Ash's Darling | ✔

Chapter 16

~Esther~

I woke up to the sound of Ash's voice just outside his bedroom talking on the phone. "They seriously don't have time to do it? That's their job. Not mine. My job is just to bring people in and they do the rest."

I slowly opened my eyes and quickly closed them again as the sun shone into my eyes. I should've closed the curtains last night. I rolled onto my stomach, ignoring the pain from the bruise and buried my head in the pillows, effectively blocking out the sun.

"Fine, fuck it. I'll do it, just give me an hour." Ash seemed to end the call and I heard his footsteps come back in the room and lay back down next to me, gently pulling me towards him.

I lifted my head and gently kissed his neck as I was too far away to reach his lips. "Is everything okay?"

He sighed as he answered. "I have to go to the police station in a little while to interrogate the guy I brought in yesterday because apparently none of their teams have time to do it."

"When will you be back?" I'll probably be sleeping until he gets back anyway but I wanted to know just in case.

"I'm not sure, interrogating can take all day if the guy doesn't cooperate."

"Oh ok. Is it okay if I stay here while you're gone?" I didn't want to go home right now, I knew my mom would still be angry with me and if she wasn't she would at least ground me for having an attitude yesterday.

Ash took a while before he answered and I was sure he was going to tell me he didn't want me here anymore and I needed to go home, but his answer surprised me. "Do you want to come with me?"

"Really? You'd want me there?" I was shocked that Ash wasn't tired of me yet as we had been together almost all day yesterday and part of the day before that.

"Of course, darling. I hate it when you're not around me."

I smiled at his answer and nodded. "Then, yeah, I'd love to come with you."

"Go get ready, we need to be there in a little less than an hour."

I hopped out of bed and ran towards the bathroom so I could start getting ready and quickly regretted it. My bruise was a little better today but quick movements, like running, still hurt.

I braced myself on the bathroom counter trying to let the pain subside before I did anything else. "Are you okay, Mae? What happened?" Ash walked up to me and looked all over me, looking for any obvious injuries.

"I'm okay, I shouldn't have run, though. It somehow hurt my bruise."

"Can I check it?"

I nodded and lifted the bottom of my shirt so he could see it. Like I had thought, the bruise wasn't as dark as it was last night but it was still quite noticeable. Ash gently picked me up and set me on the counter, catching me off guard. I dropped my shirt back down to cover my bruise as I squealed. "Ash! You could warn a girl before you pick her up, you know!"

He smiled and gave me a short kiss. "Sorry, darling. Don't move." He walked to the other side of the bathroom, towards a cabinet and opened it. I didn't know what he was looking for but after a minute he seemed to find whatever it was. Walking back over to me, he opened the small bottle and squeezed a gel onto his finger and lifted up my shirt again.

"What is that?" I asked as he carefully started rubbing it on my bruise.

"It's Arnica gel. It should help with the pain and get rid of the bruise." He spread the gel over a bad part of my bruise and I winced but tried to hide it. I realized my attempt to hide the wince didn't work as Ash stopped and looked up at me. "I'm sorry, darling. I promise it'll be worth it soon." He rested his forehead on mine as he quietly continued. "I'm sorry, I know it hurts." The tone of his voice sounded broken, almost like this was hurting him too.