Page 74 of Bleeding Hearts

“No, I don’t think so at all. We may have only been together for a few days, but we’ve been friends a lot longer. I feel like that extends us in the relationship time line.” I laugh. “I know there are things from the past that you don’t forgive them for though, so are you really okay with us going tonight?”

“Yeah, it’ll be fine.” He wraps his arms around my stomach, his eyes meeting mine through the mirror. “They made mistakes, and personally, I don’t get how they could go from despising each other to being in love again so easily, but they’re not bad parents. Individually, they’re actually pretty great people. They’ll love you.”

“You think?” I ask, nervous but also excited about meeting them.

“I know so.” He smiles. “How could they not? You’re the most amazing person I know, Demi.”

“You know, you’re a lot sweeter than people give you credit for, Asher Gray.” I turn around in his arms so that I’m facing him.

“Only to you.” He brushes a strand of hair out of my face.

“Well, since we’re not leaving until later now, I have a fantastic idea.”

“What’s that?”

“You call the front desk and ask them for a later checkout.” I trail my fingers down his chest and stomach, stopping to tease at the waistband of his briefs. “Then you can come meet me in the shower and show me just how amazing you think I am.”

“Insatiable for me, are you?” He smiles down at me knowingly.

“Are you complaining?” I tilt my head up at him.

“Fuck no.” He pulls away, practically running over to the hotel phone and dialing down to the concierge.

I wait until they answer the phone before pulling his T-shirt over my head. He stands there speechless, his eyes glued to my naked body as the concierge asks if anyone’s there.

He quickly manages to get the words out, asking for a late checkout, which they grant, and I turn away from him with a smile, letting him watch me as I walk through the separate door where the shower is.

“You’re gonna pay for that,” he yells after hanging up the phone.

I turn the faucet on, watching the water spray down from the rainfall showerhead just as he comes up behind me, pulling me into his now naked self. His want for me pressing between my legs.

All I can think is, I can’t fucking wait.

CHAPTERTWENTY-THREE

Asher

I pull Demi’s car into the driveway of the plain white house with large windows that had been home to me growing up. I haven’t been back here since Christmas, but if I’m being honest, nothing about this house has changed since I was a kid.

It’s a pretty standard house, not huge, but not small either. My parents do well enough for themselves, and luckily my mom’s job has good insurance, so they weren’t completely burdened by medical bills when I was diagnosed.

Lawyer fees from the messy divorce it caused were a different story. All just for them to get remarried in the end.

We moved into this house when I was around four, so I don’t remember much about that time or anything before it. But my mom used to say house hunting was the most frustrating time of her life.

She and my father saw dozens of houses over the course of a year and couldn’t agree on a single thing. Which isn’t a surprise when it comes to them.

Then they saw this house, and the second they walked outside and saw the backyard with a large covered porch, they knew it was the one. It was one of the few things they ever agreed on.

When they got divorced, the biggest argument was over who would get to keep the house. They tried to argue over me also, but I was already eighteen at that point, so they didn’t have much of anything to argue over. It was my decision where I wanted to live.

They went back and forth arguing over the house for months until Dad finally conceded, and it was only because I begged him to.

With her being a therapist and him coaching high school football for a living, she was the breadwinner of the family, meaning she already owed him alimony, something she complained about endlessly.

I begged him to leave it at that and not force her to find a new home on top of it, and finally, for me, he agreed.

Flash forward a decade later, they’re remarried, and my dad is living here again as if he never moved out in the first place. They have a strange relationship and far be it from me to try to understand it.

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