by Levine, Nina
62
Lorelei
It’s only Wednesday and I’m already over this week. The situation with my tenant has escalated to the point where I’m sure we’ll need to go to court to settle our dispute. And I’ve discovered I don’t like Ryan Shandwick quite as much as I thought I did. We’ve been emailing back and forth about something I’m not completely happy with, and he’s growing increasingly more condescending towards me. I arrived at the office just after eight this morning, and in the hour since then, his replies have come through thick and fast. And rude. However, he hasn’t replied to my latest email, so something must have come up, dragging him from his computer. I’m relieved for the reprieve and decide to take a break.
I leave the office and head outside to grab a coffee. I’ve just taken my first sip when Ashton FaceTimes me.
“Hey you,” I say, happy to hear from him. I’ve decided being separated from him is the worst thing. I miss him so damn much.
“We need to discuss something, and I want you to hear me out before you say anything.” No greeting, no small talk. Whatever he wants to discuss sounds serious. The expression on his face confirms this.
“Okay, but you’re making me a little nervous here. Is everything all right?”
The expression on his face doesn’t change, but something flares in his eyes. It’s hard to know what it is through the phone, but he looks like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders. “I received a call today, alerting me to the fact the Herald will be running a story about government corruption tomorrow.”
“Okay,” I say, confused as to where he’s going with this.
“The story was going to focus on Ryan Shandwick’s development and the government officials he’s bribed.” He pauses for a moment. “Lorelei, they were zeroing in on your involvement because Shandwick was using your grandmother’s name and reputation to get approvals through. The paper was going to ruin your name.”
Things start to fall into place as I listen to him, and suddenly it makes sense why Ryan pursued me for this deal. God, I’ve been an idiot, blind to his motives.
“When you say ‘was,’ what do you mean?”
“I pulled some strings to get your name removed from the article. I also called Shandwick and told him you’re no longer part of his bullshit.”
I frown. “What does that mean?”
His nostrils flare as he says forcefully, “It means that development is going ahead without you. Your name will no longer be attached to it.”
And my reputation is safe. That’s the part he doesn’t mention. It’s also the thing he’s worked hard to ensure.
Before I can thank him, he continues, “I’ve also spoken to Marc Brentley to let him know you’re coming on board with the development I’m working with him on. You can invest the money you would have invested with Shandwick. If you agree, you’ll be my partner in this. He’ll make the announcement later this week. If you don’t want—”
I cut him off. “I love you.”
I know exactly why he’s done this, and I love him even more for it. Ashton has effectively made sure my name is attached to something that will propel my business forward, because anyone that Marc Brentley gets in bed with is someone everyone else wants to be in bed with. Any whiff of bad publicity I may still receive from the Shandwick deal will be overshadowed by this one.
His expression tells me he’s not completely convinced I’m on board with all this. “You’re not ready to cut my balls off?”
I shake my head. “No, your balls are safe.” Smiling, I add, “You must really love me.” I can only imagine the strings he had to pull to achieve all this, and I know they wouldn’t have been easy strings.
“Lorelei, I’ve never loved anyone like I love you. There’s nothing I won’t do to keep you safe and happy.”
I’m so glad I can see his face right now. The love he’s just told me he has for me blazes from his eyes.
“I miss you so much. How long do you think you’ll be in LA?”
“A couple of weeks at least, maybe more.”
It’s not what I wanted to hear, but I knew to expect it. And my respect for Ashton only grows knowing he is choosing his friend over everything else. “Thank God we have FaceTime. I’m calling you tonight so you can talk dirty to me.”
Heat flashes in his eyes. “Wear something sexy for me.” He glances away from the phone for a beat before coming back to me. “I have to go. Jessica will send you all the info you need about everything we’ve discussed.”
“Thank you, Ashton,” I say softly. “I know we’ve had problems with me not being able to accept your help before, but I really appreciate it on this.”
After we finish the call, I think about how much has changed in such a short time. I truly am okay with Ashton having taken charge of this for me. Mostly because I know there’s no way I could have achieved everything he has, but also because I felt the shift in his attitude. He hadn’t expected me to be happy with his actions, which shows me he’s listened to everything I’ve said regarding our argument. It’s the listening that means the world to me. It makes me feel heard. And that’s a great place for us to start our future together from.
Just before lunch, Ashton’s father visits my office, venom shooting from every pore of him. I’ve found Gregory Scott to be an intimidating man on the best of days; this is a whole new level.
“I’ve just been on the phone with Marc Brentley, and it seems you’ve got your claws into my son,” he fumes, smoke practically billowing from him.
I square my shoulders and work hard to maintain my cool. There’s no way I’ll allow this man to talk down to me. “And how is that, Gregory?”
His eyes widen, and I guess my icy tone and question don’t impress him. Screw him. “He’s thrown an unfathomable amount of money at Brentley to get him to walk away from a business deal with me.”
I don’t know what he’s talking about. “What does that have to do with me?”
