Write or Wrong (Common Threads #9)

Chapter 22

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

WANTED MAN

ASA

He woke up with Zara’s naked body sprawled on top of him. Her hair spread out on the pillow behind her, her cheek on his shoulder, one arm slung across his chest, one leg hitched up and across his hips, her breasts pressed to his side. He had one arm beneath her and wrapped around her body, his hand resting on her ass.

For a minute he blinked at the ceiling trying to figure out if he was stuck in a dream or if what had happened last night really happened. Because he’d had this exact dream numerous times. She stirred against him and his dick twitched.

Last night had been completely unexpected.

Writing with her, creating with her, being so near in such an open and vulnerable place for both of them had seemed to weaken whatever flimsy walls they’d tried to keep up between each other.

He’d heard the thunder and knew she’d be awake. Everything in him chose to seek her out. To be near her. To never be away from her again.

When he’d found her at the piano everything inside him relaxed.

She was it for him.

He’d never been so sure of anything in his life.

And then the kissing…her body and her sounds and her taste. If he hadn’t been gone for her before that, he certainly was now.

He’d meant what he’d told her. Once he knew what it was like to be inside her, there was no going back.

He tipped his chin down and found her citrine eyes on him.

A shy smile tugged at her lips and his dick twitched again.

Last night had been a major step in their relationship. But he had a feeling that how he handled the next few moments was even more crucial.

He brushed the back of his fingers along her cheek. “You’re so beautiful,” he whispered.

Her eyebrows twitched like she wanted to frown but held back. He was reminded of something she’d said last night, about not disappointing him. He examined her expression carefully and realized he didn’t know this one.

It was guarded and curious with just a hint of hope.

Hmm.

“Do you regret what we did last night?” she asked, voice soft.

“No,” he replied immediately. “Do you?”

Her lips tugged up a little more at the corners. “No.”

He wanted to go to the bathroom and use her mouthwash. His worry about his morning breath was distracting. But he didn’t want to move from where he was and change the vibe.

“Did you…” She stopped and her eyes dropped to his chin as she swallowed. “Did you enjoy it?”

Okay, what?

He shifted their bodies, moving her off him and propping his elbow in the bed and his head in his hand. He ran his other hand over her cheek and through her thick hair.

“Tell me what’s going on in there,” he said gently.

Her eyes shuttered immediately, telling him there was definitely something she was holding back.

Her hand rested on the bed between them. He picked it up and brought it to his lips. “I don’t want to be crude but I think you need to hear it very plainly. That was the best sex of my life, babe. And I’m not exaggerating.”

Her smile and the blush that barely showed below her tan skin told him she liked hearing that. He rubbed his thumb over the tops of her knuckles. “Please talk to me,” he said.

She sighed and made a face, scrunching up her nose. “I don’t want to.”

He chuckled. “Okay, fair. But what if I told you there’s nothing you could say to me that will change how I feel about you?”

She grew so still he wondered if he’d hit a pain point without realizing it.

“I haven’t had a lot of sex…” she started slowly, her gaze on his chin again. “And last night was—” she swallowed “the first time I’ve enjoyed it.”

What.

The.

Fuck.

But she wasn’t done. “You know I’ve only been with the one guy.” He noticed she didn’t say Logan’s name. And he really should have braced but he didn’t. “And my orgasm was always my responsibility. Sex with him was…mostly uncomfortable.”

“Did he hurt you?” Asa asked more forcefully than he meant to.

She shook her head but the shadows in her eyes hinted at something she didn’t want to share.

“Zara,” he said seriously.

“No,” she said, her eyes avoiding his. “He didn’t hurt me. Not like that. But he would tell me that I wasn’t good at it.” Her eyebrows tipped up. “Though, after last night, I’m pretty sure it was him who wasn’t good.”

Asa slowly lowered himself onto his back and scrubbed a hand over his face. “Oh, I’m gonna go to jail.”

Zara huffed a surprised laugh. “What?”

He twisted his head to look at her extraordinary beauty and his chest got tight. Logan fucking Black was the biggest piece of shit in the world. Never in his life had Asa felt such acute hatred for a specific person.

“That guy is a fucking idiot,” he said, not using Logan’s name either. If she didn’t want to hear it, then he’d honor that. Then something else occurred to him. “So you had sex with me without knowing if you’d enjoy it or not?” he asked.

She gave a small shrug. “I mean…”

He put a fist to his forehead and closed his eyes. Fuck. “I handled that wrong.” He should have taken his time.

“I did enjoy it though,” she said, putting a hand on his arm. “A lot.”

Dammit. Now she was trying to comfort him? Bianca had it right, the next time he saw Logan Black it was on sight.

“Look,” Zara said, still reading his reaction wrong and trying to placate him. “I’ve been working full-time since I was sixteen. I was busy when everyone learned about sex. I trusted the wrong person with it and by the time I figured out he didn’t have my best interests in mind, I had decided that sex just wasn’t going to be my thing. And he enforced that by saying things like, ‘good girls don’t really like sex’ and half the time he didn’t get off anyway, so…”

Asa closed his eyes and visualized punching Logan in the face over and over again. He was also pissed at himself. She’d hinted at things like this, how kissing was her favorite and how little experience she had.

