BEYOND

CHAPTER 1: LOST FEELING

I dedicate this story to a disabled angel gone too soon. 💕

*ASHER'S POV*

March 9, 2020.

Before I even opened my eyes, I knew something wasn't right about today.

A lost feeling that caught up with me faster than consciousness. It came from everywhere and nowhere at the same time as I stirred my body, but from my toes to my fingers, there was nothing more than a dull soreness, which my brain was too groggy to process.

Whatever it was, it could wait a few more hours. I was already leaning towards going back to sleep, turning on my side with my hand reaching out as always, only to end up flat on the cold and empty mattress.

The lost feeling. Now, I felt where it came from, and I was awake.

"What's the fuck?" My heavy eyelids opened too fast to check under the comforter, like I could have missed the plump curves. But even through the dots of blackness, it didn't take me long to come to the conclusion.

Spot already chill, comforter back in its place, daylight barely peeking through the closed shutters, and just a hint of sex scent remaining in the air.

I had enough years of practice to know how far she could be by now, and the possibility pulled me on my feet in less than three seconds as I grabbed my boxers on the alarm clock, almost tripping on a bra on my way out of the bedroom.

Though not even that could draw me a smirk. My jaw was only getting tenser, the more I crossed clothes scattered everywhere, the more I walked through the hallway, until I reached the light at the end of the three steps separating me from the living room and...

Here they were, these thick thighs my hands had been searching for, now clad in ripped jeans as she was kneeling in the middle of the room.

"Trying to sneak out?" I asked, the question seething through my gritted teeth, almost as much as it did inside, when Althea jumped, turning to me.

"Oh, baby, you scared me!" Her doe eyes found my figure leaning by the doorframe before she even readjusted the glasses on her nose.

Then it was her sweet, peachy perfume reaching me before she even joined me, and finally, her slim fingers on my naked chest. But I pulled away before she could lean on her tiptoes.

"No, of course not. I just wanted to let you rest a little bit more for your big practice today, and you needed it after last night..." She trailed off, her smooth purr echoing the rest in the silence.

At least, until my flat tone cut it off. "So you're still going?"

I didn't acknowledge her words, nor her coy smile. I couldn't.

So I kept my attention on the item she'd been kneeling in front of when I'd walked in, its gray shade attracting my glare among all the colors around.

"Yes, I think we've agreed about it last night."

"Agreed?! That's how you're doing now? You think fucking me will solve that?"

Clearly not because that suitcase was still there, half zipped up, like our fate.

"Do I need to remind you you're the one who jumped on me?" she retorted calmly, too calmly as she nodded to the wall beside us, where I'd taken her, rough and fast, and seeing her pursed lips, I was tempted to do it again, hear her crying out my name rather than her quiet hostility.