by Levine, Nina
I raise my brows. “You really want me to detail my day for you?”
His lips twitch. “I do.”
I cross my legs on the chair, getting comfortable. “Well, let me see…. It started off with a bang this morning when the guy I said no to last night forced his way into a business deal that had nothing to do with him. Then I discovered my building had been vandalised. Again. And after that, I found out the council is looking into noise complaints at that address. So I’ve had a pretty craptacular day really.”
“Let’s start at the beginning. You have to admit I bring a lot to the table with that deal.”
I don’t want to admit he’s right, but it’s the truth, so I begrudgingly give him that one. Sighing, I nod. “You do. But seriously, you managed to get someone to back out at the last minute just so you could spend time with me?”
That intense look returns to his eyes. “I did. And I’d do it again, and will do it again if I need to.”
I’m not sure whether to yell at him to stop or to simply give in now. Our dinner arrives, saving me, and I take a moment to pull myself together when he leaves to answer the door.
Surely he’ll give up soon. He must have hundreds of women who’d happily go out with him. He doesn’t need me.
Returning with dinner, he passes me a white paper bag. “Your cupcake, in case you want it first.”
I track his movements as he searches my cupboards and drawers for plates, cutlery, and glasses. He’s still wearing his three-piece suit. His pinstripe suit. Those things are dangerous to womankind.
Stop looking at the damn suit.
Ashton Scott is not the man for you.
Dragging my attention away from him, I open the cupcake bag. He’s right. I do want it first.
My eyes widen as I look at what he had delivered. “Jesus, Ashton, are you trying to kill my hips?”
He joins me at the table. Eyeing the four cupcakes in front of me, he says, “You’re going to need more than one tonight.”
“Oh, God, what have you done? Tell me now!”
He smiles, and I do my best to ignore it. And the lust that hits me. “Let’s just say your next few weekends are now booked, so I’m preparing for backlash. The cupcakes might help.”
My eyes narrow at him. “You’ve already booked those resorts, haven’t you? I could be busy those weekends.”
“You’re not busy,” he says calmly, as if he knows for sure. I want to throttle that arrogance out of him.
Then it hits me. “You know my schedule?” My voice is practically a shriek.
He holds my gaze. Doesn’t give me an inch. And he sure as hell doesn’t allow me to look away. “Lorelei,” he starts, his voice deep, “you should know me well enough by now to understand that I have made you my priority.”
I should tell him where to go.
I want to.
Really, I do.
Instead, my core clenches and I simply stare at him.
And I don’t say anything.
He stands and moves around to where I’m sitting. Placing one hand on the table and one on the back of my chair, he bends so our faces are close. “This is the last time I’m going to tell you that you will be mine. You can run and you can say no, but I’m not a man who will accept either of those things. I will be patient, Lorelei, and I’ll do whatever you need to believe in me, but I won’t give you forever. And in that time, I won’t stay away.” His voice drops to a growl. “You are not a woman I can stay away from.”
I thought Ashton had taken charge already.
I was wrong.
This is him taking over.
And if I ever thought I had a hope of holding him at arm’s length, I was wrong about that, too.
When Ashton Scott wants something, he gets it.
He made that promise to me and he’s keeping it.
Right now, I’m certain that whatever he asks for in this moment, I will give.
I’m also certain my life is about to change.
24
Ashton
“Jessica!”
She appears in the doorway, irritated. “What?”
“Have you got those numbers for the Steele proposal yet?”
“No.”
My head snaps up. “Why?”
Crossing her arms, she says, “What crawled up your ass this morning?”
I narrow my eyes at her. “More to the point, who pissed you off? You’ve been traipsing around here all day in a foul mood.”
She settles a glare on me before huffing out a breath of irritation. Dropping her arms, she enters my office. “It might have something to do with the fact Jack is hell-bent on ripping open old wounds suddenly.”
“Fuck.” I lean back in my chair. Jack revisiting the past is not something any of us need. Too many ghosts reside there with the potential to wreak havoc on everyone involved.
“Exactly.” She drops down into the seat across from me. “He called me late last night and wanted to talk about what happened between us.” Hurt flashes in her eyes. It’s an emotion she does her best to avoid, so it surprises me. It shouldn’t, though, because what went down between them wasn’t pretty. When I look closer, I realise there’s exhaustion to go with it. “I can’t do this with him again, Ashton.”
“Jesus, Jessica, you need to shut him down now. That shit was five years ago, and it’s not helpful to either of you to rehash it.”
“You know him better than anyone. I don’t think he’s going to let it go.”
She’s right; when Jack wants to drown himself in misery, he always finds a way. “I thought he was doing okay yesterday. Clearly I was wrong. Have you spoken to him today?”
“No. You?”
I shake my head. “No, I left early for work.” Pushing my chair back, I stand. “I’m going to check on him. How much time do you need to pull those numbers for me?”
“Half an hour should do it unless something urgent crops up.”
“Send them to me when you have them. I won’t be back in today.”
She stands. “You’re on soccer duty again this afternoon?”