“I’m yet to get to the bottom of it, but I know it has to do with you. Brentley and I were developing Willow Street, and since you own a building on that street, I can only assume Ashton is trying to keep you from being forced to sell.” He stabs his finger in the air at me. “Make no mistake, no one fucks with me and wins. You will live to regret this, and so will my son.”
My thoughts are swirling with confusion as to why Ashton has done this. It makes no sense to me. But those thoughts are for later; right now I have to deal with his father.
“My grandmother always taught me if I don’t have anything nice to say, I should walk away. Well, I don’t have anything nice to say, and since this is my office, you need to be the one to leave.”
“Oh yes, the almighty Pearl Winters. She always did think she was above half of us in Sydney. She thought she could save those who shouldn’t be in business in the first place. Well let me tell you, she didn’t manage to save my loser brother. She wasn’t as good as she thought she was.”
I’m so stunned by the poison coming out of his mouth that I’m momentarily lost for words. And then they all come out in a rush. “I don’t suspect anyone has ever told you what an asshole you are. I imagine they all live in fear of you and what you could do to them if they were honest. Well, I’m not that person. You are a goddam asshole, Gregory. Between the way you treat your son and daughter, and the way you just spoke about your own brother, I’m surprised anyone has anything to do with you. But I guess money talks, and that’s the only reason why anyone speaks to you.” I take a step closer to him, angrier with each passing second as I think about the man he is. “Money doesn’t talk to me, so I have no interest in ever speaking to you again or trying to win your favour. And as for Ashton, I don’t have my claws in him, but he does love me, and when you love someone, you do things for them like he’s done for me. You wouldn’t understand that because I’m fairly certain you’ve never loved anyone in your life.”
He glares at me, his face turning red with fury. “Are you quite done,
Miss Winters?”
I shake my head. “Not quite.” Pointing at the door, I say, “You need to walk yourself out of here and never come back.”
With one last filthy look, he stalks out of my office, leaving me shaking with anger and disbelief. I make myself a cup of tea and drink it slowly, calming down, before calling Ashton.
“Lorelei,” he murmurs, his pleasure at hearing from me evident in his voice.
Ashton’s pleasure is everything to me, because not only does it cause my own to flare, it helps centre me, reminding me I’m not alone in this world. I’m connected to him now. I’m his.
“I just had a visit from your dad. Did you know that my grandmother knew your uncle?”
He doesn’t answer straight away. When he does, his tone is sombre. “I knew he rented a shop from her, yes. Why? What did my father want?”
I’m surprised we haven’t talked about this yet, but I remind myself we’re still getting to know each other. “He came by to tell me he’s not pleased I have my claws in you and that I won’t get away with making you ruin his plans for Willow Street. What’s going on, Ashton? He was furious in a way I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a man be furious.”
“Fuck,” he mutters, “I’ll sort this out with him. I don’t want you worrying about it.”
“I don’t want you to sort anything out for me. I’m just wondering what’s going on, because this was all news to me.”
He switches us across to FaceTime, which is good; being able to see his face makes me feel closer. “The deal I struck with Brentley involved Dad as well as you. I don’t want him developing Willow Street, so I made sure that wouldn’t happen. I don’t know why he assumes that is your fault.”
“Why do you and your father want Willow Street so much?”
“Willow Street was such a huge part of my Uncle Victor’s life. He owned the furniture shop you mentioned to me once, and taught me far more about life and business than my own father did. Victor went through a bad time and lost the business when I was seventeen. My drive to develop Willow Street comes from that. He had a vision for the area, and I want to bring that vision to life.”
Everything I’ve thought about Ashton bulldozing Willow Street comes into focus, most of it now being questioned. This is a whole other side to him that he’s not shown me before. A side I really like.
“Is that why your father wants it too?”
He shakes his head. “Fuck, no. He and Victor didn’t get on. They were complete opposites, and my father hated me having anything to do with his brother. But Mum encouraged it, thank God. Dad probably wants it so he can knock down the shitty memories he must have over Victor, and the fact he drove him to ruin.”
Goodness, Ashton’s father is worse than I thought. “How did he do that?”
I watch as he sits on a couch. Once he’s settled, he answers me. “I never knew that your grandmother’s Willow Street Fund helped struggling businesses until you told me about it. I didn’t know she’d helped Victor. I’d always assumed Dad had lent him cash and helped him in some way. Once you told me how the fund works, I realised Dad didn’t lift a finger to help his own brother. And when the business went south, Dad did nothing. Victor started drinking after that and eventually drank himself to death. And my father just stood by and let him.”
My heart hurts for Ashton; that he had to live through this. And I’m seeing things in a whole new light—the things he does that stem from what he’s lived through.
“I’m sorry that happened to your uncle and to you. Victor was an amazing man, and he touched my life in many ways.”
He rakes his fingers through his hair and exhales. “Yeah, he was.”
Watching him think about his uncle and what he went through makes me miss him a whole lot more than I already do. I just want to wrap my arms around him and comfort him, because this seems to have affected him. And it’s not often Ashton appears to be affected.
“I miss you,” I blurt, unable to stop myself.
