She let the heat of his kiss sweep her away. He leaned her back against his car, and tightened his hold on her. He kissed her with abandon, as if he would never see her again. An endless, wonderful passionate kiss that made Lucy’s toes curl inside her boots.
“Did I tell you I missed you?” He repeated his earlier words, and Lucy nodded.
“Yes you did. I missed you too,” she gave him a squeeze. “It seems that Martin is still all over Mindy like a nasty little rash.” She teased him, and Ash let out a groan.
“I know I think I might have to have words with her about that,” he said with a sigh, as he caressed her cheek softly.
“Are you ready to go? Do you have sunscreen on, and your backpack? What about water?” Lucy listed off the things that she had told him to bring.
“Yes, to all of the above.” He told her with a grin.
“Good, let's get going.” She went to walk away, but he wouldn’t let her budge.
“Belle?” He whispered, looking at her as though he desperately needed to tell her something.
“Hmmm?” She looked up at him expectantly, but he glanced quickly away.
“It doesn’t matter, let’s just go.” He muttered, tugging on her hand, and leading her back to the stables.
She frowned at him, but decided to leave whatever was bothering him alone for the time being. She quickly put Pepper’s saddle on, and Ash watched her keenly, offering to help, but knowing that he would be useless. She just shook her head, as she tightened the girth straps, before readjusting her bridle to sit more comfortably.
“So, you’ve never been on a horse?” Lucy asked him. He shook his head, looking increasingly nervous at the horse, who snorted and shook its head, “Alright, you can take Pepper. She tends to be a bit calmer than Thumper.” She handed him the reins to the bay she had just saddled.
He stared at the bits of leather in his hands, with no idea of what to do next. The horse seemed to send him a curious look, wondering what was taking so long, he guessed. Lucy had meanwhile loosened Thumper’s reins, and was in the saddle, before he even noticed how she got up there.
“Ah, little help?” Ash sent her a bewildered look, which she couldn’t help but chuckle at.
“You need to watch me,” Lucy got back down off Thumper, and went slowly through the motions. “Right, put your foot in the stirrup, and make sure you keep hold of the reins. Now, push yourself up with your other foot, and swing that leg…. aw, geez,” Lucy stopped explaining, only to laugh hysterically at his theatrics. All he managed to do was make Pepper stare back at him with a horsey frown.
“Hey, first time doing this, remember,” Ash pointed out in a disgruntled voice.
“Okay, watch me again.” Lucy pulled herself up into the saddle.
"I’m getting close.” He muttered, as he found himself halfway along the horse’s side.
“Do me a favour, and don’t give up your day job.” She chortled to herself, as she hopped down once again.
“Yeah, I wasn’t thinking about it.” He said dryly.
“Right, give me Pepper, and watch closely.” She told him, as she grabbed the reins from his hands.
She boosted herself up again, and he let out a loud wolf whistle. She peered down at him with a quizzical frown, before letting out a put upon sigh. His eyes appeared glued to her backside.
“Did you learn anything, or just watch my butt?” She scolded playfully.
“Hmmm, definitely the latter, but it’s not my fault.” He argued, his eyes mischievous, as he finally raised them to meet hers.
“So, what you're saying is that it's my butts fault?” She asked sarcastically.
“For sure! It shouldn’t look so damn appealing.” He told her with a waggle of his eyebrows, while he tapped said backside, as she got down off the horse.
“If that’s the way it’s going to be, then I will just stand back and watch your efforts,” she handed him back the reins, only to see him pout at her. She watched his efforts, and tried to stop her hilarity from bubbling over. “You know for such a fit guy, this shouldn’t be so hard.” She said between bouts of uncontrollable laughter.
“I'm glad that you’re finding this so very amusing.” He muttered.
When his t-shirt pulled up to reveal some nicely toned abs, Lucy stopped laughing, she almost stopped breathing. They had been together for a while now, but they seemed happily ensconced in the realm of kisses, and they hadn’t moved beyond that. She was glad that he wasn’t rushing her. He seemed content with things, which comforted her.
