She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out, only a soft little moan.
“This will end when it’s time. We both know that.” He cupped the back of her head and drew her close. “But that time is not right now,” he whispered against her mouth before kissing her.
The phone ringing reminded him that they were at her place of employment. Colton released her so she could answer. He waited while she took an order, running his fingers beneath her shirt along the bare skin of her lower back.
After she’d hung up the phone, she turned to him. “So, what are you suggesting? A friends-with-benefits thing until you leave?”
“I suppose that’s what I’m suggesting, yeah.”
“And then it’s goodbye?” she asked, as if wanting to make sure he knew what was what.
“Yep. Then it’s goodbye.”
She shut her eyes and inhaled deeply. He just knew her mind was working behind those closed lids.
Meanwhile, her body swayed against him, leaning into his touch, melting into him in a way that felt too damn good to say goodbye.
“Okay,” she said softly. “Deal.” She stuck out her hand to seal it.
He took her hand and pulled it around his waist, bringing her close and kissing her soundly—a much better way to seal a deal—before heading back around the other side of the counter. Just before the door, he called, “Oh, and you’re coming with me to Gloria’s dad’s wedding next week.”
“I’m already going,” she replied. “We’re doing the flowers, and I’m the photographer.”
“That may be, but just to be clear, you’re also going with me.”
* * *
BACK AT HER father’s place, Ashley opened the file named CC Cowboy—a not so subtle code for Colton Cross—and scrolled through the images, all forty-seven of them. Out of them all there were three that were her absolute favorites.
The first was Colton riding across the yard, the mountains in the background, the sun shining behind him creating a halo effect around him. An angel? That so did not describe Colton, and yet the image made him appear otherworldly, like some warrior god. She opened her next favorite. This one was taken when he didn’t know she was there. Colton was standing in the back of a truck, his shirtsleeves rolled up and the collar unbuttoned as he forked hay. She enlarged the image, touching her computer screen where the muscles on his arms stood out. Those strong arms had been around her last night and the night before. That hard body had lain naked on top of her. Had made love to her.
All those muscles were hers to touch and kiss and lick and—oh, God—she could not get enough of his body.
She skipped to the next image—which was her favorite—of Colton sitting by the swimming hole, looking off into the distance, a blade of grass in his mouth. He just looked...like a cowboy. Stoic. Thoughtful. Timeless.
In this image Colton wasn’t the cocky bull rider with the mischievous grin; he was a man who had deep thoughts and complicated desires.
He was way more than Ashley had ever given him credit for.
“That’s a nice shot.”
Ash spun around. Brandi stood inside her room checking out the enlarged image on her computer screen. Ash snapped the laptop shut and stood up, blocking her computer as if the image was still visible. “What are you doing here?”
“Um, in case you’ve forgotten, I live here, too.”
“Yeah, well, this is my room.” God. She needed to get out of Half Moon. This was the same fight she and Brandi had been having since they’d moved into separate bedrooms in the fifth grade.
“Seriously, Ash. I was trying to compliment you. That picture of Colton is really good.”
“Right.”
Making a growly sound, Brandi turned to walk out. At the door she paused and turned once more. “You know, I came in here to apologize to you.”
“I highly doubt that.”
“It’s true.” She laughed bitterly. “I actually came in here to tell you I was wrong. But, never mind.”
Before Brandi got down the hall, Ash called, “You? Admitting you were wrong? I’ve got to hear this.”
“Why should I when you’re being such a bitch?”
Ash cringed. She hated who she was being right now. “Hey, Brandi,” she called. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why we have to do this all the time. We’re grown women acting like poorly behaved teenagers.”
Brandi stopped halfway down the hall before turning. “Some habits are hard to kick.” Motioning with her head toward Ash’s room she said, “Particularly when we’re both still trapped in this place.”
Did Brandi feel trapped, too? This was news to Ashley.
“All I wanted to say...” Brandi said, sighing with resignation, “was that I was wrong about you and Colton.” She waved toward the computer. “Obviously.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. So, I’m sorry for being so...”
“So mean-girlish?”
Brandi shrugged. “Whatever you want to call it.” She scuffed her boot along the floor. “I was just really surprised. That’s all.”
“Why? Why does everyone find it so surprising that Colton and I hooked up?”
Wryly, Brandi said, “I know way too many guys like Colton Cross. A bunch of players, all of them. They don’t settle down, their lifestyle won’t let them, plus they don’t want to.”
“Yeah, well...”
“A different woman in every town.” She paused to study Ashley. “Kids by different mommas in every other state.”
“Brandi.”
“I’m serious.”
Ash shrugged. “Well, it’s not like that, anyway. We’re just messing around. For now.”
“Okay.” Brandi backed out of the doorway. “I just never pictured you with someone like him. So...be careful.”
“Be careful of what?”
“Getting too attached. It doesn’t matter how cool you think you can play it, once you have sex with a guy like that, it’s hard not to fall in love a little.”