I flick my wrist to check my watch. “Yes, and I won’t hear the end of it from Alessandra if I’m not there by four, so I need to leave now if I’m going to have time to stop in on Jack first.”
As we’re heading out of my office, she says, “By the way, I’m not sure what you said to Lorelei, but I sent her the schedule for the next couple of weekends, and she sent me back an email saying thanks, no arguments. Totally not what I expected after she sent your butt plug back. Smooth work.”
It might feel like smooth work to Jessica, but getting Lorelei to do what I want her to do is proving a challenge. “She’ll be ready to leave at lunchtime tomorrow?”
“That’s the time I mentioned in the email. She didn’t say anything to the contrary.”
We’ll see. The thing I’m learning about Lorelei is to expect the unexpected. She has a way of surprising me, which isn’t something I prefer. But with her, I’m growing to love.
I enter the bar on Willow Street and scan the building looking for Jack. I texted him after I left my office to find out where he is. It didn’t surprise me to learn he’s here as this is the bar he and I frequented when we were younger. He’s seated at a table with six empty glasses in front of him.
Jesus.
“Ashton.” His lazy smile lights up his face when I reach the table. Sweeping his arm through the air, he indicates for me to join him. “You want a drink?”
I take the empty chair across from him. “Really? This is the answer to your problems, Jack? Please tell me my friend is smarter than this.”
Glancing at the empty glasses, he says, “It’s a good answer, don’t you think?”
“I wasn’t referring to the alcohol.”
He frowns. “What then?”
“Jessica.”
“Ah,” he murmurs, leaning back. “She told you I called her last night?”
“Yes. And I’m telling you now that you n
eed to leave the past in the past. It’s been five years since you two broke up. Why all of a sudden do you want to bring it back up with her?”
“We never did get closure. I thought it was time to try.”
“Closure? Fuck, do you think she needs that now? If she ever needed it, five years ago would have been good. But you didn’t stop and think back then. You just moved on to the next woman, never looking back to see how broken Jessica was. She worked through all of that and got the closure she needed. So if you need it now, you find it on your own without her.”
Annoyance flashes across his face and he reaches for his glass of whisky. After he drains it, he says, “It’s this new shrink you’ve got me going to. She’s forcing me to face the shit in my past that still haunts me.”
“Jesus, Jack, leave Jessica out of it. You’ve got a lot of other shit in your past, focus on that instead.”
He takes that in like he always does. Jack’s a good listener, but he doesn’t always process things the way I imagine he will. This time, however, he nods and says, “Okay, Ashton, we’ll play this your way. I’ll leave Jessica out of it.”
I scrub my hand over my face.
Thank fuck.
“When are you seeing the psych again?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Have you told her you’re drinking heavily?”
“I told her I was working on cutting back.”
“You need to work harder at that.” My patience with him is wearing thin.
He scowls at me. “Perhaps I should cancel my appointments with her and book in with you?”
“What you should do is start taking this seriously. Mixing alcohol with your medication is a fucked-up move and you know it.”
“I do, but I’m getting a little sick of hearing what I should be doing from everyone. I’m quite capable of living my own life and making my own decisions.”
I stand to leave. Being with him while he’s in this mood is only making me angry. “Are you? Because it doesn’t seem like it to me.”
As I stalk out of the bar, I dig deep not to lose my cool. I don’t understand Jack’s behaviour. This isn’t something new in our friendship, but it’s something I’m growing tired of. Watching my best friend unravel like this is hard. I thought getting him to Australia and finding him the psychological help he needed would be enough. It seems this time it isn’t. And not knowing how to fix a situation isn’t something I’m good at. I always know how to fix problems.
25
Lorelei
“I’ve decided I like Ashton Scott,” Sienna says to me over drinks at the bar down the road from the Willow Street building late Thursday afternoon.
“What’s he done to earn your approval?” Images of him from last night flash through my mind as I wait for her answer. Him sitting in my kitchen in his pinstripe suit; him passing me a cupcake; him telling me how it was going to go down between the two of us. I hardly slept after he left. Instead, I tossed and turned, replaying our conversation over and over in my head, wondering how to proceed. In the end, I decided to play along with him. He can have my body, because I want that as much as he does. My heart, though, will just wait and see.
She sips her daiquiri. “I dropped my nephew off at soccer and Ashton was there coaching again. In my opinion, any man who gives up his time to help kids is a man worth knowing.”
My heart melts at the mention of Ashton coaching kids.
When I don’t say anything, she nudges me. “Well? Don’t you agree?”
I sigh. “He came to see me last night.”
Her eyes widen. “You’ve gone all day without telling me this news? You better start talking and spill everything. Do not leave any detail out.”
“For a start, he’s a stubborn, bossy man—”
Her eyes twinkle as a grin forms on her lips. “Which is exactly what you need.”
I take a long sip of my wine. I decided alcohol is definitely needed tonight while we discuss Ashton. Although I haven’t talked to Sienna about him today, I invited her to the bar after work with the intention of going over every little detail with her.
“I’m not so sure that’s exactly what I need, but I have decided I need sex with him again. The man sure knows how to do that.”
