At least Alex wasn’t there to watch her relive it. Her head was throbbing, but not as bad as it would have if she hadn’t choked down the aspirin he insisted she take before she passed out in her bed.
And now, she had to go to the bathroom and that was going to be hell in and of itself. Pushing up from the bed, she walked lightly across the cold, wood floor to the bathroom before closing herself inside. Maybe a shower would help.
Fifteen minutes later, she felt like a different person. Before she had gotten in, she’d downed some ibuprofen, and that had taken some of the heat from her headache. The next item on her agenda was coffee.
When she walked into the living room, she stopped dead in her tracks.
There on her couch was Alex, sound asleep. His bare chest drew her eye, the sleek, tanned muscle teasing her. No matter how angry she was at him, he was still the sexiest man she’d ever seen. Taking advantage of him sleeping, she took a minute to look her fill.
“Keep looking at me like that and I can’t promise you I’ll keep my distance.”
His smooth voice drifted from across the room, sending chills down her spine and jolting her into action. She turned abruptly and headed to the kitchen. She could not handle him this morning. Not even if her headache was subsiding.
A few minutes later, armed with her blessed morning coffee, Ashleigh took her laptop and went out onto the back porch. Hoping if she acted as though she needed space, Alex would take a hint and go home.
Not that she wanted him to, but she should have. After all he’d put her through and everything she didn’t know about him, having him there was too much of a distraction.
“Morning.” He whispered when he came up behind her, wrapping those strong, warm arms around her. She stiffened, his action reminding her of the last time he’d approached her on the back deck. Despite the hurt that still pulsed in her heart, she secretly enjoyed the seductive scent of him as it drifted through her senses.
“Ashleigh, we need to talk.” He told her when he took a step back.
“No talking. I’ve got to work.” She insisted, pretending to be doing something on her computer. Her fingers wouldn’t work because from her peripheral vision, she could see he was still absent a shirt, and all of that gloriously tan skin was still there, still beckoning her to look.
She couldn’t.
“Call me later.” She told him, trying to brush him off.
It didn’t work.
“Now. It can’t wait until later. I have some things I want to tell you.”
Alex was as relentless as they came; she knew that much about him. If she didn’t give him a chance to talk, he’d never let up, and she’d never get him out of there.
“Talk.” Ashleigh said, daring to look up at him.
Mistake.
Taking a seat in the chair across from her, Alex waited patiently until she closed the laptop and gave him her full attention. As if she had any other choice. Couldn’t he have at least gotten dressed?
“I was married once.” He began.
She knew that much. She’d known when she met him, which was one of the reasons she kept her distance. At such a young age, he’d already been divorced. “I know.”
“But you don’t know the circumstances.”
She wondered what this had to do with anything. If he had been married, past tense, then why was his ex-wife at his house?
“I met Jessie when I was twenty-one years old. She had only been seventeen at the time, but she was working in a strip club because she lied about her age. It didn’t take long to realize she’d come from a very abusive home, and for some reason, I couldn’t sit back and watch her continue to suffer. After some coaxing, I managed to convince her father to let her marry me. That, or he was going to go to jail because I was going to turn him in.”
Ashleigh was dumbfounded. She couldn’t have said a word even if she had to.
“So, I married her. Only it didn’t take long to realize that she had just wanted out of her father’s house as much as I had wanted her out. She wasn’t faithful, not that she and I were having sex, but she wasn’t happy with me either. So, needless to say, we had the marriage annulled.” Alex said, pausing before glancing out at the water. “It should’ve been done and over, except Jessie kept finding herself in these situations, and when she called, I came running because I didn’t want to see her hurt.”
“Why?” The word blurted out before Ashleigh could think better of it. “Why did you keep going back?”
“Hell if I know. I’ve always had a problem with a man who put his hands on a woman in anger. Jessie seemed to be a magnet for men like that. Instead of turning my back on her, letting her finally grow up and take some responsibility for her own actions, I kept coming to her rescue.”