Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

Ashley

T he phone ringing had Ashley stepping away from Carter and looking anywhere else. It wasn’t like her to cry, much less on someone’s shoulder, or chest as it was.

Carter didn’t say anything about it as he pulled his phone from his pocket and answered it on speaker.

“Hello.”

Ashley looked over to see the caller was Ryker.

“We may have a lead on Julian and wanted to keep you in the loop. It looks like he rented a car using the name Bradley Thomas. Still trying to confirm, but if that’s the case, he rented it less than fifteen minutes after you did.”

Carter swore. “That means he was there when we were.”

“Correct. Matt is working on getting access to the GPS on the rental, but it’s a black, four-door sedan so be on the lookout.”

“Heard. Anything else?”

“Not yet,” Ryker said. “How’s Ashley?”

“I’m okay,” she answered for him. “It’s nice up here,” she added for effect.

“Really? Carter was just telling me you were wanting to get out of there.”

She glared at Carter. “Just to town. It’s actually very scenic up here and I’m enjoying the fresh air he lets me get.”

“Well, stay safe. Need me to tell Luke anything?”

“No.” What would she tell him anyway? “I guess maybe that I’m okay?”

“She hasn’t run off once,” Carter added.

“Impressive.” Ryker didn’t laugh out loud, but there was a smile in his voice. “I’ll let you know if we find anything else out.”

“Thanks.” Carter ended the call and turned to her. “See? Might not be too much longer.”

“What’s the plan for him? Like, once we find Julian, then what?”

Carter’s smile faded to a frown. “We will make him understand that he needs to leave you alone one way or another.”

At that ominous-sounding threat, she changed the subject. “Sorry about all”—she gestured to his shirt—“that. I’m going to go shower, and then I’ll make us some dinner.”

He hugged her again, and Ashley melted into him even as she told herself not to. “Nothing to be sorry for. My shirt is here if you need it again and it stays between us.”

Stepping away from him, she went into the bedroom and got her things for a shower. She appreciated that he wouldn’t tell anyone. That she’d cried about things would probably send Luke running up here to rescue her, no matter the consequences of it.

In the shower, she let the warm water run over her and wash away all the stress from the day. Nothing would really get rid of all of it, but the warm water helped. Letting go with Carter had also helped, as once she’d started crying, she hadn’t been able to stop.

He had held her last night, all night. It had been so perfect and comforting that she’d fallen asleep quickly. Then his hug today had her touching all of those muscles that she had only thought of before.

Risking it all, Ashley slid one hand down her body, in search of relief from all the feelings that Carter was stirring up in her. It had been entirely too long since she’d last been with anyone.

She bit her lip, swallowing a moan as her fingers circled her clit. She imagined it was Carter as the other hand gripped one full breast. Nearly there, she grabbed the shower wall as she built the pressure, ready to release.

“Ashley.” Carter knocked on the door.

Panicked, Ashley immediately stopped touching herself and rinsed the soap off. Had he heard her? What if she had said his name?

She shut off the water and wrapped herself in a towel, cracking the door open and clearing her throat. “Is everything okay?” That sounded normal, right?

“Yeah, I just wanted to tell you I’m having a delivery so stay out of sight.” He cleared his throat as he looked her up and down.

“Oh, okay.” Closing the door, she leaned her forehead against it and sighed.

The chance gone, Ashley got dressed and slipped from the bathroom straight to the bedroom. It was embarrassing as hell to be interrupted while pleasuring herself. Sure, it was a perfectly normal thing to do, but probably not while the fantasy was right outside the door.

She fell backward onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. She had just fantasized about Carter and had nearly come to thoughts of him. This wasn’t okay.

What if he had heard her? Would he ask to be replaced by someone else? This wasn’t what he’d signed up for. Last night, she’d practically had to beg him to get in bed with her, so he wasn’t interested like that, and here she was, unable to control herself.

Thankful he wasn’t in the cabin right now, she cleared away her dirty clothes and brushed her hair. Anything to make this seem normal and not like she was now even more sexually frustrated than she had been.

Not long later, she heard the key slide into the lock of the front door. Tucking herself out of the way, she held her breath as she waited for Carter to call out.

“Ashley?” he said as the door closed. “I got us a present.”

She walked out of the living room and was hit with the smell of pizza. “Oh my god,” she squealed. “Pizza?”

Carter laughed. “Figured you could use it. I know I could. I got a little of everything.”

Her stomach growled loudly, causing her to laugh. “Apparently, I can.”

