Priceless Treasure

by Melody Anne

  “Actually, no. I find you attractive. Why is that so offensive?”

  “I consider it despicable that you not only find me attractive but that you harbor zero qualms about hiding it from anyone. In case you’ve forgotten, which is a distinct possibility, you have a fiancée,” she said between clenched teeth. When was this man going to understand what that sentence meant?

  “So what? We’re not married yet, and I’m not dead,” he told her with a shrug.

  That jerk! He’d just used her unspoken line about not being dead. “You know what, Ashton? It’s officially five o’clock, and I’m punching out,” she told him as she turned away.

  Before she got two steps he grabbed her arm and spun her around. His eyes narrowed and he pulled her in against his chest.

  “One of these days, little missy, you won’t be walking away,” he told her.

  Savannah didn’t know how to reply to that. To the moon, Ashton? Definitely not.

  His head bent forward just the slightest bit, and her body began to shake. That was certainly from fear and not desire. But before he did what she expected and kissed her, he let go and strode off.

  It took several deep, cleansing breaths before Savvy could make her knees move again. How in the world could she feel even a lick of desire for that man? He was rude, crude, and a cheater. Why was her body so clueless?

  “I don’t know why you allow him to get to you like that.”

  One of her co-workers, Daisy, who couldn’t be a week or two over eighteen, was sitting a few feet away on the dock with her feet dangling over the edge.

  “You must have gotten a heck of a show,” Savannah said with an embarrassed laugh. “And I don’t know why I let him get to me. He just does.” She sat down next to the nice young woman.

  “The guy is pretty dreamy,” Daisy said with a sigh. “If he wasn’t so old, I’d totally have a crush,” she added. “Well, I might have a crush anyway, but … gross.”

  “If only I thought he were gross, I wouldn’t be fighting with myself so much,” Savannah said, and she now chuckled openly. “It doesn’t matter, though. The man is taken, whether he remembers that or not. And I’m not a cheater, not a homewrecker. So he can flirt all he wants, but I’m not doing anything with him. Besides, I’m only here for the summer and then I’ll never see Ashton Storm again.”

  “I don’t like his fiancée. She’s never nice to any of us when she comes here. She actually told me to go up and wash her car once when she stopped in.”

  “Are you kidding me?” Savvy gasped. “What did you do?”

  Daisy winked and gave a smile that would have done the Cheshire cat proud. “I washed it.”

  “Why the evil grin?” Savvy asked.

  “’Cause I left fish guts in the rims. She complained for weeks to Ashton about her car being ruined because of coming down here. Finally some other workers washed it and they must have gotten those guts out. I don’t think the people who washed it again cared for her any more than I did, ’cause they never told her.”

  “That’s just terrible, Daisy,” Savvy said, but her reprimand lacked a little force — she was laughing while saying it.

  “The real plus is that she never asked me to wash her car again,” Daisy told her before jumping to her feet. “I have to run. My boyfriend’s going to be here any minute to pick me up.”

  Savvy sat out there a few more seconds and enjoyed the silence. Then she decided she’d best head in. The last thing she wanted was another run-in with Ashton. It was a wine kind of night — that was for dang sure.

  Chapter Ten

  What on earth was he trying to prove now?

  Ashton stumbled onto the boat where Savannah was staying. He knew he was a fool to burst in on her while she was sleeping, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself.

  The woman had been working for him for the past few weeks, and though he’d told himself to avoid her, it seemed that he kept forgetting that and finding excuses to seek her out as often as he could. But that made sense. He was her boss, and he had to make sure she was doing a good job, didn’t he?

  Of course, anyone could do the crap work he was assigning her, so there really was no reason in checking in on her, but still … He knew it was petty of him to land her with tasks like that, but he was angry. She’d made him look at himself in the mirror, and he definitely didn’t like what he was seeing.

  He ought to ditch the fiancée, but, dammit, she was the wife he was supposed to have. So why in the fricking world was he seeking Savvy out?

