Page 74 of Emergency Exit
“Mmm, Ash,” Harper groaned. He shoved her hand back into his hair, and she opened her eyes in surprise.
“You know you want to,” he growled but couldn’t help grinning.
She gave a happy squeak and wiggled underneath him in a way that made him gasp.
“Oh, God, yes,” Harper’syescame out in a half moan as her hand clenched in his hair. He loved the tension from her fingers. Had he known how good it felt, he would have been asking for it long before now.
Harper hitched her legs up higher around his waist and squeezed tighter, which was eye-rollingly good. He pushed a little faster, and that made her make more happy noises. The hand in his hair tightened and pulled harder as she began tobreathe harder. The other hand flailed around and landed on his shoulder as she gasped.
“Ash!” her voice shook. He took that as his positive reinforcement to keep doing what he was doing. Her eyes closed tightly, and her fist clenched tight in his hair. “Do not stop!” she ordered. “I just need…” She broke off with a gasp, her fingernails digging into his shoulder. “Oh God, yes!”
Ash felt like he should have been his line, but he wasn’t sure he could make words as he gave a final thrust and came.
Ash felt both buzzed and sleepy. The hit of dopamine from having sex with Harper was better than drugs. He wrapped his arms around Harper and exhaled in happiness. She was breathing softly into his chest, and he thought maybe they were both asleep, but he didn’t want to investigate his own brain, let alone hers, so he just enjoyed the rhythm of her heart against his and let himself drift.
The chime on his phone went off, and his entire body spasmed in shock, and he hit his head on the headboard.
“My bed hurts less,” he muttered.
“It is a better bed,” said Harper. “But it wouldn’t fit in my room.”
“No, see, we leave this one here, and we just move us to there,” he said.
“That is a better plan,” Harper agreed sleepily.
Ash’s outstretched arm finally found his phone on the minuscule bedside table, and he picked it up. He couldn’t remember why his phone would have a reminder alert for today. However, that was generally the point of the alerts—to remind him that he had previously had a plan. He checked the message and groaned.
“What?” asked Harper, without looking up from his chest.
“I forgot. I told Chloe today was the day for lunch with Olly and my Mom. I really want Mom to have Grandma time, youknow? I don’t know why I have to have the nanny along.”
“I thought she was his girlfriend,” said Harper.
“She is. He says she is. I don’t know. It’s fast. It’s fast, and she’s weird, and I don’t like it. I’ve taken care of Olly plenty of times on my own. This just makes it feel like he doesn’t trust Mom.”
Harper was silent.
“What?” he asked.
“He probably doesn’t,” said Harper at last. “She said she was in recovery. It takes a long time for people to get over that.”
“I got over it,” snapped Ash, and Harper sighed.
“You can’t dictate someone else’s time to forgiveness,” she said quietly. Ash immediately felt like crap and hugged her tighter.
“You’re right,” he said. “I should be glad he’s letting me do it. I just want everything to be like it was.”
“Like it was?” Harper sounded confused again. “Like it was, when?”
“When we were kids.”
“When your mom was alcoholic?”
“No, when we…” Ash trailed off. “When we were happy.”
“If your mom was drinking, then she wasn’t happy. And it kind of sounds like Forest and Rowan weren’t happy.”
Ash tried to think about that. “But I was happy,” he protested. “I guess I just didn’t know what was wrong with Mom. Rowan always said she was sick and made me go to bed.” Ash ran a hand through his hair. “Forest was trying to say that. At Thanksgiving. He was trying to say I got a different childhood because I didn’t know.”
