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I nodded, held in his net, captured by his hands and his mouth and his words and his kindness, and I only nodded. Love. Asher Strong was the first man I ever loved.
 

“I’ll take care of you for the rest of your life if you’ll let me. I’ve been waiting for you this long. I’ll wait for you a lifetime longer. When you’re ready, I'm here. Whatever you need,” he murmured between kisses and thrusts, “I’m here.” He tugged at one nipple, lighting my nerves on fire before one hand snaked between us and his thumb worked tight circles at my clit, swirling arousal to soak his digits like a lubricant. His thumb snuck up to his lips and he sucked my glistening sex off before he returned his hand between us, swirling and pinching and massaging before a slow burn of another orgasm built in my body. My legs quaked and my grip tightened at his shoulders while he fucked me slowly and reverently, taking care of me, getting me off, making me his.
 

“Asher,” I called into the night when another orgasm crashed through my body. His pleasure-filled grunts followed mine as he held his body over me, caging me against his body, the silver light kissing his skin and urging my love for him on, sucking all the oxygen up between us until we were melded together as one.
 

“My God, you’re incredible,” he panted and then collapsed on top of my body, curling me into his protective form, skin to skin, chest to chest. “I’ve waited so long for you, Evie,” he whispered as my heart shuddered to a stop.

fourteen

Asher

Just as I was coming down from my release, just as I was still buried inside her, soaking in the feel of her finally in my arms and against my skin, she shrieked and pushed me off of her with all her force, surprising me and sending me tumbling.
 

What had happened? Had I hurt her, after all? She’d looked mighty satisfied after three orgasms.
 

“Why did you say that?” she screamed, terror in her eyes as she struggled to cover herself with the dress I’d pulled off her body just minutes ago. My mind worked over the last things I’d said. I’d been in the throes of my first orgasm buried inside a woman. How could I be responsible for what the hell I said?

“Say what?” I shook off the confusion and started to pull the zipper up on my pants.
 

“Why did you call me that name? My name is Allie.” She scooted farther away from me in the grass, as if she feared me.

Allie. Evie. Shit. Had I called her by her real name?
 

Thoughts bombarded my mind as I worked out what to tell her. I hadn’t meant to stick my goddamn foot in my mouth, hadn’t even realized I’d said it, and it was certainly far too soon. This was just one of the secrets I needed time to tell her. Pulling the bandage off too soon before the wound was healed could spell disaster for both of us.
 

“Allie, shit, I’m sorry.” I ran a hand through my hair as she jumped from the ground and pulled the fabric of her dress over her head. “Allie!” I called, before she took off over the grass, barefoot, heading for the house without turning back. “Shit,” I cursed and shoved her sweet little panties in my pocket before I took off after her.
 

Looks like I’d have to confess now, long before I’d ever intended to. There were supposed to be a dozen nights of intimacy and trust ahead of us, and now I had exactly two days under my belt and I’d fucked it up already. I’d known that line would be too delicate to walk, but I’d sure as hell walked it, and now I was flailing and facing the consequences.
 

“Allie, wait, let me explain a few things,” I begged when I finally caught up to her, nearly to the porch where we’d had our Italian rendezvous earlier.
 

“I can’t imagine what you could possibly say to make up for that,” she snipped and pushed through the doors, heading straight for her bedroom.

“You don't understand,” I said, following her.
 

“I guess I don’t. Did they give you my real name? Do you have my ID? I thought I was protected. I thought this was all private. Do you know
everything
about me?!” she shrieked as her anger escalated. I stopped at the top of the stairs, my head bowed, no reply to give. “Oh, my God,
you do
, don’t you?” Her eyes widened in violent anger before she gritted her teeth and spun on her heel, stomping down the hallway.
 

Well, that was that, then.

I hung back by her door for a few long moments, kicking myself and trying to concoct the perfect story to tell her. Could I lie? Damn if I didn’t want to, but if I wanted our relationship to be based on trust, I’d have to tell her. I had no other choice but to confess everything.

