Page 61 of Ashes of Us
“No.” She groaned. “I'm so sorry, she does this all the time. It's incredibly embarrassing.”
“Does she?” Danica looked over her shoulder, but both Alex and Jaime were no longer visible. “She never behaved that way with Alexander.”
Constance shook her head. “No, because she was married. Her and her husband divorced late last year, and she found outher husband had started seeing someone else about six months ago. There was no cheating or anything like that, but they're moving really quickly; he already wants her to meet their kids. The custody agreement says the other parent has to meet the new partner and agree to the kids meeting them. He wants her to move in and is pushing for the meeting, which Jaime refuses to attend.” She sighed. “But ever since he started requesting the meeting, she's been overtly flirting with every man who catches her attention, guests, co-workers, business partners... She has no shame anymore.”
“Ah.” Danica nodded, Constance's explanation clearing up a lot for her, including why they were having dinner with them on their last night in town, something they hadn't done anywhere else. “Don't worry, it's not a reflection of you.” She assured her, picking up the dessert menu and looking it over. “But you should have mentioned that in your meeting with us.”
“I know.” Constance picked up the menu too and gave it a cursory glance. “I didn't want to be that person, though, and no one has complained about it, just been a little uncomfortable, so I didn't have proof.”
Alex returned a few minutes later, smiling broadly and took his seat again. “Did we decide on dessert?” He asked cheerfully as he picked up the menu, looking it over. Jaime didn't return with him, and Constance hesitantly asked where she was as a waiter came and took their orders.
“She wasn't feeling well and went home.” Alex sighed and ran his fingers through his hair when the waiter walked away. “Which I'm sure had nothing to do with the fact that I told her no when she offered to keep me company after dinner.” Danica ducked her head, trying not to laugh at how bluntly Alex explained what happened and the way Constance seemed toshrink in her chair. “Want to fill me in on what the hell she was thinking?”
Constance looked at Danica, her big brown eyes pleading for help, and Danica shrugged. “Tell him, it's better he hears it from you than secondhand from me.” Nodding and seeming to steel herself, Constance explained about Jaime's divorce, her ex-husband wanting to introduce his new girlfriend to the kids and how Jaime had started behaving after. They only paused when their desserts arrived and then gave Alex multiple examples and names. He asked her to send him an email with as many dates and names as she could remember and said he would handle it from there. The rest of the meal was spent discussing the renovation plans and ended on a more positive note.
Sharing an Uber back to the hotel, Danica leaned back in the seat and yawned. Luckily, they had finished the audit a couple of days early, so she had some time to decompress before they left for their camping trip. Alex's phone rang again, and he answered. Danica wasn't paying much attention to the conversation, figuring it was one of the managers or Xavier. She was debating asking him to bring Indie outside when they got back to the hotel, so she could run a hot bath and soak for an hour in peace because the dog loved to try to join her, when she heard him say his brother's name and something about extradition. Instantly awake, she sat up and turned to face him, impatiently waiting for him to finish the call.
“They found Craig?” She asked when he finally hung up. “Where was he?”
Alex leaned back, folding his arms over his chest. “They didn't find him, he was dropped off anonymously at a hospital in Tijuana a week ago, beaten to a pulp, severely dehydrated, badly sunburned and practically comatose from whatever drugs he was on. They treated him, but because he was beaten up, clearlyAmerican, on drugs and didn't have a passport or any way to be identified on him, they brought in a social worker, who notified the police. He was ID'd, his warrant came up, and now he is recovering under police supervision. Because he's there illegally, they're going to deport him as soon as he's stable enough to be transported, with the US Marshals meeting him on the San Diego side of the border to take him back to Vegas.” He smirked, looking amused and not at all concerned about his brother. “The phone call earlier was from the social worker in the hospital in Tijuana. Apparently, when he found out he was being deported and would have to pay a hefty hospital bill, he gave them my name and phone number to collect payment. The call I just took was from his lawyer in Vegas, looking for a deposit to take the case.”
Danica stared at him for a long moment, unable to believe Craig's audacity to put his brother on the hook financially after he stole almost a million dollars and disappeared. “Wow.” She said finally. “You're not going to actually pay, are you?”
Alex shook his head, snorting out a sharp laugh. “Fuck no. He got himself into this mess; he can figure out how to get out of it.”
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After they got back to the hotel, Alex agreed to take Indie to a nearby park for a bit so she could have an uninterrupted bath. She filled the tub with water as hot as she could stand it and sank into it with a whimper, letting it soak the tension out of her. She relaxed, listening to music on her phone and letting her thoughts wander. Sergeant Galvin had been keeping her updated on things with Lucy, and she knew her lawyer was indeed going with the insanity defence, claiming she suffered from a mental disorder that made her unable to understand or appreciate the wrongfulness of her actions. Danica did notdoubt that she had some sort of mental disorder, but she didn't believe for one second that Lucy didn't know what she did was wrong. The fact that she kept saying her and Jasper slept together instead of they had sex or made love, said she knew that she would incriminate herself if it were proven Jasper hadn't consented.
And the fact that Lucy waited for the clinic to be closed and the streets to be mostly empty, deliberately went around to the back of the building out of sight of passerby’s, and broke a window to get in, told Danica that every move she had made had been deliberate and carefully planned, and were not the actions of someone who didn't know what they were doing was wrong. Galvin had reassured her that the District Attorney was determined to prove that while her mental disorder, which they agreed she most likely had, no doubt affected her way of thinking, it was not an excuse and didn't make her unable to understand right from wrong, which made Danica feel better about things.