When he triumphantly almost made it, Lucy found that she was the one who couldn’t take her eyes of his marvellous looking backside. She teasingly returned his wolf whistle. He looked at her, and sent a smug smile her way, which she just winked at.
“You know you might want to watch your boys don’t get caught on the top of the saddle,” Lucy told him wryly, when she finally caught her breath.
“My boys? What are you talking about?” He asked with a chuckle, before letting out a hoarse moan, as his groin connected the entire wrong way with the saddle.
“Yeah, that’s what I was talking about. Are you alright?”
“Uh, no, obviously,” he managed to say through gritted teeth.
Lucy bit her lip to prevent the laugh that was threatening to overtake her, and failed miserably. She felt bad for him, but between his comical attempts at getting into the saddle, and his rolling around on the ground, she just couldn’t keep it in.
“Thanks, Belle.” He muttered, as he pushed to a sitting position, and winced.
“I’m sorry, Ash. Really I am,” she spluttered. “Do you want to quit? It’s okay if you do.” She reached out to ruffle his soft hair affectionately.
“No, I’m riding this horse today, sometime.” He told her with resolve, as he got to his feet to try again.
Lucy admired his determination, as he dusted himself off. She smiled, and pulled him in for a brief encouraging kiss, which led to a not so brief make out session. He had her pressed against the stable wall, kissing her madly, when a horse snorted into his hair scaring the life out of him.
“Holy heck!” He pulled away quickly. It took Lucy a moment to realise why, and when she did, she couldn’t help but laugh again.
“Poor, Pepper, I think we’re disgusting her. C'mon, let’s try again.” She said with a chuckle. Ash reached for her, and when she handed him the reins instead, disappointment flooded his face.
He turned back to the horse with a disgruntled expression, missing Lucy wrapped around him tightly. With a sigh, he tried to haul himself onto the horses back once again. This time he made it, not very gracefully, but he was at least sprawled on the horses back. He pulled himself into the saddle, and Lucy got back up on her horse that had been completely ignoring them.
“Alright, lesson number two: how to get the horse to move,” Lucy said with a chuckle, as she rode past him, while he just frowned at his horses back. “Use your knees, your reins and your stirrups.” She instructed, as she made a soft clicking noise to encourage Pepper to move.
The next hour was perhaps the funniest of Lucy’s life. From Ash leading Pepper into a continuous circle, until they both looked dizzy, to him toppling out of the saddle was all too much for her. Once they were out in the open, she trotted past him, teasing him at his lack of finesse. Eventually, his frustrations seemed too overwhelming, and she took mercy on him. She took his reins, and led them back to the stables.
“Okay, that is something you never need to try again,” Lucy reassured him, unable to contain her little snort of laughter.
“That was painful in so many ways,” Ash muttered to himself, looking a bit dejected, as he slid down off the horse's backs. “Ouch, why on earth are my legs so sore?” He moaned.
“Aw, come on, my poor baby. Let me just unsaddle these two, and then we’ll see about you, okay,” she said in a soothing voice, as she started organising the horses. When she was done, she led a limping Ash back into the house. She
was glad that nobody would be home until much later.
“Come in the kitchen, and I’ll see what we can whip up for lunch.” She said, and he hobbled in behind her.
“So, explain exactly why I am in so much pain?” He said with a wince, as he sat down on one of the bar stools next to the kitchen bench.
“Horse riding uses muscles that normally don’t get much use,” she answered with a grin, as she searched the fridge. “How about some ham toasties?”
”What is a toasty?” He looked at her rather perplexed, and she let out a snort of laughter.
“A toasted sandwich. How have you never had a toasty?" She asked in amazement, while he just shrugged.
“We always had a cook that organised our meals. I have had a toasted sandwich. I just didn’t know that’s what they were called,” he said with a shrug.
“You have lived a very strange life.” Lucy told him, as she pulled out the ingredients for the sandwiches.
