Asa

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“You’re out and about late.” I tried to keep my tone even. She was unpredictable and I never knew which way she was going to go with things. I was used to being able to read people like an open book, but she kept turning the page on me. It was always surprising and unexpected.

She pulled the sleeves of her sweatshirt down over her fingers and looked up at me in a way that made my dick twitch hard behind my zipper. It should be legally prohibited for anyone to be that effortlessly sexy.

“I was at the gym because I haven’t been sleeping well. The powers that be cleared me to go back to work at the end of the week as long as I keep seeing the department shrink for the next three months.”

I thought she would sound happier about that fact than she did. “That’s good news … isn’t it?”

Her shivering turned to outright shaking, and I knew it didn’t have anything to do with the cold outside. Against my better judgment I reached out and hooked an arm around her neck and pulled her against my chest. I pulled open the sides of my coat and let her burrow into me while she shook uncontrollably. I felt her hands snake around my sides and search for warm skin below the edge of my shirt on my lower back. I jolted and I wanted to tell myself it was because her hands were like ice, but that wasn’t it. Her touch made my skin ripple in excitement.

“I’ve never worked a shift without Dom. He’s like my other half. They’re assigning me a temporary partner to work with until Dom comes back.” She pulled away so she could look up at me through her silky lashes. “Only they didn’t say when Dom comes back, they said if. I don’t know if I can do what I do without him.”

I felt her fingers dig into the hollow right at the top of my ass and I had to fight down a full-body shiver.

“You love your job.” I knew it was true. Even though she was acting wild and off the tracks lately, she was so much of what she did for a living. “You don’t need your partner in order to be a good cop, Royal.”

We stared at each other silently for a long moment and then the corner of her mouth kicked up in a grin that made my gut tighten and turned my blood thick. I needed to let go of her and get to getting before I did something stupid.

“Did you miss me this weekend, Asa?”

That was a loaded question if there ever was one. Of course I had noticed she wasn’t around, but I had steadfastly refused to acknowledge how her absence made me feel, so I sighed and asked her, “What are you doing here so late?”

She cocked her head to the side and her eyes narrowed just a fraction. Her fingers dipped below the waistband at the back of my jeans, and I had to suck in a breath through my teeth, which hurt because the night air was freezing.

“I don’t know. Every time I can’t seem to figure out where I’m going lately I always end up wherever you are.”

I swore and went to take a step away from her, but her hands just dipped lower and tugged me closer. “You need to get your compass fixed, then. It’s pointing you in the wrong direction, Red.”

Suddenly it went from being below zero to feeling like we were standing on the surface of the sun. My breathing went shallow and a little erratic as her gaze went all liquid and melty.

“The more you tell me that, the more determined I am to prove you wrong.”

Then she stood up on her toes so that she could put her mouth on mine, and it was all over. I knew it was coming. We had been dancing around each other for months. She was too pretty and too persistent for this not to happen at some point in time. She was also too kind, and far too good, to let someone like me put my hands on her. I wasn’t really what she wanted, but I was getting tired of trying to tell her that. Despite my best intentions, this inferno that raged between us was going to burn out of control and she had just lit the match and tossed it carelessly on the tinder.

Her hands found their way to my sides as her soft lips did their best to render me mindless and stupid with lust. I could inhale her. It would be so simple to just get lost in all the soft and sweet that made her delectable, but somewhere in the back of my mind all the ways in which this was going to go horribly wrong were poking at me. I raised my hands and gently cupped her jaw. I ran my thumb back and forth across skin that couldn’t possibly be that soft, and tried my damnedest not to let her lead me to a place I would never find my way back from. I pulled away from the exquisite brush of her mouth along mine just as her tongue darted out to trace along the sealed seam of my lips. It made me groan out loud. I was going to put a stop to it, I needed to end it now, but she was quick and took advantage of my reaction by slipping her tongue inside my barely parted lips, and then it was hopeless to stop the avalanche of desire that engulfed me.

After all, I never claimed to be an angel and even the devil could only play with fire for so long before he gave in to unholy temptation and danced in the flames.

