Chapter 21
Belle
Ash is waiting for me in the exact spot where I’d brought my car to a screeching stop two days ago.
He’s wearing suit pants and a black button-down that must have been custom-made to fit his broad chest and rippling biceps.
There’s a flutter of excitement in my lower belly that I shouldn’t feel because this can’t lead to anything, no matter how demanding he’s being.
There can be no us.
I’m going to divorce Barrett, and Ash will pretend to be engaged to Katarina until she disappears, whatever that means. Barrett will be free to cause havoc in someone else’s life, and I’ll start afresh somewhere far from here with Piper. Oh, and Ash will hate me for it.
The only thing I can offer him is four hours. And maybe I don’t just want to talk.
There are no other cars parked nearby. Jake, or another of his men must have dropped Ash off, so I presume I’m going to be the designated driver. I wait for Ash to get in the BMW, but he opens my door instead.
“Are you getting out?”
I take his hand, and as I climb out of the car, my wrap dress falls to the sides of my thighs so I’m almost revealing my black lace panties.
Ash notices, but there’s no sign of his usual smirk as he pulls me to standing. “I just wanted to say thank you,” he says.
I know he’s not talking about me being here, and the sincerity in his tone gives me goosebumps. The last thing I deserve is his thanks for letting him catch a small glimpse of his daughter after keeping her a secret all these years. “She wanted to know all about you.”
“And what did you tell her?”
I purse my lips. Whatever I say won’t be enough for him. “I told her you were very important.”
He nods, but doesn’t say more.
“So, what’s the plan?” We’ve only shared a couple of texts to set up the meeting point. I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t this, and I can’t hide my disappointment. “Are we going to spend the next four hours standing next to a ditch?”
That gets me a smile. Ash tips his head to the other side of the road. It’s also empty, but in the clearing beyond, there’s an actual helicopter. How the hell did I not notice that thing? It’s hard to miss with the Griffin logo emblazoned across the body, blood red against black.
“Where are you taking me, Ash?”
“You’ll have to wait and see,” he says.
I’m still squinting at the helicopter. “Where’s the pilot?”
“I’m not sharing you today,” he says. “Come on.”
He tells me to leave my keys in the car so Jake can move it to some place less conspicuous. I numbly follow his orders, holding his hand as we make our way to the helicopter.
“Talk to me,” he says through the headphones once we’re in the air.
My knuckles are white as I grip the edge of my seat. “I don’t want to distract you.”
“Belle, sitting next to you in silence is the distraction. I’m currently having an internal debate about whether or not to pull that fucking tie on your dress so I can finger fuck you in midair. It’s not something I’ve tried before, so I can’t promise it’ll end well.”
I clench my thighs together despite the threat of death by orgasm. This feels like the old us, clinging onto each other while the world disappears beneath our feet.
“Talk it is,” I say, reining in my filthy imagination. “Was the info I sent through on Ethan’s email account useful? I did find another random account, but I don’t think he used it much.”
“Send what you have. And we can talk about Ethan’s emails later.”
I puff out my cheeks and exhale. What else can we talk about?
“Barrett isn’t speaking to me,” I say, knowing it will please Ash.
“He’d been checking the CCTV and wanted to know who Piper had been waving to at the gates.
I panicked and told him it was Jake. He didn’t come right out and call me a liar, but he’s heard on the grapevine that you’re in Poulton Springs. I don’t like lying to him.”
“With Barrett, you get a free pass,” Ash tells me. “Trust me.”
There’s that word again. Trust. But will we ever get to a point where we can trust each other completely? “That’s my news. What about you? Do you want to tell me how exactly you’re planning on making your fiancée disappear?”
His head turns and even though he’s wearing aviator glasses, he still manages to give me a look. “You know how to kill the mood,” he says. “But fine. I’m in intense negotiations at the moment to find another suitor so we can stage an elopement.”
“Who’s the lucky man this time?”
“Rory’s trying to strong-arm one of his clan into it. You met him at the open day.”
“He owns the Excelsis.”
“The Moncriefs own hotels all over the world, and plenty of other properties besides, including a castle in Scotland. That’s where Katarina will be heading to marry a yet-unnamed Moncrief, but unfortunately, her plane is going to pitch into the ocean mid-flight.”
My stomach hollows. I can’t believe how blasé he’s being. I don’t like seeing this side of Ash. “You’re going to crash a plane into the Atlantic?”
“Katarina isn’t actually going to be on the flight. She’s busy deciding where in the world she wants to set up her new life. New Zealand is top of the list so far.”
“But what about everyone else on the plane?”
Ash opens his mouth to speak, then shuts it again. “You think I’d crash a plane with innocent people on board? Were you not listening to anything I said the other day?”
“I know, but…”
“You still believe all that shit Barrett’s told you about me, don’t you?”
I stare out across the patchwork of crop fields that stretch as far as the eye can see. “I don’t, but…”
“No buts, Belle. Answer me this. Do you believe I went to war with Ilya Barkov because I wanted to take over his operations, or stop them?”
