I Love You, Always (11 page)

“No,” I say, rolling onto my side, sliding my arm around her waist and pulling her closer. “No dreams at all tonight.”

She smiles bigger now as she says, “Maybe it’s ‘cause you got lucky, huh?”

I laugh, leaning in and kissing her. “Who knew getting laid was the secret.”

“Mmmm,” she says smiling. “Wanna try it again?”

“Fuck yes,” I say, rolling over and pushing her into the sheets as I smother her with my body. It’s only been a couple of hours, but right now it feels like an eternity since I’ve been inside this woman. I actually want her more than I’ve ever wanted her in my life, more than I ever thought possible.

“Yes?” she asks me, her lips pressing against mine.

“Yes, Asha, I most definitely want to try it again,” I tell her, knowing I’m not even close to making up on all the time we’ve not been together.

And when she kisses me hard, I know she’s thinking the exact same thing.

Your every look and every smile /
Your
every kiss and every touch

If I could count up the moments /
Every
single one / It couldn’t compare

To the love that I feel, the love that I have

For every look¸ every smile, every kiss and every touch

But most of all, the love that I have

For you

∞

“Hey Mia, what’s up?” I say, answering my cell as I walk into the diner.

“Not much, what are you doing?” Mia asks through the phone.

I frown at her weird question as I look around the diner, checking to make sure Ash isn’t here already. I take a seat at a table in the corner. My view of the door is blocked by a couple of people, but all the other tables are full or reserved. I’ve never seen this place so busy. “Ah, just waiting for Ash actually.”

Mia laughs on the other end of the line and I’m about to ask her what’s going on when she continues, “She’s already there, Luke, I was your distraction, go to the booth by the window. Have a good night.” And then she hangs up on me.

I stand up from my seat and sure enough, there she is, looking right at me. I could’ve sworn she wasn’t there when I walked in. I walk over to where she’s sitting and slide in next to her, my arm wrapping around her shoulders as I pull her in for a kiss. “Were you here already?”

She smiles against my lips. “Yep.”

“What’s going on, Mia said she was my distraction?”

Ash is full on smiling at me now. “She was.”

“What’s going on, Ash?” I ask, smiling back at her.

“I’m re-creating something,” she says, leaning in to kiss me again. “Although it will be a little different this time around.”

“What do you mean?” I ask, confused. Ash told me around lunchtime that she had to go out and do some stuff, but wouldn’t say what. I wanted to go with her, but she said I wasn’t allowed to tag along. It was the longest we’ve spent apart since the night she got shot and it was a very strange experience.

“You don’t recognise this place?” she asks me, her smile bigger as she waves her hand around the diner.

“Um, sure, we’ve been here before,” I say, still confused. She’s laughing now as she leans in to kiss me again. I can’t help myself when I hold her against me a little longer. I’ve missed her these last few hours, a lot. Much more than I expected to.

“Do you remember around this time last year, Luke?”

I think back. It was before Ash and I were together, although not that far off. I do remember something, vaguely. And then suddenly, it hits me. Smiling I turn back to her, “The diner where the guys saw you, when I was on the phone with Mia?”

She’s smiling at me and her eyes are so alive it’s magic. “Exactly. The night of your birthday, only I didn’t know it at the time, because someone conveniently didn’t mention it,” she says, squeezing my thigh.

I can’t resist leaning in to kiss her again as I whisper, “Fuck, I thought I’d been given the best present of my life when I walked out and found you sitting here with them that night.”

Ash wraps her hand around the back of my neck, holding me against her as she whispers, “I think that every morning I wake up beside you, Luke.”

And I can’t stop the groan that falls from my lips as I lean in and kiss her, deeply. She kisses me back, teasing me with her tongue and I just want to lie her down on this bench seat we’re sitting in and run my mouth all over her body.

“What can I get you guys?”

I pull back, my heart racing and my eyes glazed over. I hear Ash laugh as she says, “We’ll take a pitcher of beer, thanks.”

I shake my head, trying to focus my attention on the fact that we are sitting in a very public place as I tell her, “Yeah, I think I like this version a lot more than last year’s.”

