Broken Souls (13 page)

Placing his hands on the tops of her spread thighs, Marco gripped her skin so tightly that she thought he would draw blood. He was completely built up for this moment, it was written all over his face.

He wanted
this
.

He wanted
her
.

Sitting up slightly, she let her arms rest
against his shoulders as he positioned his cock beneath her. There was no teasing at this point, no games to be played or any jokes to be made. This was about satisfying a deep need that she knew Marco could feel right now. It was a need that they both needed to fulfil.

Using his shoulders for support, Ashley slid along the length of
Marco's shaft with a sharp intake of breath. He was a lot larger than she had expected, his full size filling her deliciously to capacity.

“
Oh God.”

“
That feels so good,
dolcezza
.” He groaned when she sat up and dropped onto him again, her pace bolder and faster than her shy and timid movements a moment ago.

Ashley threw her head back and dug her fingernails into Marco's shoulder
s as she enjoyed the pleasure fuelled ride both of their bodies were taking them on.

“
Merda!
”

Marco's jaw clenched as Ashley leaned
forward. He gripped hold of her hips and pumped into her furiously. The sheer force of his thrusts had her crying out as she spiralled closer and closer towards her climax.

“
Fuck...” Marco growled loudly as her insides detonated around his cock. She dropped her gaze to his face and watched as he found his own release, his body shuddering forcefully from the relief of being able to let go.

Her breath continued in short, sharp pants as she pressed her forehead against his.  She could feel
the sticky moisture on the back of her neck running along the crease of her back as sweat poured from her body.

The
re was most definitely a connection between them. She could feel the embers burning steadily from the invisible bond that linked their broken souls together. It was like nothing she had ever felt before.

Time
passed by as they continued to stare at each other. Neither of them spoke a word as they basked happily in the after sex glow that had enveloped them both. The moment was too perfect for her.

“
Do you want to come and sleep?” Ashley spoke softly as she lifted herself off of Marco's softening cock. She stretched out her hand, willing him to take it. She couldn’t go to sleep imagining him out on the sofa for yet another night.

“
Sleep?” he snorted, taking hold of her hand. “
Tesoro
, I don’t think we will be sleeping anytime soon.”

It was almost midday before Ashley stirred from her deep, comatose sleep. Her eyes flickered open and slowly started to adjust to the bright light beaming through her windows. A yawn escaped her lips as she raised her head up off the pillow. Propping her elbows into the mattress behind her, she looked down at her half naked body, the sheets pooling just below her waist.

Her upper torso was
completely bare apart from the tanned arm thrown casually across her stomach. There was a dark dusting of hair that ran from the knuckles on the hand up to the elbow. She continued with her eyes, following the line of the arm up to the shoulder, up to the neck and then to the face...

Marco.

Ashley took in his sleeping form beside her and froze. There was no way that she was lying in her own bed with him beside her. Something had to of happened. It had to have been some sort of mistake.

“
You know... I've always liked you.”

The colour drained from her face as
flashbacks of last night appeared and pieced together in her mind. She remembered the flow of drinks, the way he had smiled at her as she stupidly confessed her feelings, and his sudden protectiveness after the arsehole had reappeared as they tried to leave.

The
ir friendship had progressed to a new level last night. It was something she was supposed to be pleased about, but she wasn't. After everything she had told herself, she had still ended up being the extra notch on his bedpost.

She shuddered as more flashbacks assaulted her vision.

He had kissed her.

H
e had touched her with his fingers.

He had driven
his cock into her... repeatedly.

Placing her hands over her face, Ashley
decided that she was in way over her head. Yes, she had fantasised over him and thought about what a night with him would be like, but in all of those situations, they were not following the death of her best friend.

It was wrong on so many levels.

She had slept with her best friend's brother.

Her best friend's
grieving
brother.

Yet, Ashley couldn't work out why she wasn't
as disgusted as she was supposed to be. She was just... average. Part of her mind was chastising her for the complete lack of control she had displayed, whereas the other half had mellowed and was now thinking back to how right the connection had felt between them. How right it had felt to have Marco's lips on her and his fingers touching her body. His touch had ignited a fiery furnace inside that was still smouldering on even after she had woken this morning.