  Because when he tried backing off, he turned into even more of a jerkwad than he normally was. And his siblings and cousins had taken great pleasure in rubbing that pathetic fact in his face.

  Okay, he was drunk yet again, and it seemed a perfect time to confront the far too sexy Savannah Mills. He knew, at least logically, that this wasn’t likely to go well, but screw logic. It hadn’t been his strong suit of late.

  When he thrust open the door to her bedroom, he intended to shout, intended to wake her up and demand that she explain herself. Explain what, he didn’t exactly know. She hadn’t made a single move toward him — but, dammitall, he wanted her to. Maybe she could explain to him how she managed to have such control — over herself, and especially over him.

  The moon was full in the sky and her curtains were open, casting a soft light in the room, offering him glimpses of her peaceful, contented expression as she lay there. Nice view, though most of her was under the covers. He was glad she wasn’t on the lower deck, where he wouldn’t have been able to see her face.

  He swallowed what he’d been about to say. How could he wake her when she looked like a sleeping angel? He froze in the doorway when she twisted, kicking off the blankets from her long, smooth legs, giving him an excellent glimpse of her thighs, and making his trousers instantly tighten. He wasn’t reacting at all like an angel at this moment.

  Ashton was inside her bedroom now, and that was insanity. What he had to do was turn around and leave. But for some reason the command that he’d issued to his legs — retreat — wasn’t registering in his hopeless brain. So now what? He didn’t know. But he found himself moving toward her bed, sitting down on the edge … and then he was reaching out and brushing a strand of hair from her high cheekbone.

  Suddenly the alcohol kicked in and his head was spinning. Falling backward, he nearly blacked out. When he reopened his eyes, he was grateful when he discovered his head next to Savvy’s instead of against the hard floor.

  He needed to move. Ashton knew that. He was lucky he hadn’t woken her up with his tumble, but if she did wake and find him lying next to her, she was going to kill him — and rightfully so.

  If his brothers could see him now, they would smack him upside the head. Okay, he’d get up in just a moment. Just as soon as the spinning came to a full stop. He closed his eyes and felt himself nodding off, but he fought it.

  When Savvy shifted, her soft, sleek waist brushed against his arm, and the pulsing that it engendered down below took him to whole new levels of pain. This would certainly be the time to get up and leave. Pronto.

  Damn. He was attempting to do just that when she turned and flung her arm across him. And the sexiest sigh he’d ever heard in his life escaped her sweet lips.

  He was trapped.

  Of course Ashton knew he wasn’t trapped, but the feel of her warm breath against his neck, the touch of her fingers resting against his ribs — it was all too much to walk away from.

  He wasn’t normally a man who enjoyed intimacy. Sure, he loved sex. What red-blooded male didn’t? But all the cuddle stuff, the quiet words at midnight, the talking of dreams and desires? Nah. None of that had ever appealed to him.

  And yet, as he grew more and more sleepy while snuggled up close to Savvy, he thought that it was something he could get used to. This was the sort of woman who forever changed a man.

  But he didn’t want to be freaking changed. He was perfectly happy with who he was, and with the goals he had
for himself in life. He loved his business, one that he’d grown exponentially, and he loved his fiancée. Okay, maybe he didn’t love her, but he wanted to marry her. He did! She gave him good business connections through her well-established family. She made excellent arm candy. And she would produce perfect little Storm heirs.

  Still, he couldn’t shake how good it felt to have Savvy’s arm resting across his tense abs, the smell of her sweet scent filling his nostrils, and the sound of her breathing lulling him into sleep. Ugh! He couldn’t think when he was drunk, especially when there was a sweet-smelling, softly sighing, achingly beautiful woman pressed against his side.

  But even as he fought his desire, he knew it would be a losing battle. Maybe he just needed to bed her, get her out of his system, and then things would go back to normal. After all, he wasn’t married yet. It was better to get this out of his system before he had a ring on his finger. That didn’t make him a cheater. It made him a man sowing his final crop of wild oats.

