Loving Ashe (15 page)
Authors: Liz Madrid
“Where are you going?” Ashe asked, grabbing hold of Riley’s hand as she teetered on one foot, still trying to dislodge the gum from the bottom of her shoe.
“Right now, nowhere until I get this piece of gum from my shoe,” Riley stammered. “I mean, I was going to a gala but- ”
“The one at the Natural History Museum?” Ashe asked, surprised.
“Well, I was,” Riley said. “Don’t I look presentable enough to be a guest?”
“You’re stunning.”
“How do you know about the gala? Are you going?”
He chuckled. “Not looking like this, no, although I know people who are going to be there. But I’m not.”
Riley didn’t ask for names, for she really didn’t care who else was going. What if it was Gareth? As she held on to Ashe’s hand, she decided that it was time to give up on the gum and find out what he was doing there. He was dressed in a tight white shirt, equally tight black jeans, and boots that meant business. A dark coat and a long scarf completed the look.
“What are you doing here?” She asked. “Did you get lost?”
“I’m here to see you, and yes, I did get lost. I took the cab but I was one block off with the address,” Ashe said. “I tried to call you to let you know I was on my way, but you don’t seem to like answering your phone.”
“I didn’t hear it ring,” Riley said, pulling her phone from her evening bag and realizing it was on
Quiet
mode. She switched it back to the normal setting.
“You’re going to be late if you don’t leave now,” he said.
“I’m not going,” Riley said, frowning. “I was only going because Paige and Clint bought me a ticket, and they wanted to introduce me to Jesse.”
“Who’s Jesse?”
“He’s Clint’s assistant,” Riley replied. “They wanted me to meet someone new, someone normal with a regular job, who won’t be flying off at a moment’s notice to film a movie in Africa or promote it in Asia.”
“Is that what you want, someone normal?”
“Whether you’re normal or abnormal, I’ll never know, will I, unless I give this getting-to-know-you bit a try?” she said. “You could be normal, for all I know. You could be crazy over video games, salsa dancing or-”
“As a matter of fact, I do like salsa dancing,” he said, grinning. “Do you?”
Riley hesitated. How the hell had she come up with salsa dancing? “I don’t know. I’ve never tried it.”
“If you’re not going to the gala, do you have other plans for the evening?” he asked, pulling her to one side. Though she barely noticed the pedestrians, the sidewalk had filled up with people and they were blocking the way.
Riley shook her head. “Other than growing a spine, nothing.”
Ashe narrowed his eyes. “You already have a spine, Riley.”
“Not when it comes to Paige. I let her run my life, so not attending the gala is an act of defiance on my part,” she said, knowing she was rambling a bit. Ashe was making her nervous and she knew she was blushing. “Heck, maybe it’s seeing you from the car and wondering if you were coming to see me, but whether I’m being flaky or not, this is my way of standing up to her. But maybe not. Maybe it’s just me wanting to see you again so I can at least apologize to you for what happened between me and-”
“Shh,” Ashe said, placing a finger against her lips. “Too many ‘maybes’ and you’ll lose sight of the certainties. I got your message and that was enough, Riley. I believe you, and I trust you.”
“Then how come you never called or texted me back?”
“Because I’m here now,” he said. “I wanted to see you in person, to tell you that it’s okay. I wish I could have seen you sooner but I’ve been working, stuck in meetings, and negotiating contracts.”
“I heard you and Gareth got into some kind of fight-”
He smiled. “Don’t believe everything you read or hear, Riley. Boys will be boys and sometimes, we settle things the old-fashioned way.”
“A fight?”
“No, it was a talk. A rather heated talk, but not a fight the way the tabloids would want you to believe,” Ashe said, smiling. “Look, Riley, if you’re worried that I’m angry with you, I’m not. Why should I? I hope you’re not blaming yourself for what happened. Sometimes, some things are just beyond your control, and…well, Gareth is Gareth.”
“His fans are calling me a skank,” Riley said. “So are yours.”
He shrugged. “Then let them. They’ll call you whatever they want to anyway. That’s just the way fame works. It’s something you can’t control, and it’ll only drive you crazy if you think you can.”
The front door of the building opened and Frank stuck his head outside.