She smiles at me. “Me too,” she says before leaning in and picking back up with that kiss, messing with my head all over again.

“So where to next then, beautiful girl?” I ask wrapping my arm around her as we walk out of the diner.

“You don’t remember?” she asks, looking up at me.

I smile at her. “Of course I do, but that place isn’t open tonight, is it?”

Ash smiles back at me, “Yeah it’s not, but Mia isn’t the only favour I called in.” She wraps her arm around my waist, pulling me closer.

“What do you mean?” I ask her, confused.

“You’ll see,” she says, smiling.

We walk the same route we took last year, although things are so different this time around. Neither of us says anything for a while, but I can’t stop thinking about this very night, a year ago, when things between us were definitely starting to change. It probably really all started with her birthday when I showed up at her apartment, but still, I remember this night being intense. I remember things between us felt charged, more so than they ever had before and it had me going crazy, all fucking night. It brings a smile to my face just thinking about, and I can’t resist squeezing her tighter and teasing her a little. “You remembered a jacket this time though?”

She laughs. “Yeah, although forgetting it last year was not such a bad thing.”

I pull her closer to me and her head rests against my shoulder. “I was already so in love with you back then, Asha. I couldn’t believe it when I walked back into that diner and you were sitting there. And then when you came with us, shit, it was so hard for me to keep my hands off you,” I admit, smiling at the memory.

“Really?” she asks, surprised.

“Yeah, really,” I say leaning down and pressing a quick kiss to her lips. “I remember thinking that things were really starting to change between us that night. I don’t know, everything felt different, and there was a part of me that was just so impatient to keep it all going. I wanted you so fucking badly, Ash, I literally had to force myself not to touch you all night.” I pull her closer to me as I whisper, “You are just so irresistible and you drove me crazy, you still do.”

Ash wraps her other arm around my stomach, holding me in her embrace. “Mmmm, things were changing, I noticed it too. And you know, you didn’t keep your hands off me
all
night,” she says smiling as she tightens her grip on my shirt. “In fact, I think it was the first time you touched me in a way that wasn’t, you know, comforting me or anything. It was just you, maybe wanting to touch me?” She looks up at me, smiling. “I was scared, but loved it, Luke. And I definitely wanted more of it, a lot more.”

I laugh now, knowing exactly what she’s talking about. “Beautiful girl, I’d been wanting to touch you since the second I first saw you.”

She laughs again and my heart is literally floating somewhere inside my chest. Yeah, I really fucking love this girl.

When we get to the club I notice Jared, Mia, and Damien at the door. I smile at them and they are all grinning back at me like total idiots. “Just how many people are in on this plan of yours, Ash?” I ask, turning to her.

She smiles back at me, “Oh, you know, all of them.”

I watch as Damien hands her a key. “The place is all yours, have fun.”

“Thanks, guys.” Ash says before walking inside the club, my hand still in hers until she moves it so it’s resting against her lower back. I laugh at the memory and she shoots me a gorgeous smile over her shoulder. The place is almost in darkness except for a single light on the stage and a couple behind the bar. I notice a stool, a microphone, an amp, and a guitar case up on stage. None of it can be mine though, because I know my two are at home. The other one’s gone, damaged beyond repair that night, but I’m glad to be rid of it.

“Drink?” she suddenly asks me, breaking my train of thought.

I turn back to her, “Sure, although wasn’t I supposed to ask you that?” She smiles again, kissing me quickly before walking over to the bar and pulling out two bottles of beer. “I’m sure it was me who got the drinks,” I say, smiling as she walks back over.

“Maybe, but seeing as I know what day it is today, this time, I’ll get the drinks.” She’s poking me in the chest as she says this, but I know she’s teasing. Yeah it was my birthday that night, but I couldn’t have cared less about that when I got to spend it with her.

“But it’s not technically my birthday yet,” I say, smiling as I take my beer from her.

“No, you’re right,” she says throwing our bottle caps on the table. “But this required some planning and I want to spend all of tomorrow with you, not organising this.” She takes off her jacket now, draping it over the back of the chair. “And anyway, by the time we’re done tonight, I’m sure it will be your birthday.”

