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ing in Trevor’s arms made concentration on anything but his exciting touch impossible. “So what are we going to do about Claud?”
The smile that spread slowly across Trevor’s face was positively sinful. He reached behind her and grabbed two coats from the curved spokes of the brass hall tree. After helping her with her down-filled garment, he slid his arms into a denim jacket.
“I doubt that we’ll have to worry about Claud much longer,” Trevor stated cryptically as he led her out of the front door and draped his arm over her shoulders.
“What have you done?”
“Something I should have done about six months ago. I hired a private investigator.” They walked along a brick path leading around the great house toward the river. “He’s been on the case for about a month, I guess.”
“And that’s who you were talking to last night,” Ashley suddenly realized. Perhaps now he would explain everything and drive away the lingering doubts in her mind.
“Right.” Trevor winked broadly. “With what this guy has found out on his own and the evidence you and John Ellis supplied, I think we’ll have enough proof of Claud’s illegal activities to lock him up for a while.”
“If he doesn’t get to you first.”
“I’m not too worried about that.” Taking her chilled hand in his, he led her to the banks of the silvery Willamette. The wind on the water was brisk, causing whitecaps to swell on the swiftly flowing current. Trevor leaned against the trunk of a barren maple tree and placed his arms securely around her waist. She leaned against him, feeling the warmth of his body surrounding hers while the chill winter wind blew against her face.
“This isn’t going to be easy for you, you know,” he suggested. “Claud will make it rough. How will you feel if you have to testify against him?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. I guess I’ll have to wait and see how involved he is.”
“Oh, he’s involved all right. Right up to his scrawny mustache.”
Ashley closed her eyes and fought against any feelings of sympathy she might harbor for her cousin. “You know there’s no love lost between us. I swear that he wanted to kill me when he found out that Dad hadn’t disinherited me as the rest of the family had thought. I was hoping that he would learn to live with the fact that I own the majority of shares of the corporation, but . . .” She sighed and shrugged her slim shoulders. “I doubt if he’ll ever really accept that I’m his boss. It’s hard for him, but that’s no excuse for what he’s put you through. I just kept him on the payroll because the company needed his expertise and because I wasn’t sure that he had done everything you thought.... Now I know differently.”
She felt the strain in Trevor’s body and his arms circled her as if to protect her from all the evil and injustice in the world. Once again she had the feeling that there was something bothering him, a secret he was afraid to divulge. His cold lips brushed against the crook of her neck. “I think that you should leave,” he cautioned.
The words hit her with the force of an arctic gale. Hadn’t he just insisted that she marry him? “Leave—to go where?”
“Maybe you should go out of town, just for a couple of days. Until I get some things ironed out.”
“But why?”
“Because the press is going to be all over me. And you. Everett wasn’t kidding when he said that they’ll put us through hell once they find out that we’re going to get married. And when the story about Claud breaks—I doubt if either of us will have a minute’s peace.” He let out a weary gust of breath that misted in the frigid morning air. “As a matter of fact, I’ll bet we get more than our share of visitors this afternoon. Everett said that several reporters had already tried to contact me at campaign headquarters. It’s just a matter of time before they show up here.”
“That may be true, but I’m not leaving,” Ashley decided with a proud toss of her head.
“Haven’t you listened to a word I’ve said?” Was there a thread of desperation in his words?
“And that’s why I’m staying.” She turned to face him and held his square jaw between her hands. “I’m tired of running from everything, including the truth. If I’m going to marry you, and you can be sure that I am, then I’d better get used to the occupational hazards of being a senator’s wife.”
“If I win.”
“When you win.”
A slow-spreading smile creeped over Trevor’s handsome features and the sun seemed to radiate from the midnight blue of his eyes. “You’re an incredible woman,” he whispered, his throat feeling uncomfortably swollen. “And I don’t want to do anything that would put you in jeopardy. I can’t lose you, not again.”
“You won’t. Hey, I’ve seen my share of bad press,” Ashley stated, thinking of all of the gossip surrounding her father and the family business, “and I think I can handle whatever they dish out.”
“I can’t talk you into leaving, just for a couple of days?”
“It would be a waste of your breath and my time.”
“So you intend to stay.”
“Forever,” she said with a sigh as his arms crushed her against him.
Trevor pressed his lips against her black hair. “You may as well know that I’m not into long engagements.”
