She inched forward on the seat, her light linen sundress suddenly itchy against her knees. “You don’t need to keep up the shows of affection. No one is around to snap a promo shot.”
Slowly, torturously so, he slid his arm away, his green eyes glinting with a hint of bad-boy charm that showed he knew exactly how much his touch affected her. “I didn’t mean to overstep.”
“Apology accepted.”
Sheesh, she hated sounding so uptight, but she could barely hold her own with this guy when he wasn’t touching her. She’d enjoyed having his hands all over her, but she’d hated the way he made her feel the next morning.
“So, what’s the going rate for your thoughts?”
“Actually, they’re free at the moment.” She struggled for some new direction to take their discussion that had nothing to do with touching, needing, wanting. “I’m just not sure if my question is polite.”
“I’ve developed a thick skin over the years.”
She wished she could say the same. “All right, then.” She tipped her face confidently—and so the vents could shoosh some cooling air against her warming skin. “I can’t hush up the accountant in me that’s wondering how your family accumulated such a hefty portfolio.”
“Dumb luck, as a matter of fact.” He scratched his hand along his jaw, which just happened to draw his pointer finger over his top lip in a temptingly seductive manner. “My great-grandfather bought into a big local land deal that paid off well when it just as easily could have tanked.”
She remembered clearly how that mouth of his felt exploring every inch of her body, lingering once he discovered a particularly sensitive region. She cleared her throat if not her passion-fogged thoughts. Too easily she could be lured under his sensual spell again and she needed to hold strong. “Uh, where were these land plots?”
“Myrtle Beach.” He dropped his hand back to his knee, giving her overloaded senses a momentary reprieve.
“Ah, that explains a lot.” Interesting how he downplayed his family’s fortune. Wealth that large didn’t accumulate on its own or grow by taking care of itself. “But it doesn’t explain everything. Plenty of people blow a fortune before it ever reaches their kids.”
“We’ve invested wisely over the years,” he conceded, fingering his cuff links, an antique-looking set that she suspected must have family sentimentality. As she looked closer, she recognized his father’s initials. “We’ve lived well, without question, but always kept an eye on growing the principal.”
“Very smart move.” Her accounting brain envisioned numerous creative ways to diversify a large holding. Some lucky number cruncher must be having a field day playing with all that capital. “Families expand, so if you don’t increase the size of the pie, the pieces will get smaller with each generation.”
“Exactly.” His thumb polished a rounded cuff link. “We’re lucky that we’ve been able to pursue whatever career dream we wanted without worrying about putting a roof over our heads.”
His grass-roots practicality touched her as firmly and stirringly as those callused fingers ever had and that scared her. This man could hurt her, badly, if she wasn’t careful.
“It’s admirable that you all think that way rather than simply living a life of leisure.” The Suburban slowed to a crawl behind cars backed up from a wreck ahead. She forced her drying-up mouth to keep the conversation flowing. “You could simply see the world or something, and nobody would think less of you.”
“I could go stark raving nuts, you mean. I like playing golf as much as the next guy—” he gestured at the rolling course packed with players “—but I’m not good enough to make a living at it, therefore it can’t be my life’s pursuit. For me, politics keeps me in touch with the rest of the world and how they’re living. That’s a real grounding kind of thing. My brother Kyle says the same about serving in the Air Force.”
So this conversation thing wasn’t working out as well as she’d expected since he actually got nicer with each sentence. If the traffic jam didn’t clear soon she would be in serious trouble. “What about your other brother Sebastian?”
“He’s the business lawyer who keeps us all bank-rolled for the next generation.”
“And Jonah?”
His smile tightened. “The jury’s still out on him.”
“He’s the youngest, right?” She seemed to recall from the publicity photos of Ginger Landis Renshaw with her boys. “I seem to remember reading he only just graduated from college.”
“So did you, but you’re not jaunting around the world.” He thumbed the crease between his eyebrows. “I’m just not sure how my parents brought up a playboy son.”
She followed his words and the mounting proof that there might be something more to him than a fat wallet, a handsome face and slick politician’s persona. Definitely dangerous with a warm magnetism that radiated from him and reached to her even when they didn’t touch.
“You’re a good listener, Ashley.”
“You’re an interesting speaker.” And that was the truth, damn it. Why couldn’t he have been a pedantic slug? “I look forward to hearing what you have to say at all those functions. I honestly believe you’re the better man for this job and I want to do whatever I can to help make that happen.”
“Thank you. You sound like you actually mean that.”
