Free Willed to Love by Michelle Houston Page A

hot buttons, and just where to push to get what she wanted. But despite the incentive, Ashley didn’t know if she would be able to do it. She still loved Devon with every fiber of her being, and the idea of spending three months ‘working on their marriage’ was enough to rip out her heart.
    She desperately wanted to reconcile with him, but the same thing was holding her back each time—his family.
    “What do you say Ash?”
    Looking into his blue eyes, she wanted to scream yes. His firm lips, slightly parted, begged for her to kiss him. Her pulse raced remembering the last time they had made love, just months before. It had been the night before he left on his business trip.
    She had stripped for him, shy about the changes to her body, emboldened by the desire she had seen in his eyes. His mouth and hands had worshipped her, caressing her curves and the slight budge of her belly. Her breasts responded to the memory and grew heavy. Sitting there at the reading of his grandmother’s will and getting aroused wasn’t her idea of a good time, but Devon had always had that effect on her. She could be doing almost anything, and he could get her pulse racing.
    Ignoring everyone else in the room, she focused on him. According to how the will was worded, the family would be complete idiots to interfere now, and Ashley knew them to be anything but idiots. Many of them had gone to Ivy League colleges, and currently ran their own businesses, or were firmly planted in the area of politics.
    Cold, yes. Idiots?  Not by a long shot.
    “I know this means a lot to you Devon, since it is part of your inheritance. But do you really want to do this?”
    Devon’s eyes clouded with pain, and Ashley almost broke down herself.
    “You’re the one who walked out on me Ash, not the other way around. Remember?”
    She remembered all too well: the painful decision to leave, despite how much she loved him. The atmosphere they had lived in was emotionally poisonous and he wasn’t willing to just walk away. She had tried to make him see how much she hated living under his family’s thumb. Losing the baby had been her breaking point.
    So she had packed up and left him, taking only her cherished belongings.
    And now the one person she had loved in his family was pushing her back into the situation, but with a twist. None of the family could reject her, or push Devon to leave her. She would be permitted as part of the family, even if not welcomed. But could she survive such a situation?  Would her creativity, her passion for art, and her love for Devon survive?
    “I am also instructed to give you this before you decide.”  Ashley glanced away from Devon to find the lawyer holding a sealed envelope out to her. Hands trembling, she reached for it, and had to read it three times before she could make sense of it. When she did, the enormity of the situation hit her like a cement truck.
    Carefully she folded the letter and put it back into the envelope, then tucked it into her purse. Looking the lawyer in the eyes she told him, “I agree to the terms of the will.”
    “Very well then, here’re the keys to the house and please, call on me if you have any questions. As for everyone else, that does it. There are a few more bequeaths, but they are for household staff, some of the charities Mrs. Monroe worked with, and so on. Nothing I am sure you wish to be bothered with.”
    Judging by the speed at which everyone left the room, the lawyer was right. Ashley also had a suspicion that no one else caught the irony in his tone either. Then again, a quick glance at Devon confirmed that he had gotten it. His lips were pressed so tightly together they were turning white. Not from anger though, judging by the faint shaking of his shoulder, but from trying not to laugh.
    Excusing herself, Ashley stood and moved to the doorway, Devon fast on her heels.
    “Ash, wait.”
    Keeping her back to him as she twisted her hands, holding herself together by sheer