Page 49 of Bound in Ashes

“I said yeah, didn’t I?”

Her eyes were dark, soft when she spoke. “Thank you for getting me here.” She shook her head. “No, thank you for getting us here.”

Her voice carried on the soft breeze and felt just as ephemeral.

Us.

I stood abruptly, discarding the plate that had held my sandwich.

“In the morning, I’m going to talk to the hands again. Seem like decent guys, but I want to get more of a feel for them. And we need to step up perimeter checks. Need a schedule where someone’s walking the perimeter at all times. We need to start scavenging too. Food, weapons, everything really. We need to stockpile as much as we can.”

Asia grabbed my forearm. “It’s okay to take a breath, Jack,” she said.

“A breath?” I glared at her. “You want me to take a breath when we’re sitting here with our asses out, with those things out there wanting to eat us, when I don’t know if I can keep you⁠—”

Fuck.

The thought of something happening to her made my chest tight—scared me shitless—but she didn’t need to know that.

“What?” she asked, her eyes wide, but her brow furrowed. She took a step closer. Close enough that I felt her warmth.

I fought to keep myself from touching her.

“Nothing. It’s just that kind of thinking is the shit that gets people killed.”

She looked at me, her expression almost serene, lacking any kind of judgment. Her looking at me like that made me want to claw out of my skin.

I shifted, pacing the patch of dirt in front of the shed.

“Ants in your pants?” she said.

I huffed. “You’re so juvenile,” I said.

“Petulance. That’s one I haven’t seen from you before.”

“Asia. You can go to sleep if you’re going to just sit here and fuck with me.”

“You want me to go?”

I stopped pacing, looking at her, turned away and then started again.

“It’s a good piece of property, but it’s vulnerable. But I think I can make it work,” I said.

She didn’t say anything, but I heard the chair squeak as she stood. Felt her at my back. The softness of her breasts and stomach pressing against me.

Stilling me.

But only for a moment before she decided to drive me crazy.

She slid her hand down my cheek, then lower, her nails scraping lightly over the hard ridge of my cock, which was hard in an instant.

She squeezed for just a moment and then let go, her hold light, infuriatingly addictive.

“You teasing me?” I rasped.

“I can’t help it. You’re so hard for me. You feel so fucking good.” Then she nipped my earlobe, chasing away the sting with her tongue. “But I think you like it.”

She loosened my pants and reached inside. I inhaled sharply when she wrapped her fingers around my shaft, swiping her thumb around and around my cockhead.