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He nodded. “I mean, obviously I’ve met Billie and Chloe, but you mentioned you had a brother too. Where’s he?”
Leaning back a bit against the cushions, Ashlynn reached for her wine and took a minute to get comfortable. “Okay, so Billie’s the oldest, then there’s Levi. He’s only two years younger than her. Up until about six months ago, we all rarely saw him. He went away to college and then settled down up in Alexandria, where he became a big shot advertising executive.”
“Wow. Impressive!”
She shrugged. “He certainly thought he was and he acted like he was too cool and sophisticated to come back to Sweetbriar.” After taking a sip of her wine, she continued. “But, like me, he got laid off and had no idea what to do with himself because no one would hire him.”
“Really? Why?”
“He was fired for having an affair with a client. A married client,” she clarified. “Although he swears he had no idea she was married. Oh, and her husband was related to Levi’s boss, so…”
“See? Gossip isn’t just a thing in small towns; it happens everywhere.”
“I guess, but I don’t think all the rejections were based on that. It’s not legal to share certain information when people call for a reference, so I think it was just bad timing for him.”
“Okay…”
“So he came home for our mom’s birthday and sort of never really left.” Another shrug. “But that’s more because he met Jade McKenzie who owns the coffee shop. He met her and fell head over heels right away. It was fun to watch because none of us thought it would ever happen to him.”
“How come?”
Again, she looked ready to say something and seemed to reconsider. Instead, she stood up and asked, “Do you want some dessert? I grabbed a couple of brownies from Books & Beans this morning. They’re double chocolate and I have vanilla ice cream to go with them…” When she turned to go to the kitchen, Reid stood and followed.
“Hey,” he said softly, touching her arm. “What just happened back there?”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, we were in the middle of a conversation and then you just abruptly changed the subject and walked away.”
Her dark eyes scanned his face and for the life of him, he couldn’t tell what she was thinking. But in a move he never saw coming, she got up on her toes, wrapped her arms around him and pressed her lips to his.
What the…?
One of her hands raked up into his hair as she pressed every inch of herself up against him. It took all of three seconds for him to be on board and kiss her back. She hummed provocatively as his arm banded around her waist and his free hand anchored in her hair. It was quite possibly the hottest kiss of his life and he kind of liked that she initiated it and took control, but now it was his turn.
Turning them so her back was against the refrigerator, he took the kiss deeper. His tongue teased hers and she tasted like a combination of wine and heaven. It was borderline madness how fast things were escalating. One of her legs slowly came up and wrapped around one of his and she broke the kiss long enough to pant his name and ask for more.
Um…yes, please.
Then she was kissing him again and slowly grinding against him and as much as his body was screaming yes, his conscience hit him with a loud, “Maybe we should slow down for a minute.”
Sometimes having a conscience sucked.
Reid forced himself to break the kiss, and when he looked down at her wet and swollen lips, her closed eyes, and heard how breathless she was, all he wanted was to dive back in and tune out everything but the two of them.
“Ashlynn,” he whispered, and waited until she opened her eyes.
The sexy, dazed look she gave him made him a little weak in the knees. She licked her lips and said, “Hmm?”
He swallowed hard and desperately hung on to the tiny thread of sanity he had left. “What’s going on here?” he asked softly, caressing her cheek. “Where did that all come from?”
That sexy, dazed look was slowly replaced by a frown and then a completely neutral expression. It was pretty impressive to watch the range of emotions happen so swiftly.
Squirming away from him, she moved to pick up the plate of brownies that was on the counter. “I thought that’s where you were looking for this to go, Reid.” Turning, her expression was completely calm—all signs of the vixen who was in his arms less than a minute ago were gone. “Was I wrong?”
“Um…”
She walked out to the living room and put the plate down on top of the pizza box. “Did you want the ice cream too?”
