06

He specified that he had no intention of lingering there for months, let alone a year, but only a few weeks—just long enough to find a place to live and earn a living by the sweat of his brow. On the other hand, it didn't really matter to the man if she stayed a year or more. Quite the contrary; every time he thought about this new present, the idea pleased him more and more—an idea that was going to drag them both into an unsuspected labyrinth of perdition, though its very first premises had just been born. Right at the moment when she had appeared, she had stepped into the game.

"Take it, go ahead. I'm not even loaning it to you. I'm giving it to you because I know you really need it. Please, do it for Alicia. She would do the same for you, I beg you," he insisted, and she couldn't refuse.

"I'd much rather think of it as a loan, because presented like this, it makes me feel uncomfortable. You know..." she began, but she was interrupted.

"I won't accept a single cent back. All right?"

"I... All right, thank you." She took the money, albeit timidly.

But finding herself beneath his piercing gaze, those magnificent blue eyes that swept you off to seventh heaven with a single look—she didn't want to sound cliché, but that was just how her mind was working at that moment—seeing him this way made her sigh for him and feel a whole host of emotions she shouldn't have been experiencing. It wasn't right; it was downright wrong to feel this way. Never in her life would she have thought she could feel such a profound sentiment for a man, and even less so for her friend's father, someone so much older than her. Honestly, even though she would never admit it, he literally could have been her father. Yet, the desire burned. From one second to the next, shyness ceased to be an issue, and she had to contract the inner muscles of her thighs, because the need had retreated right down there, demanding a bit of attention. And she knew it was wrong to crave that kind of contact with him; she simply couldn't allow herself to do it. But she was already overthinking, and sometimes, stopping herself from thinking became an arduous task when you had the anchor of desire planted deep within your soul.

It was high time to leave; that was the smartest thing to do, to escape from there as fast as possible before the situation grew any stranger than it already was. Ashton could sense that tension too, and he knew that having the young woman so close to him would spark much more serious complications. For now, he was giving free rein to madness. Preserving an ounce of reason mattered little to him. In delirium, everything became better. Danger was deliciously alluring, and he had no intention of giving up until he managed to wrap her in his sheets.

The temptation stood right in front of him, and his impatience to take a bite of the apple was only a few centimeters away. Those lips that moved slowly as she spoke or let hesitant words slip out—he couldn't help imagining kissing them with passion. He didn't want a mere brush of the lips; he wanted to take things to another level, and he was convinced that was bound to happen soon enough. The only positive point in this whole story was that the young woman was no longer a child, far from it. She had grown into a splendid woman. Her beauty almost hypnotized him in spite of himself, and had he realized it, he would have kept it to himself. But he was fully aware of one thing: she was ravishing.

He had noticed her from the very first glance... Back then, he had felt foolish, a complete idiot seeing her that way. But now that she was no longer that age and was of legal age, he no longer felt guilty. In a word, what they were experiencing strayed considerably from the forbidden.

And now that it could become a reality, he was all the more impatient. He didn't care about arriving late to the appointment scheduled for that day, as long as he could stay a little longer near her and contemplate the young woman more than was reasonable. Right there, he would offer her everything she might need, ready to surrender himself body and soul to what he was feeling.

Beyond the sheer burn of desire on his skin, what he felt for her was in no way limited to a banal sexual attraction. Not the least bit; it resembled that secluded emotion she had just laid bare. He had never been like this, not even with his ex-wife, whom he had divorced because of infidelity. The fault hadn't been his, but hers, whom he had caught in bed with a friend. Obviously, he had felt pathetic and completely foolish for having been blinded for so long without realizing she was cheating on him with his best friend. Since then, he had walled himself up in silence and trusted no one anymore. But in this young woman, he had just recovered a small part of himself, and that, without even having crossed the line yet.

Perhaps she was the cure for the emotional exhaustion he had dragged from the past, the one who would give him back all the strength he had lost. He saw it in her gaze, even though it was still too early to state it with absolute certainty. Nevertheless, he liked to think Hope was his anchor. He wouldn't take long to find out.

The only thing that worried him was how his daughter would react; he knew Alicia would never tolerate her father having a liaison with her friend. That would unleash a resounding scandal and constitute a terrible shock for her. But thinking like that was chasing after events that hadn't happened yet. Despite everything, he persisted in dwelling on that party where he had seen the young woman for the last time, wearing that magnificent dress that aged her and gave her an appearance far more mature than her actual years, with all that cascading hair on her shoulders, that superb cleavage accentuating her chest, and her eyes fixed on him. That night too, he hadn't been able to look away, and neither had she, even though they hadn't exchanged anything more than a casual greeting.

It was no secret that she was interested in him. And even though she had never confessed it to him in words, he had managed to guess it in her eyes. It was precisely this, combined with his extreme shyness, that persuaded him he would have his chance to live out with her what he had coveted for so long. Something whispered to him that they would suit each other wonderfully, but if he decided to take the risk, he would clear things up right from the start. He didn't want a commitment, at least not with a future so unpredictable. He only knew that he wanted to kiss her, touch her, and possess her in that unique way.

He was pining to be the master of her body.