Finally, he spoke. ‘For embezzling ten million dollars from Woodward Investments.’
Ashley’s breath hissed between her teeth as she shook her head in instinctive denial. ‘What…?’
‘I didn’t do it.’ He waited a beat before adding, ‘Your father did.’
‘Oh…’The single syllable was released on a long, wavering note as Ashley leaned back against the sofa cushions and closed her eyes. She looked less surprised, Nico thought, than regretful.
‘The memories coming back to you now?’ he asked coolly.
Ashley’s eyes flew open. ‘No. I just… I’m sorry that happened to you. Were you…?’ Her voice wavered. ‘Were you prosecuted?’
He laughed then, an ugly sound he couldn’t help, because her question sounded so disingenuous, sodainty,as if she imagined that he’d had no more than a spot of bother, a night at the police station, perhaps, before it had all got straightened out. ‘You could say that,’ he told her. ‘I spent five years in prison for your father’s crimes.’
For a second, Ashley simply stared, her lips parting, her eyes going wide. As far as a reaction went, Nico found it spectacularly unsatisfying. He felt as if the reason that had fuelled him for so long had evaporated in a puff of smoke, a single gasp of surprise. How could he let revenge guide his decision now? And yet…how could he not?
What kind of man would he be simply to shrug his shoulders and turn aside from another man’s utterly ruthless and scheming vindictiveness? To roll over and act as if it hadn’t changed his life, his family’s life, hisbrother’s…?
But, just as Ashley didn’t like to remember painful parts of her life, Nico thought grimly, neither did he. He tried never to think about Roberto, and what those five years had cost his brother. The medical treatments he could have had, if Nico had been earning. The care he could have been given.
‘Nico,’ Ashley whispered, her voice a raw ache. ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘So you should be.’ His voice came out harsh, harsher than he’d meant it to, because, damn it, hefeltfar too much.
Ashley jerked back. ‘You still blame me?’ she whispered unsteadily. ‘Even though I’ve told you…?’
‘Do you really think you’re all that innocent,’ Nico demanded, his voice a throb of emotion, ‘Just because you don’t remember?’
‘But…my father…’ she faltered. ‘Hewas the one. I might have forgotten our meeting, but I know I wouldn’t have knownanythingabout the embezzlement or your arrest. I never had anything to do with his business. He wouldn’t have let me, even if I’d shown an interest.’
‘You were there,’ Nico told her flatly. ‘You saw me arrested right in front of you. You saw me…’ He found he couldn’t go on. ‘You did nothing,’ he finished.
‘What could I have done?’ she cried, colour flaring into her cheeks.
Even now she strove to absolve herself, to insist on her innocence. Some things never changed. Nico shook his head in dismissal, too weary—and still too angry—to continue.
‘Nico, I’m serious.’ To his surprise, she uncurled herself from the sofa and walked over to him, dropping to her knees in front of him, like a supplicant to the throne. ‘What could I have done?’ she whispered as she looked up at him.
She blinked back tears, her lips trembling. ‘You spent five years in prison,’ she whispered wonderingly. A tear spilled and trickled down her cheek. ‘What could I have done to keep that from happening?’
Chapter Twelve
ASHLEY DIDN’T THINKshe could bear the look of torment on Nico’s face—his cheekbones slashed with colour, a world of grief in his storm-coloured eyes. Andshe’dcaused it. She still could only remember that evening in flashes of feeling—the wonder of meeting him, her terror of her father—but she knew, instinctively and utterly, that something more had happened that night, something he didn’t want to tell her, but which had hurt him deeply, to his very core.
Something she had done—or not done. Whatever it was, Ashley knew she was at its wounded heart, and she hated the thought.
‘Whatever it is…’ she whispered, lifting one hand to touch his cheek. ‘I’m sorry. So sorry.’
Nico captured her hand with his own and, after pressing it briefly to his cheek, he started to draw it down but then stopped, his fingers curling around hers instead. For a few seconds they remained still, Ashley kneeling in front of him, his silver gaze blazing into hers. Time unspooled and the moment, so tearful and tender, became charged with something else. Something sweet and yet so very dangerous.
Except…right now, it didn’t feel dangerous. Nico didn’t. She wasn’t afraid of him, or her own overwhelming reaction to him, Ashley realised. She wanted this. And so, without thinking too much about what she was doing, simply knowing she wanted and even needed to do it, Ashley reached up and brushed her lips across Nico’s in a soft touch so different from the demanding plunder of their previous kisses. His mouth stilled under hers and the feel of his lips against hers, so sweet, tender andfamiliar, had her suddenly drawing back in surprised realisation.
‘We kissed before!’ she exclaimed softly. ‘At that ball.’ She couldn’t remember it beyond the feel of his lips, a thrill of giddy wonder…
Nico’s fingers tightened on her own. ‘We did.’
Was that what he’d been keeping from her, or was there yet more? ‘How could I have forgottenthat?’ Ashley murmured, and was rewarded with a faint chuckle before she kissed him again, deeper this time, letting her lips play over his, her tongue dart between, causing a tingling pleasure to dart through her veins like flashing, silver minnows.
Nico growled low in his throat and this time he was the one to pull back. ‘Ashley…’ He threaded his fingers through her hair, anchoring her head as she stared at him levelly, feeling surer about this than she had about anything since she’d met him. The certainty resonated through her, spread out to the very tips of her fingers and toes. ‘Don’t tease me,’ he warned her throatily. ‘Not now. Not about this.’
