Page 26 of Don't Love Me
I didn’t go to the main house often. Last time had been after Ash had gotten out of the hospital. I’d come up to her room a few times in the days following her release to check on her. Landen had been coming down the hall and had spotted me leaving her room. There had been no threats then; he seemed to acknowledge these were extenuating circumstances. But he hadn’t been happy.
Since then, I’d continued to steer clear of Ash and follow the rules.
Tonight I hadn’t. Friends at the house. Drugs and alcohol. And now I was standing outside of Ash’s bedroom door.
I knocked. Heard a scramble, then she opened the door.
“Do you just open the door to anyone who knocks?” I snapped.
She rolled her eyes. “You’re the only other person on the estate, Marc.”
“I could have been a burglar,” I said, leaning against her door frame. I didn’t want to step inside. That seemed like it would be crossing a line.
“Pretty sure burglars don’t knock.”
She was wearing flannel pajama pants and a tank top. Getting ready for bed, or already asleep, I didn’t know. When I glanced at her, I could see her nipples were hard underneath the cotton material.
I looked away.
“Look, about tonight, I just didn’t think it was a good idea for you to be hanging out. The guys were drinking and getting high.” I shook my head. “They get ideas, Ash. Especially when a vulnerable girl is in the room.”
“Vulnerable? I don’t even know what that means.”
“It means you would be easy to take advantage of,” I told her.
“I’m not an idiot, Marc. I can handle myself with a guy.”
“No, but you’re a virgin and that kind of thing…some guys like corrupting innocence.”
She folded her arms over her chest, and I could see the blush creeping up her neck. “You don’t know I’m a virgin.”
Yes, I did. I knew absolutely she was a virgin.
“We don’t have to talk about it. I just didn’t want you to think I was being an asshole for no reason. However, I ever catch you smoking anything, I am serious, Ash, I’ll go to your father with that and he’ll pull you out of school so fast you won’t know what hit you.”
She laughed. “You haven’t been around, Marc. Daddy isn’t exactly available for chitchats these days. You don’t scare me.”
“These trips to New York common?”
She nodded. “He’s got an apartment in the city. Sometimes it’s easier for him to stay up there. It doesn’t bother me. More freedom. You know, to invite guys over and have sex with them.”
I snorted. Even the way she said that. A little hesitant,sexinstead offucking. She was totally a virgin.
“You know, I wasn’t sure if I was going to come here for break.”
Her back got a little straighter.
“You’ll keep coming back,” she insisted. “This is your home.”
No, I wouldn’t. And no, it wasn’t. Not really. There would come a time when I would leave, and I wouldn’t look back. She wasn’t ready to hear that tonight, so I didn’t bother. Instead, I moved to leave.
“Marc, just so you know, you’re never an asshole to me for no reason. There’s always a motive. I just wish you realized what it was.”
I didn’t have anything to say to that, so I left.
* * *
The next morning