Logan Black wasn’t the only idiot.

“When you handed me the lube last night…” He shook his head. “Lube is great and sometimes it’s needed and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that,” he said, his frustration rising. Because he knew. “That fuckwad never got you wet, did he?”

Zara cleared her throat. It told him everything. Logan Black was a selfish piece of shit.

“This is the kind of conversation we should have had before we had sex,” he muttered.

“I’m sorry,” she said softly.

His eyes flew open and he rolled toward her. “Do not apologize. You didn’t do anything wrong.” Her eyes widened at his intensity and he cupped her cheek. “You really let me in there without knowing how it would go. Baby, that’s not something you ever have to wonder about again. Okay?”

Heat flashed in her eyes and he wrote that promise on his ribcage. Her pleasure would be his priority. She deserved nothing less.

“I’m guessing he also never went down on you,” Asa said, watching her reaction carefully.

Her chin jerked slightly and she blinked in surprise. “I…uh…” She took a breath and let it out.

He flashed her a wicked smile. “Good. Because you deserve to have it done right.” She deserved to be worshipped and adored and to have endless orgasms every single day. Starting now, he’d spend the rest of his life wiping away every horrible experience she’d ever had with that jackass.

He slid a hand over her waist and dropped soft kisses on her collarbone. She released a small sigh and arched her neck so he could reach her easier. He moved his mouth down her chest toward her breasts, tugging the sheet down as he went.

Her body opened up to him, her trust so easily earned. He would never take it for granted.

Her phone rang from the nightstand, interrupting his intentions. He raised his head and shot her a smile so she knew he wasn’t upset. This was life. Her life. And he wasn’t going to be a little bitch about it.

“Hello?” she answered. She looked at the phone screen again and then put it back to her ear. “I didn’t realize it was so late. I was sleeping. Gimme a few and we’ll be right down.” She hung up the phone and gave him a sad smile. “Nikki’s set up and ready for us.”

He kissed the top swell of a breast, letting his lips linger for a moment on her soft skin. “Then we better get going.”

She reached for him, running her hands over his shoulders and up his neck. “Thank you,” she said, her voice this tender thing that he wanted to wrap up in his heart for safe keeping.

They didn’t shower together even though she offered. He knew it would be incredibly hard to leave the house if they did that. Emphasis on hard.

Cas picked them up and took them to the studio since Asa had left his bike there the day before.

They hadn’t discussed what, if anything, they would tell anyone else about “them.” It was another thing they should probably talk about. But the moment they walked into the studio, that craving to make music overtook both of them again.

Words and music had never come so easy to him. And every note was drenched with life. His life up until Zara had just been existing.

But now he was breathing, and chasing, and fighting. He was wildly alive and he was desperately in love with that life. Almost as much as he was in love with her.

The realization was so acute that he felt it grab hold of his heart and squeeze.

“I need a minute,” he said in the middle of something Nikki was explaining. He snagged the notebook they’d been working out of and a pen and headed for the upstairs lounge.

He’d barely taken a seat at the table before he was scribbling in the notebook. Words poured from him and he scratched them down as fast as he could. He put his phone on the table and opened the voice memos app and started recording. He hummed and mouthed the melody coursing through his brain as more words came to him.

When the words slowed down and he went back up the page and read through what he had. The song began to take shape and he moved pieces around.

That went there. This word should actually be here. This fits better in the bridge.

His heart thundered, his veins pulsing with adrenaline.

He sat back and read through it again. But he could hear it in his mind.

Grinning, he snatched up his phone and his notes and jogged back to the control room.

Nikki stopped talking and both she and Zara turned to him in surprise.

“You got something?” Zara asked.

He nodded and picked up the guitar, sat down on the leather sofa and started to play. Zara picked up the notebook and sat beside him, holding the lyrics up for them both.

She automatically began to add harmony and chills raced down his spine. The good kind. The kind that told him something magical was happening.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Zara said excitedly when they’d reached the end. “And then we do like a nah, nah, nah thing here but subtle, right?” she made a mark on the page.

“And maybe pick up the tempo on the second chorus,” Asa said, making the adjustment to what he was already playing.

“Yes,” she said in the same way she said it when he was kissing her neck last night. It flooded his mind with images of her naked beneath him and he shook his head, trying not to blush.

Later.

He would make love to her later.

Nikki started flipping switches on the console and Zara got to her feet.

“Oh my god, I have the perfect riff for this.” She went out the door and down into the live room where she picked up a Fender Stratocaster.

He thought of the night they’d kissed for the first time and the things she’d played for him. She was right, she already had the perfect riff written.

“What is happening?” Asa muttered around a chuckle.

“I told you,” Nikki said, keying up the necessary settings. “This place is magic.”

“That you did.”

She glanced at him and smiled. Did she know what had happened, what was still happening between him and Zara? Probably.

But then she said the last thing he expected.

“Welcome back to the land of the living, Ace. I’ve sure missed you.”