Broken Souls (15 page)

A rush of heat illuminated and warmed her cheeks. She ran her tongue over her lower lip as she pictured their sweaty bodies grinding
together beautifully in rhythm, and the way their moans and growls of pleasure had echoed off of the walls around the small living room. She was in the exact spot where it had all happened.

“
Ash?”

“Y-Yes?” Her skin had turned a lovely pink hue from the indecent images circulating around in her head. She parted her lips ever so slightly to accommodate the rapid increase of her breaths.
“S-Sorry, I haven’t heard anything from him. Kind of strange, huh?” 

Ashley suddenly heard voices murmuring in the background and the sound of Ben covering his hand over the phone’s speaker.
As much as she tried, she couldn’t quite make out what they were saying.

“
Listen, I gotta shoot. But I’ll meet you outside of Eclipse on Friday night at around ten?” Ben confirmed before the line disconnected.

Ashley stared at her phone in her hand.
“Okay, bye,” she muttered sarcastically, throwing her phone onto the sofa and picking up her microwaveable lasagne from earlier.

The next few days flew by in Ashley's world without much interaction from anybody, including Marco.

On Thursday afternoon news of Gabby's accident and impending funeral were put into the local newspaper
, which she avoided. Any opportunity to see or speak to anybody about the accident she dodged well clear of. She still hadn't mustered the courage to talk about what had actually happened that night—she just wasn't ready. There had been a police report filed and there were various articles online, but it just didn't appeal to her.

The familiar
sounds of The Jungle Book filtered across her bedroom as she slipped her feet into a pair of peep toe platforms. Standing quickly, she stumbled across to the bedside table and raised her phone to her ear.

“
Hello?”

“
Just checking to see if you’re almost ready,” Ben chuckled into the receiver.

Ashley's face fell
at the sound of his voice. “Yeah, I’m practically ready. I’ll get a taxi and meet you soon?” She tried to hide her disappointment as best as she could.

“I'll wait for you outside. See you in a bit
,” he chirped before disconnecting the call. 

Ashley
sighed and pulled the phone away from her ear. It wasn't him. It wasn't Marco calling her.

“
Bastard,” she mumbled, throwing the phone onto her bed. She had relented and switched it back on earlier today in the hopes that he would try and call her, but he hadn't.

The void
of disappointment in her chest was growing bigger with each passing minute that he hadn't called. He had disappeared out of her life over two and a half days ago when he went in search of Sophia.

His lack of contact was bugging her and she didn’t like it.
There was the continuous doubt in the back of her mind as to whether he had reconciled his relationship with Sophia.

Although there wasn’t any
evidence of this as yet, the thought of him with another woman after they had spent the night together had fire immediately igniting in her eyes. He had no idea what he had done to her and how he had made her feel, but he was most definitely going to find out. She was hurt and he would feel her scorn.

“I won’t let you mess with my heart,” she grumbled, flinging a few bits into her clutch. Picking up her phone from the bed, she checked her messages one last time before putting it into her bag.

Everything was going wrong right now.

Ben was still after her and Marco was nowhere to be seen. There was some serious damage control needed. She decided that she needed to cool things with Ben, or at least delay things until she had spoken with Marco and found out what the score with Sophia was. It was clearly impossible for her to evaluate her feelings when she was falling for a man that didn’t want a relationship and who would be leaving her soon.

As long as she told herself that Marco was not a permanent fixture then she
believed that she would get through this. She knew that she would eventually heal and move on. Gabby was no longer the bond keeping them together, so she could technically let her friendship with him dwindle for the sake of her own heart.

But could she do it?

Ashley shook her head and let out a frustrated cry. There was no way that she’d be able to cut him out of her life. He was the man that she was falling for, but couldn't have. Losing his friendship would be the tip of the iceberg, and the catalyst that would finally send her completely over the edge.

“
I have to have him,” she whispered, snapping her clutch bag shut. “Sophia or not... I’m going to have him.”

