Love is Only a Whisper (Whisper Series) (14 page)

He turned toward the door, opened it and walked through not making a sound. The finality of it spurred her into action. She ran out the door and down the steps. When she hit the last step, Ashton’s hand was already on the door handle of the Mercedes.

“Don’t go,” she uttered in a voice barely audible but hoped
he heard her.

He turned toward her. She released the pain in her chest.

Hooded eyes collided with hers. “Why?”

She struggled to produce the words that were in her heart. Finally, she shrugged her shoulders. He opened the door of the car.

“I’m trying!” she shouted.

Ashton slammed door and walked slowly toward her. They now
stood face to face. Anger was still etched on his face; his eyes were cold and
guarded.

“I’m trying,” she said again

“It’s not good enough.”

She dropped her head, took a deep breath and lifted it high.
“You’re going to make me say it, aren’t you?”

“I’m not making you do anything you don’t want.”

“I don’t—”

“It’s your choice, Nicole. You hold the entire deck of cards.”

A tick pulsated in his jaw. He wasn’t as unaffected as he sound. This gave her courage. She took his hand and walked with him into the house. Closing the door, she leaned against it. He stood stoic, not moving an inch.

“I don’t know what this is between us. To be frank, I’m scared to examine it or give it a name.” He remained immobile. She continued, “It’s strong and powerful. I feel as if I’m teetering on a high cliff and could fall any moment.”

She laid the
palm of her hand against his face, feeling the stiffness. “I don’t want to be
hurt.”

At that moment
something changed in his eyes. Emotion surfaced from their depths, flickered
and then was gone.

“I swear with
everything in me I’ll never hurt you.”

The silence of
the house reminded of midnight when all was quiet. Finally, she heard the soft chime
of the clock in the hallway informing her that time didn’t stand still for on
one.

For the second time that day, Nicole
initiated a kiss by covering his lips with hers. He stiffened but she continued
searching for his tongue, timidly at first and then with vigor. Once she
captured it he finally broke by sweeping her up his arms and walking to the
sofa.

“No, bedroom,” she mumbled against his mouth. He groaned. She smiled inwardly at his lack of
control.

Inside the
bedroom, he placed her on the bed and stared down at her. “I need you, Nicole.” His voice was low and rough. “More than you will ever know.”

Nicole nodded. “I know. I need you too.” He watched her for a long time before he began to unbutton his shirt. He removed the remainder of his clothes in unhurried movements. His bulging chest and patch of fine dark hair on his masculine form caused the fire that was simmering in her to build to unbelievable heights.

“Hurry.”

“There’s no rush. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.” Ashton sultry eyes burned through her. When he was finished, he undressed her slowly. “I’m not letting you run from me tonight.”

“Good,” she said, pulling him down on her. She wrapped her
legs around his back. Nicole slipped her hand between them, finding him hard
and smooth.

He groaned. “Baby, if you continue, I won’t last.”

“Oh, I think you’ll make it.”

Ashton’s mouth covered hers; she felt the hunger in the kiss
and returned it. Without thinking, she grabbed his penis and placed it at the
opening of her vagina.

“Sweetheart, stop. I need to make you ready for me,” he
hissed through clenched teeth.

“I’m ready.”

He flicked his fingers at her clit, found it saturated with
her fluids and smiled. He put his fingers in his mouth and sucked. “You’re so
right.”

Her breath caught in her throat at the gesture.

He grabbed his cock and eased slowly into her.

“Oooh… so good.” Nicole blindly bunched up the sheet
struggling to hold on to something that could give her balance.

His strokes were deep, powerful— and hypnotic. Ashton’s tongue continued its journey, causing her to claw at the bed sheets. Nicole’s breathing increased. Mouth open, gasping for air, she met him stroke for stroke.

“Please don’t stop.” The force of her climax hit hard and
along the way she chanted his name. “Ashton…” She tightened her vagina muscles
around his penis.

“You’re mine.” The words were hoarse and mixed with a deep rumbled groan as released his seed.

###

Nicole kept her eyes closed, refusing to let go of the sweet dream she was having of Ashton. He bestowed a thorough kiss on her lips and ran his fingers gently down her cheek.