“Do you think that’s all he wants?”
“I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure he’s looking for more from me. Before I started to get to know him, I would have told you he was a player and just wanted sex going by what I’d read about him, but he’s going to a lot of effort if all he wants is my body.”
Her grin softens. “Yes, if a man like Ashton just wants sex that would be easy to come by.” She drinks more of her cocktail. “You’re going to ease up on him and play nice, then?”
I scrunch my face at her. “Whose friend are you anyway? I always play nice. Sometimes I just want to play my way rather than someone else’s. And Ashton wants to call all the shots, too, so we do seem to clash a little. I’ll try to compromise, but easing up on him would be bad. I think he’s used to always getting his way, and he needs to learn that if he wants to be with me, that won’t always happen.”
She laughs at that. “Oh, boy, you two…. I’m looking forward to this.”
“Anyway, we’re doing this resort development together, and he’s booked us into a few resorts over the next couple of weekends to check them out. So you and I need to go over my wardrobe.”
“Jesus, does he have a brother? I need a man like Ashton who just takes charge. I’d have no problems with being bossed around and taken to resorts.”
“Lorelei!” A deep voice jolts me out of the conversation with Sienna, and I glance up to find Jack coming our way.
I stand and hug him when he puts his arms out. “How are you, Jack?” He’s been drinking, which sparks my concern. I hardly know him, and yet I’m invested in his health and happiness. I’m not sure how he did it, but he’s managed to draw me in.
Without answering me, he turns to Sienna and pastes a million-dollar smile on his face. I bet that kind of smile is what helped make him famous. That, his talent and his ability to charm. “You must be Lorelei’s friend who I’ve heard so much about.”
Sienna lifts a brow. “Really? Who from?”
He grins. “You got me there, gorgeous. I haven’t heard about you, but that’s an error we need to fix. How about the three of us leave so we can spend some time alone getting to know each other?”
Sienna cocks her head. “You’re propositioning us for a threesome?”
Jack throws his head back and laughs. It’s a genuine, belly laugh and it looks good on him. When he finishes laughing, he says, “Fuck no. You don’t seriously think I’d try to screw my best mate’s woman, do you? And I’d never sleep with her best friend either. I might fuck a lot of shit up in my life, but I’m smart enough to know not to do either of those things. I simply meant let’s have a conversation and get to know each other that way.” He leans closer to her and lowers his voice to add, “I need to get out of here, though, because it’s starting to get busier and I’ve had some fans harassing me.”
“You don’t travel with security?” Sienna asks.
“Usually, but I haven’t bothered with it this trip. I should sort something out.”
I move off my stool. “I’m sure Ashton’s assistant could hook you up.”
His bright expression morphs into a darker one. “Yeah, I don’t think it’s a good idea to ask her for help.”
I frown. “Why not?”
He slides his arm over my shoulders. “Jessica and I aren’t in a great place at the moment. I need to reserve my conversations with her for more important matters.” Glancing at Sienna, he asks, “Now, are you ladies in?”
She nods. “Yes.”
The smile returns to his face as he looks between the two of us. “What’s your name, gorgeous? I’m going to need it if you and I are going to spend time together.”
She gives him her name and he says, “Sienna. Fucking beautiful.”
As the three of us leave the bar, chatting and laughing, I can’t help but notice that Sienna is hanging off every word he says. I hope he makes good on his promise not to sleep with her. She doesn’t need Jack complicating her life.
26
Ashton
My eyes meet Lorelei’s as I enter my living room after soccer practice. She’s sitting with Jack and her friend on the sofa, laughing at something he’s just said. Her laughter dies on her lips when she sees me, but the smile remains.
“Ashton,” Jack says, seriousness replacing his fun demeanour. “How was soccer?”
I drag my gaze from Lorelei. My earlier anger with him is still there, but it’s dulled a little. We have the kind of friendship where we don’t tend to hold onto arguments. “The kids did great. The parents, on the other hand, leave a lot to be desired. It’s a good thing Aly wasn’t there today. She would have found an argument to involve herself in.”
“Malcolm was there instead?” Jack asks.
“Yeah.” My eyes lock onto Lorelei again. “Have you three had dinner?”
She shakes her head. “You got cupcakes?”
Sienna frowns. “Cupcakes?”
“Yes, they seem to be one of Ashton’s ways of bribing people,” Lorelei says.
I raise a brow. “And they seem to be one of Lorelei’s ways of coping when she’s trying to avoid something.”
Jack stands and holds his hand out to Sienna. “That’s our cue to leave, gorgeous. Come, I’ll give you a tour of Ashton’s home.”
Sienna does as he suggests, leaving Lorelei and me alone. She stands as I make my way to her, and I take in the black pants and white sleeveless blouse she’s wearing. Her cleavage is on full display thanks to the fitted blouse that dips low in the front.
When I reach her, I run a finger lightly across her collarbone. “You look beautiful today, but for the record, I prefer you in a dress.”
Her eyes hold mine. “For the record, I don’t care.”