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Okay, we were definitely going nowhere with this.
“Let’s get you dressed,” I said, once again trying to corral her. This time she leaned into me, instantly wetting my shirt with her wet head. I froze, not knowing what to do. If I pushed her away, was that rude? If I wrapped my arms around her, would it be weird because she was practically naked? I mean, I could glance down and get an eyeful of her bare ass, for goodness sakes…
Against my chest, she murmured, “Are you a liar?”
If I wasn’t already frozen in place, I would’ve been then. What did she mean? What was she referring to? Had Sawyer already gotten to her, or was this just a desperate ploy to take the attention off herself and put it on me? I didn’t know which one was worse.
“I try my best not to be,” I answered honestly, not knowing how else to answer. This girl, she had to know she could trust me. I’d never do anything to hurt her, and I wouldn’t lie to her. I might keep things she didn’t need to know from her, but that wasn’t the same thing as lying, was it?
A lie of omission was a lie all the same.
With how she was involved with Travis, maybe I should tell her what happened. What really happened.
When she said nothing else, when she kept herself pressed against me, I tentatively reached around her shoulders, holding her close. Her skin was dripping wet still, having not dried herself off after falling in the shower. Her skin was smooth under my hands, and I resisted my urge to hold her even tighter, to whisper into her ear that I’d never let the world hurt her again. Whatever had happened in her past would never play on repeat. Things were different now. She had me, and I had her.
“If you didn’t fall, how did you hurt yourself?” I asked, not knowing whether or not she’d answer.
“I can’t tell you,” she said. Ash turned her head up toward me. She now held onto my sides and not the towel. If I took a step away from her, the towel would fall and she’d be there, utterly naked. I had to tell myself not to think about it, otherwise something would pop up that definitely shouldn’t.
As it was…it was already insanely difficult to keep myself from growing aroused. It wasn’t every day that I had Ash in my arms, naked and wet.
If she couldn’t tell me…well, maybe it was time to tell her everything. The truth. “I have something I need to tell you,” I spoke, my arms tightening around her frail shoulders. This girl was so small, it was hard to believe she was the same person who could turn the tables on Sawyer and mess with him back.
If I didn’t spit it out, I’d lose my nerve, so here went nothing.
“Sabrina and I weren’t together when she hung herself,” I said. “We broke up the week before. It wasn’t the first time we’d been separated, but…it was the first time I learned that she’d been unfaithful to me with a close friend.” The words tasted wrong coming out, but I might as well get them all out there now that I’d started. “She’d been sleeping with Travis.”
And then, because she was Ash and not someone else, she said the one thing that stunned me, the one thing that made my mouth drop: “I know.”
I was slow to pull away from her, and she went to hold onto the towel, keeping it from falling, holding it over her breasts and the area between her legs. But I wasn’t trying to get a peak. I was staring solely at her face, wondering just how the hell she already knew.
Had Sawyer gotten to her, or did Travis…
She dropped her gaze, moving toward her backpack near her desk. Ash didn’t bother to cover up her backside, letting me get a nice, long view of her smooth, round ass, but I couldn’t focus on that. I watched as she unzipped the inner zipper and pulled something pink out.
Something I’d seen before. Something I hadn’t seen in a long, long time.
“Because I have this,” she said, offering it to me.
I took it, my mouth still hanging open. It was a good thing there were no flies in the room, otherwise they would’ve gone straight into my mouth. “How did you…” I couldn’t speak. I flipped open the top, seeing Sabrina’s feminine handwriting. My stomach fell. “Where did you get this?”
All Ash could do was shake her head and close her eyes.
I closed it, running a hand over it as I went to sit at my desk. “Do you have the other one?”
That got her to look at me again. That got her out of her funk enough to ask, “What?”
“The one that goes with this,” I said. “She had two. She was always writing in two. This is the one everyone knew about.” I pushed away the emotions that threatened to swallow me up. I was definitely not expecting her to pull this out. How’d she get her hands on it? From Sawyer?
A look of pure confusion crossed her face. “I didn’t know she had two.”
“How could you know she had any?” I asked. “Where did you get this?” I was about to demand the answer from her, but Ash moved closer to me, striding to where I sat at my desk chair. She set a hand on my cheek, and I felt myself tilting my head toward her, not wanting her warmth to ever leave me.
“Have you lied about anything else?” Ash whispered, a pleading look on her face. Her other arm held up her towel, and it took too much from me to keep my eyes open. To meet her stormy stare.
“No,” I murmured against her hand, and I meant it. I meant it wholly and completely. There was not anything I’d lied to her about. Nothing I would ever keep from her. What did I have to do to make her trust me?
Ash smiled, but I could tell it was half-hearted, as if she didn’t believe me. “Okay,” she said, pulling away from me, her hand falling from my cheek. “I’m going to go finish showering now.” Her stare lingered on me for a few moments, and then she turned and walked away, her bare ass drawing my attention, even after what just transpired.
