an Everlasting Pursuit

sixty eight

That night, I lay in bed, unable to succumb to sleep. But I could feel it tugging at my mind, tempting me to take its hand and fall into its depths. Asra was breathing softly beside me, his shoulders rising and falling with every breath.

I sighed, rolling over to face him. There was so much distance between us. I could feel my body buzzing to be closer. The temptation to just touch him grew too strong. I shifted slightly, my head at the edge of my pillow. He was inches away now. I could smell the freshness of his clean skin from the shower.

After he had groomed me in the shower, he quickly washed himself. He watched me like a hawk, his dark blue eyes following my every movement like he knew I was going to escape. I wrapped a towel around my body, watching him cautiously as he began to dry himself. I preferred to drip dry, only drying the necessary parts. Asra ran the towel through his dark hair before gliding it over every curve of his body. I had watched him through the mirror as I applied creams to my skin, courtesy of Piper's help previously.

We dressed in silence and before I knew, here I was. Struggling to sleep and agitated by every ray of moonlight that dared to peek at me through the smallest gap in the curtain. My agitation only grew when my mind locked onto the noise of a clock ticking. With every passing minute, I felt my anger boiling.

Pushing myself from the bed, I discarded the duvet and headed straight to the spot where the ticking was the loudest. The clock was small, sat above the door that lead to the bathroom. I grunted, knowing I couldn't reach it. Being quiet left my mind as I grabbed a nearby chair and placed it beneath it. Climbing the chair, I took hold of the clock and grinned manically down at it.

"This is what you get." I sneered, my reflection grinning back at me.

Turning it over, my fingers fought the clasp at the back before finally revealing the hidden treasure. Pulling the battery from its case, I raised my arms in a silent cheer of success when the clock stopped ticking. Exhaling heavily, my shoulders sagged, and I closed my eyes. Taking a moment for inner peace, I savoured the silence.

"Do I want to know why you are standing on top of a chair in the middle of the night?"

I opened my eyes, looking over my shoulder to find Asra sat up in bed. He watched me with amusement. His eyebrow rose despite the tiredness in his eyes.

"I'd hardly say it's the middle of the night..." I rolled my eyes, glancing at the recently deceased clock. "It's eleven o'clock."

He chuckled softly, shaking his head. "Once you have done murdering time pieces, get back into bed."

I snorted, agreeing with a nod of my head. Slowly getting down from the chair, I place the clock on the bedside table before crawling back into the sheets. I sighed when the warm cotton slid across my body, wishing that it was cool to be satisfying on my skin. My tired head hit the pillow and once again, I found myself staring up at the ceiling with disdain.

Rolling over with more protest, I barely got the chance to set my head back down when an arm wrapped around my waist. I inhaled sharply when Asra pulled me to his front, pressing his body into mine. I held my breath, my body coated with shock.

Despite having slept next to him for a while now, we had never been this close. Perhaps in sleep, but all the times I woke, we had been on our respective sides of the bed. Feeling the hardness of his body against my back was enough to have my heart racing.

One of my plans to last the next two weeks was to not let him get close in bed!

I was about to wriggle out of his hold when he released a deep growl that had goosebumps rising on my arm. It vibrated my back, my body going tense.