26. Emma
TWENTY-SIX
Emma
After hours of swimming and eating junk food for dinner, Maisie was about ready to drop. “I’m going to take her back to the room,” Grace said.
She’d offered to take Stella for the night too. I hugged Maisie goodnight, and Ashford gave her a bunch of kisses before she and Grace went to their room to get ready for bed.
“We owe your sister a bottle of wine or something,” I said. We were sharing a lounge chair by the pool, squeezed in together. Ashford was still shirtless, his tan skin hot against mine in my bikini.
“I promised her a new vanity in her bathroom. I would’ve done it anyway. But this way, she doesn’t feel guilty about asking me. Grace is always giving to other people, but she sucks at accepting anything for herself.”
I kissed his whiskery cheek. “You’re a good brother.”
“I am.” He smirked. “I’m installing it in a few weeks as soon as it arrives.”
A pang of longing hit me. Because in a few weeks, I’d probably be gone.
But I was here with Ashford now. We had most of the rest of this month.
We had tonight.
“Want to head back to the room?” Ashford asked, his tone low and husky.
“There is nothing else I’d rather do.”
First stop was the shower. Ashford switched on the water to get it heating, while I teasingly undid the ties of my bikini.
He stepped toward me, hands going to my hips and his mouth dropping to lick along my collarbone. “You are so sexy. I’m starving for you. It’s been days since I could last have you.”
I closed my eyes as his mouth went lower, capturing my nipple between his lips. “I’ve missed this too. But I really had fun. The past few days…”
Ashford’s tongue smoothed over my sensitive nipple before he released me and stood. “I had fun too. Never been camping with a dog before. I have a feeling Maisie will refuse to do any other kind of camping from now on.”
I knew he was kidding, but that longing in my chest only increased.
We’d spent twenty-four-seven together at the campsite. I hadn’t felt bored for a single second. I loved my friends, but as an introvert, I was the type to need some time to myself to recharge. But not with Ashford and Maisie. With them, I could’ve stayed a lot longer.
Maybe forever .
We pulled off the rest of our swimsuits and stepped beneath the hot water. Ashford pumped shampoo from the dispenser and washed my hair, then lathered my body with shower gel. I relaxed against him, and his erection slid against my lower back.
Spinning in his arms, I held on to his shoulders and kissed him. Our tongues glided, stroking. He moaned, his hands squeezing my curves as he rubbed his stiff, swollen cock against me.
“I could take you up against this wall,” he said.
“You could.” When his eyes flashed with lust, I added, “But I haven’t had my turn to wash you yet.”
We had nowhere else we had to be, which was a rare luxury. Usually one of us had a class to teach, or an appointment to run off to, or Maisie would be back soon. But tonight, it was just us. All the way until morning.
I stepped back and pumped shampoo into my palm. My fingers dug into his scalp as I reached up to wash his hair. Then I washed and rinsed the rest of him thoroughly, enjoying the way his body responded to my touch. I liked seeing exactly how turned on he was.
Finally he growled and pushed me against the tile. “You’re driving me wild.”
“What are you going to do about that?”
“I’m trying to decide how I want you first.” His gaze dragged down my body, following the trail of the water that dripped along my curves.
He switched off the water, got out, and wrapped me in a towel. The cooler air outside the shower prickled against my skin.
“Here. Right here. Can’t wait another second.” He turned me around, leaning me over the bathroom vanity and stroking my bare behind beneath the towel. My gasp echoed against the bathroom tile as his cock filled me in a single thrust, making me lift up onto my tiptoes.
Our bodies met, wet skin sliding, as the heat built between us. Our towels fell to the floor. The sight of us together in the mirror was scandalous.
“I needed this too badly,” he said. “I’m not going to last.” Ashford brought his hand between my legs and ruthlessly stroked me where I was most sensitive. Within minutes, we were both tumbling together over the edge.
After another rinse in the shower, we stumbled into the bedroom and fell naked into bed, towels strewn across the floor as we kicked the covers down. Kissing. Touching.
We’d been together enough times now that we knew each other’s bodies. What the other liked. Yet tonight felt completely new as well. Like something had changed between us in the last few days. Every kiss was more intense.
“I finally get to have you all night.” He lowered his head to whisper in my ear. “I hope you’re not tired, because I plan to give you such a workout you’ll be feeling me the rest of the week.”
“Big promises.”
He rubbed his thickening cock against my thigh. “My promises aren’t the only thing that’s big.”
I tipped my head back and laughed. Even though he was not wrong.
I’d learned that Ashford’s sense of humor came out whenever he was at ease. I loved that he felt that way around me. I could be myself with him too. I’d never had this intense a connection with a lover before.
When I was in Ashford’s arms, everything seemed easy.
We kissed until we were both aching again. Desperate. Ashford slid his cock inside me, our bodies meeting like we were made for each other. But he took a more gradual pace this time. Driving us both slowly and deliberately to the edge.
“ Please ,” I begged, angling my hips to meet him on every thrust, but still needing more. What only he could give me.
