Page 66 of Because You Loved Me

“Can we go?” She managed to get the words out. “Back to the cabin, Asher? Can we go?”

His handsome face transformed as she watched the worry and stress be replaced with a broad smile.

Asher stood and reached for her hand. “Absolutely.”

ChapterSixteen

They drove backto the cabin in silence. Noa stared out the window, obviously lost in thought, and Asher was consumed by his own thoughts. None of which he seemed to be able to untangle into anything coherent. And definitely nothing he could put into words.

After he’d left the lounge, and Ryan, Asher had spent the rest of his time waiting for Noa walking around the grounds of the hotel. He’d followed the pathway through the trees that led to stunning viewpoints over the valley; he’d ventured close to the base of the ski hill and watched the happy families and couples as they made their way down the slopes, laughing and having fun.

Everywhere he went, Asher saw happiness and laughter and people together, enjoying themselves. It was Christmas; that was to be expected. But he’d never really stopped to notice it before. Not in a real way. Not beyond the fact that he wanted all his guests at the lodge and the ski hill—and in the summer, at the golf course—to be happy customers.

It wasn’t until today as he waited for Noa and observed all of those around him that Asher had ever stopped to consider his own happiness and what it might take for it to be him participating in that kind of joy instead of just facilitating it.

The problem was, he was afraid that he might already know the answer to that question and that it might end up slipping away from him before he had a chance to figure it out.

When they were about halfway back to the cabin, he reached across the space between them and took Noa’s hand in his. He didn’t say a word. It was enough to have the touch of her while they drove.

It was silly and maybe it didn’t make any sense—because Noa had never beenhisand she didn’t owe him anything—but the longer they drove, the more Asher felt like she was slipping away from him.

Something had changed.

Was it the conversation he had with Ryan? Or something her family had said?

Or both?

She fell asleep as the sun went down. Still, Asher held her hand in his until he pulled the truck up in front of the cabin that he’d already come to think of as theirs.

He moved around to the passenger door and lifted her carefully from the seat. He held her close against his body, and she snuggled up against his chest, still half asleep.

Asher moved slowly and carefully over the icy path and up the steps into the cabin. He slipped her boots off and took her back into the bedroom, where he laid her gently on the mattress.

Noa’s arms locked around his neck. “Don’t go.”

“You’re exhausted.” He kissed her chastely on the forehead and tried to untangle her from him, but she pulled him down to the bed.

“I don’t want you to go.”

He couldn’t argue with that. Especially because there was nothing he wanted more than to lie next to her.

Asher shucked his own boots and coat and slipped into the bed next to her. He pulled the quilt up over them both, and she snuggled into his chest.

Her hair was soft under his touch. He stroked it rhythmically, moving down her shoulder to the fuzzy sweater she still had on. His body reacted instantly to the touch of her against his body, the same way it had from the first time he’d met her.

Soon, Noa’s hand slid down his chest and rested on his dick, still trapped in the confines of his jeans. She lifted her head and her mouth found his in a slow, sensuous kiss.

It wasn’t hurried, but there was an intensity to it that had never been there before. They hardly disconnected from each other as somehow they managed to strip each other of their clothes and they were finally naked together.

Asher rolled them over, so Noa was on her back and looking up at him.

Her eyes were full of emotion, but he didn’t need to ask what she was feeling, because he was feeling it too. Something had changed between them. Something neither of them could say, or were willing to say. Not out loud.

He sighed against her mouth as he once more began to kiss her. She wrapped her arms around his back and pulled him down to her.

They came together, eyes wide open, emotion neither was willing to voice on the tips of their tongues. And when they were finished, they fell into a deep, almost immediate sleep, still tangled up together.

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