"Lilly, I want you like a husband would want his wife. I want you in that way. In every way."

It was then that it all dawned upon her. Pushing him away she sat on the bed and looked at him in shock.

"No such terms were said earlier and this is against the contract."

He looked at her for a moment before asking, "Do you care about the contract more than what's between us? Even when you feel this attraction towards me? I know you want this as much as I do. Does the contract matter much more?"

"Yes. The contract matters more than anything else." She said resolutely. If she didn't stick to it then it'll just increase her troubles.

"It's alright. Consider this as another joke of mine and go back to sleep." He said as he lied to his side of the bed and turned his back towards her.

" I'm not going to touch you. Not until you tell me so go to bed without any worries and tomorrow morning we have to leave early."

"Where to?" She asked.

"To Boston."

"Why so suddenly?"

"Because there is no use of staying in Brooklyn any longer."

"Why? Were you hiding from Elsie?" She asked and he turned to look at her.

" I wasn't hiding from Elsie. I was hiding you and Sam from her. I was just trying to keep you both away from her sight for as long as I could so that you both may enjoy some peace. Now that she has finally seen us here she won't stop her attempts to take Sam. My main office is in Boston so we are moving to my main villa. This time I will fight to her face to face." he said the last words more to himself than to her.

"Good night," he said as he turned to his side again while Lilly sat there and looked at his sleeping back.

Did he mean it when he said he wanted her? That he desired her. Was she that desirable? She asked herself and no answer came from within.

'He just mocked you.' A voice quipped from inside her. 'He is a man of class. A man of taste. He might have tasted many women who were delectable and expensive. He can afford them all then why would he want you?' The voice mocked her.

'Maybe he can't see any other women while married to you because he knows well enough that Elsie is watching his every step and that's why after being sexually deprived he has turned to you. You are not his choice. You are his only available option at this moment. His one touch can make you go breathless and fire crackers in your head but your touch means nothing to him because you are no one.'

That harsh remark from the darkest corner of her self made her eyes sting with tears. She had no idea why she was even crying. Was it the feeling of worthlessness as compared to the other women in his life or was it the thought of never being able to find the one who could love her for who she truly was? The kind of love that existed between her parents, the kind of love she always wanted and hoped for and dreamed of somewhere in a corner of her heart.

She lied to her side of the bed as the tears continued to flow from her eyes. Without making a noise she stared into the oblivion while waiting for sleep to arrive.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next morning they flew from Brooklyn to Boston in his private plane. The one hour flight was spent in silence. Sam was still sleeping and refused to leave Lilly's lap. He snuggled closer in her embrace and rested his head on her breast. She smiled at his sleeping figure while stroking his cheek gently.

Looking at the duo enjoying each other's company in silence Ashton couldn't help but wonder if there were thorns on him because every time he tried to get close to her the expressions on her face would change as if she was in a lot of pain and Ashton had no idea why.

After the last night scene, Ashton was having a hard time to understand what to make of this deal. Even though he had planned to take Mia along with them to his villa so Sam could be looked after and Lilly could be persuaded to sleep with him in his room but after the last night incident he realised that there was no use to all this.

His undeniable attraction for Lilly was the truth while her distaste for him was a fact. His lust for her was true while her hatred and repulsion for him was a fact.

She had refused him without even a second's thought and he still desired her. He still lusted for her. She was sitting just at an arm's reach but he still had to be quiet and he hated it. It felt like a punishment that was way too harsh upon him. There were no 24/7 maids back at his villa so they once again were going to see less and less of each other and maybe that'd be better, he acknowledged. He kept his head buried in his work while Lilly spent that one hour journey in playing with Sam's curls and introspecting a little.

She remembered the previous night. His words of desire for her and that hot and passionate kiss. She liked that kiss, she acknowledged. She had never kissed before because she was scared. Scared of unexpected things, of feelings that might follow but that doesn't mean that she never dreamt of a kiss. She dreamed many times of a hot and passionate kiss. She dreamt of a kiss that was soft but demanding. Similar to those kisses she had once read in those romance novels.

But when she got a taste of a kiss from a man who looked at her as if nothing else or no one mattered but her. Whose one gaze was enough to melt her. Unknowingly her fingers touched her lips and she remembered how sweet and intimate his lips felt on hers.

My god, she loved it. She felt her cheeks and ears heating up at the memory of that small intimate gesture. From the corner of her eye, she looked at Ashton, the man who was responsible for causing her heart premature ventricular contractions.

But was it ok to feel something like this for someone like Ashton King, a voice questioned? He was someone with a lot of experience and had seen more of the world than her. Of course, she didn't want to die a virgin but she was scared of how the things would go for both of them if she took that one step ahead.

To be honest, she was scared of being hurt by a guy again. Even though she had always kept her head buried in books but that doesn't mean she never had a crush on anyone. There was a boy in high school. Handsome and athletic. He was always nice to her, smiled at her and made her laugh, made her heart skip a beat but her crush on him came to an end when after the exams he started distancing himself from her. Then one day she came to know from a friend that the main reason he befriended her was so that he could get her help in his studies. She felt used and disappointed and since that day her aversion to relationships only grew.

She looked at Ashton again and remembered the way he treated her with respect and kindness. The way he joked about simple things, the way his one-touch would turn her into a mess, the way his smile made her heart fill with butterflies and if she were, to be honest then somewhere in her heart she wanted to feel like that again but she was scared. Scared that he might find her inexperience funny. Scared that he would mock her. He had even said that she is a terrible kisser but it wasn't her fault that she hadn't kissed a thousand men on this globe to practice her kissing skills.

"Stupid."

"Whom are you calling stupid?" she heard Ashton's voice and wondered if she had said the word out loud.

Ashton raised a questioning brow as he looked at her. She didn't reply. How was she supposed to say that she was cursing him in her head because she had no intention or guts of saying that word out loud?

Closing his laptop he got up and walked to her as she sat stuck to her seat with Sam on her lap. Bending a little he rested his hands on either side of her seat and slowly pinched her chin between his thumb and finger. Never breaking the eye contact he pulled her chin freeing her lower lip she didn't realise she held captive by her teeth.

"Stop biting that lip, Mrs King. Especially when you are looking at me. Because when you do that I start getting some ideas I am sure you wouldn't like." She blinked at him all flustered as he continued, "And what was with that word?"

"What word?" she asked innocently.

"Stupid. I wonder what did someone do to earn that praise from you."

A guilty flush crawled up her skin. How was she going to answer this she had no idea.

"Er...that... I just remembered something really stupid from my childhood."

" I would like to hear that story."

She gave out a nervous laugh as she tried to convince him.

"It isn't anything interesting."

"I'd decide that after hearing it."

Sam stirred in his sleep and next they were interrupted by a hostess who came to inform them to take their seats and tighten the seat belt because the plane was about to land.

******

Ashton got out of the car and walked to her side to open the door for her.

"The servants here have separate quarters so we can sleep in different rooms without any suspicion." He informed her as they entered through the large iron gates. He didn't want to sleep again on the same bed with her after her refusal the previous night because sleeping with her and not being free to touch her felt like a punishment he wanted to escape from. God, he never lusted for a woman to the extent that he would feel he was going crazy. Wasn't he already past this hormonal surge, he questioned himself.

'So we are going back to how it was in the beginning. That should be a relief. Isn't it?' Lilly questioned herself as she followed her husband silently.

"