“Hmm. That’s nice,” she said groggily and yawned.

“Nice? Is that the best you can give me?”

Nicole peered at him and saw that he was fully dressed. “You’re
leaving?”

“Yes.”

She squinted at the clock on the nightstand. “What time is
it?”

“Six a.m.”

“It’s too early,” she grumbled.

He chuckled. Nicole loved the sound of his laughter. He did
a lot of it since he had been with her. She liked it.

“I want you to rest. Besides, I’m leaving to give you the
time you requested.”

“Really?” She sat up. “I thought last night changed all of
that.”

“No, it didn’t.” His hand softly rubbed the nipple on one breast. Heat flooded her heat as she pulled the sheet to cover herself. He laughed and kissed her breast through the sheet.

“What is time alone supposed to do now?”

“For you see if this is really what you want. I don’t want
you to have any doubts.”

“But, I don’t.”

He shook his head. “I believe you do. You’re confused,
especially about Brent’s place in your life.”

“But—”

He placed his fingers to her lips. “Confusion is not
something that will be between us. If we are to be together, I want you to be
sure. I know we belong together but I need for you realize it also. No doubts.”

“How long will you be gone?’

“Until you call.” He kissed her again and moved toward the
door.

“Let me walk you out.” She wrapped the sheet around, swinging her legs over the side of the bed.

“No. I’ll lock the door behind me.” With a hand on the doorknob,
he stood looking at her. “I want to leave with the memory of you lounging in
bed with the essence of our lovemaking still clinging to you.”

His words made her dizzy with longing. She reached up and
kissed him, long and deep, causing a hunger that at the moment couldn’t be
filled.

He pulled back but not before running his tongue across her
lips and kissing the side of her mouth. “Get back into bed. Rest.” He opened
the door. “Don’t make me wait too long, if you do, I’ll come for you.” The door
closed quietly behind him.

“Sally told me
about your obsession with Nicole Travis,” Ashton’s best friend, Broadus Lawrence
Beaumont, whom everyone called Brody, said to him.

They’d just
finished a huge steak dinner prepared by Brody’s cook, and now they were
relaxing in his den. For once his friend was in the mood to talk and Ashton
wasn’t.

Brody known as the silent, brooding type was normally a man of very few words, which women loved and men feared. Their personality kinship was something neither bothered to deny. Since their families, the Sinclair’s and Beaumont’s had been friends for over forty years, long before either of them was born; it seemed natural that their sons would be lifelong friends as well.

Brody had
been adopted by the Beaumont’s when he was five days old. He was part Native
American Indian, with startling green eyes, which attested to the fact that one
of his biological parents wasn’t Indian.

When Claire
Beaumont had opened the door to the orphanage where she was volunteering and
found a baby in a woven carrier and wrapped in a Native American handmade
blanket on the doorstep, she’d fallen in love immediately. She and her husband
had been trying for years to have children but with no success. To hear her
tell it, God had sent Brody just for her. He was her miracle.

Although the
note pinned to his blanket gave his age, the only other words on the
handwritten sheet of paper had said that he was a good baby and to please take
care of him.

To this day, Brody never mentioned or sought to find his biological parents. He was the only son of Grayson and Claire Beaumont. No one dared to bring up the fact that Brody was adopted and not a bloodline Beaumont. If they did, that person would’ve been cut from the Beaumont’s circle.

Brody was their firstborn and heir apparent; therefore, he
would receive the reins of Beaumont Oil and Gas and all other Beaumont holdings.
Like Ashton, Brody was a billionaire but getting him to take his rightful place
in the family was another battle. He was a loner. He never took to being cooped
up in an office. Brody had made a deal with his father. He would run the
Beaumont Enterprises but he would spend two months a year on his Montana ranch without interruption.

Brody was in the final week of his two month exile and would
be going back to Dallas. Although, Brody didn’t like unexpected guests, he and
Ashton had open door policies when it came to their friendship and homes.

“Your sister
likes to gossip.”

His best friend
grumbled. “What young girl doesn’t?”

“She’s old enough not to entertain it.”

Ashton walked to the bar and poured a straight whiskey into the glass. He drank deeply and poured another. He returned to the dark chocolate leather chair in the corner and propped his leg on the armrest.

