Secure Love (Wet & Wild 3)

Her eyes panned up to the door as they opened and a familiar figure stepped in. Her heart stopped in her chest. Blood rushed loudly through her ears. She not only wanted him to shut the door behind him, but she also wanted to kick him out. To yell and scream and beat on his chest. Those brooding hazel eyes and that dust of freckles upon the skin of his nose.

What the hell was Ash doing at her place of work?

“Can we talk?” he asked.

“Are you serious right now?” Kallie asked.

“I know it’s a lot to ask—”

“You’re damn right it’s a lot to ask. And at the risk of conserving energy, I’ll only say this. You said all you had to at the Hamptons. I’m a gold digger and you’re not interested. Now get out.”

“I’m sorry, Kallie.”

“Get the fuck out,” she said.

“I know I’m in the wrong,” he said.

“I don’t give a damn what yo—wait. What?” she asked.

Had she heard him right?”

“I know you aren’t that type of person,” Ash said as he approached her desk.

She closed her laptop quickly and wheeled her chair away from her desk. Pushed herself all the way to the wall to put as much distance between him and her as she could. The pained look on his face was like something out of The Twilight Zone.

“You do,” she said.

“I do,” Ash said. “I know you didn’t send those text messages. I know James is lying.”

“Where is all of this coming from?” she asked breathlessly.

Ash sighed before he raked his hand through his thick mahogany hair.

Hair that Kallie missed touching herself.

“I called my family’s private investigator and had her look into things.”

“Your family has a personal PI?” she asked.

“It’s a long story, but yes. She’s on retainer for us. She looked into some things and used some not-so-legal tactics to piece parts of the story together.”

“Uh-huh.”

“The short version? James downloaded an app called Spoof. And your official phone records show you only made phone calls on the island. You didn’t send text messages.”

“You know that doesn’t one hundred percent prove my innocence,” she said.

“I don’t need one hundred percent. All I needed was the truth about those texts.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” she said.

“I am.”

“Ash, this trust thing didn’t go one way. It went both ways. You stand here and you think you’ve got enough information that proves what I was telling you in the first damn place, but you’re working under the assumption that I trust you,” she said.

The look on Ash’s face broke her heart, but she had to stand up for herself. He couldn't keep volleying between being angry with her and being friendly to her. She wasn’t a rag doll to be tossed around.

“You don’t trust me anymore,” Ash said.