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Chapter Twenty-Eight

ASHER

A sher sat at the barstool he had claimed as his own and watched Sunny tend to the busy bar.

Dusty was behind the bar with her, but Asher felt like helping out. But he was more than glad to sit here and glare at anyone who hit on Sunny. Was it the mature thing to do? Probably not. Did he trust Sunny? He trusted her not to cheat on him with any of these assholes.

When she had come back, he didn’t think he would ever be able to trust her again, but she’d been back for over a month. He was pretty much living at her house, which was in much better condition than it had been.

Yeah, they’d come a long way.

The door opened as Nox Whittaker walked in.

He glanced back at Sunny to see her response, but she was busy pouring drinks.

He wasn’t sure why she’d had such a negative response to him.

From what Asher could see, he had always been cool, was always active in the community, and also helped with repairs when the old Grayson place had been damaged by a mudslide.

But he knew Sunny enough to trust her and her intuition, so he wasn’t going to let him out of his sight when Sunny was around.

All the sudden, there was a screech of chairs and a burst of shouting. Asher turned and went to break up whatever was building.

“You think the coal company is ever going to do any good for the people living here? You’re fucking crazy! You’ve heard about the town where they’d been dumping waste, and now the whole town got cancer. Is that what you want here?” one man shouted as he had a hold of the other’s collar.

“Get the fuck off me!” yelled the other guys as he pushed him away. “I’ve been out of work for over a year. The coal company wants to give us jobs.”

“The fuck they do!”

“Hey! Cool it or get the fuck out!” Asher said, stepping in between the men.

The two men just glared at each other.

“I mean it. It ends now.”

They turned away from each other and went about their business.

After he settled a scuffle, he came back to the bar, where Nox and Dusty were talking about something, but his eyes were on Sunny.

What the fuck was she doing? She was at the end of the bar, leaning over to talk to some of the patrons. As she leaned down to talk to him, he knew he would be able to see right down her shirt, and that’s right where he was looking.

Asher saw red as Sunny threw her head back, laughing. Then she rested her hand on the man’s forearm.

Asher stood, his barstool clambering to the floor behind him.

Sunny glanced at him in panic.

Did she forget I was here? She must have.

Asher grabbed the guy by his shirt and started walking him out the door.

“Asher!” Sunny yelled in protest.

But he wasn’t going to let this man touch what was his.

He threw him out the door and turned back to a stunned Sunny.

“What the hell are you doing?” she shouted.

“What’s going on?” Dusty asked.

“That man was bothering her.”

Dusty turned to Sunny. “Was he bothering you?”

“No, he wasn’t.”

“Hmmm... must have been a misunderstanding, then.”

“Can you give us a minute?” Sunny said to Dusty before coming around the bar and pulling Asher into the storeroom. “What the fuck was that about?”

Is she mad at me?

“Why the fuck were you flirting with him?”

She huffed. “Are you serious?”

“Dead fucking serious.” He glared at her.

“Asher, number one, I’m a bartender. I’m going to flirt with people. Number two, I was only flirting with him so I could try and hear what Dusty and Nox were talking about.”

The anger he felt about another man’s hands on his mate was real, but it used to be something he let go.

With his brow still furrowed, he evaluated her. “Sunny, I don’t know how to let other men touch you.”

The anger left her gaze as she gave him a small smile. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. I mean, I never liked it, but I don’t know how to explain it. It just made me so angry... I... You can’t leave me again.”

“Asher,” she said as she raised her hands to hold his face. “I’m not going to leave you. It has always been you. It will always be you.”

She reached up on her toes and kissed him.

“I’m sorry, Sunny.” He slipped his arms around her waist and held her close.

“I get it, but please don’t scare my tips away. I do need to eat.”

He huffed but didn’t loosen his hold. “Do you really think I would ever let you go hungry? Move onto the mountain with me, and I will take care of all your needs,” he said as he slid his hands down, cupping her juicy ass.

“Let’s come back to this,” she said before kissing him and wiggling out of his hold. “I’m still trying to hear what Dusty and Nox were talking about.”

She turned to leave.

Asher took her hand. “Are we good, Sunshine?”

She glanced down at the storeroom floor before flicking her eyes back up to him. “If you’re good, then I’m good.”

And for the rest of the night, Asher sat at the end of the bar, waiting for her to get off, but tried to calm his wolf who wanted to rip apart any man that approached her.

Being part man, part wolf was something Asher was used to. It was something he didn’t even think about because, most of the time, they two existed in unity. It just seemed where Sunny was concerned the man and the monster had different problems.

His wolf was ready to forgive her instantly when she came back. He wanted to claim her and keep her in the woods and fill her with his pups and do nothing but take care of her. He definitely didn’t want any other man touching her.

Ever.

Asher, on the other hand, trusted Sunny to handle herself with the men in the bar because she had proven she was capable. Yet he still struggled with her leaving him again.

As much as he wanted to believe her when she said he was here to stay, a part of him was still terrified she would leave.

If he and the wolf within could get on the same page, maybe he could stop fucking this up.

Later that night, as the bar was winding down, Dusty told Sunny she could get out of there.

Asher waited by the door as Sunny fetched her purse from the back room.

“Ya know, you stay here like that, and I might have to pay you for being a bouncer,” Dusty said with a smirk.

