Page 87 of The Moment You Know

Luckily, his photography studio didn’t open for another two hours, so there would be plenty of time to have it … as soon as he woke her ass up. It was only half past eight, so he didn’t expect to see Ashley up when he got home—and not surprisingly, she wasn’t. She logged no less than nine hours of sleep a night, claiming she needed that many, but that was bullshit; no one needed that much shut-eye.

Once inside the house, he immediately went to the master bedroom and found her asleep, wrapped up like a burrito. For a sadistic split-second, he pictured himself grabbing the bedding and lifting, then dumping her onto the floor in one quick roll. However, he figured it wouldn’t work quite like that, so he turned on the overhead light, instead, assuming it would achieve the desired result just as well.

It did. As soon as the room was flooded with light, Ashley made a screeching noise, full of outrage.

“David! What the fuck?”

“Good, you’re awake,” he said, deadpan. “We need to talk.”

Clapping a hand over her face, she squinted at him through her fingers. “Are you out of your mind? Turn the goddamn light off.”

“I’ll be in the kitchen,” he said, then turned and left, keeping the light on.

He sat down at the table and waited. Five minutes later, she shuffled in with messy hair, wearing pajama shorts and a matching tank, and headed straight for the coffee maker. When she saw the pot was empty, she stopped and looked over at him.

“No coffee?”

“There was coffee two hours ago.”

With an aggrieved sigh, she abandoned her quest for coffee and changed direction, dragging her ass to the chair across from him. Lowering herself onto the seat, she drew her knees up and gave him a flat look. It pissed him off enough that he decided to get right to it and not fuck around.

“Did you get into my phone and block Paige’s number?”

Her eyes widened and she stared at him, now totally awake. “What?”

“You heard me. Now answer the question.” His voice was deceptively soft. “And don’t you dare lie to me.”

She swallowed, hard.

“I’m waiting,” he prompted.

“Yes,” she finally answered, her voice low.

He’d known in Paige’s office that Ashley had to have been the one to do it, because no one else had access, but having it confirmed was a kick in the balls. He exhaled loudly. “Un-fucking-believable.”

“How did you find out?”

So, she wasn’t going to lead off with an apology, he mused, without any humor. “I found out during my talk with Paige.”

She straightened up. “You talked with Paige? When?”

“This morning.”

Ashley glanced at the clock on the microwave. “This morning?”

“Yes. I went to see her at work.”

“You saw her?”

“Yes.”

It probably made him an asshole, but her alarmed reaction didn’t trigger any empathy at all. If anything, he kind of enjoyed it.

“Why would you go see her?” she demanded.

“I wanted to talk about her book.”

“I thought you were just going to read it.”

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