Page 14 of My Fair Player

“I’ll put you on my checking account on Monday and…”

“No,” Ashley interrupted, looking up and meeting his eyes. “Ninety days. We’re doing this for ninety days, and we are strangers. Don’t make a move that will be hard to unwind, if needed.”

Ouch.

“Good thinking,” he replied, burying his feelings of rejection. “Well, good night.”

“Good night,” she murmured, leaving the room - and him - behind.

5

ASHLEY

Married.

Ashley had actuallymarrieda stranger.

Liam was in her living room, about to go to sleep on a sofa bed that needed to be replaced several years ago. Adrian would be giving her such a hard time right now, but she was struggling. Her finances were a mess, her schedule was different, she sometimes would come home from a flight and just collapse, not wanting to be around people – and now she had invited someone into her home, her domain. There would be no escaping, no more solitude.

Lying there in her bed, she stared at the ceiling, listening and on edge. She heard Liam moving around in the bathroom, heard him flush the toilet, and then heard the water in the sink before she heard him spit moments later. He had brushed his teeth. Something so simple seemed too strangely intimate because he was here, in her home, and they were married. That single thought just echoed over and over again in her head.

Liam bought her a truck. A massive, overly expensive truck that was fully loaded and more than she would have pickedfor herself – because she had a last-minute case of nerves. He wouldn’t back down, wouldn’t let her out of their bargain – not that she protested – and he was treating her like she was on a pedestal. She had been supremely aware of him when he took charge at the dealership, insisting that they fill the truck with fuel for her, that all maintenance was included, making sure she paid for nothing. These were things she never imagined, but he pressed for the extras to ensure she was taken care of, and oh man, was it appealing.

He was handsome already, gorgeous in fact, but that simple move unlocked the next level in her mind. ‘Handsome’ became ‘HOT,’ because he was caring for his wife, his woman… and that was her. The truck was in her name only – her new name – AshleySavage.

“Oh gosh,” she whispered, clutching her blankets to her chin and glancing at the door as a reminder. Would he suddenly advance on her out of nowhere like he had on the plane? When he’d pushed her back, covering her mouth, and was whispering to her, she hated the fact that something deep down inside had responded to that masculine aggression. She never liked pushy guys, but he’d ‘pushed’ just enough to get her attention and then backed off.

And she’d responded.

“I’m such an idiot,” she mumbled, rolling to her side and pinching her eyes closed. “I need to go to sleep, trust him not to be weird, and figure out how to make this mess work for both of us for the next ninety days.”

And her eyes popped open as she heard a thud, followed by a loudly hissed ‘Ouch!’ – immediately responding. She hollered out from her spot, checking on him. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” he called out. “I accidentally hit my toe on the end table.”

“Okay. Good night.”

“Good night, Ashley,” he called out once more.

Somehow, she managed to fall asleep – and slept deeply. Waking up the next morning, she stared out the cracked mini-blinds in the window near her bed, and she saw someone in the yard. There was a man in her yard, walking around, and she bolted straight up in her bed out of fear before she realized who exactly it was.

Liam.

Her home, her little cabin, was on five acres of land and had once been a hunting cabin – and before that, it was a sugar cabin. Her great-grandparents had once harvested maple sugar from the trees on the property years and years ago. Time had changed the property, the town, and everything slowly had been modernized while preserving some of the more historical things. There was still an outhouse at the very back of the property that spoke to that history. The wooden outhouse had been rebuilt with metal and now was untouched. In fact, you couldn’t pay her enough to attempt to walk in there or use it. There were drainage ditches along a dirt path that ran down to the back of the property, weaving through the trees.

It was pretty, overgrown, and could be so much more except for the fact that she couldn’t afford to have the undergrowth cleared out. She couldn’t afford to have the paver pathway put in, nor the outdoor fireplace that she wanted each time the crisp temperatures began to descend on the area. Someday, she’d love to have an asphalt-laid driveway instead of a gravel one, making it easier to navigate in the snow. She had to make it two miles to the main road before she reached plowed lanes during the wintertime. Maybe she’d get a plow for the front of the truck someday?

Another thought.

Another ‘someday’.

Another dream that had to wait— but did it?

That little voice had spoken up as she watched Liam start off back along the dirt path – and she moved. She shot out of bed, yanked on a robe, and darted out the back door to warn him.

“Wait!” she called out nervously, looking around and saw him turn, glancing back at her. “Wait a second and be careful.”

“What’s wrong?”

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