I sighed and tapped lightly on the door, no sound coming from within. I grunted, desperate to see her, to make this right, but ashamed as fuck for lying to her at all in the first place.
 

I opened the door and stepped into her room, silent except for the spray of water coming from the shower. I sighed, unwilling to let her push me away any longer, especially not after I’d just taken her virginity. Running wasn’t allowed between us. She’d need to learn that soon enough anyway.
 

I entered the foggy warmth of the bathroom, letting the door close loudly behind me to alert her to my presence. “Asher,” she squeaked, and I saw her curvy physique behind the frosted glass as she turned away from me. Her head popped out a moment later and she leveled me with a glare that could wither the strongest man. “Leave.”
 

“Not until I explain a few things,” I said sincerely as I pulled a fluffy towel from the rack and held it out for her. Maintaining constant eye contact, refusing to be distracted by her luscious form, I wanted her to see this meant something to me.
She
meant something.
 

“How do you know my name?” she said when she stepped out, quickly snatching the towel from my hands and pulling it around her body.
 

She stood waiting for my reply, dark locks of wet hair twisting around her shoulders and begging for my fingers. I wanted to lick the wetness from her skin with my tongue, then lay her out on the bathroom vanity and bring her to another orgasm. Jesus, I couldn’t get enough of her. She’d better forgive me. I might lose my mind if she didn't.
 

“They did give me your ID. For safety purposes only though. And to be clear, they only did it because I insisted. You can have it back.”

“If you had it all along, why did you keep calling me Allie then?” Her face fell and her eyes peered up at me, hurt by my betrayal more than anything else.
 

“I thought it would make you more comfortable. I was wrong, I’m sorry. I planned on giving it back to you at some point, but I didn’t want to throw you over the edge with upheaval,” I offered lamely.
 

“So…” She wrapped her towel around her shoulders and shifted on her wet feet. “What are you going to call me?”
 

“What do you prefer?” I offered eagerly, feeling suddenly absolved.
 

“Eve, Evie is what the boys call me.” She paused, then her eyes darted to mine and narrowed. “Wait, my ID says Eve, how did you know to call me Evie?” Her voice hardened as I saw the realizations clicking together in her mind.
 

“There’s more I need to tell you.” I shoved a hand through my hair, feeling the other bowling ball drop in my stomach.
 

“Asher, what do you know?” she whispered so softly it nearly deflated the air from my lungs. I waited one long, drawn-out moment, her eyes watching me, her fingers fidgeting as cool droplets melted into the cotton of her towel.
 

“I know everything.”

fifteen

Eve

“Eve, I know everything,” he said again when I still hadn’t responded.
 

My brain ran a thousand miles an hour as my hands shook in front of me. My heart thundered and my breathing picked up in ragged pants. The bathroom seemed to darken before my vision went hazy and I crumpled on the cold tile floor. “Eve!” was the last word I heard before the world went dark.
 

“Here, take a sip.” Asher’s voice pulled me from the dark abyss. His worried eyes assessed my face and body, one palm under my chin as he held a small bottle of water to my lips. “Just a sip. You fainted. You’ll be okay.” His soothing voice calmed my ragged nerves.
 

But why had I fainted?

“Take a sip, sweetheart, and I’ll tell you everything.” His eyes watched me, the fear within them growing by the second. Suddenly, the memory of the last few minutes came back, and I scrambled out of his reach. Glancing around, I found myself in a foreign space, his bedroom, I decided, once I saw the immaculately kept closet and twin en suite, just like my mine.
 

I clutched at the fibers of the duvet covering his bed as his eyes peered back at me, slain with guilt and shame. “H-how do you know me?” I asked haltingly, feeling utterly trapped and betrayed. I knew for certain that I was locked in a luxury prison where my life certainly wasn’t my own. I was Asher’s puppet, nothing more and nothing less. I’d been so foolish to think there could be anything more.

