely believed that what he’d done was a romantic gesture.
Levi drew back his fist and punched Asher square in the nose.
The crack of cartilage breaking filled the small office. Blood poured down Asher’s face, but instead of anger, he looked... pleased. Almost fond.
“We discussed rules,”Levi said, his knuckles throbbing.“Clear boundaries. No touching without permission.”
Asher dabbed at his nose.“Well, we were dying. I thought maybe we could make it more fun.”
The logic was so fundamentally broken that Levi just stared at him.“Fun? You thought dying was supposed to be fun?”
“Not the dying part,”Asher clarified.“The intimacy part. The connection. I wanted to share something with you before we—”
“No touching without permission,”Levi repeated slowly, as if speaking to a child.“That was the rule. It didn’t have exceptions for dying or fun or whatever you call intimacy.”
Asher’s expression shifted into something that looked almost like a pout. He stepped closer, pressing into Levi’s personal space.
“Are you sure about that rule?”he asked, his voice dropping to that intimate register.“Because I think there might be some... flexibility. Depending on circumstances.”
Levi drove his elbow hard into Asher’s solar plexus. The impact sent Asher stumbling backward, doubled over and gasping.
“No flexibility,” Levi snapped.
For a moment, Asher stayed bent over, catching his breath. Then he straightened with a grin that was all teeth.
“Okay,”he said cheerfully, as if they’d just negotiated a business deal.“Rules are rules.”
