Ash’s hand twitched, and he pulled it away, firmly settling it on the steering wheel at the two o’clock position.
“Don’t worry. It’s just as stupid as the one who said you were arrested for drugs.”
“Ah, shit.” He grabbed her hand and lifted it to his lips, kissed her knuckles, and held them there. The heat of his breath pulsed against her skin. “Do you remember the forms we signed?”
“I signed where Marge told me to.” She’d been pretty drunk, and she didn’t remember much more than that.
“So did I.” He tilted his head against the seat. “Shit, shit, shit.”
“Ash…” She extricated her fingers from his death grip. Her stomach knotted with dread. “Please tell me you read those forms.”
“I’m horrible with stuff like that. That’s why I have a manager and a team of lawyers. They handle all that crap for me. I just sign on the dotted line. It didn’t even occur to me to read it.”
She sat back because she needed to hear the truth. “Did we…are we…” But she couldn’t bring herself to saymarried.
“I don’t know. Maybe?” Ash’s sexy-as-shit voice cracked.
He was many things, but she’d never seen him unsure.
“What do you mean,maybe?” Skye’s voice hitched. “There’s nomaybein getting married.”
He ran his fingers through his dark hair.
Forest was going to have a cow.
“We have to fix this,” she said.
Skye’s stomach churned with unsettled emotions. She lowered the window, letting the freezing air swirl into the car, stealing their heat but clearing her head. “This is the worst mistake ever.”
Ash turned to her. “It’s not like it would be the end of the world, Skye.”
Whether they meshed or not didn’t matter.
“We can’t be married,” she stated with conviction. “Besides, your fans might think we eloped, but when they find out it was all a big mistake, they’ll be relieved. You and I can go back to our regular lives.”
Why wasn’t he freaked out? Did nothing rattle this man?
He amped up the music. “I don’t care what the fans think. It’s my fucking life. Roll up the window. It’s cold outside.” He jabbed at the temperature control, flooding the car with heat.
Tension filled the car with an oppressive weight.
She pulled out her cell phone and checked for messages from Forest. Desperate to reach out to the one source of stability in her life, she let her fingers fly over the keys.
She needed her anchor.
I messed up, Beanpole.
She brought Forest up to speed on the situation.
What’s up, my summer Skye? Fair winds and following seas here.
He sent a naked picture of himself and another man taking a selfie off the bow of a yacht. Forest smiled as the man beside him kissed his cheek and cupped his balls. She rolled her eyes. Evidently no-porno shots meant something different to him than it did to her.
The man beside Forest looked to be a decade older than her brother. Blond and tan, he was well muscled and fit for his age. Thankfully, he wore a pair of Bermuda shorts although the erection he sported tented the fabric.
Naked and tanned, Forest seemed content. His grin was infectious, and she couldn’t help but smile, seeing him happy. If only she shared that joy instead of this gut-wrenching fear…
Not that she wasn’t happy or even content.
