"I don't know. Maybe. If he loved me back, but he's as wrapped up in his business as I am in mine," Ashley said.

"You're not so wrapped up now," Nina noted.

"But he is," Ashley said.

Nina watched the younger woman as she left the shop and climbed into her Solstice. The car's top was down today. It pulled out of the back parking lot with a small roar. Nina knew exactly where Ashley would go. She'd drive up to the Egret Pointe Overlook, park, and sit looking at the bay until she had sorted out whatever it was she needed to sort out in her head. Nina picked up the phone and dialed Elegance.


***

The sky above her was crystal blue as Ashley drove out of the village and up the coast road. The sun was bright, the; air clean. She could feel autumn coming, and it was her favorite season of the year. She pulled into the overlook and parked, her bumper just an inch from the stone wall. There was one nice-sized sailboat crossing the bay below, but with Labor Day over and done there wouldn't be too many boats out on the weekday water until next summer. The weekends would be busy for a while, but then it would be empty but for migrating whales and the seals.

Nina's question had really touched a nerve. Was she falling in love with Ryan? And if she was, how was she going to keep it from him? Because of course she would have to keep it from him. They had married for practical reasons. Yet their marriage might last. He said he wanted it to last. And the sex was beyond great. It was true that they had a great deal in common with each other. And the sex was incredible, she thought again. But there was no cause for her to go falling in love with her husband and messing things up. She wasn't going to push him to the wall, like his older sisters did. She was going to be a good friend, wife, and lover. And if it ended maybe they could remain friends.

So why was she thinking about babies? She had always assumed she would have kids when she got married. But this wasn't that kind of marriage. Yet she had been thinking about babies ever since that first night. A plump, roly-poly infant with dark curls and big brown eyes. A boy. He wanted a boy. She could almost hear a baby giggle. "What the hell is the matter with me?" Ashley asked herself out loud. Above her a gull squawked noisily. It had to be her biological clock, she decided. She was going to be thirty-four in December, and that clock was ticking louder with each passing day. She needed chocolate. Chocolate always calmed her when she found herself filled with irrational thoughts like this. With a deep sigh she turned the car's engine on and, backing out of the overlook, headed to the village. It was a workday, not a holiday.

"Have a nice think?" Nina asked as she reentered the shop.

"Did you reach Elegance?" Ashley inquired in return, ignoring Nina's question.


"They were not pleasant about it," Nina said. "At first they accused me of poor handwriting on the order, until I reminded them that this order was phoned in, so if the handwriting was bad it was their own, not mine. Then they said they were already in the throes of making and shipping stuff for Christmas, and they didn't have time to make a single item. So I reminded them that Lacy Nothings has been a client for five years, and that we will have two new shops open by Thanksgiving. If they expect to see their merchandise in those shops they will get that teddy in a size sixteen to us ASAP."

"And they agreed," Ashley said.

"They said they will try," Nina replied, and then stepped back to wait for the explosion that was certain to follow.

"Call them back. Tell them if that teddy isn't here by Friday that Lacy Nothings will be canceling our current orders and returning the merchandise currently in our possession. And before they make any decision to irritate me further, they might want to check to see how much business we do with them annually. Now I need to redo the front windows," Ashley said. "I think we should do a back-to-school theme."

"With underwear?" Nina giggled.

"Why not?" Ashley said with a grin. "I'll go the mall, and get some school supplies at Wal-Mart." And she was out the door again.


***

By late afternoon the two front windows of the shop were done, and both women had to admit it was a successful venture. Some of their most modest yet outrageously sexy garments were displayed among black-and-white composition books, bright yellow Number Two pencils, rulers, colorful folders, crayons, protractors, and big pink erasers. Each window had an antique circa-1940s school bag and tin lunch box, next to which was a bright red polished apple. In one window was an old-fashioned blackboard pointer. In the other was an antique paddle once used by teachers to punish recalcitrant students.

"Too suggestive?" Ashley asked her assistant.

"No, it's daring," Nina said. "And I'll bet we get asked if they're for sale more times than not. Where did you get the paddle?"

"I borrowed it from the Egret Pointe Museum's Little Red Schoolhouse," Ashley said with a laugh. "It pays to be the last descendant of a town founder."

Nina laughed. "Hey, I'm all for nepotism," she said. "Well, if you don't need me to lock up, I'm off. I want to eat early tonight. I've programmed a new fantasy for myself having to do with a guy who looks like Cesar Romero."

"Dirty girl!" Ashley chuckled. "Have fun!" She waved Nina off. She remained in her office for another two hours, catching up with the paperwork. Then, locking up, she headed for her car. She didn't bother going to the bank. She kept the shop's proceeds with her when she went home. When she had first opened someone had broken in during the night, but as her register was empty they had gotten nothing. She had put in a security system, reinforced the doors, and never been robbed again. Even Egret Pointe, perfect as it was, had its modicum of crime.

Wednesday was one of the Byrneses' days off, but Mrs. B. had left Ashley a small chicken pot pie that only needed heating up. She poured herself a glass of iced tea and carried her meal out into the kitchen garden to eat at a small round table that was set up there in the warm weather. She ate slowly, shooing away the wasps that always seemed to appear at an outdoor meal in late summer. She had had a call today from the contractor working on the two new stores. They would be ready for viewing next week. She would have to spend a few days in the city interviewing prospective employees for that shop, and then she would have to go into suburbia to interview for the mall store. It was going to be a busy few months. She wanted both stores open by mid-October. She would have to make a reservation at a hotel-and then it dawned on her that her husband had an apartment. Why couldn't she stay there?