I backed her into the open doorway of the car. I tunneled my fingers into her hair where it was tight against her head and I inserted a leg between hers so that our pelvises were flush against each other. I wasn’t nice. I kissed her like she had been after me to kiss her from the beginning of this game. I used my tongue. I used my teeth. I didn’t let her breathe and I didn’t give her any kind of space to move away from me as I crowded in on her. I reached around her and grabbed her very spectacular ass in one hand in a really classless move and made sure to manhandle it and her in a very obvious way.

If she wanted me how I really was, then she was going to get it. I had no problem letting the pretense fall away, especially when she was writhing and whimpering against me. I twisted my tongue around hers. I sucked hard on her lower lip until she gasped. I pressed my chest into hers until I could feel the rigid points of her nipples even through all the layers of clothes that separated the two of us.

I felt her fingernails dig harder into my skin where her hands were still trapped under my shirt. I thought maybe she was getting the point, that this was bound to be a train wreck and that her common sense was finally waking back up. But just as I was about to let her go, to pull back and get some much-needed breathing room so I could get my whirling thoughts back in line, one of those dangerous hands suddenly detoured drastically south and the next thing I knew she had her palm wrapped fully around the rock-hard erection that was straining the front of my jeans.

The contact was enough of a shock that I automatically reared back and moved to grab her wrist. She just grinned devilishly up at me and fluttered her eyelashes with false innocence.

“We’re in a parking lot, out in the open. You really want to go there with me, Red?”

Not to mention this little fiasco was being recorded for all of eternity and it wasn’t exactly a show I wanted prying eyes to see. I don’t think Royal was an exhibitionist either, but whatever was working in her complicated mind had her acting out in all kinds of hazardous and surprising ways. I growled her name when she slid her palm up and down, making my dick jump like a well-trained animal at her touch. One of her auburn eyebrows shot straight up and she stuck just the tip of her tongue out to taste her still-damp bottom lip. Goddamn if every single thing she did didn’t make me think of darkened rooms and lots and lots of naked skin.

“Why not? It’s the closest you’ve ever let me get.” She gave the turgid shaft a hearty squeeze, and that made my eyes roll back in my head. I was on the verge, right on the cusp of picking her up and throwing her into the SUV and just giving her what she had been asking for, when my phone rang.

Considering it was well past the middle of the night and the ring tone was the specific one assigned to my little sister, I had a mild panic attack and pried Royal loose from my junk and finally stumbled a few steps away from her.

“Ayd?” I couldn’t help the harshness of tone as I barked out her name.

“Oh my God, Asa, Shaw just went into labor!” My sister was screaming, so I had to hold the phone away from my ear.

“Okay … and …?” Shaw was Ayden’s best friend. The two of them were beyond tight and I knew it had been really rough for Ayden to move to Austin so that she could be closer to her husband when her best friend was expecting her first child. I calmed down when I realized Shaw was okay and there was no crazy emergency.

“You better get your ass to that hospital and be there in my place until I can get to Denver. Jet is booking a flight for us right now, but I still won’t be there until the morning. You need to be there for me, Asa.”

Jet was Ayden’s husband and also a really good friend of the baby’s dad. He would move mountains to make sure Ayden didn’t miss this major moment in Rule and Shaw’s life. I rubbed my hands through my hair and blew out a breath that fogged up in front of me.

“Shaw isn’t going to want me there, Ayd. She’ll want you.”

“I know that, but I might not make it in time, so you’re going to go to the hospital and substitute for me!” She was screaming and almost hysterical, so I knew there would be no reasoning with her. “You need to keep me updated on everything that’s happening while I’m on my way there. You have to do this for me, Asa.”

Rule was Rome’s younger brother. The entire Archer clan was bound to be on hand, not to mention all the other various members of the gang that worked with Rule at the tattoo shop he owned with Nash. The maternity-ward waiting room was going to be full of the Marked family and they really didn’t need me in the way, but I had promised myself I was never going to let Ayden down again, so I grumbled my agreement to go and hung up on her before she could keep screaming at me.

I looked at Royal, who was texting on her phone and chewing on her lower lip not at all like a mere moment ago she had had her hand in my pants. She looked back up at me with a crooked grin.

