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She filled her in o the happenings of the night and bemoaned the lost chance of a first kiss.
“Stupid annoying tabloids,” Laura snapped, “but you will be having dinner tomorrow at his place so there is opportunity for much.”
Ashley released a contented smile. “And you know what Laura? I am okay just being where he is. He has that kind of calm soothing presence.”
“Did I just hear you right?!’ Laura asked and Ashley could just envision her getting up from her bed a she asked the question.
“Yup! You heard me perfectly,” she admitted unapologetically. “I am certainly intrigued and soothed by his presence in equal measure.”
Laura laughed. “I guess we can spend your cat savings on a new wardrobe.”
They laughed at the realization of what that meant. For the first time Ashley had had a spectacular blind date and she now looked forward to getting to know Ryan even more.
Chapter 4
It was two days later before she finally saw Ryan again, but there had been plenty of phone calls in between, she absolutely positively loved the conversations they had. On day number three he invited her to play some tennis at his country club, a thing that caused a big stir in Ashley’s world.
“I told you he was different,” Laura said.
“A difference doesn’t mean he is the one,” she countered.
Laura sighed at her hopelessness. “Yes, I agree. But it does mean he brings something else to the table, just be open.”
She agreed to be and as luck would have had it that afternoon work kept her late. She didn’t get to the club until two hours after they had agreed to meet and by then he had worked out and was hanging with friends.
“Sorry,” she said jogging up the stairs to where he stood waiting on her.
He smiled and kissed her on the cheek. “It’s okay; work sometimes get in the way of many things. I am just glad you are here to save me from these pompous asses,” he whispered in her ear.
She couldn’t hold back the laugh even as he quickly introduced her and then excused them from the circle.
“Isn’t it a tad hypocritical that you join a country club known for harboring pompous asses and then expect them to behave otherwise?”
He rolled his eyes at her. “Not when joining was your publicist’s idea. I would very much rather be playing some basketball with the guys on the community court. But if I am paying for this might as well.”
She agreed and as they got to her car she wondered what they would do for the night, she did very much want to hang with him. “So what do we do now?”
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
She really wasn’t. “No not really.”
“Okay how about drinks at my place, and that is by no means me trying to get you to take your underwear off for me.”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “And that would be a bad thing?”
He could see the surprise on his face as he opened her door for her without words. “No it wouldn’t be,” he said.
Yes, some other women might call her a skank, but she was not one of those women who held out, just because she was afraid that once she put out the guy would lose interest. She drove behind him as he made his way home; a rustic apartment nestled on the hillside overlooking the city. It was an excellent spot with a plateau for that he shaped into a vast green back yard.
She walked to the staircase that took her down to the pool with him in tow and took a deep breath in, inhaling the freshness for the first time in two days. Lightly jogging down the stairs barefooted she sank her toes into the damn green grass; nature had always been something that gave her comfort.
“You would think you had been incarcerated for years,” Ryan said stepping up to her.
She laughed at that. “Sometimes it feels like it,” she said turning to where he was still shrouded in the darkness he wore like a second skin. She looked at him and was enchanted by his presence. He was charismatic without trying to be and a gentleman with ease. He made her believe in chivalry again…or that could just be her wishing that were the case.
“A penny for your thoughts,” he said falling in step beside her as she walked and she realized his chest was bare.
“Trying to seduce me?” she asked him feeling a bit sexually frustrated.