She smiles at me again, only this time, it’s that same smile she gave me when she walked naked out of the bathroom weeks ago and climbed into our bed and on to my lap. Fucking sexy. I pull her towards me, one arm wrapped around her neck, the other still holding my beer, and I kiss her, hard. My mind is racing with possibilities now as I think about all of the things I can do with Ash, alone in this club.

She kisses me back but then laughs, pushing her hands against my chest. “Come on, we’re not done yet.”

“We can be?” I suggest teasingly.

She smiles again. “Nope, not quite.”

I hold my beer up to her instead, as I say, “Thank you, Asha.” She smiles at me as she taps her bottle against mine. “So, you gonna tell me where you disappeared to today?”

Ash just smiles like she’s got the biggest secret in the world and says, “You’ll see.”

I take another swallow of my beer and I’m about to see if I can kiss the information out of her when she says, “But right now, there’s something for you, up there.” She’s nodding her head towards the stage and when I turn, I see again the guitar case that’s sitting on the stool. I turn back to her. She smiles as she says, “Yes, for you, Luke, go and see what it is.”

I put my drink down on the table and am about to go over when Ash suddenly stops me. “Oh hang on, you’ll need this,” she says pulling a red guitar pick from her pocket and handing it to me. I take it from her fingers, pulling her hand to my mouth at the same time for a kiss. She’s smiling up at me and I can’t resist gently biting her thumb. I watch as her eyes darken before she gently pushes me towards the stage, laughing.

I turn and walk slowly over there, wondering how the hell she could know what kind of guitar to get me. I half wonder if it’s my old one and it’s somehow been be repaired, but when I get closer I see the case is brand new. I turn back to look at her and she just smiles and nods, so I take the two steps onto the stage and walk towards the stool. When I reach the case I’m pretty sure I actually stop breathing and when I open it, I know my heart stops.

“Asha…” I breathe out, turning to face her. She’s smiling up at me as she stands there, hands in her pockets, watching me. I’m half tempted to just walk back off this stage and pull her into my arms because I cannot believe what she has done here.

“Happy birthday, Luke,” she whispers. “Will you play something for me?”

I’m literally speechless at the gift she’s bought me. It’s the Gibson Les Paul Signature acoustic I wanted. It is it exactly, in the custom black colour and everything. I can’t fucking believe it. This is something I’ve had my eye on, something I’ve wanted for months, many, many months, long before my other one got damaged. Only one other person knew I wanted this, only one other person knew this even existed for me and it wasn’t Ash.

“Beautiful girl, what have you done?”

“You like?”

“Asha,” I groan. “Fuck, I love it, I seriously love it. How did you know?” My fingers are moving over the strings, daring me to pick it up and see what it feels like in my arms. I’m completely, unbelievably amazed by what’s in front of me, by what she has bought, for me. I turn back and look at her. She’s standing there, smiling at me. She looks so beautiful in the dim lights of the club, just like she did a year ago when we were here.

“Asha,” I say again. “How did you know?”

She walks towards me, stopping at the edge of the stage. “Like I said, a few people helped me out.”

She’s smiling up at me and I have to walk over. When I reach her, I crouch down and press my lips to hers, my hand gently holding her chin. “Thank you, beautiful girl, thank you so very much, I love it.” I kiss her again. “I can’t believe it. You have no idea how long I’ve wanted this guitar.”

Her smile is bigger as she says, “You’re welcome, and yeah Jared might have mentioned something about it. Will you play something for me?”

I smile as I lean in and kiss her once more. “What would you like to hear?”

She runs her hand lightly over my head and down my cheek to my neck. My heart melts at her touch and I want to wrap my arms around her. “The newest one, the one you just finished, for me,” she says shyly.

“The newest song I wrote for you?” I ask. When she nods I quickly kiss her again and say, “Absolutely.”

I walk back to the stool and pick up my new guitar, throwing the strap over my shoulder. I decide not to plug it in to the amp because it’s just us in here and I won’t need to. So I take a seat on the stool, facing Ash. I see the microphone in front of me but move it to the side. I won’t need that either. Looking down at her with a smile on my face, I watch as she sits down and waits for me to start.