“Saint just texted that Shaw’s in labor.” I nodded and then frowned when my phone buzzed in my hand with a text. I thought it was going to be Ayden, so I was surprised when the message was from Rome instead.

Another Archer is on the way. Get your ass to the hospital.

It took me a minute to understand that I was actually wanted there for this big event. I looked up at Royal in confusion. “Rome wants me there.”

“Of course he does.”

I frowned at her. “What do you mean, ‘of course he does’?”

She made a face at me and moved to climb into the driver’s seat of the 4Runner. “You’re friends and practically business partners. Rule has Nash, Jet has Rowdy, and Rome has you. Everyone needs someone to lean on, and bringing a new life into the world is most definitely a big deal. Now come on, I’ll give you a lift down there.”

I was stunned speechless, so I just moved around the car and climbed in the passenger side. I slumped down once I was situated and stared straight ahead.

I liked Rome. I respected the hell out of him. He was also on my newly formed list of people I never wanted to disappoint. He had given me a shot when everyone else in the world seemed like they were just waiting for me to fuck everything up. I owed him a lot, but it had never occurred to me that somewhere along the line that had morphed into him relying on me and respecting me as well. It was kind of a foreign concept to me and I wasn’t sure what to do with it.

“One of these days you’re going to let me finish what I’m always trying to start with you, Asa.”

Royal’s voice was low and there was a needy thread in it that twisted and twined around my heart. That couldn’t happen. I couldn’t let her get to me; that would be bad news for both of us. It was time to stop pretending and let her see my true colors.

I leered at her and told her flatly, “Any guy that gets your hands around his dick is gonna finish, Red.” It was crude and unnecessary, but it made her be quiet for the rest of the ride to the hospital and I spent that time convincing myself it was for the best …

… Wasn’t it?

CHAPTER 4 (#ulink_698bce6e-de61-589d-a566-4ae8eb458862)

Royal (#ulink_698bce6e-de61-589d-a566-4ae8eb458862)

My adrenaline was crashing. Partly from the lack of sleep and the excessive workout in the gym, but mostly from being burned alive from the inside out by Asa. I knew that once he let me get close enough to touch, I wasn’t going to be able to stop. There was just something about him, some kind of lure that pulled at me when I was around him that was too hard to fight against.

I wasn’t exactly shy, but I also wasn’t the type to just stick my hand in a guy’s pants and go for the gold either. Asa pushed me against all of my boundaries, made me forget that there were consequences to my actions, and I loved every single thing about it. I loved that when I was close enough to breathe him in, he was all I could feel, and I loved the way his glimmering amber eyes seemed to see everything I was trying so hard to hide. They were hot enough to melt the hardest metal and I was far from being forged out of steel and iron at the moment. I felt like I was made of paper and fluff.

I had every intention of just dropping him off at the hospital and going home to try and pretend to sleep. The ride to the hospital passed in absolute silence and I could see the way the muscles in his chiseled jaw were clenching and unclenching as we got closer. I wasn’t sure if it had to do with me or with the impending new addition, but it was clear he was lost in his own head and I wasn’t allowed inside. Whatever he was musing on it wasn’t making him too happy. I could tell even in the dark of the car as his eyes shifted from their normally burnished gold color to a much darker and heavier brown.

I pulled to a stop in front of the massive medical building and waited for him to climb out. I wasn’t going to say anything, figuring I had gotten myself into enough trouble for one night, but he cocked his head to the side and turned in his seat a little to look at me questioningly.

“Aren’t you coming in?”

My hands curled around the steering wheel involuntarily and I blinked at him in confusion.

“Why would I?”

I was tight with Saint and I really liked Nash, he was pretty much the nicest guy ever, but I hardly knew Shaw, and Rome’s wife, Cora, kind of scared the crap out of me. I got along fine with Salem, her no-bullshit attitude was awesome, and I liked that she always spoke her mind. Plus, when her sister had been abducted, I was the first person she turned to and that created a lasting bond between the two of us. But I was pretty sure Ayden was going to show up in no time flat, and I really didn’t want to be around when she did. Yes, she had apologized for losing her shit and being a stone-cold bitch to me when she found out I was the one that had arrested Asa, and I believe she meant it, but I had no plans on hanging out and making a happy situation awkward. I hadn’t seen Ayden since the day she bailed Asa out of jail, and I was in no hurry to have a reunion. Especially if I couldn’t manage to keep the way I felt about her troublesome brother on lockdown.

