Page 10 of The Seductress

I sat up at that. “I’m sorry but she’s not going anywhere. I made her a promise and I aim to keep it. School starts back in a few days. She’ll be by to pick up her stuff later and if thatdoesn’t work for you we’ll just get her what she needs, but she’s never coming back to your home again, other than to visit.”

Now she was the one squeezing my hand. I guess I had said what she was afraid to. “Hold your head up, you haven’t done anything wrong.” Not even for her parents would I allow her to hang her head as if she had something to be ashamed of.

She picked her head up and looked at them, took a deep breath, and decided to be brave. “Mom, dad, I’m sorry I hurt you, but my place is with him now. Mom I’ll call you later and we’ll talk if you’d like.” I held my breath until her mom nodded her head. At least they weren’t shutting the door on their daughter over this.

“I don’t know about this Ashley are you sure of what you’re doing? You’re old enough to make your own decisions but we’re still your parents and this thing is going to take getting used to.”

“Sir, I understand your position and you’re absolutely right, it will take getting use to, but what’s done is done and there’s no turning back for either of us. Just remember I’m marrying your daughter not asking her to shack up with me.” Only technically for the next few months that’s exactly what she’d be doing, but I didn’t see the harm in that.

It took a little more persuading but they left not long after and I felt like the world had been taken off my shoulders. Fuck, that was harder than I imagined. I haven’t had to askanyone for anything in so long it was almost painful. I’d done it for her though, and was glad of it.

“See, that wasn’t so bad now was it?”

“They didn’t look too happy Simon. What if they don’t come around? Mom was never really close with aunt Jen but she’s still her sister and once they find out that I was the one who told you all that stuff about her they’ll see it as a betrayal. And you know how well that’ll go over in these parts.”

She had a point. Southerners are big on family loyalty, but I couldn’t imagine that they would sacrifice their daughter’s happiness for someone as undeserving as Jen. Either way it wasn’t going to make muchdifference in the scheme of things.

“I guess we’re just gonna have to prove them wrong aren’t we? At least we’ve got the hard part out of the way. Now you can concentrate on our wedding hmm.” She brightened at that and jumped and ran to her bag to grab her computer, the resilience of youth.

She prattled on about dresses and flowers while I scrounged around in the kitchen for something for lunch. I smiled at her antics as she tried to drag me into her frenzied planning “I thought you’d hire someone to do all that.” She gave me one of her sassy looks and shook her head.

“Nope, I want to do everything myself. I have a scrapbook, I’ve beenkeeping it since I was twelve.” She clapped her hands together and went back to what she was doing.

“You do realize that we’ll have to invite about two hundred people right?”

“Who the hell knows two hundred people?”

“Business associates and acquaintances love.”

“I was thinking just the family and us in the garden.” She looked a little freaked.

“Cute, but no. The garden might be doable but we’ll have to have someone come in and organize it. Sorry babe but there’s no way I can get away with not inviting at least that many.”

She went back to the screen and tapped away on the keys while muttering under her breath. She tried drawing me into her madness but I let her know in no uncertain terms that I wasn’t getting anywhere near that shit. “Hire a planner.”

She flounced back in her seat with a pout. “Look, you have school right. How do you plan to tackle the two without one suffering? I’ll tell you what? We can avoid all this shit with a weekend in Vegas.” I knew she wouldn’t go for that not if she’d been planning this shit for six years.

“I know; mom can help.” I’d thought of that, but I didn’t want her getting her hopes up just in case things didn’t go the way she wanted. I just nodded and added the finishing touches to lunch before joining her atthe island.

“Eat baby.” In between bites of our sandwiches she excitedly showed me all her ideas for her dream wedding. As she spoke I watched her expressive face, marveling once again at how much she owned my heart. Brushing the hair back behind her ear I kissed her cheek.

“You’re gorgeous you know that? And all mine.” It was becoming easier and easier to say such things to her, things I would never in a million years have imagined myself uttering without sounding like an utter ass.

Her smile made it all worthwhile though, that, and the way she fell into my arms and turned her mouth up for mine. “You’ll have your perfect wedding baby I’ll make sureof it.”

***

The next few days were tense and hectic, except for the hours we spent in bed wrapped around each other. We’d gone to her home to collect her things but her parents hadn’t been ready to talk, which only added to her anxiety.

She was back in school, which worried the shit out of me, because it was the first time she was out of my sight since I’d fallen in love with her and made her, my own. My worry stemmed from the fact that her aunt had disappeared. I hadn’t given up my quest to get to the bottom of whateverscheme she was up to with her lover so I was keeping tabs on her, that’s how I knew she had left the city not long after our meeting. I had someone trying to locate her though, and was hoping to hear something soon.

I didn’t share this with Ashley, but there was no way I could give up my vendetta against her aunt. She wouldn’t understand I was sure. But for a man like me, I couldn’t just let Jen get away with what she’d tried to do. Call it pride, or wounded ego. It is what it is.

The phone rang as I was going over the numbers for the upcoming end of quarter and I answered absentmindedly. “Yes.”

“It’s me boss, I think I found them.” I put aside my work for nowand paid attention to the voice on the other end. “Speak.”

“She didn’t go too far. They’re in Alabama. It doesn’t look like she plans to stay very long though cause they’re holed up in a hotel. What do you want me to do?”

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