Her mouth responded to his eagerly. She’d waited too long and hoped for too much, fantasizing endlessly about this, so there was no way for her to remain calm and cool. She could not detain her eager reaction. Her mouth opened and she smashed her tongue into his. A deep, rough, wild exploration, using only their tongues, ensued. Mouths pressed together, heated breaths and teeth scraping. It went on and on like that. His hands finally shifted and slid down her neck and her back, landing on her waist. Digging his fingers into her flesh, her tongue rubbed his tongue, and he was obviously liking how it felt.
So did she. Shock could not describe her feelings. After their narrow-minded, troublesome date, how could it lead to this? Passion? Harboring a crush way too long? All of the above. For whatever reason, the chemistry between them blew up like a lit match on gasoline. Maybe that was Asher’s issue. Maybe he thought his reaction to her would burn down his future?
Their bodies migrated closer together, pushing and holding. Their middles strained too, trying to relieve the pressure as their hands inspected and explored. Heat radiated under her skin when his hands touched her and his attention caused all kinds of hot feelings to stir, stew and percolate in her gut. Their mouths moved harmoniously together until she was breathless. A moan slipped out that captured all the achy feelings that were coming to life inside her body.
Leaving the anchor of her waist, Asher’s hands moved in circles. She imagined tracks of sparks following the wake of his contact. She tipped her head back more, and he leaned forward to sink his tongue deeper into her mouth. It was the perfect synchronized dance: lips, tongues, breaths and groans. For all the awkwardness of their date, and terse banter, well, this… damn. They got this one hundred percent right. It was as if they were designed to do this together.
He stepped back and she followed. Mindlessly. Dazedly. Dizzily. Daisy was resplendent in all the wonderful feelings rumbling in her stomach and zinging from there to all the corners of her body. He stopped only when the stairs almost tripped him. He stooped down, pulling her with him. His butt was on a step and he tugged her wrists. She dropped on top of him, straddling him. Their mouths never released each other. Their heads turned to accommodate the frantic twisting of their joined lips and tongues. Oh, those tongues. The wonderful sliding and caressing their tongues enjoyed thrilled her all the way down to her toes, curling them.
His hands pushed and prodded, catching the cloth of her shirt and twisting it up. The harder and hotter he kissed her, the more restless his hands became. They slid down to her waist, up along her spine, making tingles and radiating heat. His mouth kept up the frantic dance with hers until his fingertips reached the hem of her shirt. He ran a fingertip along the edge, distinctly pausing momentarily before dipping under the material to press it on her bare skin just above the waistband. She shuddered at the soft, silky, almost chaste caress. He rubbed his fingertips on a few inches of skin, playing for a while until his entire hand slipped under her shirt to touch her side. His scorching handprint caressed her overly sensitized skin and he rested his other hand chastely on the outside of her clothing, around her back. But his not-so-chaste hand? Ooh, that hand sent delicious shivers everywhere on her.
The hot bolts made her abdominal muscles quiver, and the anticipation was driving her mad. He rubbed his palm and fingertips, resulting in a needy, strange sound from her mouth. She pressed her head, her mouth, and her tongue harder against his. Yes. Oh, yes. Her heart thumped loudly, and her blood swirled.
His hand slipped higher, and her heart did a rat-a-tat-tat. He explored the outside of her bra under her shirt. When he slid over her right breast, the silky bra seemed to join his soft, sensual assault on her senses.
His fingertips slid across her breasts, then back again. The motion was slow and tender, almost barely-there, unlike the insane, hard groping between their mouths. She shoved her torso forward, right into the delicious heat of his fingertips. His palm. All of him.
He finally took the hard, pointed tip that was unashamedly begging for attention, between his index finger and thumb. He rolled it back and forth. Again and again. Her eyes were already shut, but vivid colors began to burst behind the lids.
His formerly virtuous hand landed on her left breast and he repeated the rubs, tugs, and pulls on her nipples. Both of them at once. Making them even harder with his soft touch.
It went on for minutes that seemed like forever. Time and space, location and logic all melted into a puddle in Daisy’s brain. Her awareness lay only where her tongue touched his and his fingertips on her breasts. The wonderful feelings combined and grew more intense until reality had to enter the picture. She kissed him long and hard but slowly lessened the passion, finally closing her mouth and setting one last smooch on his lips.
Leaning back with a small smile, she said, “You owe me at least one good date. One where you’re not all weird or mean. Then… maybe this…” She waved a hand between them to indicate what she meant. She still straddled him as his hands slipped free of her shirt.
He cleared his throat, but his voice sounded strained. “Sounds fair enough. But I never intended to be mean. I was just trying to be cautious.”
“You were weird on both dates but downright mean on this one.”
He tilted his head curiously. “But you’re willing to give it another try? Are you sure you’re not the one being weird?”
“Asher…” she warned in a tone of audible annoyance. “You’re making this entirely too complicated. Either make your peace with the Rydell/Reed connection or please! Just put me out of my misery. What I told you that night on the arena roof would never have been said if I hadn’t drunk so much. Maybe my sense of ‘seize the day’ after Violet’s tragedy made me seize the moment. The same way you decided to seize the moment to buy this ranch, from what you told me. Life is short and you never know when it will end. Better to live now instead of planning it later and all that. But your issues with it are upsetting me now. Something I don’t deserve. If you can’t separate it from us, just stop getting so damn worked up over it, please. It’s been a lot of back and forth without any progress and honestly, I’m fed up with it.”
His hands rested politely on her waist, outside her shirt. He cupped the side of her jaw with his right hand and then slid it into her hair. “You’re right. About all of it. I’m sorry. Everything you said is right. What about that kiss? I guess that answers it all for me now.”
“Meaning?”
“I’ve kissed women before, and enjoyed it, even liked it and all that. But this felt like something more…”
Her breath caught. “What? Be honest. Don’t placate me. It’s hard, I know, but I’ve been honest with you.”
His gaze skittered off and then landed back on her. “I know. You have been. Okay, that kiss was more potent than any I’ve ever experienced. Even more potent than sex, in some instances. So just in case something big is starting between us, can we first agree that it goes far beyond logic or reason or Rydell or Reed? And if you agree, Daisy Rydell, would you also agree to go on a normal, fun date with me?”
A wide grin nearly split her face in two. “’Course I will. But have you forgotten that I leave for school and won’t be back until December? What about that?”
“Well, a date with no sex then. That could be a mistake. We have a normal date and when you come back in December, we see how we both feel, okay? In the meantime, we make no commitments and no blood oaths. We aren’t like Charlie and Cami. We can date other people. Casually or not. Considering the distance between us, and all the other factors that previously concerned me, whether you agree or not, it’s the best solution for now, in my opinion. I wanted to simply ignore it. But damn. There it is. Attraction refuses to be ignored. What do you think?”