4. Asher
4
ASHER
Lilah, Lilah, Lilah…
I know we’ve only known each other for a short time, but she can’t possibly believe I’d let her go so easily. She has to know that once I set my sights on something, I won’t stop until I have it. And let there be no mistake, Lilah will be mine.
“What isn’t going to work, angel?”
I take a step forward and she takes two back. I smile, allowing her the space for the moment. You can try to build up the wall, Lilah, but I’ll dismantle it, brick by brick.
“Working together.”
Her voice is hoarse. Strained. And I can’t help but latch onto the one thing she didn’t mention: Us. Working together might be a challenge, but us? We’re seamless. Perfect. Meant to be.
“And why is that?” I ask, closing the gap before angling my head to taste the slender curve of her neck.
My nose brushes against her skin as I kiss her softly, resisting the urge rocketing through me to claim her lips again.
Lilah huffs out a long sigh as her fingers dig into my back.
“Because you can’t keep your hands off of me.”
I pause, my tongue frozen in place in the middle of her neck. I pull back slowly. “Do you want me to keep my hands off you?”
Lilah’s cheeks, neck, and chest are nearing crimson as she stares at me for a long moment. “No,” she says, finally, “but that’s the problem.”
I pin a stray tendril behind her ear as she blinks up at me.
“I need this job, and I don’t want to risk losing it when you move on to your next conquest.”
Lilah’s head and shoulders drop as I feel the full force of her words slam into me. Does she really think that I see her as some conquest? Something I’d discard so easily? She has no idea what she means to me.
“Lilah,” I rasp, cradling her face between my hands. “Is that what you think?”
“Am I wrong?”
“You’re the first woman I’ve slept with in a decade. The first woman I’ve ever wanted to sleep with in a decade. But as much as I love the sex…” I lower my hands to her neck, feeling the rapidity of her pulse as she looks up at me. “There’s something I love more.”
You.
The word is at the tip of my tongue, but I know I’ve been coming on far too strong. It’s clear I’m scaring her, and I need to pump the brakes as much as it pains me. She’s the only woman I want, and I’ll do whatever it takes to prove it to her.
“And what’s that?” she asks, breathlessly.
I swallow. “Being around you, angel. I’ve never felt so alive. So…” I shake my head. “I can’t explain it. But I need you close. I’ll do whatever it takes. Name a salary. Name any price or demand so long as you stay with me.”
“I…” Lilah hesitates and I can feel her nerves radiating from her body. “I just?—”
My phone vibrates and the intercom blares. Adrian. Again . The meetings. I know. “Tell me what you need, Lilah,” I say, trying to ignore the incessant buzzing.
“See?” she says. “You should be working but you’re focused on me. It’s not going to work. I should start working for Adrian. That was the plan all along. Don’t you already have an assistant anyway?”
Not happening. “She’s moved on to a better place.”
She gapes at me. “Did you have her killed?”
I laugh. “No. God, no. I run an entertainment company, not some mafia empire.”
I reach for her again, stroking her cheek because I can’t help it. But it isn’t helping my cause. She thinks I’m some playboy, throwing my money around and prowling for women when I’m not working but she has no idea how far from the truth she is. There hasn’t been anyone in years. Work always comes first. My singular focus. But that’s going to change. Lilah will always come first.
“She’ll work for Adrian now or be transferred elsewhere if it’s not a good fit.”
“And how do you know I’ll be a good fit?”
I strangle a growl in my throat as I replay our night together.
“I think we’ve established how well we fit together.”
The urge to kiss her rises again, but the incessant noise from the intercom and my phone rips us out of the moment.
“You know nothing about me,” Lilah says, stepping back.
“That’s not true,” I grit out as my mind returns to the folded notes in my suit pocket. I know my girl’s dreams. I know her ambitions and desires. I’ll give all of them to her and more.
“I know you’ve got heart. You’re talented, intelligent, and accomplished because Adrian wouldn’t choose anyone to be his assistant. It’s not easy to impress him.”
A smile begins to form on Lilah’s lips. It’s faint but it’s there, and it’s enough to send a flutter into my heart. Her chin drops but I draw it back up with two fingers. Her eyes are breathtaking, literally stealing the air out of my lungs as I try hard to refocus.
