Page 22 of Blossoming Dahlia

Chapter thirteen

Dahlia

Icould hear the blood dripping onto the floor… smell the iron tang in the air… where was it coming from? I couldn’t move, I could only look around in terror, desperate to find the source of all the blood. I was on a bed, the bed from the basement. I could see white Dahlias in a vase on the nightstand, speckled red with someone’s blood. Was it me? Had he left me to die, to bleed out on this bed? I struggled desperately, trying to force my limbs to move. I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out. Movement caught my eye as Asher walked in, his hands red, coated with blood. There was a knife in his hand, dripping with blood, and I tried to scream, to move, anything. “It’s okay, he’s gone now,” Asher whispered, dropping the knife on the floor. His hands moved to my waist, pushing up my shirt as he knelt over me on the bed. His hands left smears of blood on my body, but I didn’t care, because his face dropped to my breasts, capturing my nipple in his mouth. My core pulsed with need as he sucked and licked, teasing my nipple into a hardpoint. “Asher...” I moaned, his hand drifting lower, dipping down between my thighs. “Please, I need you, please,” I begged, as his fingers slid inside of me.

My eyes snapped open, a moan on my lips, my brain a mix of confusion and white hot desire. A face floated up in front of me, a mess of silky black hair and bright blue eyes. I reacted instinctively, my arms finally obeying my commands. I grabbed fistfuls of his shirt and yanked, pulling him off balance and dragging him down beside me. In a heartbeat I was up and pinning him down, my hand going for his throat. He went down easily, almost too easy, and I blinked, trying to figure out where I was. “Dahlia, you’re okay.” Asher’s voice cut through the fog in my brain. I looked back down, and he was staring up at me, his lips moving. I checked his hands, but they weren’t red anymore, there was no blood, this wasn’t a dream anymore.

Then why is there still a throbbing ache between my legs?

I clenched my thighs, trying to ease the pressure and forgetting I was on top of Asher. His hips moved beneath me, and I inhaled sharply, feeling him pressed against my core. “I should, uh...” Asher sat up, trying to move out from under me. My hand shifted off his neck, down to his chest, pushing against him until he fell back down on the bed. “I’m sorry, you woke me up making some… weird noises,” he mumbled, staring over my shoulder at the ceiling. “I just came over to make sure you were okay, you said my name, I wasn’t sure if you were awake or not.” My hand stayed on his chest, feeling his heartbeat speed up through his shirt.

“I was dreaming,” I murmured. “You killed him. You killed him and there was blood everywhere.” His face pinched in concern, his gaze returning to my face. I clenched my thighs, and he hissed out a breath, shifting underneath me, and the friction only served to fan the flames of heat licking at my core. “Thenyou put your hands on me,” I murmured, and mimicking the moments, my hand sliding up his waist. “And your mouth...” I looked back into his eyes, and he was staring at me with a fiery intensity that made my breath catch.

“Dahlia...” he whispered, and the way he said my name had shivers traveling down my spine. He looked pained, like I was torturing him with this information. I knew I should stop, I knew what I was doing to him right now was wrong and inappropriate on so many levels. But I wanted so badly to feel his hands on me for real, for him to fill me up and make me feel good. I let out a small whimper, my hips moving, grinding against him. His eyes shuttered closed, and his hands appeared, gripping my thighs. “You can’t move like that, it’s... uh...” His brain seemed to be failing him, but he seemed distressed, so I slipped off of him, backing up until I reached the headboard.

“Sorry, the dream just has me a little fuzzy,” I murmured, “I’m okay, go back to sleep,” I told him gently as he sat up, watching me closely. The longer he stared at me, the more embarrassed I felt, and I wished he would just walk away and forget about this.

“Dahlia...” Just my name again, his voice low and husky, and I couldn’t bear it, not when I could hear the rejection behind it. I felt like such an idiot, of course Amanda had been wrong. Asher was just doing his job, he was nice and kind because he needed to be. I felt a tear slip out and brushed it away angrily, curling my arms over my chest.

“I’m fine Asher, just go,” I urged him, wincing at the sharpness in my tone. He nodded quietly and got up, retreating back to the couch. I buried myself under the covers, hating myself and my stupidity, more tears running down my cheeks. I fell back into a mercifully dreamless sleep with tears still drying on my face.

I woke to the smell of coffee, my eyes feeling swollen and hot from the crying I’d done. Shame settled in my gut, making me nauseous. I sat up, glancing over at the couch, but Asher wasn’t there. I grabbed the hoodie I’d left on the nightstand and pulled it on, hating how it smelled like him. This whole place smelled like him, I literally couldn’t escape it. Throwing off the covers, I tiptoed across the cold hardwood and found him sitting with a mug of coffee at the table, which was hidden by the island counter that separated the kitchen from the bedroom area.

