“That’s what I said,” Rick commented. “Once those two scent blood, they’ll be all over you like a couple of hound dogs. You can forget about pursuing Ashley. Maggie and Melanie will take up all your time, pestering you with the same questions, making your life a living hell. We’re your best bet. At least with us, you’ll have sympathetic male ears.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” Josh said wryly. “I don’t suppose there’s any chance at all that you can just tell them I’m a great guy and let it go at that?”
“Fat chance,” Mike said. “It’s details they’re after. They think you’re keeping a lot of deep, dark secrets from Ashley.”
“Nothing important,” he assured them. “But I suppose my word on that isn’t enough.”
“Afraid not,” Rick said apologetically.
Josh took a long swallow of his beer, then sat down in one of the Adirondack chairs on the deck. “Okay, go for it. Ask whatever you want to.”
“Maybe we should at least wait till after you’ve eaten,” Mike suggested, obviously not at all anxious to get started. “These are going to be outstanding burgers. I’d hate to ruin your appetite. And a couple of beers from now, the inquisition won’t be quite so painful.”
Josh shrugged. He was in no hurry to get into this discussion. “Works for me. And make it two burgers. I’d like to put this off as long as possible, too.” He turned to Rick. “Did you really have this much trouble with the sisters when you were courting Maggie?”
“To tell you the truth, the sisters were great,” Rick confided. “Maggie was the tough sell. She thought it was all about the sex. She figured the fire would burn itself out eventually and we’d have nothing.”
Josh lifted a brow. “But it wasn’t about the sex?”
“Well, sure it was, at first,” Rick admitted. “I’d played a very gorgeous field for a very long time. Done it damn well, too. I couldn’t imagine myself settling down.”
“What changed?” Josh asked.
“Maggie ran. Naturally, since no woman had ever done that to me before, I came after her. She still didn’t trust me or what we had. I fought. She resisted. It didn’t take long for me to weigh settling down against a future without Maggie. I realized very quickly that it was no contest. Once I got to that point, marriage was the obvious answer.”
“And that took how long?” Josh asked.
“A few weeks.”
“Same with me,” Mike said. “My first marriage had pretty much been a disaster. I wasn’t looking for a wife, especially with Jessie wildly out of control. I’ll be grateful till the end of my days that Melanie looked beyond the mess we were in and took us on. She’s made everything since then seem easy.”
Mike handed each of them a burger, then sat down with his own. After he’d taken a couple of bites, he glanced slyly at Josh. “Why are you so interested? Are you thinking about marrying Ashley?”
“It’s crossed my mind a time or two,” Josh admitted. “Like I told you before, though, there are a lot of issues that need to be resolved before either one of us could take the idea seriously. Ashley’s career means a lot to her and it’s pretty messed up. She needs to work that out. She’s not entirely sure who she is or what she wants right now. Me, I think it’s clear what she ought to do, but it’s not my opinion that counts.”
“You could steer her in the right direction,” Mike reminded him. “Make the idea of relocating her practice here irresistible.”
“I’ve planted the idea in her head, but so far she’s been fairly resistant.”
The two men exchanged a look that Josh couldn’t interpret. “What?” he asked.
“Maybe you should offer to go into practice with her,” Rick suggested casually.
Josh choked on his beer. “Excuse me?”
Mike grinned. “Hard to keep a secret like that in a town this small. Ever since you showed up, I’ve been running into people who’ve been only too happy to tell me how lucky I am to have such a successful lawyer for a neighbor. Seems a lot of these folks read the Richmond papers. Lucky for you, Melanie hasn’t gotten wind of it yet.”
“Neither has Maggie,” Rick added. “What I can’t figure out is why you’d want to keep it quiet from Ashley. You haven’t told her, have you?”