  That wasn’t going to happen tonight, however. So he was going to leave — in just another minute.

  But he had to keep his eyes shut for just a few moments. The day had been long and he was tired. He could blame it on too much sun, too much manual labor, and too much drinking. But the reality was that lying there with Savvy, her breathing soothing him into peacefulness, he just … he just …

  He fell asleep. And then, when his guard was down, he pulled her tightly against him.

  Chapter Eleven

  A piercing scream right in his ear shot Ashton instantly awake. Good thing he didn’t need agonizing moments to brush the sleep off. He was either awake or asleep, with no in-between. Even with the impending hangover.

  He flipped on Savvy’s bedside lamp and then gazed at her. Although her hair was sticking out at odd angles, the woman was far too attractive. Okay, stunning. But he knew better than to voice his opinion right now as she clutched desperately at her covers and stared at him with gigantic pupils.

  He’d expected anger, outrage, wild punches, and even murder from her if she found him in her bed. And he was certainly getting some of that. But as Ashton looked a little longer into her eyes, he saw something else, something that had his blood rushing through him in a hot flow of excitement. Sure, she was obviously horrified to find herself sharing a bed with someone she hadn’t invited into it, but he couldn’t miss the hint of arousal in her expressive eyes.

  Interesting.

  “I wanted to talk last night. I didn’t mean to stay, but I … um … drank a bit too much and then somehow found myself right here,” he told her. That sounded pretty good, didn’t it?

  “You shouldn’t be in here, Ashton,” she squeaked, looking down at his exposed chest.

  When had his shirt come off? He didn’t remember removing any of his clothes. Reaching below the covers he’d somehow managed to get beneath, he felt for his pants and was relieved when he found them still in place and still zipped up. He’d probably never know how the shirt had disappeared. But the appreciative light in her eyes while looking at his pecs made him glad it had.

  “I know I shouldn’t,” he said. “But …”

  “So go,” she told him as if speaking to a child.

  “One problem — I really don’t want to.”

  She gasped and looked back into his eyes, but the look she was giving him suggested she was trying to figure out how many heads he had. Her attraction to him had gone south, and that wasn’t exactly what he wanted from a woman he was sharing a bed with — well, unless south meant the region of his body getting harder by the second.

  “I don’t care if you want to or not,” she said, her eyes narrowing dangerously. “This is my bed and I want you out of it. Now.”

  “Technically, doll, it’s my bed.”

  She opened her mouth and gaped at him like a fish out of water. Or even a fish in water — a hungry fish? A fish who was really hungry but didn’t want to admit it? Damn. He had to stop thinking like this. She’d be after his balls soon, and not in a good way.

  “Really, Ashton? So you can just show up any time you please?”

  “No. I probably shouldn’t have climbed into bed with you, but now that I’m here, I have to admit that it’s quite cozy and warm, and it smells great,” he said with an exaggerated leer. He must have spent years practicing his eyebrow waggles.

  Ashton hadn’t planned to have feelings for this woman — feelings other than basic down-and-dirty lust — but as he sat beside her, enjoying the pink in her cheeks, the moistness of her lips, and the fire sparking from her eyes, he was enjoying himself immensely, and he actually liked her.

  That was unexpected.

  He wouldn’t mind waking up like this every single morning.

  Oh, sh … oot. That thought terrified him. Maybe it really was time to go. So why wasn’t he moving? Hmmmm.

  “I think your fiancée would be quite upset about this,” Savvy said primly. “Or maybe the two of you have an open relationship. I assure you, however, that I want no part of something as sickening as that.”

  Scooting just a bit closer so his leg brushed hers, Ashton decided shocking and outraging this woman could become a favorite pastime.

  “I’m going to break up with Kalli.” That hadn’t been at all what he’d meant to say. That hadn’t been his grand plan. And he needed the trophy wife, so he opened his mouth to correct himself, but the words wouldn’t come out.

