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By last night, his need for her had already grown to such a fever pitch that before he could stop it from happening, their kiss had gone from gentle to desperate. He couldn't stop tasting, couldn't stop touching, couldn't stop taking.
He'd known kissing her, touching her, would be good--but he'd never known hunger like this before. Never known pleasure so raw. So all-encompassing.
And while they'd been kissing, he'd forgotten everything but how good she felt, smelled, tasted. Right and wrong had been lost to him as he'd completely lost sight of his promise to her father to keep her safe. But then, when something had startled her and she'd pulled back to tell him how shocked she was at how deep their attraction really went, Drew's promise to her father had slammed back down on him like a two-by-four crashing into his chest.
Of all the women in the world, she was the one he couldn't have. So he'd forced himself to stop them from taking the next step. From stripping each other's clothes off and making love on the deserted beach. Even though there was nothing--not one single thing--he'd wanted more than that.
God, he'd hated seeing the hurt in her eyes, and hadn't wanted to let her think for one second that he was keeping his distance because she wasn't beautiful or desirable. She was. So beautiful, so desirable that being close to her in his bus all night as they'd driven to Phoenix, and then all day as she shadowed his interviews, had been hell. Pure, unadulterated hell.
But even worse than knowing he could never kiss Ashley again or hear her incredibly seductive sighs of pleasure as his mouth roamed down over her skin, was the fact that since that moment when she'd told him just to forget it, she'd shut down on him. She was still friendly. And he could see that she still loved his music. But the closeness that they'd been building--the friendship he'd quickly come to count on--had come to a stop.
While they'd waited for Max in the parking lot, her body language had spoken volumes about how she felt--with her shoulders and face turned as far away from him. And when Max had come to pick them up from the beach in the bus, she'd immediately gone into her bunk and closed the curtain to block him out. Drew had wanted to say something, anything, to make things better. To go back to the way they'd been before he completely screwed things up by trying to do the right thing. But he'd been afraid of making things worse, and had told himself that, hopefully, by the following morning things would be better and they could at least go back to being friends again.
But when morning came in Phoenix, though Ashley had still made breakfast for both of them, by the time he'd thrown on clothes to come out and eat with her, the curtain on her bunk was drawn and he'd heard the clicking of her fingertips on her computer keyboard. She hadn't come out until James boarded to grab them for interviews.
James obviously immediately noticed something was off between the two of them, but Drew wasn't going to kiss and tell, and he definitely didn't want James to say anything to Ashley that would make her any more uncomfortable than she already was.
Now he was finally with her again at a TV station in Phoenix. She looked beautiful, but pale, as if she hadn't slept much better than he had. Which was to say, barely at all.
All day long he'd been trying to figure out what to say to her when they were finally together again. I'm sorry wasn't right. I wish I'd never made your father that promise wouldn't work either.
Drew had never second-guessed himself like this before. On the contrary, his decisions, his path forward, had always been obvious to him. But now, not only was his music tying him up in knots, but so were his feelings for Ashley.
The station was in a historic four-story building downtown. He'd toured through here before and when he saw the interest in Ashley's eyes as they got out of the town car, Drew said, "I heard that the building was built as a love letter from a poor man who had nothing more to his name than his hammer to the wealthy magnate's daughter who was off-limits to him." At this point, he would take any excuse to get Ashley to talk to him again, even if it was just about some building in Phoenix.
For a moment she seemed to forget to keep her distance. "What happened to them? Did they fall in love?" In the moment their eyes met, heat sizzled between them just as much as it had on the beach.
"The night before she was to marry the wealthy fiance that her father had chosen for her, but that she didn't love, she went to tell the builder she would run away with him. But when she got there, she found him lying on the floor, unconscious from a piece of cement that had hit him on the head."
Too late, Drew realized that he should have kept the sad story of star-crossed lovers to himself, because instead of opening up more, she said, "That's really sad. Sometimes I guess people really aren't meant to be together."
The next time he looked into her eyes, it was as if she'd pulled shutters down over her emotions.
Damn it, for a moment there he'd thought that she might be about to open up to him again. And even though he understood why she was wary--there was no way to sugar-coat the way he'd flat-out rejected the offer she'd made last night--frustration was still eating him up from the inside by the time they stepped into the lobby and the elevator came to take them up to the fourth floor.
James waited for Ashley and Drew to get in before saying, "Looks like a pretty tight fit in there. I'll take the stairs."
Ashley quickly said, "There's plenty of room," but by then the doors had closed, leaving the two of them alone in the small space.
Drew didn't want to make things even worse, but he couldn't stop himself from asking, "Did you sleep okay?"
She didn't quite look at him as she paused for a long moment. "I--"
Before she could say anything more, the elevator suddenly jolted to a stop...and then the lights went out.
"Ash?" He instinctively reached for her hand. Damn, it was dark in here. "Are you okay?"
"I'm okay," she replied, but her voice sounded a little shaky, and she was holding pretty tightly to his hand.
"I'm sure they'll have the elevator up and running again in just a second. I'll text James to let him know we're stuck, just in case they haven't figured it out yet."
"Great." But, again, she didn't sound particularly great.
As he pulled out his phone and sent the text without letting go of her hand, she took out her own and turned on the onboard flashlight. But even with the light on, her breath seemed to be coming a little faster. "I'm not always great in small, enclosed spaces."
"I've got you, Ash," he said in a gentle voice as he drew her closer. "Just close your eyes and we can pretend we're somewhere else." He was glad when she wrapped her arms around him. Nothing had ever felt as good, or as right, as having Ashley in his arms.
"Where?"
"Back in the Valley of Fire."
He stroked her hair, then her back. She smelled amazing, like the lavender and roses in his parents' backyard. And she was his perfect fit absolutely everywhere.
Don't stop, Drew. I want this. I want you.
Oh hell, he needed to stop thinking about what could have happ
ened if his goddamned honor hadn't stopped him from tearing off her clothes last night. But focusing on how much he wanted Ashley wouldn't help her right now, so he tried to take her back to the Valley of Fire in her mind.
"The sun is bright yellow. The sky is blue. And the sand is that incredible red."
She moved closer, her breath warm against his neck. "Ever since that day you showed it to me, I dream of it."
"I dream of you." In the small, dark space, the words came before he could yank them back, and he couldn't stop himself from brushing his lips over the top of her head. "Every night."
He was holding her closely enough that he could feel the rise and fall of her chest and hear her soft gasp of awareness at his words. If she had any idea just how sexy his dreams were...
"You can't."
She whispered the words, but every part of him was attuned to every part of her. To her heart beating fast against his, to the heat of her body everywhere she was touching him, to every sound and breath she made.
"Do you, Ash?" He brushed his fingertips across her cheek in the dark, and she turned it into his palm with a soft moan. "Do you dream about me the way I can't stop dreaming about you?"
"Drew, please."
He didn't know if she was whispering his name to ask him to stop...or to beg him to give her another forbidden kiss. Praying she was dying for his mouth on hers as badly as he needed to feel hers beneath his, he cradled her jaw in his hand and began to lower his mouth to hers, beyond desperate for another taste of her.
Sweet Lord, he'd never been looking forward to a kiss so much in all his li--
Ashley was jolted nearly out of his arms as the elevator came back to life and the overhead lights turned on.
Her eyes were huge as she took a step back and pressed herself against the elevator wall in an effort to get as far away from him as she could. And yet again, before he could find any of the right words to say--whatever the hell those could possibly be at this point--they reached the fourth floor and the doors opened.