“I was there the night it happened.” His words echoed around the room and they seemed to repeat. Was he still saying it or was I imagining it? How
could
he have been there? Been there for which part?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” was the only reply I could form. Asher shook his head slowly, then ran a palm over his face and stood, pacing across the room to the floor-length windows overlooking the front of his estate.
 

“I was there the night your parents were killed,” he said in slow, measured words.
 

I swallowed, clutching my fists in the white duvet, thinking I hadn’t heard him right. “No, no.” I shook my head, my mind pedaling back to that night so many years ago. Sirens, lights, crying. So much crying. I think they were my tears.
 

“How were you there? That’s not true. You must have the wrong person. I was only six…” I trailed off, unable to fit the puzzle pieces of his story together. “What do you mean you were there?” I felt myself growing hysterical, something I’d managed to push down to the depths before now.

“August nineteenth.” He said the one date that I would never, ever forget. “I was sixteen. I left a party.” He was shoving a hand through his hair, and despite the words he was saying, I still wanted to run to him and comfort his breaking soul. I’d hadn’t seen him so affected by anything in the short time I’d known him. “I was drinking. My friend was supposed to be the designated driver. I hadn’t seen him drink all night, but I found out later he’d taken a few shots. I didn’t think anything was wrong, I didn’t know there was a problem until it was too late and I saw the curve coming, I knew the bridge was right after…I knew he was going too fast. All of a sudden, there were blinding lights and the clash of metal…” Asher trailed off, and I saw his shoulders hunch, a palm wiping at one eye. “I should have checked him, made sure he was sober.”

“Asher…” I leapt from the bed, the connections finally forming in my mind. “Asher?” I breathed, my muscles trembling as I watched this tall, strong man, this man that I cared for, this man I’d just given myself to minutes ago, had killed my parents? Was responsible for all the misfortune in my life? From funerals to foster care to Judy and cam shows, and now
this
? Now
him?

“Evie…” Asher turned, his eyes widened for a moment and he seemed to compose himself. “Evie—”

“No! Don’t you dare! Don’t you ever call me that! Only the boys can call me that! I want my things. I want my stuff. Let me go! Get the money back, whatever you have to do. I can’t stay here with…with my parents’ murderer,” I seethed and spun, launching myself out of his bedroom.
 

Eve!” Asher called, and his hands were on my shoulders, turning me to him in the dark hallway. I shook my head when he backed me against the wall next to my bedroom door. “No.” I shook my head, tears finally spilling as I felt the fight deflate from my body. I was only so strong. I could only put up with so much, and this, this had pushed me over the edge.
 

“I’m so sorry, Eve. I’m so, so fucking sorry. I’ve been sorry every day since then, and I’ll be sorry every day for the rest of my life. But you don’t understand. I’ve tried to make it up to you. Tried to take care of you. If I had known that foster home was so terrible, that they were making you do awful things…but I thought you were at least being taken care of, at least having a childhood.” He sped through his explanation, his breathing ragged as I struggled to hear him over the freight train in my ears.
 

“Please understand me, Eve. I bought you that night because I’d been waiting for you. I saw Judy going to that warehouse in the weeks leading up to your birthday, I knew what she had planned and I knew I had to save you from it. I did my best to keep track of you, and I knew the day you turned eighteen, I would be there. I would do what I could to make it up to you. I loved you even then, Eve, in my heart. When I said I would take care of you for a lifetime, I meant it. Please know that I meant it, and I still do.” His hands clasped my cheeks as he forced me to train my eyes on his. I swallowed the swords that clogged my throat, feeling my muscles weaken with exhaustion.
 

“I don’t know what to think,” I said, needing the night, or many of them, to think on my feelings. This changed the game. He’d changed the game. But really, it’d been his game all along, hadn’t it? He’d orchestrated all of this, starting with the night he’d gotten in that car and collided with my parents. “I don’t know why you think I’d ever want anything from you. Don’t you think you’ve taken enough from me? You don’t need my dignity,” I bit out and then darted beneath his imposing arm, sliding past the doorway to my room and then locking it instantly, sliding down on my ass to the floor, head in my hands as I thought about the man I was just beginning to think I could love.