Ashleigh melted into his chest and the strong exterior she'd just worked so hard to build crumbled as he hugged her.
"I... should've told you," she mumbled against his shoulder. "I should've warned you. I knew she'd do something like that and I should've told you before you agreed to come."
Clearly upset, she hardly returned the soft kiss he brushed over her lips.
"She's just... I didn't know how to tell you." She worked to fight the tears licking hotly at the back of her eyelids. "She... I didn't do that. I didn't do what she said I did. She... he kissed me and she walked in before I had a chance to do anything but I wasn't doing that."
It felt important to stress that to him. She didn't want him thinking that she was capable of doing that to him.