Chapter Nine #2
‘Really not pleased…’ the man next to Ashley murmured, sounding as though he was enjoying himself, and that was when Ashley clocked the thunderous look on Nico Galletti’s face.
He was staring straight at her, and he looked furious—eyes narrowed to silver slits, jaw bunched, lips firmed into a hard and unforgiving line.
But more than that was the energy rolling off him in waves that she felt hit her from all the way across the room, waves of pure, undiluted rage.
She’d only met him yesterday, and already they’d had several tumultuous encounters, but Ashley had never seen him look the way he did right now.
No matter how many little pep talks she’d given herself to stay strong and not cringe or cower in front of this man, right then, as his furious gaze locked on her wide-eyed one, the only emotion she felt was alarm, even terror.
Why on earth was he so angry? Was it just because she’d been talking up Infinite Innovations to the various guests she’d spoken with?
All right, maybe she’d gone a little overboard, claiming Galletti Finance was fully behind what had once been her company, but he’d wanted a so-called united front, and in any case, the look on Nico’s face seemed to be for something else entirely.
Something primal and overwhelming, deeper and darker than a mere financial transaction.
And yet, Ashley was forced to acknowledge, even in his rage he was stunningly handsome, every taut line of his body radiating power and authority.
Next to him every other man in the ballroom looked limp and washed out, irrelevant.
Ashley forced herself to stay still as Nico started stalking towards her, cutting a path through the crowd with a long, determined stride.
As he prowled closer, the alarm she felt morphed into a delicious anticipation, admittedly still tinged with terror, which, she realised, only made it all the more exciting.
He looked so thrillingly purposeful, his eyes hooded and flashing silver, his jaw set, his stride long and sure.
Ashley’s stomach swirled and cramped as excitement clashed with fear, and her senses felt heightened to an exquisite painfulness.
Her breath hitched audibly, and the ballroom and its glittering crowds fell away as she focused on only one thing—the man stalking towards her.
‘Nico…’ was all she managed to say in a whisper as he came to stand in front of her. She could feel the heat of his body along with the anger, waves undulating through the air between them, and the look in his eyes was enough to steal the breath from her body and every thought from her head.
Then he reached for her arm, strong, lean fingers clamping around her wrist as he drew her closer to him so her breasts brushed his chest and their hips bumped, causing a thrill of awareness to twang through her body as if she were a tuning fork and he was playing the one, pure note of her longing.
Nico leaned in so his breath tickled her ear and the scent of him, musky and clean, with the metallic edge of his anger, overwhelmed her senses.
‘What,’ he demanded in a low snarl that vibrated with the force of his fury, ‘The hell do you think you’re playing at?’
With effort, Nico loosened his grip on Ashley’s wrist. He didn’t want to hurt the woman—not physically, anyway—but, by heaven, he had never felt the fury he felt now.
All this time she’d been playing him, toying with and taunting him, no doubt thinking he was still the green, na?ve boy she’d once known, despite the fact that he owned her company.
He basically owned her, not that she’d ever acknowledge it.
And, right now, he wanted to shake her into admitting that her pretty little amnesia act was nothing more than a pathetic ruse—and for what?
What purpose could such an absurd charade possibly serve?
‘Nico…’ she said again, and although her voice shook, and her face was as pale as porcelain, she still managed to give him a pointed look, nodding towards the man standing next to her. ‘Have you met Edward Sackett? He’s with Lumos Ideas, a tech investment firm…’
Nico barely spared the paunchy, middle-aged man a glance. ‘I might have met him once or twice,’ he said dismissively. ‘Now, we need to talk in private.’
Without waiting for her to reply, he started marching her across the ballroom.
‘You’re making a scene,’ Ashley hissed as she struggled to keep up with his long strides, catching the glittering folds of her dress in one hand. ‘And you’re hurting me.’
Nico loosened his grip, but only a little. ‘If I could trust you an inch, I’d let you go,’ he replied tersely. ‘But I can’t, as you know very well. Now, move.’
They didn’t speak again until they’d left the ballroom, the doors clicking closed behind them.
Nico strode down the thickly carpeted hallway until they came to a door of one of the hotel’s salons.
He pushed it open and then went inside, checking the room was empty save for a few sofas and chairs.
Then, closing the door behind him, and leaning deliberately and ominously against it, he finally let Ashley go.
She took a few stumbling steps away, rubbing her wrist. ‘Well, that certainly presented the united front you claimed to want!’ she remarked with a disdainful lift of her golden eyebrows, although Nico thought she still looked shaken.
‘Well done. I think we convinced just about everyone there how much we enjoy working together.’
‘Save your sarcasm,’ he snapped. He was too angry to spar with her, to score such petty little points.
The sight of her in that dress had far too much old emotion throbbing through him, obliterating every rational thought he’d ever had.
‘And level with me for once,’ he ground out, ‘Or, I swear, I’ll fire every employee you’ve ever thought about hiring, and make sure they never work again, anywhere, ever. ’
Her eyes widened as she stared at him, her lush, pink lips parting soundlessly.
‘Level with you?’ she finally repeated faintly.
‘Nico, you’re acting like a…a madman. I have no idea why you’re so angry.
