“I won’t. You know me better than that.”

“I get that you’re Mr. I don’t-give-a-shit with everyone else, but that’s not who you are to us. You understand? We are tight. We don’t f**k each other over. We stand together. And Ronin is not happy. He might never say anything, but you’ve lost a lot of credibility in his eyes. And it’s not because you want her, Ford. It’s because you hurt her. And you did it on purpose.”

I sigh.

“That’s it? That’s all you have to say, Ford? A long, pitiful breath of air that tells me you’re feeling sorry for yourself? Well, get the f**k over it, ass**le.”

And then the line goes dead.

Chapter Seventeen

It seems like hours pass until I finally hear Ashleigh moving around upstairs. It’s dark now. I grab my phone off the coffee table and check the time. Past seven. I’ve been down here all f**king day thinking about Rook and I just don’t get it. How do I get the blame when she’s the one who’s driving me crazy? I mean, what the hell is wrong with Ronin? He should be mad at her, not me. He should be asking her why she cares so much. Because if the situation was reversed, I’d sure as hell want to know how she felt about him. Doesn’t he ask her? Doesn’t he care that she has feelings for me? If I was Ronin, I’d be happy I was out of the picture.

I pick up my phone and press Ronin’s face. He picks up on the fourth ring, just before it goes to voice mail.

“What?” he barks into the phone.

“How is this my fault? I left. Why do you even care?”

“Because, Ford—” I can hear Rook in the background talking in a low voice. “We’re friends. You never did understand that. And I get that you have trouble in the relationship department, but this—this, Ford? I’m not sure who the hell you are right now.”

“I just can’t do it, Ronin.”

“Fine, we get that. Obviously. But dude, you’re almost twenty-six f**king years old. You can’t manage a f**king friendship? I’m sorry you’re infatuated with her. Sucks to be you, right? But you’re the one who wanted her to depend on you. And you got your wish. She depends on you. She cares about you. Maybe not in the exact way you want, but she f**king cares, Ford. And you just shit all over her. She’s worried about you—even after all those things you said, she still wants me to make sure you’re OK.”

“Put her on the phone then.”

“Fuck you. You don’t call up here and say put her on the phone. If you want to talk to her, show the f**k up and talk to her.”

“I can’t, I’m on my way to LA.”

“Yeah, with some girl you just met. So this new pet is more important than us?”

I ignore the derogatory remark about my women, because he’s baiting me and I don’t take bait. “I’m not coming back and that’s the end of it.”

He hangs up on me and I pull the phone away and just stare at it.

“Wow, you’re on a roll with these people.”

Ash is standing at the bottom of the stairs in a t-shirt that says ‘I’m not a ski addict, sometimes I have sex too’ and nothing else as far as I can tell. The shirt hits her mid-thigh so she may or may not have panties on. I’d like to find that out right now. “Ready?” I ask her before she can comment further.

“I’m ready,” she says with a sly smile.

“Where’s the baby?”

“Finally sleeping.”

“Finally?” She walks over to me slowly and I stand up. “You’ve been up in the f**king bedroom all damn day.”

“Yeah, but she wasn’t sleeping. I was.” Ash laughs at that. “Well, I was trying anyway. She was babbling almost the entire time. I’m surprised you didn’t hear her.”

I find the timer function on my phone and set it for fifteen minutes. Ashleigh glances down at it then looks back up at me. “So, fifteen minutes?”

I don’t smile, on the outside anyway, but I do on the inside. “That was the deal.”

“And I’m gonna be satisfied?”

“Well, that’s up to you, I guess. I promised you a satisfying answer to your one question. You turned down the promise of an orgasm if I recall correctly.”

“Hmmm…”

I want to laugh because she just has no idea how I work. But I don’t laugh, because she’s about to find out and I want to watch her reaction when it hits her. I like to read their minds as they try to figure shit out.

“Well, what do I have to do to get satisfaction?”

“Follow directions.”

“Sounds easy.”

“Then you should be wildly satisfied in fifteen minutes, Ashleigh.” She shivers when I say her name and I know she’s been thinking about this all day. I press start on the timer. “Take your clothes off and don’t talk. I’ll be right back.”

She’s got the shirt off before I can even turn away. It stops me dead for a moment, because even though I’ve seen her br**sts on several occasions, I’m just not ready for how spectacular they are when bared specifically for me. They almost look fake.

“They’re not fake,” she says. Like she’s reading my mind.

“No talking.” I point to the pink panties. “Remove those and present yourself to me, I’ll be right back.”

“Timer’s running, Ford. So chop chop.”