Tremble

Round and round, he would circle her, his eyes dragging over every pivot and curve of her body as she wrapped her arms around her chest to feel more covered, even though she was. He made her uneasy, they both knew that much. She was afraid of him, genuinely afraid of him – that of which called her towards his lanky figure. It was all of it, the accent, the eyes, the fingers, the height, but above all his voice. It was slow, the perfect pitch between soft and deep. He knew it sent a chill over her skin, those small round bumps pushing through the skin to his delight. The sound of his shoes hitting against the wood flooring echoed both through her mind and through the house. This alone scared her.

“I just…” she paused to clear her throat, add some sort of power to her voice. “I just don’t understand you, Ash.”

He laughed, it echoed through the room like music. Though, when he spoke, his voice came out with demand, threatening in a way that neither really understood besides the power of intimidation. “And who says you’re supposed to?”

Kade stared at him, her foot spinning slowly so as not to break the eye contact of his dark orbs. Her hazelnut brown eyes took on a hint of frustration. “Then why did you want me to come here?”

Asher spun on his heel and stopped to angle his eyes down on her, the dark grey hues challenged her in a way that was more than actually wanting the answer. “Riddle me this, Kade. Why did you want to come here? What did you think you’d accomplish by showing up? A piece of mind or a peace in mind?”

“Neither.” She spoke slowly, the word dragged from her lips as she tried to pry her eyes away from the shadowy iris. “I thought I would just understand you in some way.”

He released one laugh quickly, it slipped with carelessness as his eyes looked over her hazelnut hair, admiring silently how it matched her eyes. “Now, why would you want to know a thing like that?”

His footfalls echoed as he made a slow beeline towards her, her heart hammering to the time of the echoes. As he rounded nearer, her voice moved through unmoving lips, “Because you scare me.”

His fingers reached out and gripped her clothed shoulder, pushing her back into the wall as his fingers curled around the cotton-soft fabric. Her head tipped back to look up as her shallow breathing became rapid and nearly silent. His voice fell out through clenched teeth; a curling wicked smile hit the edges of his mouth. “Good.”