The Bridal Path: Ashley by Sherryl Woods Read Free Book Online Page A

she realized she was opening the very topic she had just moments earlier sworn to avoid.
    “Wonder what?”
    Because he sounded genuinely interested and because deep down she did need someone to really listen, she tried to explain at least some of what she was feeling.
    “Sometimes I wonder if even I know who I am anymore,” she admitted with a trace of wistfulness in her voice.
    He didn’t laugh at the statement or remind her that she was Trent Wilde’s daughter and a famous model. Instead, he simply asked, “How so?”
    He sounded so eager to understand that she told him.
    “The modeling business demands that you project an image, that you represent glamour and beauty. It doesn’t demand that you have an idea in your head or care whether you woke up with the flu. Pretty soon you learn to shut all those other things out so you can do the job. Then one day you wake up and worry that maybe there’s nothing left inside anymore.”
    He nodded his understanding. “So, is that why you’re here?”
    “Part of it.”
    “And the other part?”
    As kind as Dillon was being, Ashley wasn’t about to tell him she’d been bounced from her job because she was too fat. No one who wasn’t as obsessed with looks as a model could possibly understand why a few pounds mattered so desperately. Nor did she want to change the way he looked at her by planting the idea in his head that she considered herself to be too heavy.
    Right now, when Dillon looked at her, she didn’t feel fat, anyway. She felt desirable.
    And maybe because he’d known her before she’d become famous, she felt as if his wanting her mattered somehow, as if he truly wanted Ashley Wilde, not the cover girl.
    Recognizing the unique power he held over her, she realized that that made her vulnerable to him. And with his promise to seduce her lingering in the air between them, every moment they spent together spelled danger.
    Oddly enough, though, with the night air cool and whisper soft with just a hint of rain, she found she didn’t care so much about the danger. In fact, she was beginning to wonder if being here with Dillon wasn’t the first risk she’d faced worth taking in a very long time.
    * * *
    Long after Ashley had gone off to bed, Dillon lingered on the deck. The temperature had indeed dropped after sunset, but he didn’t mind the sharp bite to the air. He zipped up his leather jacket, propped his feet on the railing and stared into the clear night sky, trying to recall the last time he’d ever felt so much at peace.
    The truth of it was, though, he couldn’t think of a single moment. The day he’d opened his security agency came close. Seeing his name on the door of that first tiny office had brought him an astonishing sense of satisfaction. Signing his first big client later that same day had proved that Trent Wilde’s faith in him hadn’t been misplaced.
    He wondered what Ashley would think if she knew just exactly how big a role her father had played in his life. It was Trent who’d bailed him out of the Riverton jail years ago. And it was Trent who’d had a quiet word with the judge and seen to it that the flimsy case against him for a robbery he hadn’t committed was dropped.
    There wasn’t a doubt in Dillon’s mind that without Trent’s intervention, he would have served serious jail time despite the lack of hard evidence against him. Too many people in Riverton were quick to jump to conclusions about him and eager to blame him for crimes they didn’t want to know had been committed by their own children.
    He’d never known exactly why Trent had leapt to his defense, but he’d sworn never to let him down after that. And when his mentor had advised him to leave Riverton for a while and make something of himself where his past wouldn’t be thrown in his face, Dillon had climbed onto his Harley and taken off. His only regret back then was that he would never know what might have been between him and Ashley Wilde.
    This accidental