“Come get some.” He set everything on the table and handed her a napkin. “It’s just us, so we can eat from the boxes and not have any dishes tonight.” He followed that with a wink.

Ashley blushed, clearly reading too much into it. “Sounds great.” She forced more cheer into her voice.

Carter tilted his head and looked at her with confusion. “You okay?”

“Yep. Everything’s great.” She shoved a slice of pizza into her mouth and took a huge bite, keeping herself from saying something stupid, like admitting to what she’d been doing earlier.

“Umm, okay?” Clearly not believing her, Carter took a bite of his own food and continued to watch her.

She gave him a sweet smile, which only spurred his confusion because he squinted at her.

“What’s going on, Ashley?”

She shoved another bite in her mouth.

“Stop that. You’re going to choke. What the hell?”

Ashley finished chewing and swallowed. “This pizza is so good.”

“Ashley.” His tone was pure warning.

“I’m fine, Carter.” She wasn’t, but it wasn’t something he was going to help her with.

“Then why are you acting weird? Is it one of those books you’ve been reading?”

Her jaw dropped open so far, she was shocked it didn’t hit the table. “What?”

“Something going on in a book that’s got you bothered?”

It was her turn to narrow her eyes at him in suspicion. “What do you mean?”

“Maybe it’s a good part and you’re trying to get back to it?”

She felt her face heat. “Did you snoop on my books?” The sad part was he wasn’t that far off the mark.

“I mean, I looked a few days ago.” He looked anywhere but at her.

She didn’t think there was anything more humiliating than almost being caught earlier, but turned out being caught reading what bordered on smut, depending on who you were, was more embarrassing.

“Carter!”

“I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on.”

She stood and threw her napkin in the trash. “Nothing that concerns you.”

Was she mad? Not really. She was embarrassed and needed to get away from him. Maybe disappear into one of those books and forget her own problems.

“Ashley.” Carter followed. “I wasn’t snooping. It was on my phone and I was up late.”

“Still.” She whirled on him. “You thought you’d just casually bring it up over dinner and ask me if I’m bothered by sex in my book?” The nerve, because that was pretty much what he’d done.

“That’s not what I was saying.”

“Yes, it was.” She stepped toe to toe with him and pointed at his chest. “You might as well have said, ‘Are you too hot and bothered to eat?’”

“Ashley.” His voice was gravelly, different than it had been a minute ago.

“Carter,” she sneered.

He reached out with one hand and placed it on her cheek. As she stared up at him, she simultaneously wanted and didn’t want him to lean down and kiss her.

The phone rang and had them jumping apart. He pulled it from his pocket and answered.

“Hello?” She heard the strain to sound normal in his voice.

Ashley’s chest heaved as she struggled to process the near moment they’d just had.

“Hey.” That was Matt’s voice. “I got into the tracker on Julian’s rental. He’s traveling south and appears to be in Florida. I’m trying to get him on some cameras for final confirmation, but it’s the car he rented.”

“Thanks,” Carter said absently.

“You good?” Matt asked.

Carter closed his eyes and took a deep breath before answering. “All good here. Just eating dinner.”

“All right. I’ll let you get back to it and will let you know when we have a final confirmation.”

“Thanks, man.”

“I’d say based on what we know, it’d be safe for you two to make a short trip to town,” Matt added.

“We should confirm things first.”

“Working on it, but Ryker agrees on a trip out of the cabin. Keep it short and low-key and it should be fine.”

“Thanks, Matt,” Ashley leaned over and said into the phone.

Carter was back to watching her. “Let me know if you hear anything, and I’ll let you know IF we leave the cabin to go to town.”

“Sounds good.”

The call ended and Ashley held herself still, trying very hard not to squirm under his gaze. She was not going to show him how much all that had just happened had affected her. Or how much she wished they hadn’t been interrupted.

“I need to take a walk,” Carter said suddenly. “Stay out of sight, and don’t open the door for anyone.”

Ashley didn’t get a chance to respond as Carter stormed out the door. With no intent of repeating their argument from earlier, she went into the bedroom and shut the door.

Her books held no interest to her right now. As she lay back on the bed, her mind was firmly on the man outside and her shower and the near kiss. At least, she hoped it was a near kiss. That meant he was interested in her some, too, right?

A little while later, Carter came back in and let her know it was him. She responded so he wouldn’t go looking for her.

She listened as he moved around, probably cleaning up from the dinner they hadn’t finished. A part of her regretted that, but she would go hungry before she faced him again tonight.

Tomorrow would be too soon, but unavoidable.