Pulling my hips back slightly, I move her body so that her legs are hanging out the side of the Jeep. I push them lightly apart and step in between her thighs. She immediately wraps her long legs around my hips and all but crawls inside my body. I stand there, running my hands down her back, and let her take every ounce of strength I have in my body. I can feel her trembling against me, her tears soaking my shirt, and her heaving breath against my neck. I just keep running my hands down her back and press my lips to her head. The feel of her body and the smell that never fails to make me roll my eyes in yearning combined with the adrenaline that is still thundering through my body does nothing to help ease the need I feel to claim.

To make her mine.

Without speaking a word, not trusting myself to even open up my mouth, I reach my hands up and unwind her body from mine. She looks up at me with confusion before shock takes over her features and she jerks her body back in the seat.

“Don’t even think about it,” I seethe.

Her eyes flash, but she visibly tries to relax her protective posture.

I take a few steadying breaths before I walk back to the driver’s side and pull back into traffic.

It’s time that Chelcie and I have a long, overdue chat. I want to know what the hell she’s hiding, and more importantly, I need to make sure she understands just where the hell things stand between us.

***

The drive back to the apartments doesn’t take long in reality, but with the thick anticipation of what is to come coating the air around us, it feels like hours. Chelcie hasn’t spoken, not one word.

Her silence is alarming. I’m used to her sweet murmurs—the snarky bursts of fiery attitude she normally keeps closed off from others—and most importantly, that deep-rooted desire that is usually blazing in those brown-gold pools.

I hate this closed-off, scared version of her, and I’m almost afraid to believe that it could be me she’s afraid of.

We pull up, park, and silently make our way past a smiling Joe and into the elevator. She goes to press the button for her floor, but I grab her lightly, pulling her flush with my body.

“No,” I growl, the primal sound shocking even my own ears.

“Please,” she pleads, her eyes round with what I can only guess is panic.

“Sunshine, would I ever hurt you? Get that look off your beautiful face,” I murmur. Lightly pressing my lips to hers, I take a deep, reassuring breath when I feel her body relax slightly in my arms.

“You scare the ever-loving shit out of me, Ash. We need to talk, and right now, I’m just trying to take a moment to get over the fact that when you hear what I have to say…you could hate me forever.”

“A little dramatic, don’t you think?”

She doesn’t say anything, just looks up at me with pain very evident in her eyes.

Even with the anger from Fat Jacks still surfing through my body, I can feel the trace of apprehension starting to take hold of my skin.

“You don’t get it, Ash. There are things I haven’t told you, things that could change the way you think you feel for me. Things that could change everything, and I have no clue how to get past this. Don’t you see? Don’t you see how much you mean to me? I’m not sure I could handle you not wanting to be a part of my life anymore—even if it is just as friends.”

My brow creases with her words. “You’re going to realize real soon that when I say you’re mine, I mean it. We’ve been dancing around this for way too long.” The earlier feelings of uncontrollable anger over her being out with another man threaten to take hold of me again. It’s taking every thread of control to keep myself calm. To stop myself from throwing her on the floor of the damn elevator and showing her just how mine she really is. “And before the day is over, there will be no fucking doubt in that pretty little head just how much I mean that.”

Her eyes darken, but not out of the desire I wish I saw. No, this time they get darker with her sadness, and I wish there was something, anything, I could do to take that from her.

***

(Chelcie)

While sitting in the car on the way back to the apartments, I busy myself with trying to figure out what just happened. I’m almost positive that Asher just…claimed me? My ankle is killing me from where crazy Phil had his hands crushing deep into the muscles and tendons. I’m pretty sure I’m going to have a huge welt-like bruise when I get a good look at it.

The ride up is more heavy silence. The tension between us is so abundant that I keep shaking uncontrollably. I don’t fear Asher. Even when he was at his drunkest, his meanest, and his worst, I never feared him. It’s almost been as if his pain was my own, which even to my own mind makes no sense. Sure, we’ve grown as close as two friends who have red-hot chemistry can get, but ever since the day that I met him, I knew there was potential for something so powerful that I’m not sure I would come out the same person in the end.