After I'm done, I put on some nighttime skin cream. That is one thing my mom taught me. It was good advice to never go to bed without night cream. She would say, ‘No man wants a woman with wrinkles.’ How she would know, this I don’t know. She has been getting Botox since she was twenty and that’s probably the last time her face showed an expression that wasn’t surprise.

I open the door to the bedroom and the room is dark except for one of the bed side lights. I realize that Asher made the bed while I was changing and for some reason that makes me smile. I think about going out and getting Beast but he won’t move if he’s asleep unless I carry him and that’s not going to happen. I wonder where Asher is sleeping. Then I realize that I'm tired and don’t care. I look at the clock on the side table and see that it’s after two in the morning. Without thinking, I crawl into bed. It smells like him so I pull the covers over me and I'm, once again, dead to the world.

******************************

I wake up feeling warm and cozy. It takes me a minute to realize that it is not Beast behind me. Beast doesn’t have arms. I keep my eyes closed and hold my breath, trying to figure out what has happened? Then, I hear the door open.

“Oh my,” I hear a woman’s voice say and my eyes pop open, and I'm looking into the eyes of a beautiful, older woman and she's looking back at me. Asher's arm goes tight around me and I look over my shoulder. “Morning, baby,” he rumbles into my ear. I'm so humiliated that I blurt out the first thing that pops into my head when I turn back to look at the woman.

“We didn’t have sex!” I basically yell this at her.

The lady looks at me again and smiles so big that I can see all of her teeth. “I'll just be in the kitchen,” she says and Asher starts laughing as she’s closing the door behind her. I swear I hear her giggle. As soon as I know the door is closed, I turn to Asher. I'm really going to kill him.

“What are you doing here?” I ask.

“This is my bed,” he says, smiling. Grrrrrrr. I want to choke him.

“I thought you were sleeping on the couch or, like, in another room or something,” I say and wonder why he thinks this is so funny.

“Why would I do that? My bed is big. Plus, your dog was taking up the whole couch.”

“You should have woken me up. I would've slept on the couch with Beast,” I tell him, trying to shove his arm off me.

“My bed is big enough for both of us. We didn't even have to touch, but the minute I got into bed, you were all over me,” he says, hugging me tighter.

“Oh my God, you're so full of it. I was asleep. I didn't even know you were here. How could I be all over you?” I yell at him knowing full well that my face is turning red.

“When I climbed into bed, you wrapped yourself around me,” he says, watching my face. I can feel it getting redder by the second.

“I didn’t,” I say, even though I most likely did. I have always liked to cuddle.

“You did,” he says, smiling.

“Whatever,” I mumble, trying to hide my face.

“At least tell me that’s not your mother,” I say, covering my face with my hands. He starts laughing and pulls me down in the bed so I'm basically lying under him. Feeling his skin against mine, I uncover my eyes and see that he’s not wearing a shirt. How I missed that, I have no idea. His chest is awesome. It’s wide and you can see the definition of all of the muscles. He doesn’t have a lot of chest hair, just enough that you could feel it against your chest as he moves inside of you. His tattoos start under his collar bone and go around his shoulders and down his arms. They look like fire but it’s all tribal. Running in and out of the flames are names and a pair of military type boots. Then the same design goes down his other arm but with a gun and a military type hat. It’s shaded in black and has bright colors running through. It’s truly a piece of art.

“Yes, that’s my ma. She probably came to make sure you were okay. I'm sure Dad told her what happened last night,” he says, startling me out of the perusal I was making of his body and tattoos. I look up into his smiling face, wondering what he thinks is so funny about his mom finding me in his bed.

“This is so embarrassing. She probably thinks I'm a slut,” I say, wondering if this is normal for him.

“She doesn’t think anything except that you slept here after your apartment was broken into. Now we need to get up but first, you need to kiss me,” he tells me with a straight face.

“What?” I whisper.

“You need to kiss me. All night you slept cuddled into me. You can’t do that to a man without at least kissing him.” His face was close to mine and his eyes were warm. My eyes drop to his mouth. I couldn’t help it, he has a nice mouth.

“Kiss me,” he whispers his mouth brushing mine.

“No,” I whisper back, watching his eyes darken.

“Okay, then. I'm going to kiss you,” he says against my lips. My brain is screaming, ‘Yes, yes. yes.’ Then I feel his lips touch mine softly. My hand moves to his bicep to hold on. When his mouth moves away from mine, I want to pull him back. Then he licks the seam of my mouth and the minute his tongue touches me, my lips part.