Josh shook his head. “I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but the night we met she made some crack about me obviously not being a lawyer since I wasn’t ready to sue her for damages after that accident. Since I’d been wrestling with whether to change careers or at least leave my firm in Richmond, I sort of went along with her. I figured I could use a break from the whole big-time lawyer image. It was only later, when I realized just how deep her own issues with the law ran, that I saw how stupid it had been not to tell her in the first place. Now I’m not sure how she’s going to take it.” He regarded them hopefully. “She could be thrilled to discover we have that in common, couldn’t she?”
Rick chuckled. “She could be, but my guess is she’s going to be mad as a hornet.”
“I agree,” Mike added. “I’m no expert, but I have figured out that women don’t like being lied to.”
“It wasn’t a lie,” Josh said. “It was an omission.”
“Well, pardon us all to hell,” Rick said, obviously amused. “An omission.” He nodded sagely. “Yes, indeed. Explain it just that way. I’m sure that’ll make all the difference.”
Josh sighed at the grim reality check. “Okay, okay, she’s going to be furious.”
“Add in the fact that her client lied to her, her boss at the law firm betrayed her and, according to Melanie, her last relationship ended because of a lie, I think furious is putting it mildly,” Mike added.
Josh looked from one man to the other and decided it was definitely time to cast pride aside and plead for help. “What the hell do I do now?”
“Grovel,” Rick suggested cheerfully.
“Get the truth out there and then grovel,” Mike corrected.
“I’m not sure I know how,” Josh said. He’d never had to grovel before in his life. But to save what he had with Ashley, he was willing to give it a try. “Do I start with flowers?”
Rick laughed. “You are so pathetic. I seem to recall being exactly like you, right, Mike?”
“You were pitiful,” Mike concurred.
“Not helping, guys,” Josh said. “Clue me in on the groveling thing. I’ve never had to do it before.”
“Send flowers and candy,” Mike suggested. “Take over wine and candles and dinner.”
“No, no, no,” Rick protested. “You have to remember who she is.”
Josh stared at him blankly. “I thought all women loved the whole flowers and candy business.”
“They do, but keep in mind what’s important to Ashley. Buy her a briefcase or the latest handheld computer gadget. Buy her a shingle for a law office.”
“Hey, I like that one,” Josh said.
“Just don’t make it Madison and D’Angelo on the sign,” Mike recommended. “D’Angelo and Madison is better. Aside from getting top billing, she’ll think she has the upper hand.”
Josh laughed. “She does have the upper hand. She has since the day we met.”
He didn’t see that changing in this lifetime, not as long as he continued to be completely dazzled by her. He pretty much expected that would last forever.
“How could you, of all people, get so deeply involved with a man you barely know?” Maggie asked, regarding Ashley incredulously. “You pride yourself on digging beneath the surface, scrambling all over for every bit of evidence in a case that could exonerate a client. Didn’t you stop for one single second and ask your self what you really knew about Josh before you climbed into bed with him?”
Trying not to feel foolish, Ashley shook her head. “He was just sort of there. It’s not as if we were really dating. We literally drifted into spending time together. It was fun and uncomplicated, at least at the beginning. I didn’t want a lot of information. I didn’t figure I needed it, since I was g
oing to go back to Boston in three weeks and probably never see him again. Besides, he wasn’t my type.”
“As if tall, dark and gorgeous isn’t everyone’s type,” Melanie scoffed.
“That barely registered,” Ashley admitted.
“Because you didn’t think he was polished enough or ambitious enough,” Maggie guessed.
Ashley sighed at how that made her look, but it was true. Dammit, she was a snob, after all. “Okay, yes,” she admitted. “He seemed to lack some of the essentials that have always been important to me.”
“And now?” Melanie asked, regarding her sympathetically.
“And now it’s gotten complicated,” Ashley said. “Those things don’t seem to matter quite so much.”
“How so?” Melanie asked.
“She’s fallen for him,” Maggie replied before Ashley could say a word. “She’s slept with him, the sex was fantastic and now she has stars in her eyes that enable her to overlook his possible lack of a bank account or decent wardrobe of designer suits and Italian shoes.”