I knew instinctively she wouldn’t approve.

“Why wouldn’t you?” His drawl was so smooth, so velvet soft, as it wrapped around me. I just wanted him to whisper things to me in the dark forever.

“I’m friends with Saint and I adore Nash, but this is a big deal, something you share with family. I’m not part of that.”

He just stared at me and then grunted. “Go park. We’re going up together.”

I shook my head. “No, we’re not.”

I watched as the fire lit back up in his eyes and they switched back to their intoxicating whiskey color. “Fine.” He settled back in the seat, crossed his arms over his chest, and lifted a sandy-blond eyebrow at me. “If you don’t have to go up, then neither do I. You can drop me off back at the Bar.”

I gasped at him a little and narrowed my eyes at him. “Rome asked you to come. You should be inside right now, not arguing with me. You’re wanted up there.”

His mouth kicked up on the side, and I saw just how easy it was for him to charm people out of common sense. He was pretty day in and day out, but that grin had the devil and temptation in it, and it turned him into something otherworldly. No mere human looked that good after a full day of work and a bout of unfulfilled groping and fondling. It was obvious the path to every decadent sin led right through Asa Cross, and man oh man, did I want to race down it. I would never understand why he insisted on putting so many roadblocks in my way.

“Saint got in touch with you, so obviously someone wants you here. She’s shy and there is a lot of commotion to handle when this group gets excited about something. You ever stop and think maybe she needs you as her buffer?”

I cringed because I did know that. Saint loved Nash’s friends, was deeply immersed in their world and definitely accepted as part of the ramshackle family, but it was easy for her to get lost in the sea of strong, dominant personalities and she did like having me around to be her port in the storm. Only instead of wanting to be there for my friend, I wanted to run because I didn’t know if I could stand any more judgment coming my way. I had only been doing my job. I hadn’t wanted to be the one to put Asa in cuffs and take him in, but it had to be done and I unfortunately had to be the one to do it. I respected all of those ladies so much; seeing disappointment in their eyes when they looked at me might very well be the thing that tipped me over the edge of the cliff I was precariously holding on to at the moment.

I sighed because I could see that Asa was serious in his threat. Calling him every bad name in my head that I could think of, I wheeled the 4Runner into a parking spot and turned the engine off.

“You’re a manipulative jerk, you know that?”

He finally threw the door open and climbed out. The blast of winter air almost knocked me over and I remembered belatedly that all I had on was my gym clothes.

He walked around the front of the car and stopped when he reached my door. Without a word he pulled it open and put a hand on my arm and practically dragged me out. He shook his head when he saw how I was shivering, and took his big, heavy coat off and put it around my shoulders. It smelled like him and I wanted to cuddle into it and rub my face in the leather, but I was too busy glaring at him as he told me, “Now you’re catching on, Red.”

All he had on was a long-sleeved thermal, so I tried to hand the coat back to him, but he just grunted and put a hand on my lower back and guided me to the front doors. I blew out a breath that fogged up the air in front of us and told him quietly, “Your sister hates me. She’s gonna lose her mind when she shows up and sees me here with everyone.”

He chuckled and the sound sent chills racing all across my skin.

“Ayden is protective … of her friends, of her man, of me. She sometimes goes off before she thinks things all the way through. She doesn’t hate you. She hates that I’ve lived the kind of life that I have. In fact the only person she’s ever actually hated is me. That wasn’t the first time she’s had to come get me out of jail, and Lord only knows if it’ll be the last. She knows you were just doing your job, Royal. She just wants to save me. She’s always wanted to save me.”

I cut him a hard look out of the corner of my eye. “Why didn’t you say anything that day? Those kids jumped you, hurt you, and yet you just let us take you in with no complaint. Why?” I had wondered since the day Dom and I had been sent to the Bar to pick him up.

The hospital was busy. I was here enough that I knew the way to the labor and delivery unit without having to ask for directions. Asa followed along beside me without responding to my question. I thought he was just going to ignore me, until we got in the elevator and the doors swished closed. He turned and faced me, and that grin that turned his face into something I would dream about forever flashed at me.

