All The Truths (Lies & Truths Duet #2) by Rina Kent

“Small price to pay, I guess. Besides, I wouldn’t have given my virginity to a stranger.”

He pauses, and I pause, too, realizing what I just admitted.

Asher took my virginity. Fucking hell.

“I didn’t know that.” His brows furrow. “You didn’t bleed or anything. You weren’t in pain either.”

I shrug, my cheeks heating. “Because it didn’t hurt.”

At that point, I’d wanted Asher for so long, having sex with him had become my favorite fantasy, so when it actually came true, I couldn’t keep up with the fact that it was better than any fantasy I could’ve had.

Of course it didn’t hurt; I was too aroused for that.

He picks me up in his arms and cuts the distance from the hotel’s living room to the bedroom. I squeal as he throws me on the bed in pure caveman fashion. My heart stammers loud and hard as I lie on my back. Asher yanks down my jeans, and I grip his arm. “W-wait.”

“I’ve waited long enough. I’m not waiting anymore.”

“Let me call my security—they’ll come up if I don’t.”

He groans in disapproval but throws me my bag. “You brought them for Jason?”

“As I said, I wasn’t interested in anything but talking with him.”

Which clearly isn’t the case with Asher.

It takes me a second too long to retrieve my phone with my trembling fingers and dial the head of my security, Gaige.

“Miss Reina.”

Asher doesn’t break eye contact as he pulls his T-shirt over his head, revealing his sculpted abs. The tattoo ripples over his bicep as he reaches down to his pants and undoes the button, agonizingly slowly. Then he pushes his jeans and boxer briefs down his legs in one go.

Oh, God.

He’s hard, thick, and ready. My own thighs clench in anticipation.

“Miss Reina?” Gaige’s gravelly voice pulls me out of the strip show.

“Uh, yes. I’m good, Gaige. I’m spending the night with Asher. You can go back.”

“We’ll stay here, too.”

“It’s okay.” I try not to sound breathy. “Nothing can happen to me here.”

And I mean it. I feel safer than ever when I’m with this infuriating but deeply wounded man.

I’m wounded, too, have been since childhood, and being with him has given me the hope I’ll be able to heal.

We’ll be able to heal each other.

“Very well, Miss Reina. I’ll stay just in case. Call me if anything happens.”

Asher is stalking toward me and I couldn’t focus on anything even if I tried. “Uh…yeah. Good night, Gaige.”

I tap the hang-up button and push the phone and bag away.

“So you were a virgin, huh?” He crawls toward me, his hard thighs on either side of me.

He drags my jeans and panties down my legs in one ruthless go, and I fumble with my jacket and camisole. The straps get stuck in my hair and I nearly rip the strands out. It’s Asher who untangles it and unclasps my bra, letting it fall to the pile of clothes on the floor.

With a push, I end up propped up on my elbows as his body hovers over mine. The position is so intimate and…right. This is how Asher and I were always supposed to be.

“Answer me,” he grunts near my mouth, hovering but not kissing.

The tease.

“I was.” My breathing catches as I confess. “And you are the only one, Ash.”

“The only one?”

“Yes. No one before you or after you. I know it for a fact.”

Both his palms cage my face as he lowers his forehead to mine. “I thought I was the only one so hopeless for you.”

“I was hopeless for you, too, Ash.” I inhale his sandalwood and citrus scent, taking in his murmured confessions.

All of him.

The fact that he’s Cloud003, the one who knows all my secrets and still wants me anyway, the fact that he wanted to hate me but he couldn’t help coming back every year to be with me.

I inhale it all.

“You were my first and only, too, Reina.”

My lips part, my heart flipping and thumping. “But you were in England and…oh, my God. Wait. You were a virgin?”

“At eighteen. How fucking pathetic is that?” He smiles but there’s no humor behind it. “I guess I’m lucky you were too drunk to notice.”

“Ash…”

“You were the only girl I wanted to kiss since I learned what kissing is and the only one I wanted to fuck since I learned what fucking means. All the others were nothing compared to you. I couldn’t even get hard at the sight of them, and that didn’t change when I went to England. Every time I felt the urge, I pulled out your picture or thought of the nights we had together and jerked off to them. I might have wanted to ruin you, but I could never stop the need to own you, too.”

Asher’s forehead remains connected to mine. With every word out of his mouth, my breathing turns deeper and shallower, harder and faster.

We weren’t even in an actual relationship and he hated me, but he still remained faithful to me.

He didn’t consider the other girls because he couldn’t stop thinking about me.

“I never wanted any other man but you, and I never will.” I wrap my arms around his neck. “You ruined me for everyone else.”