Page 9

“Did you delete it?” He snuggled against me again, chest to chest, his skin warm from sleep.
“No,” I replied, rubbing my hand down the bumps of his spine. “I changed our questionnaire answers to what they should have been from the beginning.”
He lifted up onto an elbow, his face in shadows. “Rhett…”
“It’s okay, baby.” I cradled his face in my hands, my thumb caressing over his lower lip. “I know you want a mother for your children, not a faceless or dispassionate egg donor.”
“But—”
“There’s no buts, Ash.” I pulled him down so our foreheads rested together. In my rare moments of vulnerability, I adored him so fucking much it made my chest ache—and I appreciated how he never invalidated whatever emotions I allowed to leak through in our quiet times together.
“Fuck, do I love you.” He pressed a kiss to my mouth, and I groaned at the first swipe of his tongue along mine. Nothing compared to a happy Ash invested in physically showing his love.
Fucking nothing.
Heart rate kicking up, I rolled to my back beneath him, spreading my legs to make room for his hips. The heat, the intense need that had flared to unquenchable life between us in high school rose to full force, easing my mind and stilling my concerns.
Electrical currents ran over my skin, settling into my balls same as it always did whenever our mouths met.
“Rhett…” Ash groaned and kissed down my neck toward my chest. Knowing where he headed pulsed need through my aching length. “Let me take care of you—make you feel good,” he whispered over my constricting lower abs and flicked his tongue over my skin. “Want to taste your delicious dick.”
My cock bucked against his chin, anxious for the wet heat of his mouth. “Fuck yes.”
A cell rang from my bedside table, halting Ash’s hungry mouth hovering over my cock.
One a.m., our alarm clock read.
Brow furrowed, I reached for my phone and glanced at the screen. “It’s my father.”
And at such an hour with them being on the East Coast and our never catching up just for the hell of it, the reason for his call couldn’t be good.
All thoughts of sex slipped from my mind as Ash rolled off me. I swiped to answer, my stomach clenched tight, my dick deflated.
“Dad?”
“Your mom had a stroke.” His voice didn’t waver. He showed zero emotion as always.
Considering the lack of attachment I felt for either of my parents, the sense of…wrong that pushed me upright in bed baffled me.
“They’re taking her to the hospital,” Dad stated in a nonchalant way, his usual since the man couldn’t be moved.
“What happened?” I asked as Ash shuffled close and wound his arm across my lower back in his usual touchy-feely way of showing support.
He must have been able to make out Dad’s words.
Mom had gotten up to use the bathroom and collapsed. Dad hadn’t been able to rouse her and had called 911.
I found myself on my feet, striding across the bedroom, a plan settling into place in my head. Steps to focus on and follow.
“I’ll catch the first available flight,” I told him, and Ash flicked on the lamp beside him.
I blinked in the harsh glare, the brightness bringing clarity that things might go poorly for Mom. We’d never been close, so the unrest, the bothersome feelings wanting to wash over me furrowed my brow. I pushed them down exactly as my parents had taught me.
“There’s no need—”
“I’m coming,” I stated a bit harshly as reserved coolness slid into place, locking my emotions up tight from years of conditioning.
Dad told me which hospital they were taking Mom to, and I hung up seconds later, my mind as set as my jaw.