Jilted (10 page)

“Stop this right now, Ashley. This isn’t funny.”

“Who’s laughing? Now what was it you said? Oh yeah. You said fuck you. You’d like that wouldn’t you? Look at you walking into a charity event with a dress so tight it leaves nothing to the imagination. You’re showing off these legs and big tits, just begging for it, aren’t you?”

Angered by his disgusting taunts she raised her hand to slap him but he caught it. He now had both of Skylar’s wrists and her only option to free herself was by kicking him where it hurt. Thankful that the slit in her gown allowed her mobility she raised her knee and aimed for his nuts but it seemed that Ashley was prepared for her. He moved his leg before she could connect, causing her to drive her knee into his thigh.

“You want to play dirty? Okay. I’ll bite,” he growled.

Before she realized what his plan was, Skylar found herself propelled against the wall. Ashley pinned her arms above her head and pressed his body against hers.

“Let me go.”

“Don’t pretend you don’t want this.”

Skylar struggled against his hold but he was too strong for her. When she opened her mouth to yell for help, Ashley covered her mouth with his, swallowing her scream. She turned her head to break the connection of their lips but whichever direction she went, he followed.

He transferred both her wrists to one hand and still managed to hold her in place. Ashley then clutched Skylar by the chin to hold her head still. He pressed his tongue against her sealed lips. “Open up for me,” he groaned against her mouth.

“No,” she muttered through clenched teeth.

“Then I’ll make you.” He muttered against her lips. The hand that gripped her face slowly began to caress it. Ashley trailed a finger down her neck and circled the spot he knew used to drive her crazy.

Skylar kept her lips shut, humiliated that her body began to respond to his gentle touch. He buried his face against her neck and nuzzled it as his hand slipped lower, not stopping until her breast rested in the palm of his hand. He circled her nipple with his thumb and it pebbled beneath his skillful ministration. Skylar released a soft moan.

Ashley took advantage of her slightly parted lips and returned his mouth to hers. Pushing his tongue forward, he aggressively sought to conquer and devour her. Fire licked along ever single nerve ending of her body. It had been so long since she’d been kissed like this, touched like this.

Her mind shut off from all things except the way her body reacted to this man who was doing the most incredible things with it. The past ceased to be as Skylar fell deeper into the abyss of pleasure’s arms. Losing all reason, she pressed her tongue forward to meet his, swirling and tasting him. This reminded her of the first time they’d kissed and how it had made her feel. His scent and his taste were familiar and she melted against him.

She could feel the heat in her core which grew more intense with each passing second. Skylar was so lost in Ashley’s kiss that she didn’t realize that he’d placed his hand on her leg and it was slowly inching higher and higher.

Skylar twisted her head away from his to protest. “Ashley…”

“Shh, let me. You know you want this. You’re so hot right now. You can’t deny it, can you?” He made eye contact with her long enough to let her see the flicker of fire burning within the depths of his eyes. Instead of kissing her again, he captured her bottom lip between his teeth and bit down with just enough pressure to send another wave of desire coursing through her being.

When his fingers touched her panties, Skylar thought she should protest but the need to be relieved of the delicious ache in her pussy was too overwhelming to deny. “Spread your legs for me.” She did as he commanded with little hesitation. “Yeah, that’s it. Let me see how much you want this.” Ashley pushed her panties aside and slid two fingers along her damp slit. “Oh yeah, you’re already wet for me.”

She moaned. “Ashley,” she whispered his name, delirious from his touch.

He slipped the digits inside of her channel. “Oh, yeah. Your cunt is dripping for me, isn’t it? I bet if I bent you over right now, you’d let me fuck you right here in the bathroom.”

His tone was accusatory, bringing her out of the haze she’d found herself in. “Wh-what?”

Ashley pulled his fingers out of her pussy and backed away from her. “You would have let me fuck you right here in the hotel bathroom with your date eagerly awaiting your return. I see nothing has changed. You’re still a whore.”