’ She frowned, her elegant shoulders twisting in a shrug, as if this was all just some simple misunderstanding.
‘All right, maybe I did push a little hard with how Galletti Finance was going to partner with Infinite Innovations, but what did you expect me to do—?’
‘I am not talking about our companies,’ he cut across her, every word like the lash of a whip.
She stared at him for several seconds, her lips still parted, a faint frown marring her smooth, pale brow, her body lovely and lithe, swathed in silk and crystal.
She looked so much the same. It was like a dagger thrust to his soul, his heart, to see her like this—her golden hair up in the elegant chignon, and that dress…
That dress covered with crystals that glinted every time she moved, as if she was a walking rainbow, a beacon of light.
All these years, she’d kept it, even when just last night she’d insisted that she had given all her dresses away.
All these years…and she’d chosen to wear it tonight.
Why? To mock him? To make him feel like the boy he’d once been, holding onto so much stupid hope and then having absolutely everything taken from him? Was she trying to remind him of who he’d once been, as well as who she’d been and clearly thought she still was?
Well, it was working. Right now, Nico felt as deceived, as duped and dumb as he had at twenty years old, and he hated that fact. He despised it with every breath in his body, every atom of his being.
Never trust a Woodward.
Abruptly, he pushed off the door he’d been leaning against and turned away from her, driving his hands through his hair.
All the memories crashed through him like the waves of a tsunami, so he’d barely absorbed the shock of the first because the next one rolled relentlessly on.
He remembered the way Ashley had tilted her head up for a kiss, the sweet look of wonder in her eyes, the soft breath she’d released before he’d brushed his lips against hers, her mouth had opened beneath his own and he’d felt happiness and hope explode in his heart.
And then after, with his hands cuffed behind his back, a policeman’s hand hard on his shoulder, the whole room watching, stunned and silent.
‘Ashley, please…you must know I didn’t do this… Please help me…’ His voice had choked, and he’d fallen to his knees right in front of her. She’d stared down at him for one endless second, her face an icy mask, and then she’d turned away without saying a word.
And now here she was, recreating that very evening in every detail, right down to her hair, her earrings, her necklace. She looked exactly the same…and was acting as if she had no idea why he was so angry.
‘Do you think I’m a fool?’ he asked, his tone turning quietly, lethally polite as he turned around to face her.
‘Is that what you think? Or maybe you actually believe you have all the power, all the cards, in this twisted little game of yours? I am well aware that a Woodward’s arrogance knows no bounds.
Maybe you’re hoping you can navigate me into a corner with this little power play of yours, get me to give you something just for old times’ sake. Is that it?’
He gestured contemptuously to her dress while she stared at him in what looked and felt like complete confusion. Her forehead was furrowed, her eyes crinkled as she shook her head slowly.
‘Nico…’ she began unsteadily. ‘I really have no idea what you’re talking about.
’ One hand fluttered at her throat, and she looked so pale that Nico wondered cynically if she might faint again.
How many times had she pulled the damsel in distress routine in the last thirty-six hours?
Fainting, spraining her ankle, the episode in her apartment…
That trick was getting decidedly old. He would not fall for it a fourth time. Three had been bad enough.
She took a step towards him, her green eyes huge in her face and swimming with tears as her lips trembled. ‘I just want to save my employees…’ she whispered.
‘Oh, come off it,’ Nico sneered. How had he ever been convinced by her, even in the slightest? ‘I’ve had enough of the Saint Ashley act, behaving as if all you care about is other people, when I know for a fact you only care about yourself.’
She shook her head slowly as he started towards her, closing the space between them. He felt like grabbing her, shaking her, forcing her to admit why she was lying to him. Why she thought looking so breathless and confused would actually convince him of anything.
‘Why don’t you just tell me why you’re so angry?’ she asked in a tremulous whisper. ‘And then…then we can talk about it.’
‘How very reasonable of you,’ he drawled coldly.
He stood before her, eyeing her up and down, unable to keep from noticing the way the dress shaped to her high, firm breasts, her chest rising and falling in unsteady gasps.
Her skin was pearly and luminescent, her face tilted to his just as it had once been before, her lips parted as if inviting his kiss…
It was the night of the ball over again, the attraction between them like a force field neither of them could resist. He remembered it from before, how he’d felt powerless to keep from kissing her, no matter what the cost. How she’d invited him to, with her eyes, her breath, her parted lips… just as she did now.
But this time the moment, once so full of wonder, was tainted with all that had gone before. Tainted by the knowledge of who she really was and what he’d suffered…and she hadn’t cared.
And yet even as that knowledge reverberated through him Nico felt a stirring, and then a surge, of desire.
And he knew, from the way Ashley’s pupils dilated and her breath hissed out, that she felt it too.
This magnetic pull was too forceful for either of them to resist. No matter that he was angry and she was afraid; the connection between them was real, and even now threatened to overwhelm both of their warring emotions.
Nico put his hands on her bare shoulders, his palms smoothing over her silky skin as he drew her to him. Ashley looked up at him, her emerald eyes glassy and huge in her pale face, her lips parted in invitation.
‘Nico…’ she whispered, and it sounded like a plea. He bent his head. She swayed towards him.
And then he kissed her.