Twenty-three-year-old Riley Eames is still haunted by the heartbreak from three years ago. After the unexpected encounter with rising Hollywood star Ashe Hunter, will she finally open up or will her heart stay tormented by the past?
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After bei...
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This part has some Mature Content and deals with the topic of cheating. It's not for everyone and so be warned. Highly recommend Part 1 of BARBED WIRE and LOVING ASHE
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"Don't you dare," Paige hisses, reaching across from him to grab hold of the picture frame. "You said you weren't here for that."
"I'm not," he says, not letting go of the frame so that they're forced to hold it together and their hands touch. He feels the electricity race through him, a tingle running down his spine. It excites him and terrifies him more than anything he's ever felt before.
He may have told her he was there for Riley when he first came in, but he's also alone with her now. It's probably the only time he ever will be, before he leaves New York that evening, and hopefully for good. He's got a movie to film in Tennessee and he's got to look like he knows how to play a damn guitar by the time shooting starts in a few weeks. It had never been in his schedule, but damn Isobel had talked his manager into it and it was squeezed into his already busy schedule. All because the spoiled little brat couldn't get her Englishman to stay with her after his sister died, so she had to find a way to punish him.
"Did it ever occur to you that I have a right to them, too?" He asks her.
The question turns out to be too much for her.
Gareth sees her confidence break, starting with her eyes. Her gaze falters, she blinks and then her lower lip trembles. Her eyes well up with tears. Paige, the blogging queen of Manhattan, who never makes a misstep out in public or anywhere there's someone watching, becomes human in front of him.
"You promised me then that you wouldn't want anything to do with whatever came out from that one night," she says, her voice trembling as her grip on the frame loosens and Gareth returns it to its place, only he places it face down so he can't see them. He can't bear it. He's had to lean forward a bit more than he did earlier, the same scent of her hitting him, only this time there's something else there. The scent of a woman.
"Yet what we did that night sent me all across the other side of the country because I couldn't bear to see him with them - like they were his - "
"Because they are his," she whispers and Gareth smells the fear emanating from her skin. It's strong, and it's intoxicating.
"Then tell me why they have my eyes, Paige. And I'm not just talking about the color."
It's his turn to hiss at her. They haven't moved from their places. She's still leaning against the table and this time, though her arms are crossed in front of her, they're almost so to protect herself, to wrap around herself in comfort.
He doesn't want to see her like this, as if afraid of him. She's probably been living in fear for this moment since the day the triplets were born, or maybe even before then, when she knew she was carrying them.
