Chapter 214

At the sound of my voice, the investigator looked up to the door. He closed the planner that he had been snooping through.

“There you are,” he said, like he’d been expecting us.

“What are you doing in here?” I asked from behind Asher.

His piercing gaze shifted lazily from me to Asher and back again. “Investigating.”

“Investigating what?” Asher asked.

He tilted his head but said no more. He wasn’t going to share anything.

He was so unnerving. A twinge of fear spread inside of me. I tampered down on it, lest I create a Lamar apparition.

Asher was here. He would keep me safe. I had nothing to worry about.

“How did you get in here?” I asked. I was sure that I had locked the door.

“I’m an official investigator, Cynthia. I’m allowed to go wherever I want and speak to whoever I want. All for the benefit of our fine nation. Sometimes those with powerful abilities don’t recognize their importance. We have to find them and… convince them.”

“There’s no need to convince anyone here,” Asher said, voice flat. “Since no one here has any special powers.”

“Asher, your power is your strength,” the investigator said. “Formidable, but not entirely uncommon. It’s the girl behind you who has abilities yet unknown.”

“She’s too young for powers,” Asher said.

“I’ve heard that line before.”

Asher squared his shoulders, coming to his full intimidating height. The investigator watched him with a passive expression, almost like he was bored.

“You don’t need to posture, kid. I get the message clear enough.” The investigator dusted off the sleeves of his coat. “But if I do discover evidence that she has projection, she will have to come with me no matter what.”

A low growl escaped Asher’s throat. “Try it.”

The investigator’s gaze turned curious. “You would go to prison for this?”

Asher’s growl persisted, making clear his answer. “I think you should leave now.”

“Fine. I’ll go. But I’ll keep coming back until I have my answer about you, Cynthia, one way or the other.”

Asher shielded me with his body as the investigator left the room. He sauntered down the hall like he was in no hurry to be anywhere else.

“Asher.” I gripped at his sleeve.

“It will be okay, Cynthia.”

“But, Asher…” I didn’t want him to go to prison.

He looked at me. Determination burned in his eyes. “You have nothing to worry about.”

With such fierce passion, I could nothing but believe him. “Okay.”

Together, we packed most of my clothes into a suitcase. I gathered my notebooks as well, that the investigator had gone through. There weren’t any secrets in them really, but it felt so violating to have someone look through them without my permission.

I didn’t want to leave them behind again.

With my things packed, Asher and I left the room and slowly returned to Asher’s dorm room. Well, our room now.

The thought restored only a tiny bit of the excitement that I had lost upon seeing the investigator. I felt like a wilted flower, with no sunshine on a cloudy day.

I’d been so happy even an hour before. How sad it was to have everything change so quickly.

Asher noticed. He bumped his shoulder into mine. “You’re down.”

“Trying not to be.” I forced a smile for him, but it didn’t last.

He watched me a moment. “Perhaps it would help to remember all the things we can do together now that we will be living together.”

“Like what?”

He gave me a soft smile. “I get to hold you every night when we go to sleep. And wake up with you in my arms.”

Admittedly, I did like that. Asher as the last thing I saw at night and the first thing I saw in the morning was better than ideal. It was an absolute dream.

I took his hand and laced our fingers together. “Tell me more.”

“We can share every meal together.”

Asher’s cooking was excellent. Someday, I wanted him to help teach me so I could cook him meals too. I wanted everything in our relationship to be equal, even if he didn’t seem to mind.

“There are other things too, simple things. We can wash our laundry together. We can use the same towels. If I’m out and you’re not, you can text me to tell me we need more milk in the fridge, and I’ll stop to get it on the way home.”

The images made me laugh. They were all so… domestic. I loved it. We could have a perfect little space just for us two.

Who would have thought I’d be having this talk with Asher now, when we’d only barely gotten along all those months ago?

Sometimes I felt like I was still sleeping somehow. Someday I would wake up, and I’d be back to being alone, struggling to make everyone happy but myself.

Asher made me happy. If this was a dream, I never wanted to wake up.

Yet I still couldn’t help but feel a hint of fear, even with all the wonderful things Asher was promising. Our bond was building. Our feelings were strong.

But the baby was yet to be born. What if, when that happened, Asher decided I wasn’t worth the effort? I knew he was committed to the child, but that didn’t mean he’d want to stay a family with me.

I was still so afraid something would happen and he would change his mind.

I tried not to worry overmuch. I needed to enjoy the moment while I could, soaking in everything Asher wanted to give me before the inevitable occurred.

Asher traced his thumb over my knuckles, bringing me back to the delightful present.

“We can watch television together. Listen to music together,” he continued.

“I love it,” I said. “I love all of it.”

Softer, Asher said, “Me, too.”

We arrived back to the room. Asher lifted my suitcase onto the bed, and I began to unpack. Seeing my clothes in the drawers beside Asher’s sent a thrill through me, chasing away any lingering bad feelings the investigator had caused.

This was a pivotal moment. A milestone. I wouldn’t let that man ruin it.

Asher helped me with my clothes. When the suitcase was empty, he zipped it up and hid it away in his closet.

I stood in the middle of the room, looking around at our intermingled things. We’d truly taken Asher’s dorm room and turned it into a home for both of us.

“I wasn’t done with my list,” Asher said, sliding up beside me. His feather-light touch traced along the waistband of my pants.

I closed my eyes, enjoying the sensation. “Oh, no?”

He hummed. Leaning into me, he pressed his lips against my neck.

“Unlike your dorm, where you had a communal shower down the hall, we have one here all our own.”

“That’s true.” I knew that. I’d used it before. What was he getting at?

He kissed a line up to my ear. “One of the things we can do together is shower.”

I stilled, surprised. Heat flooded straight to my core. My skin burned with both embarrassment and desire. So quickly, he could send my heart racing.

I wondered if his beat as fast as my own.

He gave me a devilish smile that made me weak in the knees.

He tilted his head back toward the bathroom door. “Maybe you’d like to give it a try?”