Page 61 of The Blue Rose
Aster grabs my hand, placing each finger into his mouth, cleaning off the rest, and I stare at him dumbfounded, lips slightly parted. His lips quirk as he leans in and licks the corner of my mouth before kissing me.
Did he really just do that? Do I like that? How am I turned on and not grossed out?
“There, all clean,” He says and kisses my lips.
“Thank you,” is all I say, still staring at him like he has three heads, adjusting in my seat to ease some pressure down below.This man continues to surprise me and keep me on my toes.
Aster’s phone dings, and he grabs it quickly, his whole body freezing. My heart stalls in my chest. He actually looks scared.
“Aster?” I ask quietly, trying to find out what has him so shocked. “What’s wrong?”
He doesn’t say anything, silently flipping the phone in my direction, and I see a police car, driving up his road. My whole body tenses up, a thousand thoughts racing through my mind.
What are police doing on his road, and why is he reacting like that?
I grab the phone and place it down, holding his hands in mine. “It’s probably nothing,” I say, not believing the words coming out of my mouth. If my intuition is right, and it usually is, I have a bad feeling.
Three loud knocks shake the front door, and both our heads turn to look, neither of us moving. Another loud knock, more impatient this time, accompanied by a stern voice saying, “This is the police, open up.”
Aster is frozen in place, I try to get him to move to go to the door, but he won’t budge. So I do what any good girlfriend would and release his hands, walking to the door myself.
I open the door and see two cops standing there, one I don’t recognize and the other is the cop who first questioned me after my accident. The one who kept thinking he knew Aster from somewhere.
Shit.
TWENTY-ONE
ASTER
My hands are shaking. Sweaty. My breaths shallow and way too fast.Why are the cops here?My vision goes black around the edges.They can’t know I’m the Morbid Monet, I’m always so careful.That’s right. They’re not here to take me. I hear Serena talking to the cops at the door. They’re trying to come in, but they aren’t allowed in without permission.I don’t want them snooping around my property.
I wipe my hands on my sweats and walk to the front door. Bracing my hand above Serena's head on the doorway, I look down at the two cops, recognizing one of them from Serena's house. My jaw tenses when our eyes connect.
“Gentleman, what can we do for you?”
Serena tucks herself into my chest and I wrap my free arm around her. She looks up at me with a small reassuring smile and squeezes my arm.
“Are you Aster Graves?” I nod my head, fingers digging into Serena's stomach from the nerves swirling around in mine.How do they know my name? Is this about my parents? Was I too careless about breaking my rules?“We would just like to ask you a couple questions about a missing person, Tyler Blackwell,” the one with the sheriff badge says. He holds up a photo of theguy I killed for trying to kiss my girl when she clearly wasn’t interested.
We both look at the photo, neither of us giving anything away, but I know they have to havesomethingto show up at my door, so I don’t lie, instead opting for a half truth.
“He went on a date with my girl, got handsy, I told him to back off, and that was the last either of us saw him.” Serena’s grip on my arm tightens, but she gives nothing away.
“Mind if we come in and get the details of that night?” the sheriff asks.
The younger cop, who thought he recognized me, is staring at Serena wrapped in a blanket. Only a blanket. I pull her behind me and level my glare on him. He clears his throat and looks away. The sheriff looks between us, then levels his own glare on his deputy.
“Give me and my woman a minute to get dressed, as you can see, you interrupted us.”
The sheriff bows his head and apologies, and the deputy's face turns bright red as he turns around and looks off into the distance, embarrassed he was caught ogling my woman.If he wasn’t a deputy I’d lay his ass on my table and enjoy the screams I would rip from his throat.But they’re here, and they know who I am, kind of, so unfortunately can’t kill Mr. Looky Look.
I shut the door, taking Serena's sweaty hand in mine, rubbing my thumb across her wrist. She’s nervous, though she shouldn’t be, I know exactly how to get them off of our trail and leave us alone. “Aster, what are we going to do?” she says, taking her hand from mine, fidgeting with them, and looking everywhere but at me.
I grab her twisting fingers, stopping her fidgeting and place my hand under her chin to look up at me. “Everything will befine, my little vixen, you just tell them about your date, and I’ll tell them how it ended.”
She looks up at me, eyes wide, with her mouth parted in an “o” shape. “You crushed his hand, and I stood there and watched, are we really going to tell them that?”
I pull her into me and rub her back, as I rest my chin on top of her head.