“What’s the point? I’m always going to be the bad guy even when I’m not.”

I frowned. “You could have defended yourself. You were innocent. Those kids set you up.”

There was video proof of the fact, which had ultimately led to him being cleared of all the charges that were filed against him.

I started a little when he reached out and very gently ran the tip of his index finger over the line that had furrowed between my eyebrows as I scowled up at him.

“I’m not defending myself ever again. Not to my sister. Not to the police. Not to anyone. People are going to think what they want, and sadly most of those things that they think are going to be right about me. I’m guilty of a lot of bad shit, Royal. Most of it I never got caught for. Karma has a way of catching up with you, especially when you laughed in her face one too many times.”

I was baffled by his response and sort of stunned by the care in that simple touch.

“Are you telling me you would’ve been willing to go to jail for something you didn’t do as some sort of penance for all the other bad stuff you did in the past? That’s crazy, Asa.”

He just shrugged a shoulder and the doors swished open and we walked into a waiting room full of anxious and excited family and friends. I knew he was carrying around a barrel stuffed full of shame and remorse from his misdeeds of the past. What I hadn’t realized up until that very moment was that he was willing to let that barrel crush him rather than set it down and sort through its contents.

Saint was at the desk talking to the lady behind it. Rome was pacing back and forth in front of an older couple that I assumed had to be his and Rule’s parents since Shaw had almost no contact with her family; Salem was curled up in a ball on one of the chairs with her head on Rowdy’s shoulder; Nash was leaning against the wall with a baseball hat pulled low over his eyes; and Cora was nowhere to be seen.

I faltered a little bit when all eyes turned to us as we approached. At first I thought they were all wondering why I was there, but quickly realized that they were all wondering why Asa and I had shown up at the exact same time and that they were all probably curious as to why I was still wrapped up in his coat. I shrugged out of it even though it felt like I was handing over a security blanket and cleared my throat.

“Hey.”

Asa echoed the greeting and shook Rome’s hand as the gigantic retired soldier walked over. I squeaked a little when the big man scooped me up in a tight hug that I couldn’t help but return. When he put me back on my feet I just gaped up at him in surprise. He smiled down at me and I couldn’t help but smile back.

“I was going to have Cora ask you to go get him if he didn’t show. I was gonna tell you to use force if necessary.”

Asa made a noise and lifted an eyebrow at his boss. “Where’s Cora? This doesn’t seem like something she would miss.”

We wandered farther into the waiting room and I let out a sigh of relief when Saint made her way over to my side. She linked her arm through mine and gave me a knowing look. I just shook my head and told her, “Later. We can talk about it later.”

She just smiled at me and propped herself up next to Nash, who tilted his head down at me in greeting.

Rome ran his hands over his head and his massive chest expanded as he huffed out a frustrated breath.

“She’s in the bathroom.” Something shifted across his handsome face. “She’s not feeling well at the moment.”

Rome and Cora had recently gotten engaged and they had a daughter who was just starting to walk, which constantly kept them on their toes. She was full of her mother’s fiery personality and her dad’s stubbornness, which meant keeping up with little RJ was a full-time job. They were a rock-solid family unit and it made me have hope for my own future. I wanted to believe that something like what Rome and Cora had could exist without infidelity, without jealousy and drama, in my life at some point. In fact all of these people had relationships I envied and admired. They were all determined to make them work. No matter what the cost. They wanted to be together and they all did whatever it took to make that happen. I really wanted someone to feel that way about me.

Nash pushed the brim of his hat up and his periwinkle-colored eyes shone at me with unbridled amusement.

“Any particular reason you showed up at the exact same time as Asa?” I was pretty sure Saint had told him about my current infatuation, but I wasn’t in the mood to share or be teased, so I just shrugged.

“Good timing, I guess.” Nash was Rule’s best friend, so punching him in the gut to get that cocky grin off of his face wouldn’t be in good form considering the situation.

I let go of Saint’s arm and found a seat that was off to the side. I kicked my feet up on the one across from me and settled in to wait. Having babies took a long time and it wasn’t like I was going to sleep anyway.