the drowsy awareness that I was lying tangled up in Jane and my body was already hard for her.
Starting the day coming with her was a pretty fucking great way to start the day.
So, it was less than ideal to wake to the sound of raised voices filtering into the bedroom. As I became more conscious of it, I realized Jane was arguing with a guy.
My heart leapt and I pushed off the duvet, rolling out of bed to scramble into my jeans. Not even waiting to throw on a shirt, I marched out into the sitting room.
Jane and Asher Steadman turned from facing off to look at me.
What the fuck?
My fists clenched at my sides as I took a step toward them. “What the hell is going on?”
Asher didn’t seem as shocked to see me as I’d expect. He frowned at Jane. “Why didn’t you tell me we weren’t alone?”
“You’re not asking the questions here.”
That’s my girl. I strode to stand by her side, giving her my support. “What’s he doing here?”
“He came to apologize since I won’t answer his calls.”
“Can we not talk like I’m not here?” Asher glanced between us. “So, you and Jamie are back together?”
Shit. He knew me.
Jane gaped at him in shock, while I prepared myself for the extremely bad news that Foster Steadman knew I was hanging around.
“How do you know who he is?” Jane asked, stepping protectively closer to me.
Asher noted it. “Jane, my father doesn’t know.” He looked at me, all wide-eyed and innocent. I didn’t believe his good-guy bullshit for a second. “He doesn’t know you’re here, and he won’t know. But you have to back off.”
Oh no, he didn’t.
Jane grabbed hold of me as I made to step toward the spoiled bastard.
“Back off?” she huffed, putting herself between us.
I rested my hands on her shoulders as she continued, “Like you wanted me to when you sabotaged my attempts to take down your dad?”
Asher nervously licked his lips. “How can you think that I would ever deliberately hurt you? You have to believe in me, Jane, and know that when the time is right, all of this will make sense.”
“You lied to me.”
“I did.” He took an imploring step toward her. “But I love you.”
A low growl buried its way out of me before I could stop. “Take another step toward her and I’ll snap your fucking neck.”
Jane tensed under my hands as Asher eyed me.
Then something I didn’t quite understand crossed his face. He glanced at Jane, then back at me, and then back to Jane. “You think I don’t care about you … I do. I’d do anything for you.” He shifted his attention to me. “Jane and I were never together. I know you said some pretty horrible things to her when she came to see you two years ago because you thought we were sleeping together. We weren’t. We never will.” He took a deep breath. “I’m asexual. I love Jane very much, but I don’t have sexual feelings for her because I don’t have those feelings at all.”
Stunned, I slumped. “Why let the tabloids pretend you were dating, then?”
He looked at Jane and sadness tightened his expression. “Because when I tried to explain it to my mom, she told me I was just a late bloomer. And when I told my dad, he told me I was looking for attention, that I needed to act ‘normal.’ When I tried to push it with them both, Foster beat the shit out of me and called it ‘kicking the heterosexuality into me.’” Asher scoffed. “People aren’t just pricks to homosexuals, Jamie. It’s anyone who sits outside the boundaries of ‘heterosexual normality.’
“After that, I had to deal with a lot of shit from Foster. A lot of emotional abuse. I also figured out what he’d been doing to women long before Jane came along. I knew, and I know my father needs to be stopped, but when the tabloids put Jane and me together as a couple, Foster stepped off me. It was a relief. It was also a relief to have other friends stop questioning me about sex and dating. Whether they realized it or not, they made me feel like there was something wrong with me. I suffered from a lot of anxiety.”
His eyes dropped to Jane again, affection bright in them. “Until Jane. She didn’t mind going along with the lie that we were together.”
My immediate concern was Jane and how I would ever make