But for now that didn’t matter. That was the least of her problems. It was time to finally tell her parents the truth that Devon was alive. She would do so when she returned home. Hopefully, after hearing the complete story, they would understand why she needed more time with Devon, without their interference. Again, she could see her father understanding, but her mother, not so much. It would take her father to handle Imogene, and it seemed her father was still doing so. Ashley was glad of that.
More than anything, Ashley was a woman intent on fighting for what she remembered, even if Ray didn’t, as a love and romance of a lifetime.
The sound of the shower being turned off reached her ears. Moments later the door opened and there her husband stood, naked. He hadn’t even taken the time to wrap a towel around his waist. He stood there unashamed, straight, tall and masculine, in all his glorious splendor. For a moment, seeing him made her feel light-headed with love.
He said nothing as he stood there and looked at her and all kinds of sensations curled her stomach, with potent need lapping close behind. She was certain if he touched her right now, she would incinerate. On the other hand, if he didn’t, she was liable to die right here and now.
He began walking toward her with that Devon Ryan strut that Ray Sullivan now owned so well. It had to be the sexiest walk ever made by a man. Definitely the sexiest one she’d ever seen. Hands down. He came to a stop in front of her, his knees touching hers, causing shivers to pass through her.
He reached out his hand to her and she took it. Meeting his gaze, she cleared her throat. “Dinner is ready if you want to eat first.”
He shook his head and said in a deep, husky voice, “Dinner can wait. I’d rather make love to you now.”
And she wanted to make love to him. “All right.”
He tugged on her hand and pulled her from the chair. Because he didn’t step back, her body was pressed against him. She could feel every fine muscle on his body. Every hard plane. And she could definitely feel his erection pressing hard against her middle. Right there at the juncture of her thighs.
She beamed at him and that was as far as she got. He swept her off her feet and into his arms to carry her over to the bed. He placed her on it and joined her there, taking her mouth with an urgency she felt all through her body.
Ashley was convinced there was something about making love with Ray that made her want to extend herself, be open to all sorts of ideas. Although some were things she’d tried with Devon, thanks to Ray’s loss of memory, he had no recollection of them. Like the use of her mouth on his body. Tonight she wanted to concentrate on his taste.
He whipped her nightie off in a flash and she rose up on her knees to grip powerful shoulders, needing to mate her mouth with his. He was a great kisser, and in return, she was using her tongue to show him how much she enjoyed having his inside her mouth.
Whenever they made love, the union was intense and left her needing more and wanting to give more. There was only so much she could take, and when she pulled back from the kiss, he wouldn’t let up. Now he was trailing hot, wet kisses along the side of her neck and licking her skin in a way that had her moaning his name.
Then she did something she knew he didn’t expect; she pushed him on his back and hovered over him. Before he could switch their positions, her mouth was there, on his chest, licking her way down toward his belly. She didn’t have to look up to see the deep, hot intensity in his eyes. She felt it and her breathing quickened.
She knew what she wanted and where her mouth was headed. Parts of her felt thrilled at the prospect. She and Devon had long ago decided that their bedroom was their sanctuary, a place to worship each other’s bodies and stimulate each other’s minds. Each time she and Ray made love, she hoped he was getting more and more comfortable with the thought that with her nothing was taboo if the couple agreed on it.
It had been like that with the quickies they’d engaged in whenever the mood hit, which seemed quite a bit. Or the orgasms during their kisses when pushed over the edge. She’d tried exposing him to her sexual greed in moderation, and it wasn’t long before she’d discovered that, just like Devon, Ray was a generous bed partner, one open to new ideas. They had tried new positions for their pleasure, thrilling them both.
But she had yet to taste him as Ray Sullivan.
Her mouth had known every inch of Devon’s body, was well familiar with the taste of his skin, and she wanted the same with Ray. A shiver of anticipation raced through her.
Still licking his chest, she reached down and took his engorged hardness in her hand, immediately liked the way it felt. His moans reached her ears and she knew he liked her touching him there. Her mouth traveled lower and she licked around his navel a few times.
Slowly, she lifted her head up and looked into his eyes before she captured his manhood with her mouth.
He moaned when her tongue glided over him, loving the texture of his skin and his manly aroma. And she loved running her fingers through the thatch of curls that encased his erection. He was perfect in every way and he was hers.
She felt his hands in her hair while her mouth worked him. For her, this intimate act was just a way to let him know she craved every inch of him.
When his hand tightened on her head, she tried locking her mouth down on him, but he wouldn’t let her. He jerked her up, and in a quick-fire move, now she was the one on her back with him staring down at her. The look in his eyes was hot and blazing.
So he’d know what to expect, she whispered, “Next time I want the entire shebang and not just a sample taste.”
Instead of saying anything, he held her hands over her head in a tight grip as he angled himself in the perfect position above her. Then he eased down and their gazes held as his erection slid between her womanly folds that were already wet for his entry.
“Ray...”
He continued to stare down at her and she found herself becoming lost in the depth of his dark eyes. He kept going, pressing hard, sinking deeper, and her body was reacting to him being so fully embedded inside of her.