“Stop them.”
“And do you still think Hunter disrupted Barrett’s first attempt at marriage out of petty vengeance, or a genuine desire to stop Maddie from being exploited.”
“Ash, I know you–”
“Answer the question,” Ash bites out.
“To stop Maddie being exploited,” I say, my annoyance growing to match his.
“And I also believe that you didn’t start the factory fire that killed Ethan, and that you’d never harm me or Piper.
I know these things, Ash. But I also know you came back from Las Vegas deeply ashamed about the things you did there.
And that there are truths you’re yet to share with me.
Ugly truths, you said. So, forgive me for being a little unsure of what you’re capable of and what you’re not. ”
His back stiffens as he faces front. “Maybe we should pick up this conversation on the way back,” he mumbles.
I don’t like the silence that falls between us. It’s one that could stretch on for years. Thankfully, Ash breaks it in his own unique way.
“Fuck it,” he says, reaching over to pull on the tie at the side of my dress. “Undo the one on the inside.”
I can’t help smiling. He remembers.
Although I do as he says, I’m not convinced this is such a good idea. “Ash, you said you couldn’t fly if–”
I gasp as his hand pushes between my thighs.
“Wider,” he growls and I open my legs.
He hooks a finger beneath my panties and I hear lace ripping. His pointer finger slides over my clit and as my back arches, he plunges deeper until he’s inside me. I let out a moan as my inner walls clench.
“You’re wet for me again, Belle,” he says, pushing a second finger into me. “Just like the other day when you left your beautiful mess all over my pants.”
“My body remembers you,” I admit as I put my hand over his and ride his fingers.
“Is this what you wanted me to do when you chose this dress?’ he asks. “Were you thinking about the last time I fucked you in one just like it?”
I shake my head. “It was this dress, Ash,” I say through a groan.
He releases a long hiss, and the helicopter tips just enough for me to break from the spell he’s put me under.
I push his hand away. “Oh, my god, we are going to crash.”
Ash has a grin on his face as he pays far too much attention to me and not enough to the helicopter he’s meant to be controlling. He sucks his fingers clean. “Damn, I’ve missed you.”
I bite down hard on my lip. “I’ve missed you too.”
His eyes stay on me, but he manages to keep the helicopter steady for now. “There’s something you should know,” he says. “There’s been no one else.”
I think this shock hits me even harder than the thought of Ash deliberately crashing a plane into the Atlantic. “No one?”
“No one,” he confirms, then checks the controls. He’s acting self-conscious all of a sudden.
I try clearing my throat. “Since we’re sharing, Barrett and I never…”
Ash stretches his neck. “Good.”
“And…” Do I tell him more? Or does he know already? If he’s looked at Ethan’s emails, he will have seen the correspondence between Ethan and his doctors. “You were the last for me too.”
Ash turns slowly, and his gaze travels the length of my exposed body before he manages to speak. “I was the last man to fuck you?”
“I’m presuming you know Ethan couldn’t.”
He nods. “I just assumed…”
“We were intimate, in a fashion,” I say so we’re absolutely clear. “But not like that.”
We both fall silent, acutely aware of each other’s unfilled needs.
The sexual tension builds and builds until the air feels oppressive.
I laugh nervously and start retying my dress.
“I have a horrible feeling one of us is going to lose control if we don’t change the subject fast, and then we really will crash. ”
Ash shifts in his seat. “I wouldn’t let anything happen to you, but OK, fine.” His smile falters when he adds, “It might be a bit of a rough ride, Belle, but know this. I’ve got you.”
We spend the rest of the flight making small talk, mostly about Piper. I’m in the middle of telling him about her latest obsession with chess, when I notice that we’re flying over yet another small hamlet. I do a double take. I recognize the church with the broken spire.
“You’ve brought me to Eastham Grove?”
“I’ve brought you home,” he says as familiar roads sweep beneath us, following a route I’d know with my eyes closed.
“Ash, we can’t just…” Words fail me as a sprawling farmhouse comes into view.
It’s the Simmons homestead that originally belonged to my dad’s extended family.
The farm had been sold off a long time ago, before my dad died.
He’d leased the old barn from Mr. Weston, and I was officially the last generation of Simmons to work on the land.
I search the horizon for my first glimpse of the small patch of heaven I used to call home.
“I should prepare you,” Ash says. “There was a storm a couple of years back, and your old house was too badly damaged to be saved.”
“And the barn?” I ask with a note of panic. I can’t look. As much as it hurts to know the house is lost, I don’t think I could bear to see a derelict scrap of land where the distillery used to be.
“It’s still there,” he promises, as we start to lose height and he prepares to set us down.
“Ash, you can’t just land here.”
“It’s all arranged. We have the landowner’s permission, and no one’s going to disturb us.”
“I’m not sure I’m ready,” I admit.
“Remember what I said, Belle. I’ve got you.”