“Umm, well, it was a gift from my girlfriends. They assured me no man alive would be able to resist me in it.”

“Oh hell, remind me to thank them.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You haven’t seen me in it yet.”

“I’ll like it. I’m sure I’ll like it. I’d like you in sackcloth. Whatever it is they bought you, I’m sure I’ll appreciate it. Right before I peel it off your delectable body.”

She all but wiggled in excitement. She was barely able to contain herself. “Okay, you wait here. Give me fifteen minutes at least. I want to look perfect. And no peeking!”

He held up his hands. “Would I do such a thing?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Promise me.”

He sighed. “Okay, okay. But get moving. I’m going to go down and arrange for a very good bottle of wine and also give them our breakfast order for the morning. You have until I get back to do your thing.”

She went up on tiptoe, kissed him and brushed past him into the suite. She waited just until he walked by and out of the bedroom before she hurriedly retrieved the bright pink, totally girly gift box from her suitcase.

At her lingerie shower, her girlfriends had delighted in making her eyes grow wide at all the things they’d bought her. The gifts had ranged from totally classy and elegant to absolutely outrageous and daring.

For her wedding night, she’d chosen a gown that was the perfect blend of elegant and sensual. It was sexy without being over-the-top siren material, although Ashley had no objection over the siren part. Being a seductive temptress for an evening had its merits and she was determined that she’d eventually work up the nerve to pull that one off.

She hurriedly changed and then went to survey herself in the mirror in the corner. The gown was beautiful. She felt like a princess and she liked that feeling very much. A pampered, cherished princess.

She reached for the clip holding her hair up and let the strands tumble down onto her shoulders. She fluffed it a bit, ran her fingers through the ends to straighten it and then took another step back to survey her reflection.

The bodice plunged deep between her br**sts and offered just a hint of a view of the swells. If she turned just right, her nipple was almost bared. Almost, but not quite.

The skirt of the gown was sheer and it shimmered over her legs like a dream. Maybe she’d underestimated the siren quality of the lingerie. It seemed innocent enough in the box, but on her…? It took on a more seductive air and made her look less innocent and more brazen.

Not a bad look to achieve on one’s wedding night.

She flashed herself an impish grin and turned away from the mirror. Impulsively, she swirled around, outstretching her arms as she pretended to dance with an imaginary partner.

Humming lightly she twirled again, sighing dreamily as she performed the steps to the waltz she and Devon had danced at her reception. He was a good dancer. He didn’t seem entirely comfortable with dancing as a rule, but he’d been more than adept at it. He moved like a dream. Commanding. Graceful with a hint of arrogance that made her all giddy inside.

She closed her eyes and whirled again. Her outstretched hand smacked against something hard and pain flashed over her knuckles at the same time a crash jolted her out of her fantasy.

Devon’s laptop that had been resting on the mantel of the fireplace along with his wallet, keys and the contents of his pockets, was now lying on the floor in pieces.

She dropped to the floor, groaning her dismay. It looked as if the battery had just popped out but how could she be sure? What if she’d broken it? Who knew what all-important, irreplaceable things he had on his laptop. If he was anything like her father and brother and countless other family members, his entire life was in the damn thing.

Okay, she knew her way around computers. She may not spend her life on one, but she was capable of working one. Or determining whether or not she’d just broken her husband’s.

She put the battery back in, checked for further damage and then pressed the power button, praying that it would come on. After a moment, the black screen of death remained and she let out another groan.

In frustration, she punched several buttons on the keyboard, willing something—anything—to come to life. The problem was, as soon as she began pressing the keys, the monitor blinked and she was treated to a dozen programs opening and flashing in rapid succession.

At least the damn thing worked.

She bit her lip in consternation and began closing the programs down. There were lots of Excel spreadsheets, countless charts and graphs that made her head swim. Halfway through she was struck by the fear that none of these were saved or that she was losing valuable information.

As much as she didn’t want to ruin the moment, she’d be better off telling Devon what happened and let him sort out his laptop. That way tomorrow when he opened it up, there would be no nasty surprises.

She downsized the pdf that looked to be more a mammoth-sized report when her name caught her eye. She slowed down to read, her fingers pausing on the keyboard. It was an email from her father and she smiled as she saw the reference to her as his baby. But what she read next halted her in her tracks.

I’ve had time to consider your reservations in regard to Ashley and perhaps you were right to be concerned. I don’t want you to think I discounted your intuition, but rather I want you to understand that I want her protected at all costs. Her knowing the truth of our arrangement isn’t necessary even as I understand why perhaps you’re uncomfortable with it. She’s my only daughter and I love her dearly. The truth is, I’d rather she never know that the marriage is a condition of the merger. You are a welcome addition to this family and I trust that you’ll always act in her best interests, which is why I implore you to remain silent as to our agreement.

Stunned, Ashley stared at the screen, sure that she couldn’t have understood this correctly. She was jumping to conclusions, something her mother had always accused her of.

She admonished herself to remain calm even though her pulse was racing so hard that she could literally feel it jumping in her neck and in her temples.

She returned to the email, forcing the blurry words to focus.

“Ashley?”

She yanked her head up, startled as Devon suddenly loomed over her.

“It fell,” she croaked out. “Off the mantel. I was afraid it was broken. The battery fell out of it. When I put it back together and started it back up, all these programs opened and I was trying to shut them all down.”

He reached down to take the laptop, but she held onto it, with bloodless fingers.

He swore when he caught sight of what she was reading and he wrested the computer from her grip.

“Give it back, Devon. I want to know what it says.”

He closed it with a sharp snap and tucked it underneath his arm. “There’s nothing you need to see.”

“Don’t lie to me,” she grit out. “I read most of it. Or at least the important parts. I want to know what the hell it means.”