His brown and amber eyes held more passion than ever as he gazed down at me. “Tell me what you need.”
“Don’t stop. Don’t let me go.”
“Never, baby. You’re mine.”
But I had meant more than just the heat of this moment. More than something physical. Because, as I stared into his eyes, what I felt was suddenly so clear. Even if I didn’t have the courage to say it.
I need you to love me , I thought. Because I’m in love with you.
Morning light glowed in the windows, slowly nudging me awake. I felt Ashford beside me. His breathing was smooth and regular. But when I opened my eyes, I found him already awake and watching me.
“Morning,” he said, voice scratchy. A yawn stretched the end of the word. We hadn’t gotten much sleep.
I snuggled against his bare skin. “Hi.”
“First time I’ve ever woken up next to you naked.” Ashford shifted, and his half-hard cock bumped my hip. “You had enough yet?” The amber in his eyes sparked, and he smiled.
“Not yet.”
He rolled me onto my back and kissed me. A short while later, he was moving inside me again. Insatiable. But I felt the same.
More, more, more .
Afterward, we showered. We were both sated for the moment, so our kisses and wandering hands were purely affectionate. But I still couldn’t get enough. We stood under the spray, arms around each other. I rested my cheek on the swell of his pec beneath his collarbone. He touched the back of my head, smoothing my wet hair.
“Hard to believe you’ll be gone in a few weeks.”
I looked up at him. “It is. The summer’s going too fast.”
“Maisie’s going to miss you.”
I smiled, even though I was shrinking inside. I adored Maisie, but how did he feel about me going? “I’ll miss her too. And you. I…” The words got lost on their way out.
“I am going to miss you so damn much.” Ashford’s voice was just as thick as mine. Which gave me a sliver of encouragement.
“I could visit sometime. If you’d want.”
“ Yeah . Of course I want that.” He cupped my face. Searched my eyes with his. “Emma…”
I held my breath. Aching to hear the words I couldn’t manage to say myself.
“Do you hear that?” he asked.
“What?”
Ashford twisted the shower valve. The sound of a phone ringing filled the quiet. “My phone.” He got out, wrapping a towel around his waist and tossing another to me on his way out of the bathroom. I followed, water streaming from my hair and down my shoulders as I held the towel to the front of my body.
He grabbed his phone from the dresser. “It’s my sister.” Putting the device to his ear, he said, “Grace? Everything okay?”
I couldn’t hear what she was saying. But the color drained from his face. Without another word to his sister, Ashford lowered his phone and thumbed at the screen.
“What’s going on?”
“Grace just saw this. Callum sent it to her, and she forwarded it to me.” He turned the phone so I could see it. There was an article from a tabloid website on his screen.
Exclusive: Ayla Maxwell’s Secret Grief .
“Oh no. What does it say? Does it mention Maisie?”
“I don’t know yet.”
I tangled our fingers together. “Maybe it’s not so bad.”
Ashford’s expression was made of stone. We sat on the bed and looked at his screen.
Singer Ayla Maxwell has long been secretive about her background, though many of her song lyrics hint at a dark history of personal grief. Now, we know why.
Three years ago, Ayla’s sister Lori O’Neal died tragically on a deserted highway outside the small Colorado town of Silver Ridge. Questions still swirl around her death. Local police shut down the investigation and ruled it an accident.
But even more problematic questions surround Ayla’s brother-in-law, Ashford O’Neal, a martial-arts enthusiast with a violent family history.
While they were both members of the US Army, Ashford’s older brother Grayden was courtmartialed and convicted of manslaughter.
Ashford’s chest lifted and fell as he breathed. His fury radiated off of him in waves. “That’s a low blow, bringing up my brother.”
I wanted to stop reading this train wreck of an article, but of course, I couldn’t.
Sources report that O’Neal has kept Lori’s young daughter away from Ayla for years, even though the singer has begged to see her niece to confirm the girl’s wellbeing. Yet just recently, he invited a much younger woman, Emma Jennings, into his daughter’s life.
But Jennings has a checkered history of her own.
“Some of this is about me .” My body went tight and cold. Like numbness was spreading through me. I read the words, but they wouldn’t sink in.
Just months ago, Jennings left her graduate-level music program in disgrace after an affair with the husband of her professor. While Jennings avoided official discipline, the professor has had to take a leave of absence from her own position.
“I was humiliated,” the professor said when asked for comment on the scandal, though she’s asked not to have her name revealed in this article.
Those words seemed to echo. Disgrace . Humiliated .
Oh, God. All my friends from college and high school might see this. My family.
My dad .
“Hell.” Ashford switched the phone screen off, blotting out the rest of the article. “I figured Ayla might go after me one day, but now they’ve brought you into it, and that is so far beyond the pale.”
He got up, doing something on his phone, then held it to his ear. “Ayla, you need to call me back. Now .”
Numbly, I got up and grabbed my phone. I’d had it on Do Not Disturb overnight, but now I checked my notifications. There was a dozen. Calls, texts, emails. Including from my stepmom, Madison.
My knees went weak. My stomach roiled.