Switching off her bedroom light, she stepped into the hallway and posed in front of the long floor to ceiling mirror. Having picked a
deep purple, fitted mini-dress that hugged her petite frame in all of the right places and illuminated the natural deep brown hues of her silky tresses, she felt empowered and ready to conquer the world.

Nothing was going to stop her. She had grown some balls and she was going to use them. Tonight was going to be about the truth.

She had to tell Ben what was really in her head.

~

Ashley grumbled as she paid the taxi driver for his extortionate fare. She hated taking taxis in London because the prices were absolutely ridiculous compared to the rest of the country.

On many occasions, she believed the drivers to be con artists. Conveniently taking passengers on the routes where they knew the streets would be blocked with wall to w
all traffic, they tried to find any chance that they could to rake in extra money.

“
Cheers, love.”

She rolled her eyes at the driver as she opened the passenger door and stepped onto the pavement. Her hands immediately went to the hem of her dress, pulling at the material to ensure that her modesty was still int
act. She had gone short tonight—very short.

In her head, the plan
she had come up with was fool proof. But, just in case things didn't quite go to plan, she had pulled out the big guns with her clothes. The thigh length dress was going to be the back-up which she hoped she wouldn’t need to use. It was all about keeping Ben’s attention. She had to make sure that he had eyes for her and that he was focusing on everything that she was going to tell him.

“
You look... wow.” Ben clucked with approval and offered Ashley the crook of his arm as he closed the taxi door behind her.

“Y
ou scrub up quite well too.”

“
And what are you after?” he smirked, his eyes travelling up and down the length of her body.

Ashley fixed him with a smile
. “Nothing... You just look good.”

She had
noticed a while ago that he had always made an effort with his clothes. Most of the time it looked as if he had walked straight off of a catwalk at London Fashion Week. He always kept his style up-to-date, modern and edgy to fit in with his busy lifestyle. He clearly cared about his appearance and it showed.

Tonight he had gone smart casual with
a pair of fitted charcoal trousers, a white button down shirt, light grey waistcoat, and finally, a short black leather jacket. It was stylish yet practical for the chilly weather.

“Good evening
guys.” Ashley spotted the bouncer from a few nights ago guarding the entrance into Eclipse. Thankfully, he didn’t bat an eyelid at her as she handed over her identification.

“Go on,” he said, gesturing to the end of the hall. “Have a good night.”

“Cheers, mate.” Ben took his ID and put it back into his wallet as Ashley exhaled with relief. By some sort of miracle, the bouncer hadn’t recognised her from the ruckus with Marco the other night.

“What do you want to drink?” he asked, releasing her arm as they approached the bar. “Shall we start off with something easy like a bottle of cider
or beer?”

Placing her clutch onto the bar, she looked warily at the various bottles of alcohol stored in the under counter fridges. Just the mere thought of alcohol had her stomach
churning.

Considering she wasn’t much of a drinker, her life had pretty much consisted of nights out and alcohol over the past week. There was Saturday night, Tuesday night
, and now Friday night. Granted it was only on Tuesday that alcohol passed her lips
—
it was still enough to put her off.

“C
an I just have a Coke please?”

“You aren’t drinking?” Ben
quirked an eyebrow in surprise.

“I’m not really feeling it at the moment,” she
shrugged. “I might fancy something later on, so don’t let me put you off if you want to have a drink.”

Ashley turned and leaned her
back into the bar, taking in the usual packed dance floor of Eclipse while Ben ordered their drinks.

Filled to the rafters with people grinding against each other,
the dance floor appeared to be turning into more of a giant orgy by the second. Women were mingling and dancing in clusters while the men seemed to hover nearby, occasionally coming forward to test the water with a brief grope in the dark and a rhythm-induced roll of their hips.

“Do you like to
dance?” Ben pressed a glass of Coke into her hand and gestured towards the dance floor with his head.