Then he began thrusting, pulling almost out and then plunging hard into her again and again. Over and over he continued, establishing a rhythm she quickly adjusted to. She deliberately flexed her inner muscles, intent on pulling everything she could out of him. He increased the pace, quickly driving her over the edge.
He threw his head back as he continued to ride her as if his very life depended on it. Whether he realized it or not, he was surrendering his all to her each time they made love and her body accepted his capitulation with all the love in her heart.
When his body jerked into an orgasm, hers followed. He released a loud groan at the same time she did and she could feel the heat of his semen filling her core and plunging her deeper and deeper into earth-shattering climax.
The scent of sex filled the air, and as her body released her from what seemed to be never-ending spasms, he lowered his face toward hers and took her mouth in a hunger that pushed her into another orgasm.
And she pushed him, and once again, they experienced another explosion together, knowing before daybreak, there would be many more. She had three years to make up for.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
RAY’S CELL PHONE rang the moment he walked inside his house. He’d only intended to be here for a minute, just long enough to use the clippers to shape up his beard. He and Ashley had plans to join Sawyer and Vashti for dinner.
Pulling the phone off his belt, he glanced at the number and didn’t recognize the caller but decided to answer it anyway. With LaCroix as a solid investor, he had the funds to lease more dock space. There was a chance the caller was someone from a company he needed to talk to.
“Ray Sullivan.”
Although Ray could hear breathing on the other end, the caller didn’t say anything. He repeated, “This is Ray Sullivan.”
“Yes,
this is Kurtis Blaylock. I got your message through Your Legacy. Sorry for the delay. I’ve been out of the country.”
Ray nodded. It had been close to a week and he’d figured the man wouldn’t be calling. “I appreciate you getting back with me.”
“No problem, but there must be some mistake because I don’t have any living relatives. I paid for the full package, but really I only wanted my DNA results for my ethnicity breakdown and nothing more. I wasn’t looking for long-lost relatives because I don’t have any.”
Ray sat down at the kitchen table. “What makes you think you don’t have any living relatives?”
“Because I don’t. My parents died a few years back. My father didn’t have any siblings, nor did he have any other children. My mother had one younger brother. He and his wife had a son who was killed about three years ago. He was my only cousin.”
About three years ago? Ray’s breath began coming out rapidly and he quickly fought to even it out. “What happened?”
“Car accident.”
Ray swallowed. “And there was a body?”
Kurtis Blaylock didn’t answer for a minute. “Why do you need to know that?”
It was obvious the man was suspicious of his motives, so he knew the best way to handle things to get the answers he sought was to be honest. “I woke up in the hospital almost three years ago badly beaten and with amnesia. I couldn’t remember anything, including my name. I know that might sound far-fetched, but I’m telling the truth. If I need to, I can put you in touch with the doctor who treated me when I finally came out of my coma in Chicago.”
“Chicago? Coma?”
“Yes, I was in a coma for three weeks. I’m told I was airlifted from a place called Tulip, Indiana, to Chicago because they had a better medical facility there to treat me.”
“Wow, I’m sorry about that, man.” Then as if Kurtis Blaylock wanted to believe him, he said, “No, there wasn’t a body because the car went off the bridge into the Ohio River. Neither the car or a body was recovered. The family saw the accident on traffic videos. Devon had been speeding.”
“Devon?”
“Yes, Devon.”
He’d never thought the name Devon was common but evidently it was since that was the name of Ashley’s dead husband...who’d also been killed in a car accident when his car had gone off the bridge and into the Ohio River.
Ray’s heart began pounding in his chest painfully hard. The hairs on his arms rose. “Did he have a wife or children?”
Kurtis Blaylock didn’t say anything. Then as if he didn’t like where the lines of questions were leading, he said, “Look, man, I’ve told you all you need to know. There was a mix-up. I’m sure of it. You aren’t my cousin and I’m sorry Your Legacy made a mistake about there being a strong connection in our DNA. I wish you the best.” And then there was a click in Ray’s ear.
Ray wasn’t surprised. Even with his offer to put Blaylock in contact with his doctor, the man hadn’t felt comfortable telling him anything else when he inquired as to whether there had been a wife and children.
Ray honestly didn’t know what to make of what he’d been told. Should he disregard what Blaylock had said? Just believe that he didn’t know any more than he had before he’d received the call? Blaylock was convinced Your Legacy had made a mistake. Had they really?
And from the conversation he’d just had, Blaylock’s cousin, whose name was Devon, had been killed in a car accident. Just like Ashley’s husband. And then there was the mention of the Ohio River.
Ray wanted to believe there was no way there was a connection, but those facts just seemed too coincidental. Why was he suddenly seeing red flags? This would be something for someone with a cop’s mind to figure out. Someone like Sawyer.
Had he been hanging around Sawyer for so long that now he’d developed a suspicious mind? “Get real, Sullivan,” he muttered as he headed toward the bedroom to get his clippers. “You’re pulling at straws that are making you think crazy stuff. There’s no way any of this could be connected to Ashley and her not telling you if it was. Coincidences do happen and this is just one of those times.”