Finished with her supper, Ashley returned to the kitchen and put her plate and glass into the dishwasher. Spying a covered plate of Mrs. B.'s rich, gooey brownies, she took it with her upstairs. The house was quiet. Stripping off her clothing, Ashley stepped into her shower for a leisurely wash. She had just gotten out and wrapped a towel around herself when her bedside phone rang. Picking it up, she heard Ryan's voice.

"What are you wearing?" he asked provocatively.

"A towel. I just got out of the shower. Why?" she asked.

"Unwrap it and get naked," he replied.

"Hold on," Ashley said, laughing. "I'm putting you on speaker. Okay. The towel is gone, Ryan. Now what?"

"I want you to begin to fondle the girls, baby. Close your eyes and cup them in your palms. Now begin to tease those sexy nipples of yours. Do you know how badly I want to suck on those pretties? I want you to think about me doing that, Ashley. Think about my hot mouth closing over your nipples one at a time, drawing on them, my tongue lapping at them, nibbling them, until you want to scream. Pull the nipples out, baby, and pinch them. Doesn't that feel good?"

Jesus Jenny, he was starting to excite her with his words! "Ummm," she murmured. "I'd rather it were you, Ryan," she told him.

"I want you to lie down on the bed now," he said. "You know what I'm doing? I'm unzipping my pants and pulling my cock out. I'm already getting hard just thinking about those delicious tits of yours. Press them together, Ashley, and think about my cock sliding back and forth between them."

Ashley lay back on her bed and contemplated his words. She was surprised to find herself getting hot. "Your big boy likes playing with the girls, doesn't he?" she purred at her husband. "Ohh, he's getting so hard, and he's being very naughty. He's kissing my nipples." She had never had phone sex before, and she decided it was fun.

"I want you to slowly let your hands move down your body, Ash," he said softly. "I want you to close your eyes and think they're my hands. I love touching you, baby. You have such incredibly soft skin, and it always smells so damned good. I'm touching you, and my mouth is following my hands. I'm kissing your belly, and now I'm sliding between your thighs and kissing them."

"Ohh, yes!" Ashley said. This was exciting, and it was fun.

"I want you to play with yourself, baby. I want you to find your clit and play with it the way I do. Pretend my tongue is doing you. Are you getting wet?"

"Yes!" she told him. She was indeed getting wet.

"I've got my cock in my hand now. I'm thinking about your lips closing over it and sucking me. Yeah! Yeah! That's good, baby. Do you want to come? I'm close, but I'd much rather be at home pushing myself deep inside of you. Think about it, Ashley. I'm hard, and I'm moving faster, and faster, and faster. You want it so badly you're aching to come. When I get home tomorrow night I'm going to fuck you that way." He could hear her breathing, excited and quick. "Tell me you want me to fuck you, Ash!"

"Oh, God, yes!" Her fingers worked her clit hard, and then she sobbed, "Oh, I'm coming, Ryan! I'm coming!"

"Me too." He groaned. "But it's just not enough. I need the real thing!"

"I know." She gasped. And then as her heart slowed a bit, she said, "Maybe we could figure a way for you to work from home? At least until we're a little less hot for sex with each other."

He laughed weakly. "It's definitely a thought, baby."

"I thought you had clients in from Europe? Didn't you take them to dinner?"

"Drinks. They had theater tickets," he said. "So here I am all alone in the apartment, thinking about my hot wife."

"You think I'm hot?" She was surprised.

"I think you're very hot," he replied. "Don't tell me no one ever said you were hot, Ashley?" He was surprised.

"Nope. I've been called beautiful, pretty, smart, clever, sexy. But never hot," she told him. "I'm glad you think I'm hot. I like being hot for you."

"Ashley?"

"Yes, Ryan." '

"I do think this might work for real," he said low. "And it isn't just the sex."

"We haven't known each other that long, Ryan," she told him. But she was smiling. "I don't want you to be disappointed. I don't want to be disappointed."

"But we're married, baby," he said.

"A marriage of convenience," she reminded him.

"But it doesn't have to be," he said again.

"No, it doesn't," Ashley responded. "But let's give it a little more time, okay?" Oh, this felt so right, she thought. And he felt it too. Or was it just relief at having preserved their assets, and the easy sex? Guys didn't always think straight when their dicks were involved. "I liked the phone sex," she said softly.

"I liked it too, but I think the real thing is better," he answered her.

"Much, much better," she agreed. "You have the most talented cock. All eleven inches of it." Then she giggled. "I can't believe you measured it. Or are you just joking?"

"Got a soft tape measure?" he asked.

"In my sewing box," she said.

"Get it out and we'll measure it tomorrow night, baby," he said.

"Ryan!" she squealed.

"No, no! You've impugned my dick. I need my honor restored, and the only way we can do that is for you to measure it. And after you have then I'm going to stick it as deep inside you as I can and fuck the ears off of you, Ashley Mulcahy. So just think about that before you go to sleep tonight. That is, if you can sleep. Thinking about you all naked and sweet-smelling right now, I don't think I can sleep."

"I'm going to sleep like a baby," she teased him. "Good night, darling."

"Good night, baby," he responded, and the line went quiet. She had called him darling. He smiled.

Ashley stuck the phone back in its charger. Getting up, she went into her dressing room and took a sleep shirt from a hanger, putting it on. Suddenly she didn't feel like the Channel. She didn't need it. Instead of going down the hall to her old bedroom she climbed into their big bed, and actually did fall asleep clutching the pillow Ryan used, smelling the faint scent of his aftershave. She didn't need the fantasy of rough sex tonight. She had a sexy husband to keep her happy.