“There's no doubt about that.” Ash agreed with her, before looking away. Lucy got the sense that he wanted to tell her something again, but he paused.
“Will you please just tell me whatever it is that’s bugging you?” She tried to catch his eye, but he avoided her, and looked at the ground.
“Uh, I guess it’s just all this Mindy stuff. I feel like such a fraud. It doesn’t help the outlandish things that she’s been saying. Reminds me of my ex.” He finished on a mutter, making Lucy frown.
“What that Yolanda girl?” Lucy asked curiously.
“Yeah, I guess I should explain some things about her.” He said awkwardly, as he pushed a hand through his hair.
There was silence in the room for a while. Only the noise of Lucy buttering bread, or opening cheese and ham packets sounded. She waited, feeling a bit on edge about what he was going to say. She knew the rumours, Penny had forced her to listen to everyone, but she didn’t know the truth.
She knew how far rumours often stretched beyond truth, straight from her mother. Anxiety began creeping in when he still sat there, and stared, seeming to mull things over. She placed the sandwiches into the machine, and turned back to him to find him watching her.
“Yolanda and I met at a concert of all places. She only ever knew me as Martin, and I never really wanted her to know about me, I guess. See being Martin never used to bother me, until her. My hair was always dyed and my contacts mostly in.”
He scrubbed a hand through his hair, until it looked in complete disarray. Lucy walked around the counter to face him, with a reassuring smile. She reached out a hand, and smoothed his brown hair back down, before grasping his chin, so he would meet her eyes.
“Does it bother you that I like Ash more than Martin?” She asked seriously.
“What? No! Hell no. You know me, you like me. I don’t have to hide with you like I did with her.” He told her just as seriously.
He pulled her closer to him. With him sitting on the stool, they were eye to eye and Lucy knew that he was telling her the truth. She let out a sigh, before breathing in his tangy smell, and giving him a hug.
“You know the apartment in the city?” He asked, as he toyed with the sleeve of her shirt.
“Yep, what about it?”
“Yolanda hated it. She thought the view wasn’t good enough, the furnishings weren’t up to her standards, and she would rather stay in the most expensive hotel that she could find.” He told her, and Lucy let out a snort of disbelief.
“She sure sounds like a piece of work. I loved that view; it was spectacular, and even better at night. Geez, who wouldn’t want a view like that, she’s nuts.” Lucy stated emphatically, making Ash chuckle.
“Yep, she is. Unfortunately, I only found that out when I broke up with her. I thought she was just fussy in the beginning, but she began to get more finicky as time went on.” He frowned deeply, thinking back to her. It only made him want to have Lucy closer, to make him feel more secure.
“All those things she said about you…” Lucy trailed off, while he grimaced.
“All lies. I think she said that I was dating five girls at the same time as her. She also mentioned that I was particularly dodgy in the, um, bedroom area. And how could I forget that she was having my baby.” Ash rolled his eyes, and Lucy let out a chuckle.
“Did she also come up with that twin one that I mentioned a while back? I thought that one was completely stupid. I even laughed when Penny got me to read it.” Lucy said, as she curled her fingers into his soft brown hair.
“Yeah, I don’t think anyone believed that one. That was when her stories began to fall apart. She got a bit desperate, and she told them that I was a heavy drug user and alcoholic. I don’t know why, but everyone was willing to believe that one.
“They hounded me, and told me that I had to go into rehab, even though I’d done nothing wrong. The only ones that believed me were George and Nick. My parents forced me to go into a rehab clinic, and I was furious that they wouldn’t listen to me. I went and told the doctors to test me for every drug possible. When they all came out clear, everyone was surprised, including my parents.
“Look I’m not saying that I didn’t party for a while, and get ridiculously drunk, but I never did drugs. I’ve seen too many people lose everything to that. I couldn’t forgive my parents for not believing me. You’ve probably seen the picture from when I walked out of that building.” He looked her dead in the eye, and she frowned for a second.
