Power Play: A Novel by Danielle Steel Read Free Book Online Page B

rest of the time, Ashley was alone with the girls. It wasn’t always perfect for either of the adults, but it seemed to work. The years had sped by.
    The babies had been an accident, but a fortuitous one. Ashley had been twenty-three when they were born, twenty-two when Marshall met her and was bowled over by her. And now at thirty, this was the life she led, with a man who couldn’t bring himself to leave his primary family nor his wife. After promising to marry her initially,when she got pregnant, he had decided his kids were too young for him to leave them. There had been other reasons since. And Ashley was hoping he would finally make a move when Lindsay left for college. It wasn’t much longer, and then he would have no excuse. He had also been afraid of the potential for scandal, if people found out about her and how they had met, and the impact it could have on his career. Major corporations didn’t always take kindly to their CEOs having flagrant affairs with young women, and fathering children out of wedlock. And the stock market might not like it either, which would be worse. It had been hard to explain that to Ashley, especially when she was carrying his babies. She had cried herself to sleep every night when he wouldn’t get divorced. But now, after all this time, his children in San Francisco were finally older, and she knew he couldn’t live without her. She was praying that sooner or later, he would leave Liz, and move to L.A.
    He had bought her the house to reassure her right before the twins were born, and he paid all the bills for Ashley and the girls. He would have bought her a bigger house, but this was the one she had wanted, and she and the girls were happy there. It suited Ashley to perfection, and he loved staying there himself. It was the coziest place on earth, and even more so when he was in her arms in their big comfortable bed. And yet when he was in Ross, that felt right to him too. He loved Liz and the life they had shared for so many years. In truth, he loved both women and both lives. They were the perfect complement to each other, and he couldn’t have said it to anyone, and never had, but he needed both of them, in different ways.
    “Do you want to go out to dinner?” Marshall offered, and Ashley hesitated. There was always a slight party atmosphere when he wasin Malibu with them, and she let him indulge the girls, since they only had their father two days a week.
    “Yes! Yes! Yes!” the girls shouted happily in answer to the question, and they went to a Chinese restaurant nearby that they all loved. And well after the girls’ bedtime, they all came home, and Ashley put them to bed. They shared a room on the main floor, below her own. And Marshall went to tuck them in and kiss them goodnight.
    “They love it when you’re here,” Ashley said softly, when he came back to her room, where she was lying on the bed, sated after dinner, and their lovemaking earlier. Marshall had just texted Liz before coming back upstairs, to wish her goodnight, and so she didn’t call him when she came out of the theater.
    “So do I,” Marshall said about how much he loved being there, and Ashley knew he meant it. And then he lay on the bed next to her, looking up at the familiar ceiling. He knew all the cracks in it, and the shadows, and had lain here a thousand times, thinking about her and how much he loved her. He couldn’t imagine his life without her now. But when he went back to Ross, he couldn’t imagine a life without Liz either. It was the single greatest agony in his life, and he had put off the decision for eight years.
    Ashley knew all about Liz, and Liz knew nothing about her. And Marshall did everything he could to keep it that way. For now. He didn’t want to hurt Liz, or destroy the love and respect they had shared. But the ramshackle house in Malibu was where he really lived and where he came alive, with Ashley and their girls, who had been a gift to him since the moment