And with that Ashley turned away, grabbed a paper towel to wipe his hands before tossing it into the garbage. Without a backward glance, he left Skylar alone in the restroom.

Stunned.

Chapter Eight

Getting through the rest of the charity event had been an ordeal that was nearly unbearable. Ashley wished he hadn’t sent Denise home because he sat through the rest of the evening with a raging hard on. He didn’t see when Skylar had entered the ballroom but he felt her presence. He purposely didn’t seek her out because if he did he wasn’t sure how he would react.

Deep down he knew what he’d done to her in the bathroom wasn’t right, but he justified to himself that he needed to prove she hadn’t changed. This way, when he did tell Jeremy the kind of woman she was, there would be no guilt. Ashley stayed at the banquet long enough for it not to be rude to leave. He breathed a huge sigh of relief to be out of there.

Ashley contemplated calling Denise to have her relieve the ache he still felt in his pants but he decided he didn’t need the drama that came attached to her. By the time he made it back to his penthouse all he wanted to do was fall into a dreamless sleep but he first needed to find relief.

After stripping, he got into his shower and adjusted the water temperature to the coolest setting he could stand. It didn’t help. His dick was still hard and thoughts of Skylar ran wild in his mind.

“Shit,” he muttered to himself, angry that she could still make him feel this way. He didn’t want to be attracted to her anymore and he certainly didn’t want to get horny whenever she was near. He knew what kind of woman she was so why was his first instinct to touch her when he first saw her?

He wrapped his fingers around his dick and slowly moved his hand along his shaft. Ashley groaned as he rested his head against the shower stall. The woman was a witch. She had to be to have this kind of effect on him. God damn her.

He could remember the exact night he’d become entangled in her web and he wished he’d been able to see through her fake charm, but he’d been so smitten with her that he’d ignored all the people who told him that she was no good for him.

Ashley reached across the seat and took Skylar’s hand. He’d told his family how important she was to him but instead they’d basically given her the cold shoulder. The twins seemed to go out of their way to exclude Skylar from the conversation going on around the table while his mother made outright rude comments about what she imagined Skylar’s background to be. It was why they’d left early.

“I’m really, sorry, sweetheart. My family can be a bit…different.”

Skylar looked out the window and didn’t say anything.

Ashley made a mental note to let his family have it the next time he saw them. He’d been looking forward to this dinner the entire week. It would be the first time his family actually met Skylar and he’d warned them to be on their best behavior. His uncle had come up for a visit from Washington D.C. and his mother thought it would be a good idea to throw a family dinner with a few close friends. Ashley suspected his mother was more interested in showing off her brother-in-law, the former US Senator, to her snooty friends, than having a family gathering.

He thought this would be a good opportunity for Skylar to meet his family because there would be other people around, and he didn’t think his mother would be anything other than the perfect hostess she prided herself on. But the minute she saw Skylar, Katherine Hollingsworth looked down at the younger woman as if she was facing the human equivalent of the plague. She even refused to shake Skylar’s hand, saying that she was suffering from a cold and didn’t want to pass on her germs. But not even a minute later she was hugging another guest who had arrived after them.

The twins hadn’t been much better. Owen simply stared at Skylar, not answering her questions other than one word responses. Colleen was openly hostile, ignoring Skylar as if she wasn’t in the room.

To her credit Skylar kept a smile plastered on her face during the disastrous meal as his mother asked her one embarrassing question after another. Thankfully his uncle was much more gracious and tried to veer the conversation to friendlier topics, but Katherine would not be deterred. When his mother asked Skylar how many children she had aborted, Ashley had had enough. While a couple of his mother’s cronies snickered at Skylar’s discomfort, everyone else around the table looked very uncomfortable. Even the twins looked slightly embarrassed.

