for it.”
“How old were you?”
“Ten, maybe eleven. All of a sudden adults couldn’t pay enough attention to me. Even my father took notice for the first time in a long time. I began to see that being bad had its advantages.”
“A classic case of acting out to get attention,” Ashley said softly, feeling sympathy well up inside her. Dillon’s warning look kept her from expressing any hint of the pity she felt for that sad boy.
“By the time I reached high school, it was a habit. I knew right from wrong and I never–well almost never,” he corrected with a rueful grin, “crossed that line. But by then everyone had stopped giving me the benefit of the doubt. I’d done everything I could to earn my reputation as a bad kid, and I clung to it because it was all I had.”
Ashley thought about a scared, lonely little boy choosing the wrong path just to get something that she and her sisters had taken for granted–the attention of grown-ups.
“Oh, Dillon,” she whispered.
“Don’t you dare feel sorry for me,” he ordered tightly. “I didn’t tell you that story so you would pity me. I told you because you badgered me for the truth. Now you have it.” He regarded her intently. “It’s not nearly as provocative as thinking I was some sort of bad seed, destined to head straight to hell, is it?”
Ashley was shocked by his assessment. “Meaning what, exactly?”
“That you were like all the others. Still are, for that matter. You were attracted to me because I represented danger and rebellion. If I’d just been another kid in the class getting average or below-average grades, wearing blue jeans and plaid shirts and cowboy boots, you would never have looked at me twice.”
“That’s not true,” Ashley insisted, then thought back to the way she’d been in high school. She’d only dated the best and brightest, never the average or uninteresting. Dillon had been fascinating because he was dangerous and forbidden. She couldn’t deny that. “Okay, maybe back then I wouldn’t have been as drawn to you.”
“And now?”
“Dillon, there’s a chemistry between us.”
“But how much of that is a carryover from before, from thinking that I’m a little shady and a whole lot dangerous?”
“None of it,” she said at once, then sighed, forced into being honest by that penetrating gaze of his. “Okay, maybe some of it. I don’t know. How can I, when you have never let anyone get to know the real you?”
“Your father knows me. So do a lot of other people, actually. Of course, I had to move out of Riverton to live down my reputation.”
“You could have stayed here and fought it.”
He shot her an all-too-knowing look. “Maybe I just wanted to get away and be somebody different. You should understand that better than anyone.”
Ashley swallowed hard. “Because I ran away to New York so I could stop being Trent Wilde’s perfect daughter,” she said.
“Exactly.” His sharp-eyed gaze bored into her. “Did it work?”
“Of course, it did,” she said at once.
“I’m not talking about the obvious now,” he said. “I mean deep down inside, where it counts. Did you find out who Ashley Wilde really is?”
The question was so close to what was troubling her these days that she couldn’t even meet his gaze. She realized she didn’t like having the tables unexpectedly turned on her. Cross-examining Dillon was one thing. Being subjected to an intensive probing herself was another.
“We were talking about you,” she protested swiftly.
He grinned. “Not any more. It’s turnabout time. You’ve been digging around in my psyche for the past hour or so. Now I want to know what makes Ashley Wilde tick.”
She regarded him uneasily. “Why? Just to get even?”
“Maybe it’s because I care what goes on in that gorgeous head of yours.” He waved a finger under her nose. “And don’t deny that there’s a lot going on, because I’m not buying it anymore. You didn’t come up here
“How old were you?”
“Ten, maybe eleven. All of a sudden adults couldn’t pay enough attention to me. Even my father took notice for the first time in a long time. I began to see that being bad had its advantages.”
“A classic case of acting out to get attention,” Ashley said softly, feeling sympathy well up inside her. Dillon’s warning look kept her from expressing any hint of the pity she felt for that sad boy.
“By the time I reached high school, it was a habit. I knew right from wrong and I never–well almost never,” he corrected with a rueful grin, “crossed that line. But by then everyone had stopped giving me the benefit of the doubt. I’d done everything I could to earn my reputation as a bad kid, and I clung to it because it was all I had.”
Ashley thought about a scared, lonely little boy choosing the wrong path just to get something that she and her sisters had taken for granted–the attention of grown-ups.
“Oh, Dillon,” she whispered.
“Don’t you dare feel sorry for me,” he ordered tightly. “I didn’t tell you that story so you would pity me. I told you because you badgered me for the truth. Now you have it.” He regarded her intently. “It’s not nearly as provocative as thinking I was some sort of bad seed, destined to head straight to hell, is it?”
Ashley was shocked by his assessment. “Meaning what, exactly?”
“That you were like all the others. Still are, for that matter. You were attracted to me because I represented danger and rebellion. If I’d just been another kid in the class getting average or below-average grades, wearing blue jeans and plaid shirts and cowboy boots, you would never have looked at me twice.”
“That’s not true,” Ashley insisted, then thought back to the way she’d been in high school. She’d only dated the best and brightest, never the average or uninteresting. Dillon had been fascinating because he was dangerous and forbidden. She couldn’t deny that. “Okay, maybe back then I wouldn’t have been as drawn to you.”
“And now?”
“Dillon, there’s a chemistry between us.”
“But how much of that is a carryover from before, from thinking that I’m a little shady and a whole lot dangerous?”
“None of it,” she said at once, then sighed, forced into being honest by that penetrating gaze of his. “Okay, maybe some of it. I don’t know. How can I, when you have never let anyone get to know the real you?”
“Your father knows me. So do a lot of other people, actually. Of course, I had to move out of Riverton to live down my reputation.”
“You could have stayed here and fought it.”
He shot her an all-too-knowing look. “Maybe I just wanted to get away and be somebody different. You should understand that better than anyone.”
Ashley swallowed hard. “Because I ran away to New York so I could stop being Trent Wilde’s perfect daughter,” she said.
“Exactly.” His sharp-eyed gaze bored into her. “Did it work?”
“Of course, it did,” she said at once.
“I’m not talking about the obvious now,” he said. “I mean deep down inside, where it counts. Did you find out who Ashley Wilde really is?”
The question was so close to what was troubling her these days that she couldn’t even meet his gaze. She realized she didn’t like having the tables unexpectedly turned on her. Cross-examining Dillon was one thing. Being subjected to an intensive probing herself was another.
“We were talking about you,” she protested swiftly.
He grinned. “Not any more. It’s turnabout time. You’ve been digging around in my psyche for the past hour or so. Now I want to know what makes Ashley Wilde tick.”
She regarded him uneasily. “Why? Just to get even?”
“Maybe it’s because I care what goes on in that gorgeous head of yours.” He waved a finger under her nose. “And don’t deny that there’s a lot going on, because I’m not buying it anymore. You didn’t come up here
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