I opened my eyes.
And saw blood.
“Asher…” My voice sounded funny as blood stained the once freshly painted concrete.
“Holy Ground.” Was all he said as he grabbed me and tossed me over his shoulder, walking through the blood, right past his cousin who seemed to look more amused than sinister.
Wait, were they laughing?
After killing at least a dozen people?
“They didn’t kill anyone,” Asher said, picking up his speed as he walked across campus, with me like a sack of potatoes over his shoulder. “All warning shots, more painful than anything, a few kneecaps blasted, a few arms hit clean through, nothing to be overly upset about.”
“OVERLY UPSET?” I pounded my fists into his back. “What kind of psycho world do you guys come from?”
“Oh, that’s easy.” He set me on my feet and then flicked my chin with his thumb and winked. “The only world that matters—ours.”
I gulped.
“So, what do I get for saving your life?” His full lips were swollen, I backed up just as he opened the door to one of the private dorms on campus, the ones that basically cost a billion dollars just to walk into.
I followed him.
In hindsight, a smarter girl would have run, but I was kind of out of choices at this point I’d already jumped in the minute he picked up my pencil… at least that’s what it felt like.
But more than that, being with him was this heady experience that almost felt like a dream. With trembling legs, I followed him down the hallway.
And then his door was opening.
And I was walking in.
He clicked it shut.
I sucked in a breath when I heard the lock turn.
“Claire,” he said my name like a prayer. “It’s time to collect.”
“I don’t suppose you’d be okay with a high five and homemade cookies?”
His laugh was devastating; it wrapped around me, it pulsed like it was a living breathing thing. His laugh could knock every girl up within a two-mile radius.
I gulped when he turned me in his arms and tilted my chin toward him. “I like cookies…”
“Yeah?” That’s what I had? Yeah?
“Mmm.” He braced my waist, and then his hands lowered until he bunched my short jersey dress up to my bare hips and nude thong. “And I am hungry…”
“Do you have… chocolate chips?” I mentally slapped myself at his amused expression, and then he was tugging my thong all the way down to my sandaled heels.
“Fresh. Out.” He grinned. “But I can guarantee this will taste better…”
“You sure about that?” I wanted him. I’d wanted him since he enrolled two months ago.
“Positive.” He lowered to his knees, was this really happening? With a wicked grin, he pressed a heated kiss to my thigh, gripping my ass with his fingers, and then.
A loud beeping went off.
What the—?
I looked around his room.
And then something was hitting me with a pillow.
Wait what?
I jerked awake hot, bothered, angry, and staring right up into Asher’s blue-eyed gaze, “You were screaming.”
“Was not,” I said a bit breathless.
He grinned down at me. “You often scream during a mid-afternoon nap, Claire?”
“Yes?”
“Ah, I see.” He nodded. “I hope you don’t mind that I let myself in, I heard someone say my name; actually, it was more of a god Asher, more Asher, I need you, Asher.”
I felt my entire face erupt in flames.
I’d been obsessed with him for two months.
Two months.
But he was bad news.
Mafia.
On his way to a nice jail cell.
At least that’s what my mom said.
I’d obviously glorified it more in my head if my dream was anything to go off of. Ugh.
“You sure it wasn’t, go away, Asher?” I tried to appear unaffected.
And then he stood, walked over to my open door, shut it, and crooked his finger at me. “You look… hot.”
“I’m fine,” I said in a clipped tone as I tried to get the sheets away from my ankles.
With one swift movement, my duvet was on the floor along with my sheets, and he was hovering over me, his lips inches from mine. “Say it.”
“Hmm?”
“Say you want me, say you’ve been staring at me for two months, say you’ve been dreaming about me.” He slid his hand up my thigh, just like in my dream. “Say you’re ready for me the way I am for you…”
I gulped as his fingers found my core. I let out a whimper, and then he really was kissing me while playing me like an instrument, in my bed, in my dorm.
“That’s it, princess…” Everywhere he touched, I was hot, burning for him as he deepened the kiss, tasting like the perfect blend of bad boy. “I’m going to taste you like I’ve been dreaming of ever since sitting next to you in class—and I’m going to do it more than once.”
I did what any normal girl would do.
I nodded my head dumbly and said. “Yes… please.”
Chapter Two
Asher
The first thing I noticed about her was her eyes.
They were brown.
Nothing really that unique about them, except, when they were trained on me, they widened like she was trying to drink me in and was upset at her body for failing her—her own eyes—for failing to grasp everything she saw.
I’d dealt with it my entire life.
The Abandonato Curse.
Being perfect on the outside and the devil itself on the inside—it was a problem unless you embraced the monster, then you were like a walking, talking, sociopath. Lucky us.
I nipped her lower lip, then tugged it with my teeth, liking the way she hissed out my name like a curse.
I could get used to her mouth.
I grinned, fisting her shirt in my right hand, ready to rip it from her body and make her scream out like she’d been in her dream.
“Asher, what are you doing?” even as she asked it, she was leaning into me, her eyes dazed, wanting, needing.
“What do you think I’m doing?” I pulled her t-shirt over her head and pressed her back against the mattress, against the cool sheet, her dark hair looked like a waterfall of sin against the white pillow, her swollen lips were parted like she was waiting for more of me. “I’m going to take you.”
“Take me, huh?” Amusement clouded her features. “Exactly where are you going to take me?”
“Heaven.” I leaned down and worshipped her mouth. “Hell.”
“Why both?”
“Why do you think?” I whispered in her ear as I trailed my fingertips down her exposed skin, unhooking her bra, then moving my hands to her jersey shorts. “Because you’re…” She gulped her eyes locked onto mine. “Because.”
“Are you really that petrified to say my name?”
“Maybe.”
“If you can’t embrace all of it…” I teased. “Should you really be tempting it?”
“I’m not tempting,” she said quickly.
With one fluid movement, I had every inch of clothing off of her, dangling over the duvet with a prayer. “I think I’m going to have to disagree.” My vision clouded as I tried to take her in, as I tried to memorize the glisten of her skin, the lust-filled gaze she gave without even realizing it. Everywhere I looked, more skin, the curve of a perfect hip, I breathed out a curse. “Tempting, so tempting.”