“Good morning.” He smiled warmly. “Would you like some coffee?” I nodded mutely, walking past him before he could get up and stopping in front of the coffee maker. There was already a mug set out for me, so I grabbed it and filled it up. Setting it back down for a moment, I hopped up to sit on the counter, trying to put as much space between us as possible. Asher noticed this since it wasn’t exactly subtle, and his brow creased in a frown.

“How are you feeling this morning?” he asked cautiously, and I shrugged, taking a sip of coffee and burning my tongue in my haste.

“Okay,” I replied quietly, looking at the laptop set up on his table, sitting haphazardly on top of the papers that littered it. “Have you heard from Hunter yet?” I asked, changing the subject.

His lips thinned, and he shook his head grimly. “No, I haven’t. I sent a message to my unit supervisor to see if they knew anything. They can ping his phone and see where he is at least,” he told me, and a chill went through my body, making me shiver. “We should probably stay here until I hear back from someone, just in case.” I nodded dully, watching as he downed the last of his own coffee. I wondered how long he’d been awake, had he even gone back to sleep after I’d attacked him last night? I studied the worn tiles on the kitchen floor as he stood and walked over, pouring himself another cup.

“You never finished telling me about your dream last night,” he announced, and heat rushed to my cheeks.

“It doesn’t matter, it was just a stupid dream,” I mumbled, taking another sip of coffee despite the fact that it was still uncomfortably hot.

“I can be the judge of that,” Asher replied evenly, leaning with his hip on the counter, our legs almost touching.

I huffed, apparently he was dead set on forcing me to relive this humiliating moment. “It’s like I said, there was blood everywhere. I could hear it dripping onto the floor, but I couldn’t move to see where it was coming from. Then you came in with a knife, and you were covered in blood. You said you’d killed him,” I explained, running my finger along a small crack in the countertop. I wasn’t able to meet his eyes, which was pretty difficult considering he was now looming over me.

“And then what happened?” he prompted, and I gritted my teeth.

Fine, he wants to play this game, does he?I set down my coffee and brought my gaze up to meet his, shifting to lean into his space.Let’s make this really uncomfortable, shall we?

“Then you put your hands on me, wiping blood all over my body,” I told him softly. “You put your mouth on my breasts and played with my nipples, and then you put your fingers insideof me until I was moaning your name.” Asher’s face remained impassive, but I saw the muscle in his jaw clench, and his eyes were a storm of emotions that I couldn’t quite get a read on.

“That doesn’t sound like a stupid dream at all,” he replied, and I noted the slight strain in his voice. The silence that followed was agonizing, and I tried to think of something, anything, to fill the quiet.

“It’s not the first one I’ve had about you,” I announced, choosing to double down on the stupidity, apparently. His eyebrows rose, and I felt him shift toward me, his leg brushing against my knee. I let my legs fall open, never breaking eye contact with him. “I had one earlier this week, too. You were kissing me, all down my body.” I pointed with my finger, and his eyes followed it as I trailed it down my chest and my stomach, stopping when I reached the space currently throbbing with need. “Then you buried your face between my thighs.” I felt my cheeks growing warm under his intense stare, and to my complete surprise he moved, drifting into the space in front of me, until we were almost touching, my thighs encircling his hips.

“You never mentioned that,” he replied hoarsely, and I shook my head, tilting my chin up to meet his eyes.

“I didn’t think it would be appropriate,” I murmured. He was so close I barely had to whisper and he could hear me, my nose nearly brushing his as I spoke.

“You’re probably right,” he told me, his gaze sliding to my lips, and I licked them nervously. My heart was pounding so hard I swore he could hear it echoing through the room. All it would take was one of us moving just a fraction of an inch and our lips would touch. I couldn’t take it any longer.

I lifted my chin, bridging that last remaining bit of space between us and pressing my lips softly against his. For a horrifying moment he was frozen against me, and then it was as if a wall came down, and he was suddenly kissing me back.I brought my hands up, wrapping my arms around his neck to pull him closer to me, needing more. I ran my tongue across his lips, begging for entrance, and he granted it, letting me deepen the kiss as I gripped onto him so tightly I was afraid I might hurt him. He groaned into my mouth, his tongue finding mine as his hands tangled through my hair. My thighs slid further apart, drawing him in closer until he was pressing flush against me.

When Asher finally pulled away from me, we were both breathless and panting. Pressing his forehead against mine, we just held each other for a moment, neither of us willing to let go of the other just yet. “Fuck...” he murmured, and I couldn’t agree more.

---