Ashley.
He jumped off the bed and slinked through the darkness. He cast out every sense, searching for danger. The clock on the kitchen wall ticked the seconds. The wooden floors creaked beneath his feet. A whimper had him hurrying into the spare room and to the bed.
“Ashley,” he murmured, cautiously shaking her. “Ashley, wake up. You’re dreaming.”
She groaned, whimpered again.
Josh sat on the edge of the bed. “Ashley.” He hesitated to touch her, not wanting to upset her more than she was already. “Ash, sweetheart.”
She jolted, her gasp of fear striking him like a blow.
“It’s me. Josh. You’re safe. Should I turn on the light?”
“Please.”
Big brown eyes fixed on him. Without makeup, the shadows beneath her eyes were noticeable. Her blonde hair covered her shoulders in a shiny mass, and she had a beauty spot to the right of her mouth. He hadn’t noticed earlier, but now that he had, his mind dwelled on kissing the sexy mark. She wore an old T-shirt, and it molded to her curves.
He shook himself, forced his gaze back to her face. Frog would kill him if he ever discerned Josh’s inappropriate thoughts.
“Bad dream?” he asked.
She nodded.
“Do you want a drink? Tea or something stronger?”
“I don’t drink alcohol, but a cup of green tea sounds good.”
“I’ll make one for you.” Josh stood, glad for a task. Looking at her, sitting on her bed gave a man ideas.
Ashley ran a trembling hand through her hair. “We should discuss how this relationship will work.”
Josh’s mind took a turn onto Sexy Drive again. He forced himself to move, to walk to the door. “I won’t be long.”
When he returned, Ashley had a planner open and was tapping a pen on the page, a frown twisting her soft lips.
“Something wrong?” He wrenched his focus to the teacup and saucer in his hands.
She sighed. “There’s so much to do before election day. The Labor party…” She blew out another sigh. “I shouldn’t say this, but given our current progress, we’ll crash and burn.”
Aware normal conversation would settle her, he set the cup of tea on a nightstand and sat on the bed. Close enough to be sociable but not slide into intimacy.
Yeah. Now, what were they discussing? Huh, okay. “Do you have a plan? What would you do if you had your way? Frog said you’re high in the party rankings.”
She replied without hesitating, impressing Josh. “We should stop talk of a capital gains tax and focus on our strengths. Our social policies.”
“Can you tell your party that?”
She nibbled her bottom lip, and Josh glanced away from her cute beauty mark.Get control of yourself.
She tapped her pen again, narrowed her eyes. “Well, I can, but Geoffrey is determined. He says it will make a more balanced playing field.”
“In theory. Normally, the wealthy who have the assets to attract the tax can afford to pay a smart accountant to minimize their payments. It’s the people in the middle who get hit hardest. They’re the ones who work hard, save, and pay most of the tax, which will go toward your social programs.”
Ashley made a humming sound. “Yes, I know that. We’d be better to raise taxes in other areas. More tax on petrol, for example. Road user charges. We’ll need to do that to add more infrastructure and ease the road congestion.”
“Is that the topic for your Wellington meeting?”
“Yes, we’ll look at the poll results, discuss, and focus on areas where our policies resonate better with the voters,” Ashley said. “As a party, we’ll have a better sense for how we’re doing once the poll results are in, and we can report back from our different electorates.”