“Are you both trying to catch a cold or what? Come inside already!”
While Ashe was busy befriending Miss Bailey, it didn’t take long for Riley to slip out of her gown and into a pink dress that accentuated her eyes and her curves. With her hair secured in an elastic band, curls cascading over her shoulders, she was ready for whatever Ashe wanted to do. If all he wanted was to stay home, she’d have done it, but that would have made her seem too easy. Besides, she was starving and there was nothing to eat in her apartment but baby carrots and celery sticks.
They decided to go to Café Cortadito, a Cuban restaurant. Riley had never been there before, so this time it was Ashe’s turn to help her with the food choices. Since moving to New York two months earlier, it was one of his favorite haunts. The relocation had been done quietly, he said, just before the media blitz for
Sentience
, and he relished the anonymity that New York afforded him.
“Why not LA? Isn’t that where movies are mostly made?” Riley asked as Ashe placed a piece of Camarones Havana Vieja on her plate, one of the cafe’s signature dishes which comprised sautéed shrimp in a creole sauce over plantain, topped with Caribbean cheese.
“It’s where the deals are made, but not necessarily where the movies are filmed. That would be everywhere. Next year, if plans go ahead with this one project I’m involved in, it’s a 120-day shoot in the Australian outback,” Ashe said. “Still, as much as I enjoy LA, that city makes me too lazy. It’s too laid-back for someone like me. I love the varying pace New York gives me. It reminds me so much of London.”
“Do you miss it?” she asked. “London, I mean.”
He shrugged. “Of course I do, but I’ve grown to love New York. Two of my best friends live here and what’s even better, is that someone has made New York even more attractive than it already was to me.”
He reached for Riley’s hand across the table, his long fingers gently touching the back of her hand. Usually Riley would have pulled her hand away, but this time she let it stay where it was. She had missed his touch, even just a brush of skin against skin. What mattered was that it was
his
skin brushing against hers.
“Thank you for having dinner with me, Riley,” he said as Riley blushed, her smile making her cheeks ache as he continued to gaze at her.
“Now eat up, before your belly growls anymore and I end up having a lengthy conversation with it,” he joked as the waiter brought more food to the table. Churrasco for him and Arroz con Pollo for her, both dishes with a side of black beans served in a white bowl.
Aside from casual talk about the weather in Los Angeles (warm), what Ashe had to do there (meetings, a few auditions, signing of contracts) and how long he was going to be in New York before he had to fly out again (a week), dinner was uneventful, just good food and drink and enlightening conversation.
Being in such a neutral place had imbued their conversation — and the whole experience of having dinner — with something that Riley could only describe as ‘being in the middle’. It was actually tranquil. Maybe that’s what Tessa had meant about the balance thing, she thought, about anahata, her heart chakra. The girl from the West coast had actually taught the East coast girl something she didn’t know.
“What are you thinking?” Ashe asked as they left the restaurant and walked along side by side, holding hands. His hand felt warm as it enclosed hers, and Riley was reminded of being wrapped in a nice warm blanket, safe and secure.
“Anahata,” she said. “Are you familiar with the word?”
“I am,” he smiled. “What makes you think of it?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know much about it, other than what Tessa told me yesterday, something about a chakra and following your heart.”
“And are you following your heart?”
“I think I am. Kind of,” she said, swallowing nervously. “Are you?”
“I’ve always followed my heart, no matter how old-fashioned it seems,” he said. “But what do you mean by ‘kind of’? Are you having doubts about following it?”
“Not about this,” she said, feeling him squeeze her hand. “But it’s made me think of the things I really want to do that I’m not doing.”
“And what are the things you really want to do that you aren’t doing?”
“Travel, for one thing,” she said. “I always used to complain that I didn’t have the money to do it, and for some time I really didn’t. I saved some money, and then I bought the apartment, fixed it up and was back at square one again, with nothing in the bank. But when I became part owner of the Library, I started earning more. That, and pulling in long hours because there’s really nothing else to do but work in my case. So now I have some spare money again.”
“Where would you like to go?”
They were walking towards the Village, enjoying the change in the atmosphere, the casual and eclectic feel in the air. It was growing nippy and she hugged her coat around her. Ashe pulled her closer, his arm wrapped around her shoulders.
