Alex knew he was being played, knew she was doing the same thing she did every other time, but just like always, he conceded.
“Two days. But by this weekend, I need to get you home.” He had plans for the weekend and Jessie didn’t factor into them at all.
Pushing up from his chair, Alex took his beer and headed to his room. “I need to take a shower, but then I’ll order pizza or something. Give me fifteen minutes.” He told her without looking back.
Fifteen minutes almost on the money, Alex was back in the living room hunting for his cell phone. Jessie was in the kitchen pouring a glass of tea, so he called out to her. “Have you seen my phone?”
“It’s in here on the bar.” She told him.
“Thanks.” He said absently as he grabbed his phone. “What do you want on your pizza?”
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll eat anything.”
Alex hit the buttons to take him to his previously dialed calls. That was the only way he knew the pizza places number because he always forgot to add it to his contact list. As he was rummaging through the numbers, he noticed the last call that came in.
Ashleigh.
At seven twenty three.
But it wasn’t a missed call.
“Did my phone ring while I was in the shower?” He asked Jessie, turning to look at her. She got that same look on her face that she normally did when she was about to lie.
“Some girl called. I told her you were in the shower and that I’d tell her you called.”
Fuck! “Why the hell did you answer my phone, Jessie?”
Those damn tears welled up in her eyes, and she flinched like someone was about to hit her and it pissed Alex off. He was suddenly no longer hungry, so he grabbed another beer from the fridge and took his phone to his bedroom.
The second he had the door closed behind him, he dialed Ashleigh’s number.
No answer.
Imagine that.
Son of a bitch.
No matter how he tried to explain, this was not going to work out the way he wanted it to.
~~*~~
Ashleigh couldn’t believe what she’d just heard. Some woman had answered Alex’s cell phone. Worse than that, the woman said he’d have to call her back because he was in the shower.
That bastard.
Although they hadn’t talked about being exclusive with one another, Ashleigh had assumed as much. How could she not after all the things they’d been doing and that wasn’t even including the sheet scorching sex.
Shame on her, apparently.
When her phone rang a few minutes later, she just stared at the screen as it lit up with Alex’s name and number. There was no way in hell she was going to answer it. Not now. Not ever. As far as she was concerned, they didn’t have anything more to say to one another.
So why did she want him to explain? Why did she want to give him the chance to tell her exactly why that woman was at his house and that it wasn’t because he was a slime ball and sleeping with her while sleeping with other women.
That was her heart talking, not her brain.
Ignoring the phone, Ashleigh grabbed her laptop and went out on the back porch. It was dark outside, but the small light fixture and her computer would provide enough to do what she needed to do.
It was true, readers wanted emotions when they read the stories they loved. They wanted heat and lust and chemistry. Ashleigh could give them that at the moment because she was angry and hurt. No better time than the present to put it all down on paper.
At least this way, she might possibly be able to keep the tears at bay. She was fairly certain that once she let them go, there’d be no stemming the flow, and she just might drown.
How had she been so stupid?
Chapter Seventeen
By the time the weekend rolled around, Ashleigh had successfully written another one hundred pages and ignored just about as many calls from Alex. They had nothing to say to one another, so she wasn’t sure why he bothered to call.
She’d been tempted to answer a couple of times, but she reminded herself how smug that woman sounded on the phone and thought better of it. One time, just so she wouldn’t be inclined to answer it, she tossed her phone in her underwear drawer.
Ignoring it had become second nature by now, but when it rang Friday afternoon, she glanced at it just because. Grabbing the phone, she hit the answer button.
“Hey.”
“Let’s go out tonight.” Sam’s sweet voice rang through.
“Where to?” Ashleigh definitely wasn’t opposed to the idea, but going to Club Destiny wasn’t going to be her first choice although she knew it would be Sam’s.
“Where else?”
Anywhere? Ashleigh wouldn’t voice it, but that was her first thought. She didn’t want to run into Alex. Worse, she didn’t want to run into Alex and another woman.