His eyes lock with mine. “You need to get your ass on a plane to LA.” It’s one of his growly orders, and it hits my core.
God, how I need to do that.
“You’re busy with Jack,” I start, but he cuts me off.
“Jack wants you here, too.”
“Really?” That makes no sense to me.
“Yes, really. He thinks you’ll give him some breathing space by taking my attention away from him all the time.”
I laugh, understanding where Jack’s coming from. “Let me guess, you’re being Bossy Ashton, telling him what to do all the time.”
He ignores that. “I want you on the first flight out tomorrow morning.”
And there’s his bossy ways I can’t deny I love. “I might have things on that I can’t reschedule,” I throw out, just to draw more of his bossiness out. I have nothing I can’t or won’t reschedule for him.
“I’ll book the flight myself and send James over to drag you to the plane if I have to.”
I smile. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Good,” he growls, and I can tell from the way he says it and the way he’s looking at me that he needs to see me just as much as I need to see him.
63
Ashton
I fight the crowds at LAX on my way to wait for Lorelei. Fuck, I’m impatient today. I need her with me, by my side.
Once I reach my destination and work out I’ve probably still got some time to kill before she arrives, I call my father. I’ve been waiting for the right time, thinking over everything that’s happened so I can express exactly what I want to him.
He picks up quickly. “It’s almost midnight, Ashton. Your mother is sleeping.”
Like he gives a fuck about my mother sleeping. But I don’t bring that up because it’s not the reason for my call today. “I learned something interesting about you last night. Something that pissed me off enough to make me consider telling someone what I know about that construction site accident from ten years ago that you were tied up with.”
“Son, you don’t want to take that journey with me.” His voice is hard. Cold. Just the way I remember it from all the times in my life when he let me down.
“Oh, I think I might, Dad. Especially if you continue fucking with Lorelei like you have been.”
“What do you think you know?” He’s fishing to see if I do indeed know about all the things he’s been doing behind the scenes.
As he asks this question, I see passengers making their way through the gate Lorelei will be coming through, and I search for her while continuing the conversation.
“You paid someone to continually vandalise her Willow Street building and cause her no end of grief so she would sell that building to you. I’ve had one of my guys looking into it, and he sent me the proof I need to take this further if I wish.”
I hear the clink of ice and the sound of him gulping down what I presume to be scotch. “What the fuck do you want from me, Ashton?”
“I want you to leave Lorelei alone. Stop the vandalism, stop dropping by to see her, stop threatening her. Never fucking go near her again. If you do, I’ll make sure everyone knows it was you who signed off on that building years ago even though you knew it had safety issues. If that gets out, we both know the outcome.” It would bury him.
I spot Lorelei, my gut tightening as my gaze lands on her.
He hisses his disapproval. “When did you get so willing to play dirty?”
I make my way towards Lorelei, my eyes firmly holding hers. “You taught me well, Dad.”
“No, I didn’t. If I had, you wouldn’t let pussy get in the way of good business sense.”
I reach Lorelei and slide my free hand around her waist, pulling her close. Her mouth curls up in a smile and she presses a quick kiss to my lips right before I say to my father, “The little that you did teach me was lacking, but I’ve found a woman who’s teaching me the important things.”
“You’ve lost your ever-loving mind, son.”
I re
st my hand on Lorelei’s ass. “Maybe, but I’m a lot fucking happier without it. Do we have an agreement?”
“We do. But if any of this gets out, I will tear you both down, piece by fucking piece.”
I smile at my woman, hardly hearing a thing my father is saying. I’m certainly not letting any of it affect me the way it used to. “Give my love to Mum.”
I end the call, shove my phone in my pocket, and slide my hand through Lorelei’s hair to take hold of her before claiming her lips in a kiss that clears all other thoughts from my mind.
“Fuck, it’s been too long since I’ve had you,” I say when I pull away.
She presses hard against me, her hands gripping my shirt. “Take me home.”
I don’t miss the heat in her words or the need that matches my own.
My woman wants me as much as I want her.
It takes us just over an hour to drive to Jack’s place, in which time Lorelei doesn’t remove her hand from my body. She moves it between my leg, my arm, my chest and my face. And she kisses me whenever she gets the chance. In the past, this kind of behaviour from women irritated me. With her, I can’t get enough of it. By the time we arrive at Jack’s, I’m hard as hell for her.
Grabbing her suitcase from the boot, I pin my gaze to her. She’s biting her lip watching me, and her expression leaves me no doubt she’s imagining me naked and inside her. “Jack’s out for the morning, which means you and I have a date that involves no clothing.” I don’t even care that she’s tired from travelling; I can’t wait another second for my fill of her.
Her smile lights up that beautiful face of hers. Not even long-haul travel interferes with Lorelei’s beauty. “I need to shower first.”
I shut the boot and walk to her, every fibre of my being blazing with my need. It’s electric and unlike any sensation I’ve ever experienced. Being without the woman I love for over a week has turned me into a half-crazed man, desperate to get my hands and mouth on her. “We’ll start in the shower.”