“
Sometimes, but it depends on my mood,” she replied, bringing the glass to her lips to take a sip. “The question is though, do
you
like to dance?”

He shrugged slightly and
dipped his head to whisper into her ear. “Depends on how much I’ve had to drink. Maybe you’ll get lucky tonight and get to see me in action.”

Catching the humorous glint in his eye, she knew that he wasn’t just t
alking about his dancing skills
—
the thought left her with a funny taste in her mouth.

It was now or never.
She had to tell him earlier than she had planned before something happened between them that she was going to regret.

“Listen, Ben...” Ashley
started, but stopped as her eyes caught sight of a couple on the dance floor with their hands all over each other. Their bodies were welded to one another as they swayed erotically in time to the bass pouring from the speakers. “We... Um...” She tried to finish her sentence, but found that she was completely distracted.

The woman was of average height, her body curvaceous and enticing in the tight trousers and backless blouse she wore. The man on the other hand, he appeared a lot taller than her, his frame bigger with strong and firm looking arms that he wrapped around the woman’s waist.

From what Ashley could see, he was wearing a dark suit that fit his physique almost perfectly. His jacket was undone, revealing glimpses of the dark buttoned shirt he wore underneath
—
the
first few buttons were left open to expose a small amount of his chest.
She looked to see his face, but found the room too dark to see.

“Who are you looking at?” Ben turned his head in the direction of her gaze, his eyes widening with sudden recognition. “Is that Melissa?” he asked, raising his cider and pointing the neck of the bottle at the couple.

“
Really... is it?” Ashley’s curiosity reached its peak as she continued to watch the couple’s movements.

“I
would recognise that fiery red hair anywhere... Seriously, that is Melissa.” He cocked his head to the side as he tried to study them further. “It looks as if she has dragged some douche with her too.” His knuckles turned white as he gripped his bottle tightly. “I think we should go over and say hello.” Ben went to step forward, but Ashley threw out her arm to block him.

Something was off.

At that moment the song came to an end. The man straightened and backed away from Melissa just as a nearby spotlight caught the side of his face, revealing the full extent of his previously hidden features to the room.

An audible gasp escaped Ashley’s throat as she spotted the familiar sight of rich, chocolate hair.

“Marco?” she whimpered under her breath.

His head was tilted to the side, an obnoxious smirk spread across his lips as he surveyed the room.
By the looks of things he was seeking out his next prey, which made Ashley very grateful at that moment that she hadn’t yet been spotted.

It bought her
some time to devise a new plan
—
or run
—
she hadn’t quite decided how she was going to play things yet.

“You’re right. I’m sure Melissa can handle herself,” Ben
gritted out, his jaw clenched solidly before he dropped his eyes to the empty glass in Ashley’s hand. “Do you want another drink?”

Reluctantly, she tore her eyes
from Marco and faced Ben. “Umm... yeah, thank you. I’ll have a cocktail or something?” she replied, placing the glass onto the bar. “I think I’d better have something alcoholic now.”

Depending on how the night progressed, it was quite possible that the alcohol was going to become a necessity if she was going to make it through unscathed. They needed to fly under the radar. They had to try and stay out of both Marco and Melissa’s line of sight.

“Okay, give me two minutes,” Ben said, turning towards the bar to pass their orders to the bartender.

Turning around,
Ashley curled her body in towards Ben and looped her arm through his. “No problem,” she murmured, casting a discreet but daring glance out of the corner of her eye towards the dance floor.

Although the hurt in her chest multiplied with each
second that she saw Melissa and Marco together, Ashley couldn’t stop staring. Her heart was thumping rapidly and her eyes were growing mistier by the minute. The pain she felt was overwhelming and she couldn’t quite understand it.

Marco was hers.

As much as she wanted to
stake her claim by marching over and pulling Melissa away by her hair—she knew she couldn’t
.
It wasn’t entirely her fault after all. She was just caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time, and didn’t deserve the smack down Ashley would give her if she let go of Ben’s arm right now.