My buzzing phone pulls me from the deep slumber I wasn’t ready to give up. We’ve barely slept, our nocturnal activities having kept us awake most of the night. I can’t get enough of her and it shows. To prove it, I ignore the phone and slide my hand across her belly.
“Good morning, you.”
“Hey.” Her eyes are bleary as she glances around the room. They land on the bedside clock and widen. “Oh. It’s late. I need to make a call.”
I hand her my phone, but she shakes her head and gets out of bed, retrieving her own from the dresser. She’s naked, her gorgeous hair spilling down her back and partly covering her breasts. She’s not self-conscious in front of me at all and I love that. I let my eyes take a lazy snapshot of her like this. I’ll explore those inches with my mouth later. She leans to one side and shoots off a text with a frown on her face.
I glance at my own phone. Two missed calls from Danny and a text from him and one from Jeremiah from last night. I put the phone aside and focus my attention on Ashley, again. She’s my only concern right now. “Everything okay?”
“Everything is great.”
“Come here when you’re done. I have a little proposition.”
“Oooh.” She laughs and drops her phone into her bag that’s found its way to the floor in my room. When she straightens, she grimaces and feels around the side of her left breast. “Umm. Let me just use the bathroom.” She’s gone for three minutes—yes, I’m counting—then she reappears, her hair suspiciously tidier, the t-shirt I was wearing last night now hiding her breasts. She takes three giant steps and bounces on the end of the bed before flopping down beside me. “Share this proposition. Right now. I have to be home soon, but right now I’m free as a bird.” The satisfied sigh that fills the room makes me think she doesn’t get to be free very often. With the kind of job she has, I’m not surprised.
“Well. I’d like to help you. Let’s go apartment shopping so I don’t lose you again. We’ll get something with vacant possession and get you settled in.”
“What?” Her relaxation disappears with that single syllable.
I roll over and cover her body with mine, my hands holding her face in place as I drop a kiss on her lips. “I don’t want you to have to go back to the club. So, let me get you set up, so you don’t have to worry about that anymore.”
“Set up?”
Her frown alerts me that I might have made a wrong move. I pull back and regard her. She’s avoiding my eyes and almost squirming under me. “I don’t want to control you, or anything. If you want to keep that job, that’s entirely your business. I just thought if I bought you something you could maybe leave and find something else.”
“You’re okay with me working as a stripper?”
Her eyebrows are in her hair and I suddenly don’t know what the right answer is. I go with honesty since it usually serves me best in all situations. This is not your everyday business situation, however, and I’m worried I made it sound like it was.
“Let me say this slowly so it comes out right.” She blinks up at me and I kiss her nose. I want her to know how important she is to me, even if we don’t share the same opinion of some things. “Of course, I would prefer if that wasn’t your job. But, I’m a modern man, and you’re a modern woman. How you choose to spend your time or make a living is entirely your decision and I’ll support you one hundred percent.”
“But you want to buy me a house?”
“I do. I have the money. Enough that you don’t need to work, but I feel like I’m treading a fine line between helping you because we’re together and trying to control you. Please take it as the former.”
“What future do you see for us?” It’s Ashley’s turn to frown. “I feel like we should have had this conversation before we fell into bed, again, by the way. Everything between us is based on one night. One festive night when people lose their heads and do crazy things.”
“Well, two nights. And I’d had one beer before you appeared last night. You appeared sober.”
“I was. You didn’t answer my question, though. What future do you see for us?”
“That’s easy. I have it all planned out. I’ve dreamed of a future with you ever since we met. I want to take you travelling. I want to lie on the beach with you in an exotic location dozing in the sun. Maybe sail a yacht around the islands. I want to hold hands and enjoy the silence of a sunrise in Cambodia. Maybe ride camels in Egypt, and backpack though Eastern Europe. There’ll be massages and luxury. I want to stare into your eyes under the stars and share every part of myself.”
“Well.”
That’s all she says. Just that one word. I’m confused and scared, all at once. One-word answers are never a good sign. I’d prefer gushing. Excited crying a close second. Annoyed screaming, even. Anything except the heavy silence that wraps around us now.
“You don’t want any of that?” She’s thoughtful, her eyes staring up at the ceiling as she searches for the words. I’m hanging on her reply. The right words will send my heart soaring. The wrong ones will dash all the hopes I’ve cultivated since last year. I can’t risk the wrong words from her, so I share the most truthful ones I have. “I think I love you, Ashley.”
“You love me?” She finally meets my gaze and I nod, staring at her so I can’t be mistaken for anything but sincere.
I’ve never meant anything as much as I mean those three words.