Danica blinked in confusion and sat straight up in the tub as someone knocked on her door. “Shit.” She muttered, realizing the water had grown cool and she must have drifted off in the tub. Grabbing her phone from the pile of towels on the floor next to her, she saw she had been in the tub for almost two hours and there were increasingly concerned texts from Alex, asking if she was okay. The last one telling her if she didn't answer the door in the next ten minutes, he was going to demand a keycard from the front desk. Seeing it was sent eight minutes ago, she scrambled out of the water, grabbing her blush pink silk robe off the counter next to the sink, wrapping it around herself hastily as she walked quickly to the door. “I'm coming!” She called, not wanting him to walk away before she got to the door.
Pulling it open, she pushed her damp hair back as she fixed an apologetic smile on her face. “I'm so sorry, I fell asleep.” She watched as Alex took one look at her and went from looking relieved she finally answered to shocked to expressionless. He passed her Indie's leash without a word and turned, walking back down the hall to his room, his back as stiff as a board. “Alex?” She called, her bewilderment at his response evident in her voice. “Is everything okay?”
“Fine.” His voice was gruff as he paused at his door, but he didn't turn around. “Go to bed, we have to be at the airport for seven.” Then he went inside his room, the door shutting behind hard enough to make Danica wince. She looked down at the Indie in confusion.
“I wonder what his problem is?” She muttered to the dog as she brought her inside and closed the door behind her. She let Indie off her leash and brought it over to lay on the desk next to her purse and caught a glimpse of herself in the oversized mirror next to it. “Oh.” She muttered as heat flooded her cheeks, and she realized exactly what Alex's problem was. The light pink silk robe was clinging to her wet body, highlighting every curve and dip and going not quite transparent, but definitely putting her breasts on display, the faint shadows of her areolae and nipples showing up like beacons against her pale skin. “Well fuck me.” She groaned as she headed back to the bathroom for a towel, not sure how she was ever going to look him in the eyes again.
Chapter Forty-Eight: Two Sizes Too Big
The drive to the airport the next morning was silent and awkward, at least on Danica's part. She knew she would have to address it but wasn't sure how to bring it up. Even though it had been a complete accident, it was still very embarrassing for her that she had essentially flashed her boss. After a very silent boarding and take-off, she couldn't handle it anymore and got up from her seat, moving over to sit in front of him. “Listen, about last night.” She chewed her lip and waited for him to look up from his laptop at her. “I didn't mean to, you know, bare myself to you like that.” She shifted uncomfortably under his blank stare and pushed on, stumbling over her words a little. “I woke up to you knocking and was flustered, so I just grabbed the robe without drying off...” She fell silent as he continued to look at her without changing his expression, feeling a spike of annoyance that he wasn't acknowledging that it was a mistake. “Anyway, I'm really sorry, and I don't like how quiet you're being about this.”
He still didn't answer, and Danica sighed, shaking her head as she stood up. “I mean, I've seen you topless and I didn'tmake a big deal out of it.” She muttered as she went back to her seat, dropping down next to the mildly sedated Indie and stroking her head as she looked out the window. She wasn't sedated because she couldn't handle flying; she was good for that. Turbulence, however, was a different story and made the poor dog very motion sick. The veterinarian had explained she could take Gravol to keep the motion sickness at bay and told her how much to give her based on her weight. However, one of the side effects was that it made her very drowsy and resulted in her napping for the entire flight.
Alex cleared his throat, and she looked up to see him closing his laptop. “My reaction had nothing to do with your robe showing off...” He paused, and she saw him look her over again, his expression going from unreadable to impressed. “Okay, scratch that. It had mostly nothing to do with what I was treated to when you opened the door, but that was more of a surprise than anything else.” He corrected himself. “You said you were getting a bath and didn't answer my texts asking if you were out of the tub yet so I could bring Indy back. You also didn't answer the door the first two times I knocked. I was worried sick and debating whether breaking the door down would be faster than getting someone up to the room with a key, and then you opened the door, admitting you fell asleepin the bathtub,like it wasn't a big deal. You could have drowned, Dani.”
“Oh.” Danica's annoyance immediately went away, replaced by a hint of shame. “Yeah, sorry. I can see why that would upset you.” She swallowed. “I didn't realize how exhausted I was last night.” The hot water had been incredibly soothing and had taken away tensions she didn't know she had. “I'm sorry for making you worry, and I'm also very sorry about essentially flashing you, too.”
Alex shrugged. “Don't worry about it. I'm sorry for not being able to articulate my thoughts in the moment.” To her surprise, he smirked as he reopened the laptop and continued typing. “But in my defence, I was pretty distracted. You should really consider wearing clothes that aren't at least two sizes too big occasionally.”
He said it with such nonchalance that Danica felt her mouth drop open and found she had lost her voice for a second. Her brain was scrambling to figure out how to respond to that, and she finally decided to fall back on joking about it, partially because she didn't want to make things awkward, but also because she found herself liking what he was saying. Jasper hadn't liked it when she wore clothes that were fitted and showed off her figure. He never told her to change or tried to police her clothing, but he would hover around her when they went out, like he didn't trust other men to keep their hands to themselves. At first it had been flattering and a bit of an ego boost that he was so possessive over her, but as time went on. When she became aware of his hypocrisy when it came to what he thought was appropriate behaviour when he was around other woman, versus how he expected her to behave around other men, the jealous responses had become more annoying than flattering.
“That's hardly an appropriate thing to say to your assistant.” She responded playfully, throwing Indie's duck at him. He snorted as he caught it and tossed it back at her without looking at her, forcing her to duck to avoid taking the drooly toy to the forehead.
“So says the woman who opened the door for her boss, soaking wet and practically naked.”
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