Devon stared back at her, his lips drawn in a thin line. He looked as though he’d rather be anywhere but here, doing anything but having this conversation with her. Too bad. She wasn’t about to back down.

“Nothing good can come of it, Ash. Just forget it, okay?”

She gaped at him. “Forget it? You want me to just forget I saw an email from my father basically admitting he bought me a husband? Or at least manipulated you somehow into marrying me? This is my wedding night, Devon. Am I supposed to pretend I didn’t see that email?”

Devon cursed and ran his hand through his hair. “Damn it, Ashley, why the hell did you open the laptop?”

“I didn’t mean to! Believe me I’d give anything not to have knocked the damn thing down. But the fact is I did and now I want to know what’s going on. What kind of a deal did you strike with my father? Tell me the truth or I swear I’m walking out of here right now.”

“This is precisely why you’re your own worst enemy at times, Ash. You’re too impulsive. You don’t think before you act. You just go around wading into situations and you end up getting hurt. If it enters your mind, you simply do it. That quickly. At some point you have to learn some control.”

She gaped at him, openmouthed, as his frustrated, angry words bit into her. How was she the bad guy here? What the hell had she done? This wasn’t her fault. She hadn’t entered this marriage under false pretenses. Devon knew precisely where she stood. God knew she’d told him enough times.

His eyes flashed and he turned his back. He walked across the room to the dresser and slapped the laptop down on it. For a long moment, he stood there, not facing her, silent. Tension rose sharp and so thick it was uncomfortable. Fear struck a deep chord within her because she realized that she was about to learn something truly terrible about her life. Her fate. Her marriage.

“Devon?” she whispered.

She thought back on their relationship. The whirlwind courtship. Suddenly the blinders were off and she began to analyze every date. Everything he’d said to her. How much of it had been a lie? Was any of it true?

She didn’t want to ask. She wasn’t sure she could bear to know the answer to her most burning question, but she also realized she had no choice.

He turned around and his eyes were shuttered. His expression was impassive almost as if he hoped to quell any further discussion.

Suddenly the circumstances of her marriage didn’t matter to her. There was only one thing she absolutely had to know. The most important thing. The one thing that would determine her future. And whether she had one with him.

“Just answer me one question,” she said faintly. “Do you love me?”

Nine

Dread had a two-fisted grip around Devon’s throat. He stared at Ashley’s pale, stricken face and he knew his time had come. Maybe he’d always known that this moment would come. He’d never really believed that it was possible to prevent Ashley from finding out the truth and furthermore it was stupid to try to keep it from her.

Damn fool of an old man. William Copeland didn’t want his precious daughter hurt and yet he’d set her up for the biggest fall of her life. Nice. And now Devon was going to look like the biggest bastard of all time.

“I care for you a great deal,” he said evenly.

Anger and fear warred with one another in her eyes. His answer sounded lame even to his own ears but he couldn’t bring himself to destroy her even further. Hadn’t she endured enough already?

“Let’s have the truth,” she demanded. “Don’t patronize me or pat me on the head while whispering pretty words to pacify me. It’s a very simple question, Devon. Do you love me?”

His nostrils flared. “The truth isn’t always a pretty thing, Ash. The truth isn’t always pleasant to hear. Be careful when you ask for the truth because it can hurt far more than not knowing.”

If possible she went even paler. Her eyes were stricken and all the light vanished from their depths as if someone had extinguished a flame. For a moment he thought she’d let it go, but then she squared her shoulders and said in a low, dead voice, “The truth, Dev. I want the truth. I need to hear it.”

He bit out another curse and thrust his hand into his hair. “All right, Ashley, no, I don’t love you. I care about you a great deal. I like and respect you. But if you want to know if I love you, then no.”

She made a broken sound of pain that was like a knife right through his chest. Why couldn’t he have just lied to her? Because she would have known the truth whether he admitted it or not and she’d already been deceived enough.

And maybe now they could finally go forward with complete and utter honesty and he could stop feeling like the worst sort of bastard at every turn.

She started to step backward, but she swayed precariously and flailed out one arm to catch herself on the mantel. He bolted forward, caught her shoulders and then guided her to the bed, forcing her down into a sitting position.

He took one step back and then heaved out a breath. Before he could launch into what he wanted to say, she found his gaze and he flinched at the raw vulnerability reflected in those eyes.

“What a fool I’ve made of myself,” she whispered. “How stupid and naive. How you must have laughed.”

“Damn it, Ash, I’ve never laughed at you. Never!”

“I loved you,” she said painfully. “Thought you loved me. Thought we were getting married because you wanted me, not my father’s business or whatever it was he offered you. How much did I cost you, Dev? Or should I ask how much my father offered you to marry me?”

Furious at the senseless direction this was heading, he yanked the chair out from the desk, turned it around and sat so he faced her.

“Listen to me. There’s no reason we can’t have an enjoyable marriage. We’re compatible. We get along well together. We’re good in bed. Those are three things many married couples don’t have going for them.”

She closed her eyes.

“Look at me, Ash. This may be painful to hear but maybe it’s for the best if we get it all out in the open. You’re far too emotional. You wear your feelings and your heart on your sleeve and it’s only going to get you hurt. Maybe it’s time for you to grow up and face the fact that life isn’t a fairy tale. You’re too impulsive. You dash about with no caution and no sense of self-preservation. That’s only going to cause you further pain down the road.”

She shook her head in utter confusion. Her eyes were cloudy and it was clear she was battling tears. “How could I possibly ever hurt as much as I do now? How can you be so…so…cold and calm and so matter-of-fact as if this is nothing more than a business meeting where you’re discussing figures and projections and sales and a whole host of other things I don’t understand?”