Chapter 254: Penny
The kitchen is dim, lit only by the under–cabinet glow and the soft hum of the kettle. My legs are still a little wobbly a fact I pretend not to notice as I open the cupboard and grab the tin of jasmine tea.
Asher’s behind me, shirtless, sweatpants riding low on his hips, and looking very much like a man who just wrecked me in bed and then decided to make tea about it.
He reaches around me for two mugs that casual ease in his movement making my heart trip over itself – and brushes a kiss to the back of my neck in the process.
“You okay?” he asks quietly.
I nod, smiling to myself. “I’m great.”
He snorts. “Yeah. You look it.”
I roll my eyes, tossing a teabag into each mug and pretending I’m not still flushed. “Shut up.”
“Can’t,” he says, voice low, amused. “Too busy watching you float around the kitchen like I didn’t just—”
“Tea, Asher,” I cut in, trying not to laugh. “Focus.”
He raises both hands in surrender, the corner of his mouth twitching like he knows he’s already winning. The kettle whistles just then, so he turns away to pour the water, muscles shifting beneath his skin, the way they always do when he’s doing something mindlessly domestic. Like it’s second nature now.
Like this this whole thing is second nature.
–
I lean back against the counter and just… watch him. He’s talking now, distracted, telling me about his first real week on the job – the way his new office is still half–unpacked, how his team is made up of “mostly decent idiots,” and how his boss apparently thinks sarcastic commentary is a leadership style. I listen to the sound of his voice that rough, warm cadence I’ve come to associate with safety and wrap my fingers around the warm mug when he hands it to me.
He leans against the opposite counter, sipping his own tea, still talking.
–
And I’m not sure when it happens, but something shifts in the way I’m looking at him. Something goes
soft. Disbelieving.
Because I remember the first version of this man I met.
And he wasn’t standing in a kitchen at midnight, telling me about job logistics while I stood in one of his old T–shirts and barely anything else.
He stops mid–sentence – something about the prototype goggles they’re testing – and his eyes flick to mine. They narrow, but not in annoyance. It’s curiosity. Focus.
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Chapter 254: Penny
He sets his mug down on the counter behind him and, before I can process it, steps forward, slides one arm around my waist, and pulls me into his lap as he drops onto the stool by the island.
“Okay,” he says, voice low, lips brushing my temple. “I can see the wheels spinning. What are you thinking: about?”
I blink. Then smirk. “You’re annoyingly perceptive.”
“Years of military interrogation training,” he says. “You’re not that hard to read.”
I lean my cheek against his shoulder, settling in.
“It’s stupid.”
“Doesn’t matter. Tell me anyway.”
I sigh. “I was just thinking about… when I met you.”
His arms tighten a little around my waist, but he stays quiet.
“You were terrifying,” I admit, tracing my finger along the rim of my mug. “Like genuinely scary. You glared more than you spoke, and you got mad at me for walking home alone at night like I’d personally
offended your existence.”
He huffs a breath, but I can feel the tension in his chest now – like he knows what’s coming next.
“You didn’t care about the stuff I was into. You weren’t… gentle with me. And now we’re here. Making tea. Talking about your job. You pick me up from rehearsal like it’s second nature, like you’ve been doing it. forever. And we–well. You know.”
He makes a low sound in his throat – almost a laugh, almost not. Then he shifts me slightly so he can see
my face better.
“I wasn’t trying to be scary,” he says. “But I know I was. Part of it was that I could already feel myself
falling for you.”
My heart stumbles in my chest.
“And part of it…” He pauses, watching my face. “I’d just come back from the Navy. I was… broken. Still am. In pieces I don’t think I’ve figured out yet. And you were–God, Penny. You were this bright thing. It thought if I let myself near you, I’d ruin you. I didn’t think I had anything good left in me to give.”
I don’t look away.
“Didn’t think I could take care of you the way you deserved,” he adds, voice quieter now. “So I stayed cold. Distant. I thought if I kept you away, I couldn’t hurt you.”
My throat tightens, but I force a soft smile. “I remember thinking you were just being nice to me because.
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Chapter 254: Penny
Navy SEALS protect people for a living.”
He laughs, low and genuine, resting his forehead briefly against mine. “I guess we both weren’t thinking exactly straight.”
“I guess not,” I whisper.
We’re quiet for a while after that, just sitting there, letting the night stretch out around us.
I shift slightly, tracing lazy patterns on his chest, tracing the scars one by one. “But it’s kind of amazing, isn’t it?”
He tilts his head. “What is?”
“This.” I gesture loosely around the kitchen. “You and me. The fact that this feels normal now. That you can tell me about your job and I can talk about choreography and pointe shoes and you actually listen. Like you care. Like we live here. Like this is ours.”
He watches me for a beat, then lifts my hand to his mouth and kisses the back of it. “It is.”
—
—
and I swear I feel it all in that I lean in and kiss him slow, just a press of lips and breath and warmth second. Every version of us we’ve been. Every inch of ground we’ve covered to get here.
I pull back just enough to whisper, “I’m glad I didn’t listen when you tried to scare me off.”
He raises an eyebrow. “I was very convincing.”
“Mm. You were an idiot.”
He grins. “Still am. But now I have better tea.”
I smack his shoulder lightly. He leans forward and kisses me again anyway – this one lingering, full of unspoken things I don’t need to hear out loud anymore.
Because I already know.
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