When There Is Nothing Left But Love

I’d barely reached the hallway when Ashton lifted me from behind and dumped me onto the bed.

I landed in a clumsy heap on the bed. Glaring at him, I shouted, “Ashton! Are you sick or something?”

“Yes,” he replied seriously as he tossed his towel aside. He rasped seductively, “I’m lovesick.”

I…

I tried to be modest and look away from his body. “Ashton, there are dressing gowns in the hotel. You should put one on!”

He seemed to ignore my words as he crawled onto the bed toward me. He asked huskily, “What are you hiding from? Are you scared of something?”

I was tongue-tied as the scent of his shower gel hit me. I started inching backward slowly. “Ashton, what are you trying to do?”

He began closing in on me, and I felt unsettled by his stare. “You should know what I’m planning to do.”

He’d said this lightly, though I couldn’t miss the emphasis he’d placed on the last word in his answer.

I’d run out of space to back into. I looked at him and swallowed my saliva involuntarily. “Don’t come so near to me. It’s late, and I should really get going.”

This position was far too sensual for my liking. I was finding it hard to breathe.

He seemed to enjoy the atmosphere immensely. He didn’t make a move and gave me a piercing stare. “Going back? Where to?”

He moved his lips closer to me as he spoke.

I was so taut that I almost forgot to breathe. Acting on instinct, I closed my eyes.

tried to wiggle around and escape as I sensed his movements. He ordered in a

didn’t know what to do.

time, placing featherlight kisses along my

focus when he’s doing

and I

incoherently, beginning to fall under his spell. He suddenly stopped just as I was anticipating his

his knowing smirk. He

tomato

rang out through the

said I didn’t expect what

woke up to the piercing rays of the August sunshine through the window. I

are you

he saw that I was awake, he pulled me into

“Why wouldn’t I

was still getting over my

“Are you hungry?”

and pulled away from him. “I should leave!” I still need to go

pressed me down on the bed.

saying, “Ashton, let’s just treat last night as a drunken one-night stand. Next

had disappeared as he interrupted my

“I’m not running away. I just want to make a life of my own. Ashton, you’re really good to me,

What do you mean that? Is my existence somehow disturbing your

woodenly. “Yes, it is disturbing my life. I want to live alone and not become entangled with you like this.