“Don’t laugh,” she said.
“I won’t,” he assured her.
“I want to see London, but I’ve always wanted to see other parts of England as well, like where Jane Eyre was born, where Charlotte Brontë gave birth to her.”
“Yorkshire,” Ashe said, grinning.
“Yes, Yorkshire,” Riley said shyly for she knew it was where he was from, though she did love
Jane Eyre
for much longer than she knew Ashe. “But I also want to see Scotland and Wales, and go over to Ireland, too. Then there’s the rest of the world.”
“Like?”
“Some parts of Asia. I’ve always been a fan of Murakami. Have you heard of him?”
“I have,” Ashe grinned. “You really are a girl after my own heart, Riley. I love his work too.”
Riley’s phone beeped to let her know she’d received a message. She didn’t have to look at the display to know who had just texted her.
You’d better have a damn good explanation for jumping out of the car and running back home. Only you’re NOT home.
Paige.
Riley sighed. She was about to text back a reply, but stopped. Then she took a deep breath and slipped her phone back into her purse.
“Is everything all right?”
She nodded. “It’s just Paige being Paige,” she said. They’d stopped walking and judging from the music drifting towards them, they were standing across the street from a salsa club.
“What about some dancing?” he asked, grinning. “You did mention liking salsa as one of the signs of a normal person.”
“Can you dance salsa?”
“I can try,” he replied. “Can you?”
“In my dreams.”
Ashe chuckled. “Then I think we’d make a great pair. Let’s go before we both change our minds!” He tugged at her hand and pulled her across the street, both of them giggling.
Riley had never danced the salsa before, at least not in public. But she owned a few Putumayo music CDs that she often played at night, dancing to the annoyance of Miss Bailey who usually retreated under the bed.
“I bet I can dance better than you,” Ashe said, winking at her.
“No way,” Riley replied. “I was in the dance club in high school.” He didn’t need to know that she sucked at it, but she wasn’t about to admit defeat so soon.
“Well, let me warn you that friends have said I have Latin hips for an English boy,” he told her.
“Really, now? Is that a challenge, that you can dance better than me?”
“You bet your cuteness it is,” Ashe laughed. They were still standing outside the door, and had to step aside for two more couples to walk past them and enter the club.
Riley giggled. “Did you really just say,
cuteness
?”
“In lieu of a more appropriate word, I did,” he said. “Although
cuteness
really is quite appropriate for the person concerned.”
“Oh, please stop being so proper and just say
ass
. Who knows, it might even get you to second base tonight,” Riley teased as Ashe pulled open the door and gestured to her to walk ahead of him.
“
Ass
it is, then,” Ashe whispered against her ear as she walked past him, giving her a playful smack on the ass just before nudging her through the door.
Ashe wasn’t lying when he told her that friends had described him as having Latin hips, for just as they claimed, the boy could move. And move he did. Thankfully, his progression from his inherited English hips to those alleged Latin ones was slow, probably so he would not scare the living daylights out of her. She felt out of place in the salsa club at first, but the gradual progression of the man who said
cuteness
instead of
ass
to the man now teasing her with hips that really moved helped Riley to relax and finally let go.
It surprised her that no one recognized him, or if they did, they didn’t seem to care. This was New York after all and after a week of working hard, New Yorkers were ready to play even harder. Many of the couples were already moving perfectly to the music, the men leading their partners through intricate twirls and dips, and Riley felt self-conscious about the lack of movement of her own hips. So, for the first twenty minutes, she stood stiffly facing Ashe, wondering if she’d just made a big mistake.
She felt like Baby in
Dirty Dancing
at the beginning of the movie when she stumbles upon the dancers’ private den, frozen in place, yet in awe. But as couples drifted past her effortlessly, some of them urging her to dance and let it all out, Riley knew she wasn’t the type to give up so early in the game. After all, the night was young. There were other novice dancers like her on the dance floor, she thought, and if they could move their hips like Shakira after a few drinks, then she could too. And she didn’t even need alcohol to do that.
She had Ashe.
It started with him moving his shoulders to the music, his eyes always on her, pinning her beneath his gaze as he beckoned her towards him by crooking his index finger and reeling her in. No doubt he had been born with expressive eyes, but he’d just turned them on full force into come-hither eyes that took no prisoners, and soon, Riley couldn’t care less where hither was. Wherever that was, she was there.