Ashley frowned at her. “You’re one to talk about falling in lust, then falling in love. Wasn’t that precisely how it was with you and Rick? Isn’t that exactly why you hightailed it out of Boston—because you were falling for him because the sex was good?”
“Great,” Maggie corrected. “The sex was incredible.” She grinned. “Still is, in case you were wondering.”
Ashley groaned. “Too much information.”
Melanie chuckled. “Besides, she wants us to stay focused on her.”
“Trust me, not so much,” Ashley retorted. “We could drop this entire subject and it wouldn’t bother me a bit. I can deal with my personal life on my own.”
“Obviously,” Maggie said. “That’s why you know so much about the man you’re sleeping with.”
“You don’t have to be sarcastic,” Ashley told her.
“I think I do,” Maggie said. “This isn’t like you at all, big sister. It’s a recipe for disaster. You need to start asking some questions. What if you find out he just got out of jail?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Ashley said, then realized she truly didn’t know enough to dispute the possibility. And her judgment hadn’t been sharp enough to recognize a murderer when he’d been sitting right next to her for weeks. Who knew what secrets Josh might be keeping? He seemed so down-to-earth and sincere, she couldn’t imagine that there was a dark side lurking somewhere inside him, but she couldn’t swear it didn’t exist. That was worrisome.
“Okay, I promise I’ll sit down and have a heart-to-heart with him before this goes any further.”
Maggie studied her with a narrowed gaze. “How much further is it going to go? All of this could be moot, if you’re going back to Boston soon.”
Ashley sighed. “I don’t know if I am or not,” she told them. “And I really, really don’t want to discuss that to night. I’ve made a promise to myself that first thing to morrow I’m going to sit down and start making a list of my options.”
“Is staying here one of them?” Melanie asked.
“It’ll be on the list,” Ashley conceded. “But not near the top. It’ll be there because I can’t afford to dismiss anything out of hand.”
“Will it be on there at all because you like the idea at least a little or because of Josh?” Maggie asked.
“What difference does it make?” Ashley replied.
Her sisters exchanged a knowing glance. It was Melanie who answered. “A big one, I would think,” she told Ashley. “Whatever you decide, it has to be what’s best for you. Josh shouldn’t even enter into it. Not unless you’re more serious about him than you’re letting on.”
“It’s complicated,” Ashley said again. She was crazy about him, but she didn’t want to be, didn’t think she should be. In fact, if she had an excuse, any excuse at all, she’d disentangle herself from the relationship and flee back to Boston. As bad and as unpredictable as her professional life there was, it was a whole lot easier to understand than the current roller-coaster ride of her emotions.
She stood up. “I’m going home,” she announced. She didn’t bother explaining that the home she intended to run to was in Boston. She needed to get her emotional feet back under her.
“We haven’t even had dessert,” Melanie protested. “You have to stay for chocolate cake.”
“Not tonight,” Ashley said. She gave each of her sisters a fierce hug. “Thanks for helping me to get a clearer picture of all this.”
Maggie looked surprised. “We actually helped?”
“Yes, brat. You helped. You, too, Melanie. I think I know exactly what I need to do next.”
But she had to make one important stop before she left town. She had to see Josh and try to explain why she was bailing on him and everything that had been building between them.
Ashley had forgotten about the whole guy-bonding session. When she got to Josh’s, the house was dark. She could leave him a note, try to explain her decision without having to bear the disappointment that was bound to be in his eyes, but when she really thought about it, she knew she couldn’t take the coward’s way out. If nothing else, she owed him for being there for her during the worst days of her life.
Since it was a mild enough night, she left the car and went to wait for him on the porch. She was idly rocking when his car finally turned off the road and pulled to a stop.
“Hey,” he said, his tone cautious as he approached. “I wasn’t expecting you to be here.”