Brody, lounging in another chair with his leg thrown over
the side, watched him in silence.

Ashton had been at Brody’s two-thousand acre ranch in Montana for the last week, trying to give Nicole the space he promised. He should’ve gone
to Dallas but he wasn’t in the mood to attend meetings or work. The problem was
that he missed Nicole…badly.

He’d called his right hand VP at the company and asked him to attend all meetings in his place. There had been a stunned silence on the other end of the line. He knew he’d shock the man. What the hell, he’d shocked himself. Well things change. Damn, he was changing—Nicole changed him. He smiled at the thought of her.

“Nicole…she’s young, Ashton.”

He didn’t pretend not to know what Brody was talking
about. “I realize that.” He ran a hand across his face in exasperation.”

“She’s not like your other women.”

Ashton took another swallow of whiskey and looked over his glass at his friend. “No. She’s always been different.”

With no expression on his face, he said, “Ah, I see. She’s special? I never thought I would see the day.”

“It’s not a joke.”

“I didn’t laugh.”

“I know but your tone stated that you did.”

Brody asked, “How do you know Nicole is the one?”

“I knew it the first time I saw her.”

Brody frowned. “But she was…what? Sixteen?”

“Seventeen. My heart did unbelievable things at the time. I
didn’t know what was going on.”

There was a long moment of silence.

“I didn’t know those words could come from you, a cynic.”

“Don’t be an ass, Brody. I’m serious.”

“I’m not trying to. I just don’t want whenever has happen to you to rub off on me. This is weird. I’ve never seen you like this. If you believe that Nicole is the one, you need to seal it up quickly.”

Ashton snorted. “She’s not an acquisition or merger, Brody.”

“Really?” Haven’t you been working on acquiring her for
years?”

“You’re wrong. I never thought Nicole and I were a possibility.” He grinned, thinking of her feistiness. “She doesn’t take any bullshit from
me.”

“You finally met a lady who doesn’t fall at your feet?” He
was quiet for a moment. “You’ve always been a love-‘em and leave-‘em them kind
of guy.”

“People change, Brody.”

“You and I don’t.” His eyes narrowed. “But I hear the way
you say her name. I thought Sally was joking when she told me. Damn, man,
you’ve known Nicole since she was a kid.”

He ground out. “She’s a grown woman, not a child.”

“And you’re thirty-four, soon to be thirty-five and sliding quickly toward forty. You got a lot of years on her…and experience.”

“You’re not telling me something I don’t know.”

“The point I’m trying to make, Ashton, is that you’re too
old, too jaded, and too messed up to be with this girl. For goodness sake,
she’s Sally’s age, not one of the women you usually screw.”

“Shut the hell up.” Ashton pointed his finger at Brody. “Never, and I mean never talk about Nicole in that manner.”

Brody held up his hand. “Whoa. What’s gotten into you? I
would’ve thought that episode with Victoria soured you.”

“Why in the hell are you bringing that up? It happened a
long time ago, Brody.” Ashton threw his best friend a murderous look. “Victoria was a mistake.”

“Yeah. She was your friend first who made the mistake of falling in love with you. You should’ve stopped it but you didn’t.”

“Damn.” He took a deep breath, releasing it slowly. “I
didn’t see it coming. I never thought of her more than a friend who hung out
with us. We were all at Harvard busting our asses to get the best grades. Yeah,
I screwed around…a lot. Did I think about sleeping her with her? Who didn’t? She
was gorgeous, but I didn’t want to cross the line of friendship. To me she was
just one of the gang.”

“I told you she wanted more. You didn’t listen. She wasn’t
the type of girl to just have sex. It meant something to her.”

“She was only a friend.”

“Until you woke up in her bed.”

“How many times do I have to tell you, I was drunk? We were all celebrating acing the finals and looking forward to graduation. I barely remember having sex with her. Hell, I should’ve listened when you told me Victoria had a crush on me. I thought she would get over it.”

“But she didn’t.”

“No, she didn’t,” he said roughly. “That’s something I’ll
have to live with for the rest of my life. I wish I could go back and change it,
but I can’t.”