Ashley watched her sister go down the hallway to her own bedroom. Her skin felt tight. Her stomach was making weird little rumbly noises and her throat felt itchy. Either she was coming down with something or it was already too late.
She was already way too attached to Colton.
“I am in trouble,” she whispered to herself.
* * *
IT WAS A beautiful day for a wedding, not that Colton liked weddings all that much. They always landed on the weekend when he’d rather be doing a million other things, and there was too much sitting around for his liking, too many public displays of affection. But the parties were usually pretty good.
This one was looking like it was going to be less exciting. It was a small gathering. Sage and Andy, Gloria’s dad, were in their sixties, not really the party types. Gloria was about to pop at any moment, so she and Dillon would be heading to bed early, and Colton and Dillon’s cousin Jamie—who was supposed to attend with his wife, Daisy, who was Gloria’s best friend—had had to cancel at the last minute. Like Gloria, Daisy was pregnant and the doctor had advised against travel because of high blood pressure.
Hence a snoozer of a party.
The upside of a quiet party was that he would be able to secrete away the lovely Miss Ozark and have his wicked way with her.
Seriously, he could not get enough of her.
Though he’d barely seen her today—she’d arrived early to help with the flowers, then she’d been tied up taking pictures, leaving no time for him. Didn’t matter, he had the rest of the evening all planned out. He’d untie those delicate strings that were holding up the top of her dress and kiss his way down her sweet little body. How the woman could ever imagine herself to be invisible was beyond him. It didn’t matter how inconspicuous she tried to be while behind the ca
mera. She stood out and not just because she was pretty. It was like she had a light shining through every pore of her skin. She lit up the room with her presence.
She lit him up even more.
Even when he couldn’t see Ashley, he could sense her: by her scent, by the way the back of his skull prickled when she stood near him.
Did she experience the same thing for him? Maybe, because while he was trying to quietly approach her from behind as she took pictures of the head table eating dinner, she stopped, dropped the camera and turned around while he was still a few steps away.
“What are you doing, skulking about?”
“I do not skulk,” he said, putting on an offended tone of voice.
She smiled, but it wasn’t the secret sexy one he was hoping for.
“You really need to check your texts,” he said. “Because there are some good ones in there.”
She held up the camera. “I’m working, if you hadn’t noticed.”
“Oh. I’ve noticed.” He waved toward the subjects of her photographs. “Keep going. No reason I can’t stand here while you work.”
She twisted her lips in disbelief but went back to what she was doing. Angling the camera, adjusting the lens, taking pictures.
“Do you want me to tell you what I wrote in my texts?” he whispered from right behind her.
“No.”
Ignoring her, he continued, “There was one...it was quite detailed, but I’ll summarize. I use my teeth to undo those little straps of yours.” He slipped a finger beneath the spaghetti strap and caressed her shoulder. “Then I lick every inch of you—”
“Colton,” she whispered over her shoulder. “Not while I’m working.” There was nothing playful about her voice now.
“You are allowed to take a break, you know. You need to eat, Ashley.”
“I will eat. I just...” She looked at him over her shoulder again. Her face was pinched, like talking to him was pretty much the same thing as sucking a lemon. “You’re distracting me.”
“Wow.” He backed off, her tone taking him by surprise. “Okay. I’ll leave you alone, then.”
She blinked and then looked down at the screen of her camera, fiddling with something. “I’d appreciate it.” She glanced up and forced a smile. “I’ll talk to you later, okay?”
“Sure thing.”
Colton made his way back to the table where he was sitting with his brother, Dillon, and a few other guests. Gloria was the matron of honor so was up at the head table.
“What’s wrong with you?” Dillon asked.
“Nothing.” Colton sat back down and dug into the dessert that had been served while he was off talking to Ashley. At the thought of her, he glanced up, finding her immediately.
Yep. His Ashley-radar was still finely tuned, no matter how she was treating him. “I’m just getting the cold shoulder,” he said with his mouth full of strawberries and cream.
“What did you do?” Dillon asked in that big-brother way that pissed Colt off.
“Not a damn thing.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I didn’t.” Colton finished the strawberry cheesecake in two bites, though he barely tasted it.
“Sometimes it’s the things you don’t do that piss a woman off more than the things you do do.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“It means that if you care about this girl, you better find out what it is that you didn’t do.”
16
ASHLEY TRIED TO focus on Sage and Andy, the happy couple, but all she could see were fuzzy outlines, no matter how much she adjusted the focus. And all she could hear was Colton’s deep voice whispering in her ear. Suggesting deliciously naughty things.
Except Colton’s sinful suggestions were interrupted by Brandi’s warning, reminding her of exactly the kind of guy that Colton was.
A different woman in every town. Kids by different mommas in every other state...
Colton was a player who was using her for sex. While she’d tried to tell herself she didn’t care and that she’d been using him, too, it was a lie.