“Um, is that the one where you gave the bird?” She asked hesitantly, and he nodded at her words. “Man, you looked peeved in that picture.” She mumbled, as she let her fingers drift across his stubbly cheek.
She remembered seeing that picture, and that she had actually felt a bit sad for him. He’d had a furious expression plastered on his face, his middle finger in the air to the camera, while looking decidedly tousled. Now that she knew him, he would’ve looked that way because of his habit of running his hands through his hair when stressed. She now understood a lot more of Martin James peculiarities than she ever thought she would.
“I was. It was the fact they wouldn’t believe me,” he pulled her closer, and rested his forehead on her shoulder. “They all assumed because of my career that I should be a drug addict, just because my ex said I was,” his tone sounded unbelievably defeated, and Lucy’s tightened her arms around him.
“What did you do after that? I mean, for a while there, it seemed like you disappeared from the scene completely?” She asked curiously.
“Good to see that you were keeping an eye on me long before you met me.” He sent her a cheeky wink, coming back to himself, and she slapped him playfully across the shoulder.
“I only have one word for you, Penny. She was cut when you weren’t in magazines anymore,” Lucy chuckled at his disconcerted expression.
“That’s when I found this place here. I stepped back from Martin James, to just be me for a while.”
“And your parents?” He let out an inelegant snort at her words.
“I don’t know, or care. They have no idea that I bought this place, and I intend to keep it that way.” He finished simply.
“That’s a bit sad.” She said softly, while he just shrugged.
“It’s just the way it is. I can’t trust them anymore. If they had put me in rehab because I had a problem, then fine. They always knew my stance on drugs from the beginning.” He told her in a fiery voice.
A splutter of cheese sounded in the silence, and Lucy pulled away from him reluctantly, while Ash watched her go with a glum expression. He had chickened out on telling her what he meant too, not that he regretted telling her about his life at all. It was better that she knew the truth.
He had been debating over and over whether to tell her, or let it be a surprise, and now he’d blown the opportunity to tell her. He berated himself as an idiot for a few minutes, until she turned around to face him with a smile and a sandwich. She was fast becoming his world, and he was only hoping she wouldn’t freak out too much when sh
e found out.
Chapter 17 – A song for one
Lucy plopped onto the couch after Ash left. They had spent the rest of the day lounging on the couch watching television, and she had enjoyed herself immensely. She smiled to herself, before letting out a sigh. It seemed like it was finally time to tackle some assignments that she had been trying to avoid for a while.
Her focus on her work meant that she didn’t really hear Penny’s shout of delight. She did hear a melody, which sounded eerily familiar float through her walls. She frowned to herself, homework forgotten, as she wondered where she had heard that music before.
Her door banged open, startling her. She glanced up with a scowl, to see a grinning Penny, and instantly softened. There was nobody like her sister in this world. She always saw the best in things and people, she was easily excitable, and Lucy adored her.
“You need to listen to this. Martin James has a new song out, and it's fantastic.” Penny told her, while bouncing on her toes.
“He does?” Lucy asked in confusion.
Ash hadn’t mentioned anything about a new song to her, so her curiosity won out, and she let Penny drag her into her room. She baulked at all the pictures of Ash, who stared back at her with those intense green eyes that appeared fake. Now that she knew they were, all these posters seemed surreal.
“Listen to this.”
Penny sat on her bed, and Lucy sat next to her, as she pressed play. Now, she recognised the melody. Ash played that when she had detention, on the first day back at school. It was beautiful, almost sending a shiver across her nerve endings. When his voice rung out, it took a second for Lucy to take in the words, and when she did she froze up.
“I met her on the balcony
She broke into my room
Like she broke into my heart
Her smile brightens my day
Her kisses like a warm summer breeze
Her laughter ringing like a bell
“Oh, my, God.” Lucy managed to say around numb lips.
Her heart thundered in her chest like mad, and she wasn’t sure how to feel. She felt completely blown away. Shock filled her, which melted into an engulfing warmth that threatened to overwhelm her.
I Met Her On the Balcony Page 17