Page 75 of Infinite
She smiles and walks in. “I never got to see your office before, so I figured I could stop by to ask if you would maybe like to have lunch?”
I would eat you for lunch.
“Sure, let’s get out of here.”
If we stay in this small office, I will end up tearing her clothes off.
We walk out, and she waves to Natalie and Mark. Mark smiles at her and then glares at me. Asshole.
“Where do you want to go?” I ask as we get in my car.
“What about that new place on the beach with the deck off the bay? The one close to our house?”
Our house. She said our house. Not my house that she’s living in or her house because she knows I’m going away, but ours.
Fuck. I’m so screwed.
“Sounds good.” My voice sounds like I swallowed rocks.
Ashton is quiet on the drive, and it’s clear she’s working through some thoughts as she stares out the window. When we get to the restaurant ten minutes later, we pick a table on the deck, making me thankful for the unseasonably warm weather. This is when Virginia Beach is at its best. When the tourists have gone home and the locals get to enjoy the final days of summer.
“I wanted to ask you something,” she says after our drinks are brought to us.
“I figured.”
Ashton rolls her eyes. “I forget you’re clairvoyant.”
“Observant is more like it. You have a pattern.”
“Good to know. Anyway, I was going to ask if you’d come meet Carolina with me tomorrow. We had a really . . . intense . . . session today. So much so that I had to leave early, and I’m still sort of shaken.”
I reach across the table, extending my hand to her. Ashton doesn’t pause before she places her palm in mine. “Are you okay?”
“We talked more about Aaron.”
Well, that isn’t what I expected to have upset her so much. Why does Aaron have anything to do with it? “And that’s why you’re shaken?”
“Not because of him, because of what he did.”
She’s not alone in that. Still, I want her to feel safe. “You know he’s not going to hurt us again, right?”
“It’s the fact that he took you and hurt you.”
“You’re worried about me?”
Ashton brings her other hand up and places it on top of mine. “I’m worried that this will happen again and that I will be powerless again.”
“It means that much to you that I go?”
She nods. “It really would.”
The last thing I want to do is to see a shrink. I don’t believe in most of that shit, but I’m seeing how much it’s helping her. I promised many times that I would do anything I could to bring her back, and if this is what it will take, I will be there.
“All right. I’ll go.”
She squeals and leaps across the table. Her hands cup my face, and she plants a sweet kiss on my lips.
“Sorry!” Ashton sits back down.
