Page 80 of Immersed
Asher’s eyebrows rose.“What are you proposing?”
“One minute,”Levi said.“I’ll give you one minute.”
“An hour.”
“You haven’t earned an hour,”Levi shot back, surprising himself with his boldness.“You want me to trust you? Prove you can respect boundaries.”
Asher furrowed his brow and ran a hand through his hair.“What would you consider fair?”
Think. What feels manageable? What gives me some control?
“Five minutes,”he said finally.“And I set a timer.”
“Five minutes,”Asher agreed, his voice warm with contentment.“To properly get to know you.”
The way he said it made Levi’s stomach flutter with something that wasn’t entirely fear. With shaking hands, Levi pulled out his phone and set the timer. Five minutes felt both impossibly long and terrifyingly short.
“There,”he said, showing Asher the screen.“When it goes off, you stop. No matter what.”
“Of course,”Asher said, settling beside him with careful movements.“I want to do this right.”
He reached out slowly, telegraphing his intentions, and cupped Levi’s face with one warm palm. His thumb brushed across Levi’s cheekbone with devastating tenderness.
“You’re so beautiful,”he murmured, studying Levi’s features with fascinated attention.“I’ve wanted to touch you like this for so long, without you pulling away. It’s nice, right?”
Like this.As if all the previous violations didn’t count, as if thiswastheir first real moment of “intimacy”.
Asher’s other hand came up to thread through Levi’s hair, fingers combing through the auburn strands in a way that made Levi wishAsher would just be violent with him again. Violence Levi could resist, could hate cleanly. This careful tenderness made something treacherous unfurl in his chest.
“Do you like gentle touches?”Asher breathed.“I think you do. Someone as sweet as you probably needs lots of affection.”
Don’t respond.Don’t give him anything to work with.
Asher’s fingerstraced the line of Levi’s jaw with the careful attention of an artist studying a masterpiece. Despite everything, Levi found himself leaning slightly into the touch.
The timer showed three minutes remaining.
Asher’s hands moved lower, one sliding down to rest against Levi’s throat. The touchwasfeather-light, just fingertips ghosting the jut of his Adam’s apple. “Your pulse is racing,”he observed, thumb pressing gently against the rapid flutter.“Are you scared, or excited?”
Levi’s breath hitched at the contact, and something shifted in Asher’s expression. His eyes darkened with interest.
“Oh,”he murmured, applying more pressure.“You like this too.”
The increased pressure sent an unwanted spark of heat through Levi’s belly. His body’s betrayalwasimmediate and horrifying, a flush spreading down his neck.
“I want to touch everywhere,”Asher groaned with barely restrained hunger.“But so little time...”His free hand dropped to Levi’s chest, palm pressing flat against his sternum.
Don’t react. Don’t move. Don’t breathe in his direction. Just let the clock run out.
“Two minutes left,”he said, glancing at the timer.“Tell me, Levi—do you prefer gentle? Or do you like it when I’m a little rough?”
To demonstrate, his fingers tightened slightly around Levi’s throat.
Levi’s eyes went wide as a quiet moan escaped his throat.
Asher leaned forward, his breath warm against Levi’s ear.“Please answer me,”he whispered, his voice coaxing.“I like hearing your voice.”
Levishook, caught between the pressure on his throat and the impossible question. His mind felt fractured, unable to process what his bodywastelling him. “I... I don’t know,”he admitted in a broken whisper.
