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MAKING HOME

ASHER

A fter a road trip to Atlanta and a flight, we were finally here. Diya’s home.

New York City.

It was busier, louder, and nothing like Hollow Heights. I loved it.

We booked a room near the airport, took a shower, and changed.

“Trina called. She’s waiting for us,” Layne said as we walked out of the hotel.

After a taxi ride, we walked into an empty restaurant, and a woman, who looked like Layne, greeted us. Trina.

“Asher. I already feel like I know you,” she said, looking at me with a smile, and giving me her hand. “We planned to kill you once. So…”

Smiling, she led us to a table.

“We’re not usually open for lunch,” Trina said, motioning us to the chairs.

“Where’s your sous chef?” Diya asked with a wink, and Trina’s face soured.

“Hopefully on the butcher’s block.” She blinked before she walked away. After a few minutes, she came out with atray filled with bowls of soup.

My stomach let out a loud growl when she pushed a creamy bowl of mushroom soup toward me.

“Dee said you were dying to taste something good. Everything I make is extraordinary.”

“I told you, didn’t I?” Layne said with a cheeky grin. “She’s humble, our sister.”

“I mean, she has every right to be proud. This is so good,” I said, taking a spoonful of soup.

“A man who knows how to give a compliment… I was planning to give you a hard time for trying to kill Dee. Not anymore.”

I sighed. “I regret that. It wasn’t my finest moment.”

“I don’t,” Diya said with a wink. “My life was boring before you walked into my cottage in a mask, threatening me with a…” Diya’s eyes gleamed as she licked her lips.

“Here they go. Again. Horny bitches,” Layne said with a chuckle.

When the bowls were empty, Trina came back with four plates, balancing them precariously on her hands.

“Grilled salmon with stir-fried veggies and rice,” she said, handing us the plates.

I groaned when I took a bite of the salmon. It melted in my mouth. God, I had been starving for something like this.

“This is delicious.”

We had caramel cheesecake for dessert, and I had never been so full.

“Thank you. I hadalmost forgotten howmuch I love food. I survived on sandwiches,” I said, and Trina gave me a grin.

“You’re welcome. Now that you’re here, I’ll feed you good food,” Trina said.

Looking at these three women now… I knew life wouldn’t be boring with them.

After a while, Diya helped Trina clear the table. When they were done, Diya and I walked out, saying goodbye. Layne stayed.

“Hey, Ash?”

“Yes?”

“Let’s go home and baptize the mattress, yes?”

I laughed as she caught my face and kissed me. Soft. Slow.

I sighed when she pulled back.

“Oh, yes, please.”

We took the elevator to the seventh floor of a high-rise building and stopped in front of an apartment.

“Close your eyes,” she said. She took my hand in hers and guided me inside the apartment. “Now. You can look now.” She sounded excited.

I opened my eyes, and my breath caught.

There was a gold banner that said, “ Welcome home, Pussycat. ” Streamers floated in the air, and there was a picture of me and Diya in her cottage, drinking coffee, my eyes fixated on her. I had no idea when that picture was taken—Layne must have taken it. It was beautiful.

“Diya?”

“You wanted a home. This is it.” Her voice was soft. “You don’t have to run anymore, Ash. You can breathe now. Relax.”

Her words settled into my bones, into the cracks that were always there, waiting to be healed.

“This is all I have ever wanted.”

How did you thank someone for giving you everything you never even knew you were searching for?

“I wanted it too. I just didn’t know it before you, Asher. You made me trust again, and that is… everything.”

“I don’t know how to thank you for this, Diya, for trusting me with your life, in your home,” I murmured, my voice barely more than a breath.

She smiled, slow, knowing. “You know how to thank me, Pussycat. On your knees, between my thighs. Does any of that sound familiar?”

She grabbed my hand, her fingers threading through mine, pulling me toward the bedroom, her laughter following us.

The door clicked shut, and then—God—she was on me. Pressing me against the wall, her body demanding against mine, her lips crashing into me with a hunger that made my head spin.

It was like drinking after years of thirst, like breathing after drowning, like being found after an eternity of being lost.

She was everything I wanted, I needed.

I melted into her, hands grasping at her waist, at her back, at anything I could reach.

I needed her close, needed to feel that this was real. That she was real, and I hadn’t made it all up in my head.

Oh, this was not a dream. This was real. She was real.

I loved this woman. Sometimes it was too much, and other times, it still wasn’t enough.

She pulled back to catch her breath, her forehead resting against mine, fingers tracing the line of my jaw.

“I’m so happy. I have never been this happy in my life, Asher, and… I’m not afraid to be happy.”

With a kiss on her chin, I pulled her to me, my hands tightening around her.

“God, I love you,” she whispered when I kissed her eyes, her nose, her lips.

This was my heaven and hell, and I would pay penance for an eternity. To stay right here. Just like this.

“I know, but I love you more. You know that,” I whispered as we moved toward the bed. She fell to the bed, pulling me down next to her.

Her body flowed with mine as she looked at me with burning brown eyes.

“I know. I KNOW.”