Ashton stayed silent.

I wasn’t sure what his silence meant, but the thought of him and Betty together made me scoff. "Of course you’re not afraid. You’ve never exactly been lacking in women, have you?"

His eyes remained fixed on mine, unwavering. That look made a strange sense of guilt bubble up in me.

Just as I was about to demand why he was staring like that, he finally broke the silence. "What I fear more than anything is seeing you ...