The movement drifted from his shoulders to his torso, his hands taking hers and moving her along with him. If he took a step forward with his left foot, it meant that she had to take a step back with her right. He’d murmur the directions now and then, a few casual words as he brought her closer to him, his mouth against her ear.
Left foot forward. Right arm up. Move those hips, Riley. Just let go. That’s it, luv.
When he guided her across the floor hours later, holding her arm with one hand, the other lightly pressing along the small of her back or her side or wherever he had placed it with a gentle nudge that told her where to go, Riley had finally figured it out. He was leading her, a gentle nudge with his right hand telling her to move her left leg back and her hip with it.
Another gentle touch along her waist and the lifting of her arm over her head made her spin around straight against his chest, where he’d greet her with a wide grin, sometimes biting his lower lip as he watched her slowly let go. Gradually she began to move her shoulders, then her hips, and soon her whole body. Shakira be damned —
she could dance!
Riley was perspiring by the time she figured she’d finally got it, by which she meant that she’d forgotten to worry about her form, who might be watching them, or whether she was making a fool of herself. She was enjoying herself in a way she’d never done before. Ashe only had eyes for her, and that was what mattered. Everything else seemed irrelevant. What mattered to her then was the music and the way he held her, spun her and even ground one hip along hers, teasing her with a wink, a touch, a glance. With each movement, she grew hotter and bolder.
By the time they walked off the dance floor and out of the club, it was past midnight. They’d been dancing for hours and Riley’s feet were screaming for relief. But so was her mouth, yearning for a kiss, and even more, from Ashe.
All night she’d been teased with gentle naughty nips of his lips, light kisses that did nothing but inflame her and make her want so much more. But she wasn’t about to jump him on the dance floor, not when he was moving her so effortlessly and she was following him as if it was the most natural thing in the world to do. There was no questioning at all, not even when they got into a cab that took them back to her apartment, still breathless, their skin covered with a light sheen of sweat from all the dancing. Even inside the cab Ashe didn’t kiss her, though his hand never let go of hers and, when she rested her head on his chest, Riley could feel his heart beating fast. Was he as nervous as she was, she wondered? Did he ever get nervous over things like this? Surely it must come naturally to him, what with that buffet of women, alcohol and drugs that Paige talked about.
But the moment they were inside her apartment, Riley forgot all about the
maybes
. There was only the feel of his mouth on her lips and his tongue tasting her, claiming her. His hands gripped her hair, pulling her head back as he licked the salty sweat from her skin, her fingers gripping his shoulders as she clung to him. She thought she was going to faint from the blood rushing lower, much lower, through the burning core of her, till she was on fire.
He tasted so good, she thought, before realizing she was thinking too much. With her back against the wall where Ashe had pinned, her, one hand gripping her waist and the other lifting her thigh against his hip, she wondered if they were still dancing. She felt dizzy, overwhelmed and happy all at once, and with her body tingling wherever he touched her, horny as hell. How long had it been, she wondered? She’d been so scared of wanting to be with anyone else, she hadn’t really been with anyone but Gareth.
Three years was a damn long time.
“Has it really been that long?” He murmured, his eyes seeming to swallow her whole into its depths, so blue and so deep.
She stared at him.
Did she just say it out loud?
“Oh God, I’m so embarrassed-”
He silenced her by nipping her lower lip playfully, before kissing her again, this time even harder than before, his tongue slipping between her teeth, sweeping the inside of her mouth, tasting her. It made her belly do flip flops, unleashing a thousand butterflies with nowhere to go. She felt him hard against her belly, and she held her breath at the realization that she could produce such a response in him of all people – Ashe Hunter.
But then she heard Paige’s voice inside her head, telling her that Ashe was only after one thing, that after he’d get it from her, he’d move on. Riley forced herself to stay in the present, pushing thoughts of Paige aside. She decided then to chuck guilt and shyness out the door. She wouldn’t need them, not when Ashe was making her feel as beautiful as she felt now.
