As desperate as I am to slide my hands under his shirt, to feel his burning skin, his hard muscles against my palms, I refrain. We’ve got all the time in the world for that, but we only get this chance to start over once and I want to do it right, take it slow, enjoy getting to know each other properly.
We kiss until we’re both breathless and when he pulls back, he only goes as far as resting his forehead against mine.
“Ash?” I ask, a thought slamming into me. “Those photos you said you had on your cell—”
“You want to see the photos I have of you?” he asks, amusement crinkling at the corners of his eyes.
“Uh...” I’m not sure how I feel about potentially looking at images of me from that night in whatever position I might have been in.
He rolls away from me for a beat to grab his cell from the nightstand. He opens his photo app and hands it over to me.
“Go on,” he encourages.
I scroll through his camera roll and in only a second I gasp in shock.
“Oh my God, you didn’t.” I keep scrolling, seeing image after image of myself. Only, they’re not what I was expecting at all. “Ashton, this is creepy.”
“Is it? I just thought you looked too beautiful not to capture it.”
I shake my head as I look at all the images of me sleeping in his bed in Seattle. There’s nothing dirty or seedy about the images. There’s not even any nudity, just my face illuminated by a stream of sunlight from the partly closed curtains.
I keep scrolling, knowing that Halloween was a long time ago now, but I don’t find anything. Just normal teenage boy drunken party pictures and a million memes.
“It was bullshit, Ruby. I don’t have anything from that night other than my memories.”
“Oh God, that might be almost as bad.” My face flames. “I can’t believe I let you do that to me that night.”
“That? You mean that you let me eat you until you were screaming my name?” He brushes his nose against mine, taking his cell from my hand and discarding it on the bed somewhere. “You don’t need to be embarrassed with me, little one. I’ve been all up in there since.”
“Ashton.” I slap his chest lightly.
“And...” He drops his lips to my ear. “I can promise you that I will be again too.”
My thighs rub together at the thought.
“What happened after... that happened. I don’t remember ever getting off the piano, let alone getting home.”
“What do you think happened?” he asks, his eyes sparkling with amusement.
I shrug. “If I knew, I wouldn’t be asking,” I say with a raised brow.
“Okay, so after you came all over my face and ruined me for every other woman on the planet, I covered you up, lifted you into my arms and carried you downstairs and out to Dad’s car that I’d... borrowed... and brought you home. I tucked you into bed, kissed you, and walked away knowing that my life was never going to be the same again.”
His honesty makes my heart hurt.
“Why didn’t you stay, the next morning we could have—”
“I knew how I felt, but there was no way I could have accepted it back then. My life was... a disaster. And I lived in Seattle, nothing would have worked, and I would have refused to have you in Seattle and around the people I hung out with for any length of time.”
“What do they do, the Kingston boys?” I ask, the question has been eating at me since Willow dodged the question the night of the funeral.
“Anything illegal that happens in Seattle, you can guarantee they had a hand in it somewhere. Those you met are just the kids. Their fathers. They run that city, and the boys just do their dirty work.”
“So drugs?”
“Yeah, and everything else you’re probably thinking of.”
“I can see why your mom wanted you to get out.”
“Trust me, I understand too.”
“So they just let you walk away?”
“I never got in deep enough to be a threat to them, and I’ve never given them a reason to worry about my loyalty. As long as I move on, keep my head down, they’ll never bother me again.”
“Were you actually friends with them?” I ask, thinking of his obvious distaste for Axel.
He laughs. “Yeah, there are some good guys in there.”
“And girls?” I ask, broaching the subject.
“Just one. And don’t think I don’t know that you’ve been talking to her.”
“Willow?”
“Yeah. I know all about your budding friendship.”
“I like her,” I admit. “And she cares about you.”
“She’s a good girl. We’ve had each other’s backs for a few years now.”
“I’m glad you had her, and the others.”
“Mm-hmm... and I’m glad I’ve got you.”
He tugs me so I’m right under his body. His hand skims up my thigh and once again disappears under my hoodie and stops at my waist.
“Thank you,” he whispers against my lips.
“You already said that,” I point out.
“Yeah, well... I mean it.”
35
Ashton
When I wake the next morning, I think it was a dream and the reality is that I’m in my bed alone, maybe with just my chemistry textbook for company, but then a light snore comes from beside me and my eyes fly open.
She really did spend the night in here with me.
I stare at her for a few long seconds. Her dark hair is in a mess around her face, her eyes are closed with her long lashes almost resting against her cheekbones, her full, red lips are parted slightly and she’s laying with her hand propped under her cheek.
Reaching for my cell, I open the camera and take a few pictures of her. Just like that morning in my bedroom back in Seattle, I can’t help myself. She’s too beautiful, too perfect I feel like I need to capture it in case this is all one big joke, that this isn’t my life and that she’s not real.
Knowing that I woke up early for a reason, I reluctantly climb from the bed without waking her and pull on my sweats that I lost at some point last night. I know that under my covers she’s dressed similar to me in just her underwear and it makes my morning wood ache for her.
But I made her a promise to start over and to take things slow—as slow as her sleeping in just her underwear in my bed, of course—and I intend on seeing it through.
She’s worth it. Worth it and more.
I understand that I need to prove myself to her, and I’m more than willing to do so.
I slip from the room as quietly as I can and make my way downstairs. I grab an energy drink from the refrigerator before making my way down to Dad’s home gym.
The last thing I want to do while she’s almost naked in my bed is a workout, but I have a feeling that Jake isn’t going to go easy on my ass in the coming weeks as he tries to prove I’m not Rosewood Bears material, but I’m determined to prove him wrong.
I sync my cell to the wireless speaker and get to work. I let things slip after the season finished on a devastating loss for my old team, so I’ve got some work to do to get ready for tryouts and hopefully a new season.