Chapter 103

By the next morning, I had slept very little. My thoughts had been entirely consumed by Coach’s ultimatum: either Asher grovel in apology for disrupting the swimsuit contest, or I was off the cheerleading squad.

I knew I needed to talk to Asher about it, but I worried about what he would say. If he would agree, or if he wouldn’t… I wasn’t sure which option was worse. I didn’t want to see him lower himself. Not even for me.

But if he didn’t…

I shook my head. I couldn’t worry about this now. I had a few hours before practice. I hoped that would be enough for me to think of a different option. There had to be something I hadn’t considered.

At eight am, I called Nicole.

“Morning, Cynthia. It’s great to hear from you,” Nicole said, sounding perkier than I had expected her to. “When Asher carried you off like that, I wasn’t sure you weren’t in for a verbal lashing. He looked furious!”

“He was,” I said, omitting just how Asher’s anger had taken shape. “But I’m more worried about you. What happened after we left?”

“Chaos,” Nicole said. “Most of the guys there were too drunk to do much more than shuffle and bemoan but Coach went ballistic. He kept yelling like he was trying to start a riot. Eventually, the bar owner had to step in. Most of the crowd just walked out at that point.”

“How did you get away?” I asked.

“We slipped out with the crowd. Coach was thoroughly distracted by then. I’m not even sure he noticed we were gone right away. He kept shouting about his money, I don’t know. I got this email from him, though…”

Wait, Nicole had gotten an email too? I quickly told her about the one I’d received, insisting Asher grovel.

“Mine doesn’t say anything about groveling,” Nicole said. “Though I guess the rest is similar. From what I can tell, he sent this same one to every girl on the team. We are supposed to individually apologize to him or be kicked from the squad.”

Slowly, I began to relax. He could threaten to kick every girl off the squad but he couldn’t actually do it, or there’d be no one left. His threats had to be all talk. Maybe I didn’t even need to tell Asher about the groveling.

“We never should have been there to start with,” I said. “Everything about that event felt so… wrong.”

“Thank God for Asher,” Nicole said. “I had no idea what I was going to do when it was my turn.”

“You’ll never have to find out,” I said. “We’re never doing anything like this again.”

Nicole hummed a little, not seemingly convinced. “As long as this new coach is in charge, I don’t know what’s going to happen next. How do we possibly stand up to a bully like him?”

“We’ll think of something,” I said. “We have to.”

I ended the call with Nicole, promising to see her later at practice.

Then I laid in bed, staring up at the ceiling.

Thank God for Asher, indeed. He’d saved me again, just like he’d done so many times before.

I’d be lost without him.

Yet thoughts of Asher led to memories of him behind the bathroom door, my name on his lips.

“Cyn.”

The way he’d said it, so breathy and reverent, like a prayer. I wanted him to moan it that way into my ear.

And those noises. He must have taken himself in hand. Did he rub himself to completion, thinking of me in my swimsuit? Did he wish that his hand was mine instead? Or my mouth or my body?

I tried to imagine him, body taut, shoulders pressing against the door of the bathroom. Back arched. Hips jerking forward into his fist, chasing his pleasure.

The image made me ache.

Eagerly, I slipped my hand down past the band of my borrowed sweatpants, into my panties. Thinking of Asher, naked and grunting, I rubbed wildly at my clit.

Half on fire already, it didn’t take long for me to fully ignite.

If I hadn’t stopped him last night, he would have claimed my body as his own, with his dick buried deep inside of me. He would have taken me with him on his search for the ultimate pleasure. Together, we would have found it.

With his hot mouth and strong hands and rock hard body…

“Mm, Asher…”

Faster, he would have been relentless. He’d have dragged me to the edge again and again, and I would have begged him for it.

Even the thought of it sent me spiraling. If I had the real thing…

If I…

“A-Asher!”

Too soon, I found my release, crying his name. I laid there for a long while afterwards, breathing heavily, lost in the afterglow.

If I had the real thing, I might not survive…

Just before lunchtime, a knock on my door startled me away from the little amount of homework I had somehow managed to focus on. When I opened the door, and saw Asher standing behind it, the homework was as good as forgotten.

“I’m sorry,” he said immediately, unprompted.

I stepped back, letting him into the room.

He walked past me and began pacing again.

“My behavior last night was incredibly inappropriate,” he said. “I pulled you out of one terrible situation and put you straight into another one, with me as the perpetrator.”

Now wait one minute. You are nothing like those guys,” I said. “You didn’t do anything last night that I didn’t enjoy.”

“I’m glad you did,” he said, “but that doesn’t change that I overstepped, Cynthia. You deserve better. I should have just held you, not… not…” He spat in self-disgust, “Tried to claim you.”

I blushed at once, deep and full. “But you didn’t, Asher. You stopped yourself.”

“You stopped me. If you hadn’t…” He shook his head. “I swear to you, this will never happen again.”

I frowned at him. Never? What if I wanted it to?

But no, how could I ask him that? He was attempting to be respectful as my brother’s best friend and my sworn protector. In truth, he’d never have wanted to claim me, if his wolf hadn’t been in the driver’s seat.

I needed to be more careful myself. To protect Asher from me and my feelings.

Crossing my arms, I turned from him, trying to collect myself. “It all worked out, regardless. No harm done.”

“I could kill that new coach of yours,” Asher said, voice low and angry.

Okay, maybe not telling Asher about Coach’s ultimatum was the right call. Asher was more likely to rip his throat out than he was to fall to his knees and apologize.

“To put you in the position that he did… to try to make money off of it…” A growl sounded from the back of his throat.

I faced Asher again. The last thing he needed was to lose control of his wolf again, so soon after last night. “But he didn’t get away with it, Asher. You stopped it.”

“But what if I’m not there next time, Cynthia?” Asher huffed in frustration. “He is still your coach. He still has access to you, and can make demands of you. I might not always be able to stop him.”

My stomach twisted. Oh no. “What are you saying?”

“Cynthia, I think you should drop from the cheerleading squad,” Asher said. “For your own safety.”