“Yeah, sorry about that. I might get a little territorial when it comes to Sunny.”

“I get it. But for what it’s worth, I like having you here. With the rumbling of the coal company trying to come back to the Hollow, tensions are high.”

Asher let the door close behind him and made his way over to the bar. “Has that been happening a lot?”

“You know how that gets people all riled up. Some people want the jobs. Others don’t want the coal company anywhere near the Hollow.”

Asher nodded.

That was the state of things in Appalachia, where coal companies were either seen as a necessary evil to bring jobs or just plain evil to be kept out at all costs.

Asher agreed with the latter, and he thought most people in the Hollow did, too.

“Are you ready?” asked Sunny as she came around from behind the bar.

“Yeah,” he said, holding a hand out for her.

They made their way back to his truck in silence, his conversation with Dusty still ringing in his ears.

“Are you still mad?”

“What?” Asher asked as he shook his head. “Mad about what?”

“Ummm... about what happened in the bar. Ya know, when you threw that guy out.”

“Oh, yeah, no. But now that you bring it up, what were they talking about?”

Sunny turned in her seat. “Okay, so get this. Do you remember the other night when I was working by myself, and she sent back some of Ol’ Ray’s moonshine for him?”

Asher nodded as he turned into her driveway.

“Well, he was back, asking for more. Apparently, Ray’s phone is disconnected, and he hasn’t been home, and he needs more.”

Asher put the truck in park and looked at her. “More moonshine?” He cocked his head. “What is he doing with it? Stripping paint?”

A little giggle bubbled up in Sunny, and it settled deep in his soul.

“Right? That stuff is awful. That’s weird, right? I mean, yes, I get weird vibes from him but not drunk vibes.”

“Yeah... that’s odd.”

They got out of the truck, and Asher waited for Sunny to come to the porch, but when he looked for her, he found her staring up at the sky. He walked over and slipped in behind her, sliding his arms around her waist to hold her close.

“I just love looking up at the sky. The stars are the brightest here.”

Her hands settled over his as she sighed and snuggled into him. He rested his cheek against the top of her head. “Ya know, I really am sorry about earlier. I trust you, and I understand the job of being a bartender. I’ve done my fair share of shifts at the Corner Tap.”

“What?” she said, attempting to turn in his arms, but he held her tight. “You flirt for tips?”

“Who doesn’t?”

“I wasn’t?—”

“I get that. But I just need you to know I trust you. My wolf gets a little possessive, but I will keep it in check.”

She sighed, and he could feel a shift in her, but he wasn’t sure what it was. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, really,” she said as she turned in his grasp, wrapping her arms around him and resting her head on his chest. “I just wish there was a magical way to fix what I did and make you trust me again.”

He wished there was, too, but things like this didn’t have a quick fix.

“I’m trying. I love you, and right now, that’s enough for me.”

She reached up on her toes to kiss him. “Wanna split a frozen pizza with me?”

They made their way up the stairs, and he held the screen door open as Sunny unlocked the door. “Do you want to put the pizza in while I hop in the shower?”

Before he knew it, they were curled up on the couch, Sunny’s wet hair down and drying, while they ate a pizza and watched reruns on her dad’s crappy TV. It might not have been much, but it was damn near perfect.

As the credits ran and the pizza sat discarded on the coffee table, Asher stood and held a hand to Sunny. “Are you ready for bed?”

Her mouth cracked open in a yawn, and she nodded and reached out her hand, allowing herself to be pulled up off the couch.

They climbed the stairs in comfortable silence.

Asher undid his jeans and took off his shirt before getting into bed in his boxers. “Ya know, Sunshine,” he said as she tried to get comfortable. “You really do need a new mattress.”

But when he looked at her, he saw sleeping was the furthest thing from her mind.

He sat up on the bed, but she put a hand on his chest to keep him from getting up. Lacing his fingers behind his head, he watched as Sunny took off her clothes.

Then she got on the bed and crawled over to him.

“Sunny.” He reached for her, but she reared back.

Running one hand down his chest, she grazed his boxers and lowered the waistband. When he shifted his weight, she slipped them all the way off. Then she wrapped her hand around his dick and started licking it.

“Fuck,” he groaned as he cupped her head.

She took him into his mouth, bobbed her head a few times, then sat up. Leaning forward to kiss him, she moved to straddle him. Reaching between her legs, she lined his cock up with her core and sank down.

“Fuuuuck,” he groaned as his hands found her hips.

He was more than happy to let her take the lead.

She sat up and began to rise and fall. The sight of Sunny, her long blonde hair still damp from her shower, her luscious curves taking him in and her tits bouncing as she rode his dick, was something he would never tire of.

Yeah, she could definitely take the lead.

Before long, her bounces shifted into a rocking motion, and his balls tightened, and the release was building deep within. But he needed Sunny to come first.

Bringing one hand from her hip, he slipped it up and squeezed her nipple while the other hand found her clit rubbing a small, fast circle.

“Oh, fuck, Asher,” she moaned as her rhythm started to falter.

“That’s right, Sunshine. Give it to me.”

She fell forward, putting both hands on his chest as he took over, bucking into her as his thumb worked her clit.

When she broke with a sob, Asher groaned and followed her right over the edge.

“I fucking love you,” he said as she fell to his side.

And with that, they both held tight to each other as sleep took them.