“You mean you burst through the crowd, ready to defend my honor?”
“Mya, I’m pretty sure I’d walk over hot coals for you.” I gazed down at her, trying to show her just how much she meant to me. But sometimes actions weren’t enough. Sometimes you had to take the simplest approach and tell someone how you really felt.
Pulling her out of earshot of our friends, I brushed a stray curl from her face and leaned down, inhaling a shaky breath. “I know it’s only officially been a few days and I know it’s complicated and we don’t know what the future holds, but I’m pretty sure I’m falling in love with you, Mya Hernandez.”
Her lips parted on a soft gasp only I heard. “You weren’t supposed to fall in love with me, Asher,” she breathed. My heart crashed violently against my ribcage waiting for her to put me out of my misery. “But I’m glad you did.”
“Yeah, and why is that?” I was fishing but I needed to hear her say the words too.
I needed her to feel the same.
“Because,” she sucked in a sharp breath, “I…” Mya swallowed the words I so desperately wanted to hear. But she wasn’t fooling anyone. I saw the truth glittering right there in her eyes.
She felt it, I knew she did.
“It’s okay,” the words came out strained. “You don’t have to say it back yet.”
“Ash…” Mya’s eyes fluttered closed just as Khalid’s Better blasted through the sound system. I turned Mya in my arms, tucking her body close to mine and began dancing. She might not have been ready to say the words, but she was here with me. For now, it was enough.
We moved together; Mya rolling and popping her hips, grinding on me in a way that had my dick straining against my jeans. I ran my hands up the curve of her waist, appreciating how good she looked in the halter top and shorts, how her dark caramel skin glistened under the club mood lighting. Mya tipped her head back against my shoulder, taking one of my hands in hers and pressing it to her stomach as we rocked in synchrony. The lyrics serenaded us like our own private song.
I was uncertain about a lot of things. My future. How the fuck I was supposed to sacrifice everything I loved just to keep my father happy and my mother safe. But this, standing here with Mya, knowing she was going to be in my bed at the end of the night, I was sure about.
In that moment, nothing felt better.
Until she dipped her hand around her back and let it slide down the front of my jeans. “You’re playing a dangerous game, babe,” I whispered against the shell of her ear as I rocked into her hand, groaning into the crook of her neck.
“Maybe I like danger.” She pushed our joined hands beneath the swathe of sequined fabric covering her midriff and the waistband of her shorts.
A quick glance around told me no one was paying us any attention. We were just another couple out enjoying the night. Lingering between one year and the next. Mya slid her hand over mine, moving my fingers higher and higher until they grazed the curve of her breast.
Her very smooth, very naked breast.
Fuck.
I’d assumed she was wearing one of those cleverly disguised strapless bra things.
“Are you trying to kill me?” I groaned again, earning me a soft chuckle.
“It’s almost midnight,” she said, tilting her face so that her lips almost touched mine. “I want you inside me when the clock strikes twelve.”
Fuck.
Fucking fuck.
I almost exploded right there and then. My eyes darted wildly around the room, desperately searching for somewhere—anywhere—I could make her wish, and all her dreams, come true. Because while I wanted nothing more than to sink deep inside of Mya, I drew the line at fucking her in public.
My eyes found Jase over the crowd and he smirked, as if that fucker could read my mind. I flipped him off. He pulled out his cell and typed something, my own cell vibrating to life seconds later. Discreetly, I dug it out of my pocket.
* * *
Jase: The car is out back. You can thank me later.
* * *
Me: Do I even want to know how you know that?
* * *
Jase: I like to be prepared.
* * *
I laughed at that. Smug bastard. Before I could type a reply, the screen lit up again.
* * *
Jase: I know I give you shit but I’m happy for you, man. Now go before I rethink my offer… happy new year!
* * *
Me: Thanks, I owe you.
* * *
Mya brushed my cheek with her nose as I pocketed my cell phone. “Please tell me that was our fairy sexmother?”
Fairy sexmother?
What the actual fuck?
“Who are you right now?” I stared at her with a potent mix of awe and lust.
“I’m just a girl who needs her boyfriend.”
“Come on.” Tangling our fingers together, I led Mya away from the dance floor. We didn’t stop for our friends, or for the DJ as he announced the five-minute warning to the official countdown, and we sure as shit didn’t stop for security as they yelled at us not to go through the emergency exit.
We spilled out into the night, the sleek black limo that had brought us to the club right where Jase had said it would be.
“Seriously?” Mya said, her brow arched. “I thought we’d go to the bathroom or something.”
My lips curved mischievously. “Consider it a gift from your fairy sexmother. Now,” I yanked the door open for her, “get inside before I fuck you on the hood of it.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Mya
Asher followed me into the plush limo, closing the door behind him and locking it. His eyes burned with hunger, his hot gaze setting my already warm skin on fire.
“Two minutes,” he rasped as I sat down on one of the leather benches running down either side of the vehicle.
“W- what?”
“Two minutes until the clock chimes twelve.”
“Oh.” The word left my lips on a small gasp, remembering how I’d told him how I wanted to welcome in the new year.
I hadn’t meant to say the words but dancing with him had been so sexy, his hands painting a trail of heat over my skin. Teasing me. Torturing me to the point of needing him so much I couldn’t think of anything else.
I would never forget the way he burst through the crowd, like a knight-in-Henley-armor, with murder and possessiveness shining in his eyes.
“I want to go slow, take my time...” Asher crawled over me, pressing me into the soft leather bench, running his hand up my chest and palming my neck gently. “But I don’t think I can.”
“So don’t.” I dragged my teeth over the lobe of his ear, biting hard. A groan rumbled in his chest as his hand slid up my thighs, finding the waistband of my jeans.
“These need to come off, now,” he said against the corner of my mouth.
Asher rocked back onto his haunches, and I lifted my ass off the bench, letting him pull the shorts off. His eyes went to my lacy black panties, and another groan worked its way up his throat.