The Bridal Path: Ashley by Sherryl Woods

make
you
happy?”
    He studied her intently for the space of a heartbeat, then shook his head. “No, I’ll accept your earlier statement for now.” He reached across the table and tucked a finger under her chin. “But sooner or later, we’ll get into whatever’s troubling you, sweetheart. Count on it.”
    “Why does it matter to you whether or not I’m content with my career? A few more days, a week and you’ll be gone. I’ll be the last thing on your mind.”
    “Don’t sell yourself short, angel. It would take more than a little time and distance for a man to forget you.”
    He sounded so thoroughly, beguilingly sincere that Ashley’s heart began to thump unsteadily. She slowly lifted her gaze and searched his face, looking for some clue that would prove what was really in his heart. His eyes blazed with blatant lust as he deliberately, provocatively locked gazes with her. Her pulse ricocheted wildly.
    “Do you really want to play chess?” he asked quietly.
    The words barely registered. “Hmm?”
    “Are you going to be able to keep your mind on the game?”
    “What game?”
    His lips curved in a lazy, satisfied smile. “Precisely my point.”
    Because she wasn’t crazy about the implication that he could distract her so easily, Ashley forced her attention to the chessboard. The prospect of playing had never struck her as duller, especially with that promising gleam in Dillon’s eyes as competition. Why not just have the fling she so obviously craved and be done with it? It was way past time for her to flirt a bit with danger.
    She looked up until their gazes caught again, then she slowly, deliberately swept her hand across the board, tumbling the chess pieces from their places.
    “I guess the game’s over,” Dillon observed.
    “I don’t know,” Ashley said softly. “It seems to me as if it’s just begun.”
    The taunt was very effective. Dillon stood in such a rush that the small table between them wobbled dangerously. He cast it aside as if it was no more than a troublesome fleck of dust, then reached for her.
    All her doubts about him fled in that instant, lost to a more pressing hunger. Ashley moved into his arms with the inevitability of metal being drawn by a powerful magnet. His mouth settled on hers in a coaxing kiss that stole breath and thought.
    While that first memorable kiss they’d shared a few days before had been greedy and demanding, this kiss was all about persuasion. Sweet and gentle and warm as a summer shower, the kiss teased and taunted until Ashley melted in Dillon’s arms. He could have lured her anywhere with the seductiveness of his lips on hers.
    Instead, though, he seemed content to explore all the possible nuances of kissing. In time, sweet and gentle escalated to dark and mysterious and from there to a passion so all-consuming, so hot that Ashley wondered how she’d ever imagined any other kiss to be anything more than adequate.
    By the time his tongue dipped into her mouth, she was lost. As the swirling heat low in her belly grew more and more demanding, she knew that whatever kind of man Dillon had become, he was quite possibly the only man on earth who could stir the promise of such pleasure.
    His hands slid over her body in light strokes that left behind fire. He tucked her hips more tightly against the cradle of his thighs. Heat flared, so much heat that Ashley thought she would be consumed by it.
    And then something changed. She heard him sigh, felt his hands still where they rested on her hips. When he pulled away, she felt bereft.
    “Dillon,” she pleaded, leaving the rest unspoken. He knew what she wanted, what she so desperately needed. She could read the understanding of it in his hooded gaze, in the smug curve of his lips.
    But even though it was painfully obvious that he wanted the same thing, that his body was as aroused as hers, he merely touched a finger to her lips, skimming the curve in a gesture that made her blood run hot all over again. She