Lowering her hands from her face, she turned towards him and gently shrugged his arm from her waist. He stirred slightly before rolling onto his side, exposing the bare and tanned skin on his back.

Sucking her bottom lip into her mouth, Ashley pondered how she was going to approach this awkward subject with him. How was he going to react once he woke up in her bed? Would he remember everything that happened?

Deciding that she didn't want to be around to find out the answers to her
questions, Ashley threw off the covers and crept towards her wardrobe. Fumbling for something to wear, she eventually settled on a pair of leggings and a long line shirt that she could pair with a winter coat and some boots.

“
Don't you think that we should talk before you disappear,
cara
?”

Ashley squealed and instantly held her clothes up to her naked body to shield herself from his gaze. Flicking a nervous glance over her shoulder, she found him sitting up in her bed, his arms stretched above his head.

“No... I'm going out,” she replied, her grip tightening on the material in her hands.

A conversation about a drunken one night stand was most definitely not on her agenda for the day. In fact, it probably wouldn't appear on her agenda for the entire week or even the next month. She didn't like
difficult conversations... and there was no denying that this wasn't going to be anything
but
difficult.

“
I think we need to talk,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. “You aren't going anywhere.”

“
I’m not talking about this, Marco,” she groaned. “Let's just leave it, okay? You and I were drunk and did something that we shouldn't have. It was a stupid mistake that we won't let happen again.” She regretted each word that came out of her mouth.

“
I understand.”

“
Do you?” she asked, edging closer and closer to her bedroom door. Her heart was thumping in her chest. She didn't want him to agree; it was anything but agreement that she was looking for. He was supposed to be telling her that she was wrong and that what happened last night wasn't a mistake at all. “I don't think you understand what we’ve done. The grieving best friend and the brother have been,
together
. I mean, just listen to how that sounds. I feel like we’ve committed a major crime against Gabby. What the hell would she think knowing we got drunk and slept together?”

In her head, she knew the answer to that question
—
complete and utter elation
.

Ashley had
a sneaky feeling that her best friend had been onto her for a while about the secret feelings she harboured for her brother. Just from the sly comments she had made when his name was mentioned, she believed that Gabby was well aware of the friendly relationship they shared.

The only thing that
was really
bothering Ashley was that she knew he would consider last night a mistake and nothing more. It was in his nature after all. He was the fuck and chuck type of guy. He was the one that always had a different woman bouncing on his balls every night of the week, and another on the side in case of a rainy day.

It wasn’t the type of woman that she wanted to be.

Ashley reached for the door handle and escaped into the hallway without another word. She tried to pretend that she couldn't be in the same room as him any longer, and that the guilt of what they had done was eating away inside of her. There wasn't any other way around it. He had just agreed with her that it was a mistake—she felt physically sick.

Stepping into the bathroom and closing the door, she
slid down to the floor and placed her face into her hands. She didn't know what to do. She wasn't sure how she was supposed to be feeling right now. Her emotions were scattered all over the place which didn't help things. One moment she felt fine, and then the next, her world was crashing down around her and she could do nothing to stop it.

Granted h
er best friend had just passed away, so she was allowed to feel shitty if she wanted to. But what she struggled to get her head around was how she was able to find her smile again at certain times throughout the day.

It was wrong.

She wasn't supposed to find happiness yet; that was something that came with time after she had paid her grieving dues. She wasn’t supposed to experience happiness until she had suffered through her fair share of pain and sadness like everybody else.

“
I'm sorry, girl,” she whispered, lifting her head up to the sky. “You would tell me to quit being stupid and to man up, but I don't know how. I'm not sure what to do here... You know how I feel. I know that you’ve known for a while, but you haven't said anything. I have the perfect opportunity to reveal everything with him, yet I’m scared. I'm not good enough for him, am I? Nobody will ever be good enough...” She swallowed a thick lump in the back of her throat.

That had been a worry on her best friend's mind for the past few years. What if Marco never managed to settle down? Would he continue the rest of his life in the same manner and eventually grow old by himself?