She shared a quiet smile with him, unable to miss the enclosed intimacy of just the two of them in the back of the Suburban with a privacy window closed. She started to sway toward him, then jerked her body rigid.
“What’s the matter then?” He smoothed a finger along her furrowed forehead much the way he’d smoothed the crease between his own eyebrows.
“I don’t have a problem with attending the events with you.” She forced her best prim tone in place to put things back on a more practical keel. “My concern is actually more logistical. I don’t know how I’m going to get to Charleston and back in time to make everything.”
“Who says you have to go back and forth to Charleston?”
Her jaw dropped as her pulse skyrocketed. A fake engagement was one thing. But moving in together? Matthew must have been dipping into the vehicle’s liquor cabinet.
Six
A shley considered availing herself of the Suburban’s drink selection after all, time of the afternoon be damned. She could be stuck in here with Matthew for hours if the cops didn’t clear the wreck soon.
She tugged at the hem of her dress, because yes, she’d felt his heated gaze stray to her calves more than once during the ride to his house. “You can’t be suggesting I should move in with you. The press will chew us up.”
“We’re engaged.” He cupped her elbow.
She shrugged her arm free. She’d been lured by his sexual draw once before and look where that had landed her? Half dressed on the front page of countless newspapers. “Don’t be obtuse and stop touching me.”
His eyes narrowed and Ashley mentally kicked herself. Another gauntlet moment.
He slowly removed his hand. “So you’re still every bit as attracted to me as I am to you.”
Ouch. He played tough.
Well, she would have to meet the challenge. “That line of discussion will not go far in persuading me to stay with you.”
One side of his mouth kicked up in a smile. “Point well made.” He stretched his arm along the back of the seat, this time without so much as brushing any part of her. “I live in a family compound as do two of my brothers. We all have our own quarters.
Mom and the general live in both D.C. and South Carolina. The general’s at the Pentagon right now, but Mom’s around, so you even have a chaperone.”
“By living quarters, what do you mean?” She eyed him warily. He’d made it clear he was still attracted to her and that it wasn’t an act. Yet having an affair, with a ring on her finger and the intent to break things off felt wrong. How ironic that she’d been willing to consider sleeping with him when there’d been no jewelry or fake commitments involved. “Is everybody in the same house with a suite, but all still bump into each other walking around in the hall?”
“I thought you objected to me not being around in the morning.”
She narrowed her gaze and considered elbowing him in the kidney but that would show he had too much sway over her emotions. “Old issue. No longer relevant.”
“Fair enough. Jonah and Sebastian both have suites of rooms in the main house since Jonah graduated and Sebastian’s separated from his wife. Kyle has a condo near the Air Force Base in Charleston. And I live in the renovated groundskeeper’s carriage house behind the main place. Does that work for you?”
His plan sounded solid and her sister’s husband had just arrived home from assignment. While Starr and David would say they didn’t mind having her around and they had plenty of space, she had to imagine they would want some privacy. They hadn’t been married long and they had the pregnancy news to celebrate. She would be most decidedly a third wheel and it was downright silly to drive back and forth from Charleston to Hilton Head multiple times a day.
Matthew’s idea was sensible and bottom line, she was painfully practical.
“Okay and thank you. As long as your brothers don’t run around in their boxer shorts, I guess this should work out all right.”
“No worries.” Matthew’s grin stretched from appealing to downright wicked, sending a shiver of premonition up her spine as the Suburban finally jolted forward. “If I find any of them wearing nothing but their skivvies around you, I’ll kick their asses.”
Wow, Matthew sure new how to deliver a zinger line to close up shop on conversation. His silence left her with nothing to do but stare out the window.
She’d grown up in Charleston, but this exclusive area of coastal beauty had been meticulously manicured in a way that seemed to preserve yet tame the natural magnificence.
Of course, given the size of the mansions and golf courses they’d passed, the people who lived here could obviously afford to sculpt this place into anything they wished.
The driver steered the SUV along a winding paved drive through palm trees and sea grass until the view parted to reveal a sprawling white three-story house with Victorian peaks overlooking the ocean. A lengthy set of stairs stretched upward to the second story wraparound porch that housed the main entrance. Latticework shielded most of the first floor, which appeared to be a large entertainment area. Just as in Charleston, many homes so close to the water were built up as a safeguard against tidal floods from hurricanes.
The attached garage had so many doors she stopped counting. His SUV rolled to a stop beside the house, providing a view of the brilliant azaleas behind them and the ocean in front of them. An organic-shaped pool was situated between the house and shore, the waters of the hot tub at the base churning a glistening swirl in the afternoon sun.