Ashford appeared at my side, strong arms closing around me. “Baby, I am so sorry about this.”
“It’s not your fault. At least they didn’t reveal Maisie’s name. I’ll call that lawyer I mentioned. You need someone representing you.”
“Probably, but what they said about you… We’re not going to take this. I’m going to do everything I can to get that article taken down. This bullshit reporter needs to apologize to you.” He held my face, studying me.
“I don’t see any of that happening. Don’t worry about me. I’m fine. Let’s focus on Maisie.”
“Are you sure you’re all right?”
“Not really. But we have Maisie to think about.”
He couldn’t argue with that.
Somehow, we got dressed and packed, then went to the lobby to meet Grace and Maisie. I felt like I was sleepwalking. But I pasted on a smile and gave Maisie a hug. I couldn’t let her see how upset I was.
“How are you?” Grace whispered to me while Ashford took Maisie through the free breakfast line. I wasn’t hungry.
“Been better,” I said.
“Can you call a lawyer or something?”
“I will. For Ashford.” The article hadn’t gone so far as accusing him of a crime, but the implication was there. We had to do damage control.
“But what about?—”
“What the article said about me is true.”
Grace clenched her jaw in a grimace. Shame rocked through me.
I hadn’t realized my ex’s wife had taken a leave of absence. Of course she was humiliated by what had happened. So was I. We’d both been lied to. But between the two of us, I was the other woman . The villain. The article made it sound like I’d gone after my professor’s husband on purpose.
It was absurd that my ex had suffered so little for what he’d done, not even losing his job. From what I’d heard, he’d received no more than a slap on the wrist from his superiors. Fair? No. But that was reality. It wasn’t like the school administration had kicked me out. I’d left voluntarily. But everyone’s reactions to the scandal made it clear that I wasn’t wanted there.
He was a beloved director. I was no one.
And right now, I really felt like it.
“Could I ride with you on the way back?” I asked Grace. “Would you mind making a detour?”
A line appeared between her eyebrows. “Why?”
“A favor. Please.”
“Sure, if you want.”
When I told Ashford I was leaving with his sister, he pulled me to a quiet part of the lobby. “What do you mean you aren’t coming home with us?”
“I’m worried reporters will show up to your place. If they see me with you, that could make things worse.”
“So what? I want you with us.” He held my hand in both of his, pressing it tightly. “That’s where you belong.”
I blinked fast so my tears wouldn’t fall. I didn’t want to make this about me. Ashford had enough problems without adding mine.
“I’ve been texting with Callum,” Ashford said. “He hasn’t seen any reporter-type people around. They’ll probably come eventually. But it’s only a couple of hours back to Silver Ridge. Once we’re home, then?—”
“I need some space to think. And to call my family and figure out what I’m going to say. I can’t do that in front of Maisie. Please.”
“Then where are you going, exactly?”
“I’m going to Hartley. I’ll stay with Uncle Aiden and Jessi and make my calls and figure out what we’re going to do.”
“I am not okay with this. But if it’s what you need, then I’ll be patient. When will I see you?”
“In a few days or so.”
“I need a specific number.”
“Maybe three.”
“Fine. Three. Then I’m coming to get you.”
Maisie ran up, crashing into Ashford’s legs. “Daddy, can I have another waffle?” She looked over at me. “Emma, what’s wrong?”
I knelt. “Nothing, Maisie-doodle. But I have a bunch of work I need to do, and I’ll be gone a few days.”
“You have to?”
“I do. I’m sorry.” I gave her a hug, closing my eyes as a tear slipped free. “You are so special,” I whispered. “So precious.”
“When are you coming home?” she asked.
“I’m sure I’ll see you soon. But remember, I’m only here for the summer. That’s just a few more weeks.”
She frowned. “I know. I remember.” After another squeeze, I let her go.
Ashford kissed me on the cheek. “Call me later.”
“I’ll text.”
He was going to keep arguing, but Maisie called out for him to help her.
“Go,” I said. “I’ll be okay.”
Grace asked me a few questions on our way to Hartley, but I struggled to form any coherent answers. My phone kept buzzing with more calls and messages, and I couldn’t avoid them forever.
What was I going to tell them?
In a way, the truth about last semester was easier to face now. I was deeply ashamed of what had happened and the way I’d left my master’s program. But now, it was out there. Dad knew. I couldn’t do anything about that.
The far worse part of it was that I’d hurt Ashford by association. That tabloid was trying to use me to make him look like an unfit father. It was ridiculous, but plenty of people would think worse of him because he’d welcomed me into his daughter’s life. Hard to believe some people still thought that way, but they did. As that tabloid reporter had expected. People loved salacious gossip, and they loved to pass judgment.
I’d thought I was wiping my slate clean by coming to Silver Ridge for the summer. That had been a fantasy. My past had followed me.
Silver Ridge wasn’t really home. I’d known it all along. I didn’t belong with the O’Neals. It was time for me to face that fact.
I never should’ve let myself fall in love with Ashford and his sweet little girl. Because I was never supposed to stay.