That Day, Karen Deen [early readers .txt] 📗

“Scott, is it?” I put my hand out. “Kurt Dolan, Asha’s boyfriend.” Asha gasps, and Scott’s eyes widen as he puts his hand out, reluctantly shaking mine.

“Scott Roger,” is all he replies.

“Nice to meet you, Scott. Maybe next time you can wait for an acceptable time of day to call on Asha. It’s a little early, don’t you think?”

His body language tells me he’s pissed off at me, but I don’t give a fuck. “Early bird catches the worm, they say.” Oh, good one, dickhead, but I’m not biting.

Before I can reply, Asha starts rambling, as she usually does when she’s nervous, which makes me more annoyed.

“It’s okay, Kurt. Scott is with my publisher, they need things quickly. I said he could call anytime. I guess I didn’t think it would be this time, but he didn’t know I’d already signed papers yesterday and sent them back. I should’ve told him, then he wouldn’t have had to come and check on me all the time. I’m fine, Scott, on my own. I mean, I’m fine with the papers, yes, important papers. So, I will talk to you later. Tell Davina I’ll call her this morning. She’ll worry otherwise. But I’m fine.” Finally stopping to take a gasp of air, she looks between both of us to see what the reaction to her talking is. Scott and I haven’t taken our eyes off each other the whole time.

“No worries. I’ll tell Davina.” He slowly turns and walks away, but I can feel the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. Something isn’t sitting right with me.

Asha shuts the door, still looking rattled, and starts towards the kitchen, when I grab her around the waist. Pulling her to me, I wrap her in my arms.

“You okay?” I ask, leaning down and kissing her on the top of the head.

“Um, yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” she replies quietly, pulling back a little.

“Why was he here so early?”

“I don’t know, I’ll talk to Davina about it.” Pulling herself completely out of my arms now, her hands go to her hips. “And can we talk about the ‘boyfriend’ title back there? Not quite what we discussed.”

I’m not sure if she’s joking or serious with her question.

“Well, the discussion was in the heat of seduction, so not sure that is a valid guide, but let me recap. Some big burly guy turns up at six am on the doorstep of the woman I’m lying naked in bed with after a night of some pretty awesome sex. A night where we talked about being exclusive to each other. You’re damn straight I’m going to lay fucking claim to my woman. I don’t care what you want to call us, but to me, that makes me your boyfriend. So now he knows to back off and treat you with respect, otherwise he answers to me.”

My heart is racing a bit because I know I just said way more than she was expecting, and to be honest, I wasn’t planning on it for me either. I don’t even know what the hell I’m doing. My head knows all the reasons I should have backed away from Asha. Even more so since the moment I laid eyes on Scott. But my heart’s just not listening. I meant what I said to her last night. I’m trapped in her spell, the one she doesn’t even realize she casts. It’s like this aura that just attracts me to her bubble, and I don’t want to leave.

I prepare myself for a barrage of words as Asha lets loose with a lecture about me overstepping the mark and going all jealous alpha on her.

Instead, I get a reaction I wasn’t expecting at all.

Asha bursts out laughing. Laughing so hard she bends over holding her sides. I watch her, a little confused. “Uh, Asha, what’s so funny?”

“You—sorry. Give me a minute,” she gasps, trying to rein in her laughter.

“I’m glad I’m such a source of entertainment.”

Slowly she steps to me again, her hands softly landing on my chest. “The look of fire in your eyes. God, I love growly Kurt. It’s so hot watching you go all caveman over me. I mean, no one has ever done that before.”

I feel a sense of relief and sadness at the same time, that she has never had a man in her life like she deserves. “Well, get used to it. You bring out the ‘growly’ in me, as you like to call it.” I lift her up and sit her on the counter behind her.

“So, let’s get this clear,” I say, looking down at her. “You’re my girlfriend. The person I want to spend time with, get to know every little thing about you. Take you to meet my friends and family. Cook meals with, have hot dirty sex or slow passionate sex with. Kiss whenever you’re near me and take long slow walks on the beach with Coco, if she can manage to behave, and perhaps even a little swim from time to time. How does that sound?”

“Perfect, except…” She smiles.

“Except what? I’m too controlling or it’s too soon?” She probably feels like we’ve gone from zero to one hundred in days.

“Nope. The swim part—oh, and you’re kidding yourself if you think Coco will behave or can walk slowly.” We both start laughing again as Coco comes and starts nudging me in the back of my legs after hearing her name.

“True. But I’m glad they’re the only objections… which means everything else is on the table.” I kiss her on one cheek, then the other.

“Yeah, especially the hot dirty sex bit.” I can see the slightest blush creeping up her cheeks that I have just kissed.

“I’m starting to think you’ve been hiding a little vixen behind your sweet little façade, Miss Elders.”

“Only with you,” she says in her soft whisper I love so much.

“Music to my ears.” I start to kiss her neck now with a little