“Or me,” I say finally. “But you’ve left an impression on me that I can’t shake. And I want to know everything about you. I want you…”
The words hang for a moment. I want to end it there but I know it’s too much, too fast.
“…to give me a chance. Give me a week. A test run of sorts. If you still think it won’t work after that, then by all means.” I clear my throat, resisting the urge to say it but I know I have to. “I’ll let you go. Give me your terms by the end of the day and I’ll sign off on it. Anything, Lilah. I’ll give you anything.”
She stares at me, her red lips sealed. I live an entire lifetime in her silence as I wait for her response. “Okay,” she says, finally.
Thank god. Lilah’s staying. I don’t have to get down on my knees and plead my case. Not yet, at least. I’ve never bent a knee to anyone in my life but I’d gladly do it for her.
“I have a few more meetings on my schedule.”
“I could tell,” Lilah says, nodding to the intercom.
“They’ll survive without me for a little while longer.” I grab a keycard from my pocket and hand it to her. “This will get you into my office. It will get you everywhere else in this building, including here.” I make a swiping gesture around me. “Head to my office. HR will swing by with some paperwork. Do not leave until I come back.”
She snorts. “Sounds like I’m being sentenced to prison. Will lunch be served? Will I need permission to use the restroom?”
“There’s a private bathroom in my office, and there’s a phone with a direct line to my private chef on my desk. Silas can get you anything else you might need.”
“Oh… Okay.”
“When I’m done with my meetings…” I let the sentence linger but Lilah decides to finish it.
“We’ll review my stipulations.”
I loosen my collar. “Of course.”
Our eyes are fixed on each other’s as the air between us sizzles. She might be right. I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep my hands off her, especially once I move her into my office. There’s no way she’s working out with the rest of my employees. I need her close.
The elevator to my penthouse slides open and both of us turn.
“I should’ve known,” Adrian says, his gaze shifting between me and Lilah.
“My office,” I grunt out to Lilah. “I’ll see you soon,” I add, resisting the urge to kiss her yet again before I head to Adrian.
“Remind me to revoke your access to my penthouse,” I say, breezing by him and into the elevator.
“Show up to meetings and we wouldn’t have this problem,” he growls, jamming his finger at one of the buttons.
The doors shut, but the image of Lilah in my penthouse remains. She’s all I see. She’s all I can think about the entire elevator ride down and then walk into the conference room. Nothing can remove the hold she has on my mind.
On my heart and soul.
It’s almost dark by the time I’m done with meetings. Adrian failed to mention that he lined up three more in addition to the two that pulled me away from Lilah.
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t mind. I love what I do. It gives me life. Purpose. It sustains me. But there has been a shift. No. That doesn’t come close to describing what Lilah’s done to my world. Every time I look at her it feels like the ground is quaking and holding on to her is the only thing that stops it.
I’m no longer consumed by my work. I’m consumed by Lilah and my need for her.
Adrian claps me on my back, and I jolt from yet another reverie of her. “You were in rare form today. I haven’t seen that much passion from you in years. Before you made your first million. What the hell got into you today?”
More like who.
“I don’t know,” I say as I scan the skyline.
I can’t remember the last time I took in the city’s breadth. This is a view that many would kill for because it means one thing: You made it. I’ve been so focused on work that I’ve taken it for granted. But with Lilah, I’m seeing everything in a new light.
“Make sure you follow up with Vincent,” I tell him as I turn and head for the door. “I want to move forward and cast Margot. And Cherry Ridge would be the perfect location but I need to confirm a few details with Everett.”
It pays to have an in. Or in this case, an Inn. Everett is the man behind Ridge Hotels, the luxury hospitality brand with locations all over the world, including the one where I met Lilah. He grew up in Cherry Ridge, one of the small towns our location scouts selected for our flagship television series.
“Remind me never to question your decision to join his board again.”
“It pays to build relationships, Adrian.”
But the only relationship I want to build now is with Lilah.
“Then let’s do it,” Adrian says, gripping my shoulder. “I think a celebration is in order. I’ve got a bottle of 23-year reserve whiskey dying to be opened.”