I kiss him back, first softly then wildly. My other hand reaches for his hair and I run my palm against it, feeling it prickle my skin, happy to know it feels as good as I thought it would. When his hand went to my hair, I could feel him pull out my hair tie and grab a fist full of hair at the back of my head. The bite of pain felt so good that I moaned into his mouth. He bit my lip softly then sucked my tongue into his mouth. I followed him, doing the same. He growls and his other hand travels along my side until I feel his fingers near my breast. I press myself into his hand and he growls again. My other hand goes from his bicep to his back. It is so smooth and hard at the same time. I’m mesmerized by the sensation of his thumb traveling across my nipple, I whimper, arching into him. He pulls his mouth away from mine, shoving my face into his neck. “Fuck!” I was so turned on that I didn’t realize what was happening until I heard his mom from the kitchen.

“I'm making coffee, kiddos. Where is the dog food?” she asked through the door.

“Oh my God,” I whisper into his neck and I can feel his body start to shake. “This is not funny,” I tell him and he laughs harder.

“You’re right. This shit is not funny. I'm harder than I’ve ever been in my life and I know Ma’s not gonna leave until she see for herself that you’re okay.” I didn’t want to think too much about it but the thought of me turning him on and making him harder than he’s ever been makes me smile and I can’t help but giggle.

“Are you laughing at me, baby?” he whispers in my ear. I start laughing louder. Then he starts tickling me. “Don’t laugh at me, baby.” I was laughing so hard that I thought I might pee my pants so I started begging him to stop. “Please, I won’t laugh at you anymore. I promise, I promise,” I say through my laughter. He stops and looks down at me and both of his hands cup my face.

“Jesus, you’re so fucking beautiful.” The way he said it, and the way he is looking at me, makes me believe that he really thinks I’m beautiful. I can feel my face go soft at his words. He bends his head and kisses me again. This time, it’s soft and sweet. When his mouth leaves mine, we are both breathing heavily.

“You’re the one who’s, beautiful,” I tell him softly, running my fingers down his jaw. His face goes soft and his eyes warm. His mouth is coming toward mine again.

“Alright, kids, coffee’s on and I still can’t find the dog food.”

“Ma, Jesus! We’ll be out in a minute to feed the dog,” Asher yells.

“Asher James Mayson, you watch your tone and don’t use the lord’s name in vain,” his mom says.

I have to bite my lip but when I can’t hold it and start laughing, I have to cover my mouth so his mom doesn’t hear me.

Without warning, he knifes up and pulls me up with him. We are suddenly standing next to the bed. He bends to kiss my nose then turns and walks towards the bathroom. I’m stuck in place, looking at his back muscles as he moves. I was still standing in the same place when I heard the toilet flush and he walks out. Then I was in a complete Asher fog because he was still shirtless and the tattoos on his arms and chest were on full display, along with his eight pack abs and the sexy v leading into his loose sweats.

“You gonna feed Beast or do you want to stand there and stare at me some more?” he asks. I look into his face and see a very arrogant smile with his dimple out.

“Whatever,” I muttered and hear him chuckle as I walk around the bed with my eyes to my feet.

Once in the bathroom, I shut the door and look at myself in the mirror. My green eyes look brighter, my lips are swollen from kissing, my cheeks are pink and my hair is wild. I remember how I ended up looking like this and smile then quickly frown. Asher is hot but I’m not the kind of girl that sleeps with, then makes out with, a guy after one date. Plus, we weren’t even on an actual date. Then again, I didn’t know that we were going to sleep together.

Shaking my head at my own crazy thoughts, I decide that I’m just going to be honest and tell him that I don’t do casual. I'm sure that will scare him off. I brush my teeth and pull out a bra and zip up sweatshirt from my bag. After putting both on, I head out of the room to the kitchen. When I get there, Asher is sitting on a bar stool, still shirtless, with a cup of coffee in front of him. Once he notices me, he does a full body sweep. I get a smile out of him but it’s a small smile. This time, there is no dimple. Hummm.

“Hi, I'm Susan, Asher’s mom.” At the sound of her voice, I jump. I’m so caught up in Asher’s missing dimple that I forget his mom is here. She comes around the island and takes my hand in hers.

“I'm November,” I say, smiling back at her. She is very pretty. She has short, dark brown hair that is cut into a cute mom bob. Her eyes are the same color as Asher’s. She’s wearing a white button-up shirt with a large turquoise necklace, dark blue jeans and brown cowboy boots. She looks very county chic and I’m instantly in love with her. Then she grabs me into a tight hug. The instant that her arms wrap around me in a motherly hug, I want to cry.

“It’s nice to finally meet you, November,” she whispers into my hair. I hug her tighter, closing my eyes against the tears that want to escape. She steps back and hold’s me at arm’s length. “Well, you are as beautiful as everyone said you were.” I was taken off guard by her comment. I mean, my dad calls me beautiful and Asher told me that this morning, but that was in the heat of the moment. I’m not ugly but I’ve always just been cute. Even my ex-boyfriends have only ever said that I was cute and my mom never once in my life has called me beautiful.

“Thanks,” I mutter, feeling awkward. I can feel heat rise up my cheeks. She smiles brighter and turns towards Asher. They both share a smile and I feel like I’m intruding on a private moment.