But still. There was the three-year time frame. The name Devon. The car going into the Ohio River. For some reason, those were three things he just couldn’t overlook. Instead of entering his bedroom, he made a right turn into his home office.
Sitting down at his desk, he turned on the computer. He searched Ashley’s name. Automatically, several Ashley Ryans came up with photos. He recognized his Ashley immediately.
His Ashley?
Telling himself it was curiosity and nothing more that pushed him to find out more about Ashley’s deceased husband, he checked for a Facebook and Twitter account for Devon Ryan and found nothing.
Remembering she’d once told him her husband was a staunchly professional businessman, Ray decided to try LinkedIn. He still didn’t find anything and concluded after three years if there had been any sites belonging to the man on social media, they would have been taken down by now.
He went to the website for StayNTouch. Most of the information he read he already knew because Ashley had shared it with him and he’d visited the site before. There were nice photographs of Ashley, the woman she’d told him about who was her partner and good friend, Emmie Givens, and members of her staff.
Ray leaned back in his chair, questioning what he was doing sitting here trying to research information about Ashley’s husband when nothing about the man had made him curious before. But no matter how hard he tried, he could not dismiss the goose bumps still rippling along his arms.
There was a link beneath one of Ashley’s photos that led to her bio. He clicked on it and read it. Again there was nothing printed that she hadn’t told him about. She was born in Kansas, graduated with a degree from Harvard, got married a year after graduation and was married five years to Devon Ryan. He read about the foundation she had established in her husband’s memory. The Devon Ryan Foundation. Now, that was something he hadn’t known about. Probably only because the topic never came up.
He searched for newspaper articles about Devon Ryan’s death, and within seconds an article from the Hardeeville Today appeared and with it was a photograph of Devon Ryan.
Ray suddenly felt the blood drain from his face at the same time his heart began pounding painfully hard in his chest. The photo staring back at him shared his likeness.
It was absolute. Unless Ray had a twin somewhere, he and Devon Ryan were the same man.
His guts suddenly clenched at what that meant and he suddenly recoiled at the thought of Ashley’s duplicity. For a minute he couldn’t move his fingers to click on the link to Devon Ryan’s obituary. It was as if Ray’s hands were frozen from shock.
For a minute it felt as if he couldn’t breathe and he fought to draw in a deep breath. His mind became jumbled with all kinds of questions. There was no way Ashley hadn’t recognized him, although he hadn’t remembered her. Why hadn’t she been truthful to him? Why had she played this getting-to-know-you game with him?
Anger, the intensity he’d never felt before for anyone, coiled in the pit of his stomach and he nearly knocked his chair over. He suddenly felt those earlier goose bumps replaced by sweat that ran cold and fast down his armpits. Anger was a new sensation with him. He’d gotten upset before but never filled with a degree of anger that quickly slipped into rage.
Ashley had lied to him. The first woman he’d allowed himself to fully trust in three years, a woman he’d fallen in love with, had played him. For what purpose, he didn’t know, but as he stormed out the room, out the house and to his truck, he was determined to find out.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
ASHLEY STOOD AT the mirror in her bedroom as she finished styling her hair. She was excited about tonight because it was the first time she and Ray would be joining another couple for dinner. Namely, Sawyer and Vashti.
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br /> Tonight they would be dining at the Lighthouse. The cove’s lighthouse turned restaurant was the place to dine but you had to make reservations weeks, sometimes months, in advance to get a table. Using his connections, Sawyer had managed to get their reservation for tonight.
She was excited. She and Vashti had become good friends and she knew how close Ray and Sawyer’s friendship was. Another reason she was excited was because of the conversation she’d had today with Dr. Riggins. She’d told him she felt that although Ray hadn’t committed to her in any way, she truly wanted to come clean and tell him the truth. At this stage of their relationship, she felt that he would be able to handle the truth without any setbacks.
Surprisingly, Dr. Riggins agreed, but only if she felt as strongly as she did that Ray had developed feelings for her, although he hadn’t stated them. Like Vashti had suggested, the reason he hadn’t committed might very well be the unknown wife. Removing that factor might be what Ray needed. More than anything, she wanted to believe that. She had selected a sexy dress for tonight, and then for later, she’d chosen an even sexier negligee.
When her phone rang, she recognized the ringtone. It was Devon’s cousin, Kurtis. Although there had been a four-year difference in their ages, Devon and Kurtis had always been close. Kurt had been best man at their wedding and had considered Devon more a younger brother than a cousin.
Kurt owned an international retail business and traveled a lot. More often than not, he spent more time at his place in Paris than he did in the States. He was probably calling to let her know he was back in the country. She hadn’t talked to him in about six months. He had been her pillar of strength after Devon’s death and had taken losing his cousin hard.
She clicked on the phone. “Hello, Kurt.”
“Ashley, how are you?”
“I’m fine. What about you?”
“Doing well. You’re still in Louisiana?”
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