Page 49 of Exactly What I Needed
“I can stay.” I smiled.
“Fuck yes!” He jumped up, whooping and hollering, and then froze. “I mean—” Coughing, he cleared his throat and calmed himself down. “Sounds good.” He coolly laid back down against my stomach. I giggled quietly, happy to see how giddy he was despite his cool façade he liked to carry.
He raised his phone and pointed at a couple of outfits he’d found. Outfits that looked nothing like what I would have expected him to be interested in. They were things more similar to what I normally wore.
“You like these?” I pointed at the retro-style jumper.
“Yes? What’s that reaction for?” He furrowed his brows. “It’s what you normally like to wear, is it not?”
“Well, yes, but…”
He rolled his eyes. “If you haven’t figured it out yet, you’re my type.”
“But I wasn’t wearing my usual style the night we met,” I replied, confused as can be, and mindlessly slid my fingers along each of his earrings.
“I knew that.”
“How?” I gasped in shock and added the jumper and cute matching blouse to the cart. He pulled his phone back down and began the checkout process.
“I also knew you were unfamiliar with our music. It’s kind of hard to fake it when you’re with someone like Sydney, Princess,” he replied nonchalantly and glanced at the time on his phone. “The outfit will be here in a couple hours.”
My mouth was permanently stuck open. “In a couple hours? How is that even possible?”
He chuckled and shrugged. “I have connections.”
I rolled my eyes while he gently pushed my jaw shut. “Show off.”
“Oh, by the way. I have something that’s yours still.” He sat up, setting his phone down on the mattress, and slid back off the bed. I glanced at it, realizing that he’d left it screen up. He wasn’t hiding things from me.
When he opened the closet doors to my right, I lifted a brow in curiosity. “What’s that?”
He disappeared inside for a moment and then returned, his hands clasped behind his back. Nerves bubbled in my stomach as he sauntered over to me, a devilish grin plastered on his face.
“Asher, what do you have?” I pressed again.
His grin widening, he stopped at the edge of the bed. “You don’t get it back.”
“What is it?” I swung to face him.
“And I’m keeping another thing of yours,” he replied, pulling his bottom lip in between his teeth.
I narrowed my gaze suspiciously. “Show me what you’re holding.”
He brought his hands forward, and once again, I found my jaw against the floor. Dangling between his fingers was my lacy thong from night one.
“Give it back,” I demanded.
“Nope. It’s mine. Plus the one from tonight.” He grinned, and I swung my gaze to my second pair sitting on the floor beside my dress. His gaze followed mine, and silence fell between us.
Slowly, our eyes met once more, locked in on the beginning of a race to see who could get to my panties first. I stared him down while he tightened his fingers around the pair he already had.
And then I shot across the bed at the same time he dashed forward. Graceful as ever, I dove off the side of the mattress and crashed to the floor as he rounded the foot of the bed. Scrambling to my feet, I slid across the hardwood, reaching the thin fabric just in time for him to dive forward.
My hand clamped down on the thong, snatching it just before he was able to grab it.
“Give it here,” he growled, and I shook my head, curling it up within my fist.
“No. You don’t need another one of my thongs.” I glared threateningly at him.