He lifted her up in his arms and carried her to her bed. Then he kissed her again, more deeply this time. Riley’s hands moved down his body, wanting to tear his clothes off and feel his bare skin under her fingers. He tugged at her dress as she knelt before him, helping her lift it over her shoulders, leaving her with her lace undies.
“You’re so beautiful,” he said as he nuzzled her neck, his stubble sending shivers up and down her spine. She was still kneeling on the bed in front of him, her hands now undressing him.
“I want to see you,” she breathed, unbuckling his belt. As he pulled his shirt over his head, Riley paused to gaze at his flat belly, the six-pack she had seen in online pictures, though she much preferred the real thing in front of her. She knew he worked out, having read on an online site about his training with a personal trainer, and another site had posted a picture of him leaving a yoga studio in Hollywood a few days earlier. Whatever he did to take care of himself, the results were even more magnificent in the flesh, and Riley sent silent thanks to the trainers and nutritionists who’d helped to produce the man before her. Genetics probably helped a lot, too.
She bent forward and kissed the taut skin of his belly, feeling the muscles ripple beneath her touch, tightening as he breathed raggedly. He was beautiful, his body perfect, like a Greek god who just happened to be standing at the edge of her bed. As Riley unbuckled his belt and pushed his jeans down his hips, she knew those online pictures hadn’t lied. He was exactly as the online sites proclaimed him to be, though that was soon forgotten as she looked up at his face, for she knew that he was Ashe Hunter first, a man with amazing blue eyes and a gentle smile — a man she was falling hard and fast for.
When Ashe pushed her back down on the bed, Riley could only feel his arms holding her, enclosing her and keeping her safe. It was strange, she thought then, how long it had been since she’d felt that way. When he gazed at her through lidded eyes, she felt as if he were seeing right through her defenses, the walls she’d built around her heart for so long crumbling into ashes. When he kissed her again, slowly this time as he savored the taste of her, she wished she could freeze the feeling like a snapshot, meant to be kept for later, after reality would set in and he’d be gone. But for now, he was there with her, seeing her.
As he slowly made love to her, she was desperate to reach the finish line, her body screaming for more. But Ashe decided to take his time. He made Riley suffer a wait that included an agonizingly slow, delicious, heavenly tour of his mouth and hands along her body, from her neck and shoulders down to her breasts with their pierced nipples and their barbell clips, and lower again to her belly. He paused along each hip, sucking gently at the skin above her hipbones till he left her quivering beneath his touch, hearing her whimper his name beneath him, her fingers digging into the skin of his shoulders. She muffled her moans with her hand against her mouth as he continued to move down, much lower to the burning core between her legs that begged to be filled, and soon.
When he entered her, taking his time and not wanting to hurt her, Riley knew then that she was lost, so lost in the man that was Ashe Hunter. He was so much more than just a collection of pixels on a screen, so much more than any of the gossip rags proclaimed him to be. But that was only because he’d allowed her to see a part of him that he hardly revealed to anyone else, or at least it was the one thing she wanted so desperately to believe as he made love to her. And as he filled her, all that mattered was him making love to her, breathing against her ear and saying her name.
So this was following her heart, she thought, as Ashe took her to the edge and back till he let her fall, only to follow right behind her, the sounds of his own release sweet music to her ears. Was it to catch up with her or to cushion her fall, making her aware that he was there with her? Riley gave up asking the questions she could never answer and simply let go.
She knew that she had fallen for him, and if the emotion were not returned then she’d live with the consequences. At least she’d followed her heart, and not someone else’s. She’d sought her anahata and found it dancing the salsa and the merengue, and later in the arms of an Englishman with Latin hips and maddening skills in the bedroom she’d never experienced before.
But she couldn’t have known all this unless she’d given it a try, that leap of faith taken when the path ahead seemed uncertain. Riley had hidden herself from the world since her break-up with Gareth, drowning her misery in drugs she knew nothing about — an ignorance that almost killed her. Since then, in the mistaken belief that it would make life better, she had simply done what everyone told her to do, thought whatever they wanted her to think, while simultaneously making everyone believe that she was happy.
But Riley knew now she couldn’t fool everyone, not even herself, and this time, she was going into this with her eyes wide open. And if a world of hurt awaited her at the end of this ride with Ashe, at least this time she would no longer be surprised.
She’d expect it.