In addition to making headway on the series, we figured out the snag the development team for our streaming platform has been stuck on for months, lined up essential funding, and hammered out the details of an upcoming acquisition.
It was all worth celebrating, but Lilah is the only person I want to celebrate with.
“Rain check,” I say, turning away from the window. I grab my notebook from the conference table as I head for the door. “I have some more business to attend to.”
Adrian laughs. “You certainly don’t waste any time.”
I pause, considering it for a moment before letting it go.
“You’re right,” I say, grabbing the door.
And I’m not going to waste anymore. Not with Lilah waiting for me. There’s a sinking feeling in my gut. What if she’s not there? What if she was indulging me so she could make a clean escape again? What if…
I rush out of the conference room and make it to my office in record time but my nerves refuse to settle.
“Lilah,” I rasp, letting the door shut behind me.
Her scent permeates the room but I don’t see her. Dread blankets me as a cold sweat erupts all over my body. Not again. But then the chair behind my desk swivels and there she is.
“I was about to leave,” Lilah says.
I drag my hand across my face, shaking off the nerves as I approach, settling myself down on my desk as Lilah looks up at me.
“Meetings ran over,” I say.
Lilah hums, turning her attention to the photo frame in her hand.
“What’s that?” I ask, looking down at it.
“I think you’d be more familiar with your photos than me,” Lilah says, amused. “I found it on one of the shelves while I was cleaning up.”
“Cleaning up?”
“You never gave me any orders, boss.”
I swallow hard, adjusting my collar roughly. “I could order you around if you’d like that, Lilah.”
Lilah sighs. “You can’t help yourself, can you?”
My jaw tenses and my fingers flex against the desk. She has no idea how much self-restraint I’ve been practicing. How much I continue to practice each time I see her. Breathe in her irresistible scent. Hear her voice and the way her lips and tongue move with every syllable. It’s mesmerizing but nothing short of torture.
“I can’t say I’m used to holding back from what I want.”
She sets the frame down next to me and I glance at it as she slips out of the chair and glides around me toward the wall of windows. Once again, I resist the urge to snatch her wrist and pull her to me.
“My family,” I say after a few moments, grabbing the photograph. “We’re at my grandfather’s villa in Italy. We used to spend our summers there growing up. I still visit each year for my mother’s birthday.”
This was the last time we were all together, right before I graduated college and went off to work at the investment firm where I met Adrian. My grandfather had been struggling with health issues and passed months later. And then so did my father only a handful of years later. I haven’t looked at this photo in years.
“I’m so sorry,” Lilah says, turning to me.
I set the frame down and stare at my girl. She’s a sight, standing there with that skyline behind her as the sun sets.
“Thanks,” I say. “But there’s nothing to be sorry about.”
She hums, turning back to the view. We’re silent for a few moments, but it’s not uncomfortable. I could admire my girl forever and be content.
But then the silence is broken as she turns back around. “Villas in Italy. High-rises in New York.” She shrugs, shakes her head once. “You live in a completely different world than me.”
And I’d trade it all to relive that summer. I’d trade it all for Lilah too.
“It’s not all sunshine and Masaratis.”
“Trade?” Lilah asks, smiling at me over her shoulder.
“For you? In a heartbeat.”
Lilah walks toward me slowly. “Gorgeous,” I mutter under my breath, but the blush blooming on Lilah cheeks means it was just loud enough. Good. I want her to know how sexy I find her. How irresistible she is to me.
She pauses in front of me, and when I take a deep breath, her scent fills my lungs and sends my body into overdrive. It feels like I’ve been set ablaze when she reaches toward me, leaning in. But she pulls back and hands me a sheet of paper.
“There’s the list,” she says. “If you sign off on it, I’ll give you your week.”
I don’t even look at it, signing it immediately.
Her mouth drops and I smile.
“I told you there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you.”
“I know, but I thought you might want to negotiate that last term.”
I scan the list, noting the hefty salary and lump sum she’s requesting upfront. Nothing I wasn’t ready to pay. She could’ve doubled it and I wouldn’t have blinked an eye. I keep going until I read the last line. I shouldn’t have agreed to this.
Fuck. Me.