The Space Between Us(33)
“Hold on, Bit.” He pulled up and jumped off the bed. I watched as he started digging through a box near the door, pulling out a box of tissues. He came back to me and used a tissue to clean me up, a gesture that I found heart shattering and intensely intimate. He threw the tissue in the trash can and then laid back down next to me. I curled into his side, resting my head on his chest and throwing my leg over his. I felt him begin to run his fingers through my impossibly long hair. The tingles rushing down my spine from the sensations of him not only touching my hair, but my hair brushing against my naked skin as it fell from his hand. “This is what our life will be like now, Bit. We have complete freedom.” I looked up at him and saw a wide smile on his face. “We can be together whenever we want. No more sneaking around, or sex in the backseat of a car, trying to hurry before you hit curfew,” he said with a laugh.
“Hey, some of our best times have been hurried and in the backseat,” I said, pretending to be offended. He kissed my forehead.
“I know. But I'm excited to just be with you. Whenever I want. And I'm not just talking about sex. We can sleep in the same bed. We can walk to school together. We can shower together if we want. We can just be.” My heart warmed with his words. I had been thinking the same things all summer. We had been together for so many years already, but now we were starting a new reality. Everything would be different. Better.
“It's going to be great,” I whispered. Just then we both heard Reeve calling our names from somewhere in the hallway. I laughed. “But Reeve will always be around to interrupt, so that's not changing.” I heard him groan in annoyance, but he got up anyway and started putting his clothes back on. She knocked on the door just as I was putting my shirt on and pulling my hair free from the neck of it.
.
Chapter Two
We had survived our first few weeks at college and Homecoming was this weekend. Reeve and I got ready for the big football game in our room. The actual football game wasn't the big attraction, our team actually sucked. It was a big game because the Greek system held a parade during halftime and the student body voted on the best float. Delta Phi Beta, the sorority Reeve and I both ended up rushing, won the last five years in a row so the pressure was on to deliver again this year. Reeve, myself, and all the other freshman pledges worked countless hours on the float and I was confident that we had it in the bag.
So far I wasn't finding it difficult to balance classes, Reeve, new friends, the sorority, and time with Asher. Although, if you asked him, he would complain that we didn't see each other enough. I loved that he wanted to see me as much as possible, but sometimes it just didn’t work. I was, however, sad that I hadn't been back home to visit my dad yet. When I called and spoke to him, I always told him I would come home soon, and he always told me not to rush and that he was doing fine. He told me during one of our talks that he went out to coffee with a woman he'd met on some online dating site. I cheerily said, “That's great!” and then changed the topic so quickly I almost gave myself whiplash. I knew it was good for Dad to date, but I guess I wasn't ready to hear him talk about it. I knew he wanted me to make him feel like it was ok, but it just wasn't something I could do in the moment and I felt bad about that.
A knock on the door drew me out of my thoughts. I pulled the door open and smiled as Asher stood on the other side. He looked amazing with his dark jeans and black tee shirt that hugged his chest and biceps in just the right way. I loved it when he wore black. It added to the darkness of his eyes and hair.
“Hi,” I said as I kissed him quickly on the cheek. When I pulled away, he grabbed my arm and hauled me back to him, my hair swinging around behind me. One of his hands ended up around my waist and the other hand gently came up to the side of my face. The smile on his face melted me a little, and the intense way he looked in my eyes made my belly flip in way I had grown use to when it came to him.
“I need more than a simple kiss on the cheek,” he said and brought his lips to mine. The kiss started out simple and innocent, but the longer his lips moved against mine, the longer his tongue teased mine, the deeper and more intense the kiss became. His hand left my waist and I felt him grip my hair at the base of my neck and slide it to the end near the curve at the small of my back. A slight moan escaped me and I felt him smile against me.
“Guys, seriously, we don't have time for this.” As quickly as his smile spread across his face, it left. I felt his irritation grow. He put his forehead against mine and he exhaled loudly.
“Do you always have to ruin everything?” He asked of her. I pulled back and gave him an annoyed look. Reeve definitely had a tendency to interrupt us, but she didn't do it on purpose and in this instance she had a point.
“Hey,” I said a little more angrily than I had anticipated. “Don’t talk to her like that. This is her room too and she has every right to be here.” He rolled his eyes and dropped his hands to his sides.
“Sorry, Reeve. That was rude of me.” Reeve eyed him suspiciously.
“You've been touchy lately, Asher.” Her eyes moved back over to me. “You would think he wasn't getting any.” Then she laughed. She called over her shoulder as she left the room, “I'll see you at the house, Charlie. Maybe you guys should finish what you started.” I heard her laughing all the way down the hallway and into the stairwell.