The Bridal Path: Ashley Read Free Page A

queen.
    If anything, the lust clamoring through him was more urgent and demanding than ever. The prospect of being locked away with her for a week or two made his jaded heart skip several beats. He’d come to Trent Wilde’s cabin to get his bearings. Instead, it appeared he was going to be thrown more off-kilter than ever.
    As for Ashley, she was clearly as sassy and arrogant as ever. She had the regal demeanor of a queen…or a woman used to being admired. According to the tabloids, which he’d greedily devoured while waiting in grocery checkout lines, tycoons and royalty had been equally infatuated with her. That alone was enough to make Dillon want to claim her. He wanted her all mussed up and submissive in his bed, the way he’d always believed she was meant to be. Just the thought had him swallowing hard.
    Not that her fame didn’t have its dark side. Though he doubted she was aware of it, he knew all about the obsessed fan who’d threatened her for a few months the year before. She’d hired a Los Angeles security company for protection. His company. It had taken an act of supreme restraint to keep from claiming the assignment for himself. He’d known he could never be as objective as the case required.
    But, oh, how he had longed to see her again. Finding her here was better than any fantasy he could have contrived.
    Before he knew what he intended, before he could consider the consequences, he’d taken a step closer. Acting on pure impulse, he reached out and hauled her into his arms.
    Surprise worked in his favor. His mouth slanted across hers just the way he’d always envisioned kissing her, softly, gently, but with so much restrained passion he ached with it.
    She fit perfectly, snugly against him. Her mouth molded to his with surprising willingness. The spring night might be rainy and bone-deep cold, but the heat that erupted inside him could have burned the whole damn state to the ground.
    Years of pent-up hunger went into that kiss. Years of practice on poor substitutes gave it a finesse that had both of them breathing hard in a heartbeat. He was left with a sense of wonder that an act so familiar could seem so fresh, so rare, so damned dangerous.
    When he released her at last, there was a dazed expression on her face and pure fire in her eyes. She might have kissed him eagerly, but now her open hand connected with his cheek with a force that snapped his head back.
    Dillon grinned approvingly. He’d expected as much from the quick-tempered Ashley he recalled. She never had wanted to admit just how badly she wanted him. That kiss, however, had spoken volumes.
    “Still feisty, I see,” he commented.
    Fire blazed in her eyes. “And you are every bit as rude and obnoxious and low-class as you always were.”
    His smile widened. “Still a bit of a snob, too.”
    Color flamed in her cheeks. “I’m surprised you’re not in jail by now,” she countered with feeling.
    “You and everyone else in town,” he said dryly. “Sorry to disappoint you.”
    “I’m not disappointed,” she claimed. “Just surprised. Now would you mind telling me what the hell you’re doing with a key to my father’s cabin?”
    He shook his head with exaggerated dismay. “I thought we covered that. You used to be much quicker. Straight A’s, as I recall.”
    Hands on hips, she glared at him. “I mean it, Dillon. I want to know how you got that key. You’ve got five seconds or I call the sheriff.”
    Though the answer was simple enough, she was having so much fun thinking he was here illegally, he couldn’t help taunting her.
    He glanced deliberately around the cabin for some sign of that phone she was threatening to use. He knew perfectly well, as she did, that there wasn’t one. Trent had craved the isolation the cabin afforded him. He’d refused to have one installed, which was one reason his daughters almost never came here, he’d claimed. Not a one of them could stay off the phone for more than a minute at a