The idea of saying goodbye was... Well...it was a hunk of lead growing in the pit of her stomach, weighing heavily on her and poisoning her bloodstream in the process. The fact she had a secret file of Colton pics that she obsessed over when she wasn’t with him—let’s face it—it was a bad sign.
And then today...
She’d blown up the picture of Gloria and Dillon and had it printed on canvas twice. One copy for Gloria and Dillon, the other as a wedding gift to Sage and Andy because it was their grandchild in Gloria’s belly. She’d cried while she’d wrapped them.
Why the hell had she cried? She was not an emotional woman. Oh, she felt emotions as much as the next person, but growing up, she’d learned to hide them because the alternative was to be teased by her older sisters. Now, here she was at this wedding, chronicling the event—the late-in-life love affair—and she felt...
Cheated.
The love between Sage and Andy was so palpable she didn’t even have to work to get it to show up in the photos. Soft smiles that reached right up into the eyes. Lingering touches, the need to always be in contact with one another. Laughter, the ease of being with the person you want to spend the rest of your life with. It was all a little hard to swallow.
Ash wanted that.
She deserved it.
Sure, she might be having hot, casual sex with Colton, but that was all it was ever going to be.
Ashley wanted more.
She glanced over to where Colton was sitting with Dillon, the two brothers so much alike in so many ways. Yet, like all siblings, so different. Dillon was a solid family man and Colt was...
He glanced up and caught her watching him, making it impossible to finish her thought. Ash felt the pull from across the distance. It was a visceral, powerful thing. Something she’d never felt before and something she’d certainly never expected to feel for Colton.
It took two tries to swallow past the lump in her throat, but when she finally managed, she’d made up her mind about what she needed to do. Friends with benefits was fine as long as all you really wanted was friendship.
Unfortunately, Ashley now realized she wanted more from Colton. Much more. And it would be a cold day in hell before Colton ever wanted the same from her.
* * *
“LET’S DANCE.”
Colton’s voice sent instant shock waves through Ashley’s body. Normally those shock waves were welcome. Tonight they weren’t. She’d been a fool to think she could do this with him, because the more time she spent with him, the harder it would be to leave. Worse would be Colton leaving in a couple of weeks and Ashley having to spend the rest of the summer here.
Alone.
Slowly, Ash lowered the camera from in front of her face and turned. Colton stood there with an unreadable expression on his handsome face. His hand waited, palm up, for her to take.
“Let me put my camera away first.”
He waved her toward the table and then waited where he was for her to return. Though it was a warm night, Ash shivered when Colton took her hand, resting his other on her lower back.
“What did I do?” he asked after five seconds of moving around the dance floor.
“Excuse me?”
“You’re acting weird. What did I do?”
Ash wet her lips, unable to meet Colton’s gaze. “Nothing. You didn’t do anything.”
Colton mumbled something beneath his breath about being right and Dillon not knowing shit, but Ash wasn’t paying too much attention because her mind was working at a million miles an hour, trying on phrases, rejecting them and trying out new ones.
I changed my mind about this whole friends-with-benefits thing...
&n
bsp; “It looks like your job’s all done for the evening.” Colton pulled her close and spun her. “I suggest you take a much-needed break.”
Gazing up at him, Ash thought, I think it would be better for both of us if we just called it off. Right now...
But Colton’s hand was roving up and down her back, and it felt so damn good. She was weak when she was in Colton’s arms, weaker still when she was in Colton’s bed. The truth was, she’d never been so weak before in her life. Hadn’t Jasmine told her about how much she looked up to her for knowing what she wanted and going after it?
Yet here she was, willing to take a night of passion over her own sanity.
“You’re tense. Lucky for you I happen to know a great massage therapist.”
She took a deep breath, ignoring the large, muscular hand on her back, ready to say, Remember when I said one of us would get hurt if we took this too far? Well, one of us has... But the breath she’d inhaled exited without any words attached.
“He’s very good at full-body massages,” Colton whispered. “Extremely thorough.” His hand dropped to her ass.
Oh, God. It was too much. “Stop.” Her voice was sharp and—dammit—emotional.
The immediate effect of her tone was that Colton stopped moving, causing a couple to bump into them on the dance floor.
“What’s going on, Ash?”
She searched the tent frantically. She couldn’t do this here.
“We need to talk.”
Taking Colt’s hand, she pulled him toward the tent exit, past where the fairy lights lit up the trees to a bench down by the pond.
C’mon Ash, you can do it.
She gazed up at him and placed her hand on his chest, which was a mistake because he looked so damn handsome in his suit, and his chest was so wonderfully strong and broad...
“I’ve got a job offer in Des Moines. I leave in two days.” Oh. My. God. Where had that come from?
“That’s kind of sudden, isn’t it?”
She shrugged. “It just came up.”
“When?”
“Umm...yesterday.”
“And you waited until right now to tell me?”
Yeah, she waited until now because it had just popped into her head. Here she was, lying her face off again. That’s what Colton did to her. Made her into someone she wasn’t. Someone who had to lie. Even now, when she should be fessing up, she couldn’t.
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