Ashley had stood up and grabbed Skylar. He then excused himself from the party and they left. He felt like such an ass for taking her around his family. His mother already knew about Skylar. He’d told her everything he thought she needed to know to prepare her for Skylar’s visit so there would be no surprises. So for her to treat someone who he cared deeply about in such a disgusting manner, pissed him off.

He took his eyes off the road briefly to look at Skylar. He saw a tear slip from the corner of Skylar’s eye which she hastily wiped away. It hurt him to see her so upset.

“Babe. Don’t worry about them. They’re not important.”

Skylar sniffed. “She’s your mother. I don’t want to be the cause of a rift between the two of you.”

It touched his heart that despite how his mother had treated her, Skylar was still concerned about him preserving his familial relationship. Ashley squeezed her hand. “To be quite honest, my mother and I aren’t that close, at least not as close as most mothers and sons are. I mean she’s my mother and for that I try to be a dutiful son, but she crossed a line tonight and I apologize that you had to go through that. As for my brother and sister, those two can be a couple of knuckleheads. I don’t know what’s gotten into those two lately. In the last few months they’ve been acting strange. Maybe it’s my mother’s influence, she’s always fancied herself to be royalty and she acts and treats people like it sometimes. Don’t take it personally. She probably would have been rude to anyone that I brought home to her.”

“Are you sure it isn’t because I’m b—”

“Knowing my mother she would have been upset with anyone I brought home who wasn’t of her choosing. I’m not going to sugarcoat things for you and say that’s not one of the reasons. My mother has a very limited world view, but her main issue is that she’s a bit of a control freak. She feels she’s the one who gets to decide who I should spend the rest of my life with.”

“And does she have anyone in mind? Like that blonde who was eye-raping you throughout dinner?”

Ashley chuckled. “You have quite a way with words. You have nothing to worry about where Tiffany is concerned. She’s the daughter of one of my mother’s close friends who thinks that it would be appropriate that we end up together.”

“Maybe your mother is right. I mean, I’m not cut out for your fancy dinners and hobnobbing with the who’s who of upper class society. I’m just a girl from a humble background who prefers hotdogs and going to the movies over caviar and society functions.”

Ashley sighed. He hated that her family had made her feel inferior. He only introduced her to them so that they knew he was serious about her. He pulled over to the side of the road.

“Why are we stopping?” She turned to him with a frown.

“Because I want to look into your eyes and tell you this.” Ashley unbuckled his seat belt and twisted around to meet her gaze. He captured her face between his palms and grazed her cheeks with his thumbs. She released a soft moan and her lips parted slightly. She was so damn beautiful it almost hurt to look at her. Skylar wasn’t wearing her glasses tonight so her big beautiful eyes were on display. Unable to help himself he pressed a gentle kiss against her soft lips. He doubted he’d ever get tired of kissing them.

His cock jumped to attention. The effect this woman had on him sent his hormones raging but he knew if he kept the kiss going, he’d lose complete control. Reluctantly he pulled back while still holding her face in his hands.

Skylar slowly opened her eyes and released a soft sigh. “Mmm. When you kiss me like that, I can’t think straight.”

“That’s funny because you have the same effect on me. Look Skylar, if I wanted some empty-headed socialite I could have been married with a kid by now but I was waiting for someone special. You.”

Her eyes widened. “Me?”

Ashley grinned. “Yes, you. When you stepped into my classroom, I thought you were the most adorable little thing I’d ever seen. I was so nervous as I was teaching!”

She snorted. “You were nervous? Now that I don’t believe.”

“It’s true. I was afraid I’d do or say something stupid. It was difficult to get through the lesson because I was so focused on you.”

“But you had all those coeds throwing themselves at you.”

“Skylar, they didn’t exist to me, no one did since the moment I laid eyes on you.”

“You’re kidding.”

“No. It’s true. You were this ball of energy. Five foot nothing and you’d brought me to my knees.”

“Hey! I’m five foot two!”

Ashley raised a brow.

She grinned. “Okay, five one and a half but I’m rounding up.”