“Is it okay?”
“Of course.” He dropped a light kiss on her forehead, then leaned against the porch railing. “How was your evening with your sisters?”
“About as much fun as walking barefoot through glass. How about yours with the guys?”
“Interesting,” he said in a way that made her instantly alert.
“What did they say?”
“I’ll tell you in a minute,” he promised, lifting her out of the rocker, then settling in it himself with her on his lap. “Much better.”
Ashley linked her arms around his neck and rested her forehead against his. “I missed you tonight,” she admitted, surprising herself. It wasn’t what she’d intended to say at all. She’d planned to keep the conversation cool and impersonal, explain that she had to leave town, had to figure things out without him to distract her. Now she couldn’t seem to summon the words.
“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” Josh asked, studying her worriedly.
“In a way, I suppose.”
“Then why do you look so sad? Were your sisters that hard on you?”
“They worry about me, that’s all. They’re not convinced I’m thinking clearly these days.” She shrugged. “They could be right. At the very least, they gave me some things to think about.”
“Such as?”
“I don’t want to get into it,” she said. Talk wasn’t what she needed now. She wanted to feel the way only this man had ever made her feel…cherished. “Make love to me, Josh, please.”
He searched her face. “You sure we don’t need to have a long talk first? I know your sisters were probably plaguing you with questions about me, since that’s what their husbands were doing to me. I figure they’ll spend the rest of the night comparing notes. Don’t you feel a need to be as up to speed as your sisters will be?”
“Eventually,” she said. “But right now I want to be in your arms.”
“Happy to oblige,” he said. “But then I think we’d better talk about this evening.”
“Yours or mine?”
“Both,” he said, sounding serious.
“Okay,” she agreed reluctantly, then brightened. “Maybe if we go inside and make intense, passionate love, we’ll forget what we wanted to talk about.”
He grinned. “You do have the ability to make me for get my own name from time to time.”
She met his gaze, for some reason needing more. She wanted to know that she made him half as crazy as he made her. “Only from tim
e to time?” she taunted.
“Okay, most of the time,” he responded, a glint of knowing amusement in his eyes. “Is it vital that you know how much power you have over me?”
It had been, but now it scared her, especially since she knew what she had to do. She touched his cheek. “I’m not sure I want to have power over you.”
“Why?”
“Because that means I could hurt you.”
“You won’t hurt me, Ashley.” He sighed, looking sad. “If anything, it will be the other way around.”
She was shocked by his assessment. “You’ve been wonderful to me,” she protested.
“I’ve tried to be. I’ve wanted to be,” he said. “But I’m not perfect.”
She wanted to put a smile back in his eyes, so she said, “Next best thing to perfect, then. Besides, perfection is highly overrated.”
“I hope you go on thinking that forever,” he said in a way that told her he was sure it would be otherwise.
Ashley swallowed hard. Hadn’t she warned herself just a short time ago that this was going to get increasingly complicated? She was beginning to think she might have underestimated just how complicated it could be. Maybe it needed to be reduced to the basics, at least one last time. Maybe that would help her to clarify her feelings before she went back to the relative safety of Boston to think things through. Instead of pro viding a safe haven, Rose Cottage had only placed her in the middle of a deeper quagmire.
“We’re talking too much,” she told him.
He hesitated, then nodded. “Entirely too much.”
He stood up with her cradled against his chest and went inside, then kicked the door closed behind them.
This time they never made it to the bedroom. There was something almost desperate pulling them together, making each caress as wickedly hot as a flame, making their coming together as explosive as dynamite.
Kisses stole breath. Touches tormented. Clothes flew in every direction as they tumbled onto the sofa in a mad frenzy, arms and legs tangled, bodies uniting.
Ashley shuddered as wave after wave of pleasure crashed over her, taking her under to a dark, dangerous place where only Josh mattered. She lost herself in him and then, when a climax ripped through her, found her self again in his eyes.
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