Page 23 of All That Glitters
That was a strange question to be asking…
“Of course.”
It was where the four of us hung out while growing up when Hale and I were staying at the house in Florida. I was the only girl in our little group and no one ever thought anything of it. We’d come in January for the race in Daytona and stay through March for the race in Sebring. Our home, though, was in Atlanta where the headquarters for Troye, LTD was located.
“Did you know that it was already there when my grandfather bought the property? He lived in it while this house was being built. It was pretty rustic, then. No running water, no electricity. He had to have it completely gutted and remade. There used to be a shed not far from it where he’d bring a car, work on it until all hours of the night.”
“I… I didn’t know all that.” And I was confused. “What does this have to do with anything?”
“Can’t a guy make conversation with an old friend?”
I didn’t buy it for a second.
“Sure.”
“I moved out there a few months ago. I found this house… Claustrophobic and stressful.”
“I guess I can understand that.”
He leaned closer and his voice dropped to a near whisper. His breath feathered against my ear. “I found some of his journals in a small closet. He would bring women to the cottage for trysts before he met my grandmother.”
“Oh.” I wanted to ignore his last statement, but was unable to. I also wanted to ignore the liquid heat traveling through my body that had nothing to do with him holding my arm.
“Must have made for some….interesting reading.”
Every part of me felt unsteady and unsure. I wanted to lean toward him, but I also wanted to melt into the wall at my back.
“Mm. You could say that. It was a side of him I never expected. Women threw themselves at him at tracks when he’d race. Seems he had a bit of a reputation.”
The apple didn’t fall far from the tree… I didn’t say it, but it was there, hanging between us. Ashton liked the playboy role and I liked to ignore it and pretend it didn’t affect me.
The Glitterati family fascinated me.
Francesca was the nicest, most welcoming woman I’d ever known. She wanted everyone to feel comfortable.
Leonardo gave off the opposite vibe. He was steely eyed, never giving anything away. Ashton took after him in that. Leonardo was no nonsense and he was all about winning. He didn’t care about the cost. He wanted the best and he demanded the best.
But anytime spent with them as a family… Leonardo would throw it all away for his wife. He melted around Francesca.
Brax was their nephew and in all the years I’d known the Glitterati family, I had never met nor seen Brax’s parents in person and Brax had rarely talked about them. Growing up, he lived with Ashton, Francesca, and Leonardo.
“I’m sure many drivers had that before the same as they do now.”
There were several unsavory names and derogatory terms used for the women that trolled races looking for hook-ups. I hated it. I wasn’t part of it, but I hated it just the same.
“There’s a dinner party inside. We should really get back to it.”
“We should,” he agreed. Then, less than a heartbeat later, “You should come out there. Visit me.”
And there it was.
“Ashton… What are you doing?”
He slid his hand slowly up and down my my arm and shuffled his body into my personal space.
So. Close.
So damn close I had to lean back into the wall, hard until I felt the roughness of the stucco. Cold seeped through the back of my suit jacket. Heat flowed from him through the front.