“
It isn't your problem, babe. It isn't mine either, but as he is my brother I feel like I have some sort of obligation to help him find somebody.”

Ashley remembered her conversation with Gabby clearly. It
had been shortly after her feelings had started to develop for Marco, and after she had witnessed his manic playboy ways for the first time. Somehow she had talked herself into believing that if they ever met then she would be able to reel him in. The realisation that this was not going to be the case hit her hard; harder than it should have.

There were other things that she needed to focus on, and her dwindling relationship with Ben was most certainly one of them.

“Fuck!” Ashley hit her head back against the door and dragged her hands over her face. “What have I just done?”

Her chest grew tighter with each breath that she took. The severity of the situation was dawning on her. She hadn’t yet given Ben her decision, but knew that it had already been decided for her now. There was no way that she could allow things to progress further like he was pushing for. Their relationship appeared to be nothing but a farce as evidenced by the lack of willpower she exuded last night.

Her heart had chosen what it wanted.

And i
t wasn’t Ben.

~

“Ashley?” She heard Marco knocking on the bathroom door some time later. “Ashley, you can’t sit in the bathroom all day.”

“I’m fine,” she mumbled, hugging her legs tightly to her curled body.

He knocked again and cleared his throat. “Don’t forget that we are going out today. You remember, right?”

Ashley sat up straight and placed her hands on the floor. “W-What do you mean?” She tried to wrack her br
ain, but she couldn’t recall a conversation where they had made plans for today. If anything, she was hoping to escape from the flat without him, so that she could avoid the tense atmosphere that was brewing between them.   

“
You are supposed to be introducing me to Gabby’s work colleagues today. I thought that we were going to the dental practice?”

“What?” she spluttered
. “When did we agree this?”

“Last night,
cara
.” She heard the growing agitation in his voice. “It’s almost midday, so can we get a move on?” He knocked once more before the sound of his footsteps echoed along the hall.

Ashley was silent as she tried to think back to the conversations they had shared
. She remembered her offer from a few days ago. She had mentioned introducing him to Ben and Patrick, but they hadn’t agreed on a day. And, it was before all of the drama of last night had occurred.

But had she mentioned the dental practice to him last night? It was quite possible. In her inebriated state it was more than likely that she had gotten onto
the subject of the bitches that she worked with.

Any excuse to have a moan was welcome in her books. The women were vile and didn’t deserve the attention that they seemed to garner. The spitefulness, the lies and the vindictiveness was all a part of her daily routine at work.

It wasn't uncommon knowledge in the practice that Gabby was widely hated for her closeness with Ben and Patrick. She was like their little sister, a bond built between the three of them from their studies at dental school.

But a
part from Ben and Patrick, the remaining employees in the practice were all women who were horrid, bitchy, two faced backstabbers that were after her best friend's blood. And on most occasions, they wanted Ashley’s as well for being friends with her.

Despite Gabby's partner status, the other female employees thought they were above her. They continuously undermined and talked to her like a piece of shit in front of other people.
Melissa, Ben’s dental nurse, was the worst culprit for this. She had decided that being close with Ben meant that she had one up on the rest of the employees, so she made sure to belittle Gabby whenever she had the chance.

It had been hard to watch, and in some cases, Ashley hadn't let it drop. On many occasions she had
found herself in a row in the women's loos with Melissa over her attitude.

She was a
complete cow.

Ashley grumbled
out loud and pushed herself up off the floor at the sound of Marco’s approaching footsteps. She knew that he was coming back for her considering she hadn’t yet moved.

“
Cara
?” His impatient tone echoed along the hall. “Let’s go...”

She knew that there wasn’t going to be any way of getting out of this because she couldn’t remember the conversation.

“Let me finish getting ready,” she replied, turning on the shower.

Marco was definitely persistent, she could give him that. He had knocked on the bathroom door a further three times before she had finally gotten herself ready to leave. His patience had been wearing thin by the time she stepped into the hallway
fully dressed with her hair and make-up done.

“Ready?”

“I guess,” Ashley replied, dropping her mobile into her bag and throwing it over her shoulder. “Are you not showering?”

Marco grimaced.