  “That’s contemptible, Ashton. Let me understand this. You haven’t even ended things, let alone taken any time to let your sheets cool off before you leap into bed with someone else. Do you think you’re so appealing that I’ll jump for joy and then jump you?”

  “Well, kind of, yeah,” he said. Maybe that wasn’t so smart. Her eyes were blazing. Damn, if she were a comic-book superhero, he’d be fried right now. No comedy in that.

  “No way that’s happening. I can guarantee it. And I feel sorry for this woman.”

  “Why? The engagement is nothing more than a convenience for both of us.” Ashton really wanted to tell himself to shut up. But that only seemed to be happening when he didn’t want it to happen.

  “How can you be so casual about breaking someone’s heart? Are you that cold?”

  “Breaking her heart? Did you not meet Kalli?”

  “She obviously loves you, Ashton. You’re engaged.”

  “You think love has anything to do with it? Don’t you remember that old Tina Turner song? That’s really precious. You are so naïve when it comes to the ways of the real world.”

  “You sound a little cynical.”

  “I’m a lot cynical, Savvy.”

  “But … but the only reason to marry is love,” she insisted.

  “There’s companionship, financial security, arm candy,” he told her, which made her cute little lips part again.

  “That’s awful, Ashton. How can you say such horrible things?”

  “What? I’m just speaking the truth. Would you date a man who can’t give you security?” he asked.

  He scooted down on the bed, tugging her down too before she was able to stop him, and then he lay there with his face only inches from hers. Her breath caught as he began caressing her arm.

  “Yes, I would, Ashton. A man’s net worth would have nothing to do with whether I was with him or not. I would only date a man if I had feelings for him and if he had the same feelings for me.”

  “Gotcha,” he said with a wicked grin.

  “What do you mean by that?” A shudder racked her enticing body.

  “You have feelings for me,” he told her.

  “I do not,” she spluttered. “And this is hardly a date, unless you want to call it a date which will live in infamy.”

  “I’m that memorable, am I? I can’t claim to be one of the greatest generation, but I can be the greatest. Want me to prove that?”

  “This is getting worse and worse.”

  “Are you going to lie to me, Savvy, and tell me you feel nothing when I br
ush my fingers against your skin?”

  “Where do you get your dialogue? From cheesy romances?” she snapped. “Anyway, that’s hormones, Ashton. Nothing more.”

  “And many a good relationship has started and endured because of hormones, Savvy.”

  “That’s not the type of relationship I want,” she informed him sternly.

  “Liar.”

  “I’m not lying,” she replied. “I don’t do relationships based on sex.”

  “So you’ve never had sex?”

  “I didn’t say that!” She sounded very frustrated.

  “So you’ve had lots of sex?” Why he kept pushing her buttons, he didn’t know.

  “That’s really none of your business, Ashton, and even if I cared to share that kind of information with you, I certainly wouldn’t do it … especially not here.”

  “Why not? I consider the bed a perfect place to share all our sexual secrets,” he said, his body hardening more and more as he continued to caress her arm, his fingers getting perilously close to the swell of her breast.

  “And I already told you that I have no desire to say anything about any sexual activities in my past.”

  “So you’ve had a lot,” he said.

  Surprisingly, he wasn’t too happy about this, which made zero sense. What did he care how many partners she’d been with? He’d had more than his share, and no one was judging him — not that he knew of, at least.

  “I’ll say this one last time. I’m not speaking to you about who I have or have not slept with.”

  He couldn’t read her, and that was strange. He could normally read everyone.

  “Interesting,” he said. No, it was hardly an original thing to say. But he had to fight to keep his tone even when he suddenly started imagining another man touching her body, making her cry out in ecstasy.

  “This conversation has beyond gone in a direction I don’t want it to,” she told him, “and I’d like it to stop.”

  He tugged her against him and sighed with pleasure. Her breasts were finally pressed against him and he couldn’t help but enjoy it as her nipples jutted out against his naked chest. Yup. She was definitely turned on.