Chapter 2
Asher
“So how was your date last night?” I ask my fraternal twin, Connelly, breathing hard from my physical exertion. I’m bent over, arms on my thighs, winded from our quick five-mile run. It’s early in the morning and the traffic in the gym we offer as a perk to our employees is pretty light. Exactly how I like it. The fewer people around, the better. Actually, I prefer to take my runs outdoors, regardless of the weather, but the half inch of ice and three inches of snow on the Chicago sidewalks overnight make for treacherous conditions, even for the most skilled outdoor runner.
His mouth quirks up on one side. “Satisfying.”
“You’re such a manwhore.”
“We’re cut from the same cloth, brother,” Conn replies darkly, wiping the sweat collected on his forehead with his drenched shirt. Heading over to the free weights, Conn grabs a pair of fifty-pound dumbbells and begins his bicep curls. I grab the eighty-fives, laying down on the bench for chest presses.
“What about you?” he grunts, rapidly curling the weights up to his shoulders, alternating one after the other, muscles bulging with each stroke. “Haven’t bragged about any conquests lately. Why is that?” Conn looks down to where I’m lying and gives me a knowing wink.
Apparently my feigned nonchalance about a certain dark-haired, brown-eyed petite beauty who is consuming my every single waking thought is just that. Of course, my twin knows me better than anyone. I’ve not been this enthralled by a single woman since Natalie, and I don’t even think I was this way with her. That scares the fuck out of me.
“Fuck off. I entertained Gabriella recently.” And by recently, I mean more than a month ago, which is like a drought for me. I’m surprised my dick hasn’t fallen off for lack of use. But the problem is, the entire time I was inside another woman, I thought of Alyse’s caramel eyes glazing over with pure ecstasy as I pushed her body to the very limit. Christ, just thinking of the pleasure that would etch on her beautiful face as I force her to give me orgasm after orgasm gets me hard, which won’t go unnoticed by my brother, even in my baggy gym shorts.
If I thought my attraction to her at twenty-one was intense, it’s a blip on the radar compared to what I’m feeling now. It’s been two long months since I’ve last set eyes on Alyse. I’m trying to figure out how the hell I can see her again before my brother’s wedding when Conn drops a gift in my lap.
“You know she’s coming to Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday.”
No. No I did not.
I struggle with my last two reps, my shaking muscles protesting the heavy weight I’ve intentionally chosen. “Who?” I pretend to have no idea what he’s talking about, but at the inference that I’m finally going to set my starved eyes on Alyse again my dick twitches involuntarily and, noticing, Conn barks a laugh.
Fucker.
Conn racks his weights. Leaning against the mirrored wall, he gauges my every reaction. “I haven’t seen you act this way about a woman since…”
“Don’t,” I snap.
I let my weights drop to the floor and sit up, suddenly feeling too vulnerable with where this conversation is going. I don’t talk about Natalie. Ever. Conn knows this. I keep that young and foolish part of my life close to the forefront of my mind so I don’t make those same mistakes again. Since the woman I’d planned on marrying crushed my very heart underneath her five-inch cheating stilettos four years ago, I don’t let women into that exposed space, choosing to take Conn’s route of moving from one willing bed to the next.
So manwhore is a pretty apt title for me, too, as much as I’d like to argue otherwise.
But somehow I find myself thinking that if I ever would let a woman worm her way into that dark, broken space again, it would be Alyse Kingsley. Same as it was years ago, there’s just something about her innocence that inexplicably draws me to her like a moth to an open flame.
Innocence I want to corrupt.
Badly.
And repeatedly.
Her innocence is about as compelling as her fire and tenacity and intelligence. Add to that the whole outer beauty with her insanely sexy and fit body and drop-dead-gorgeous face, and she really is the whole package. She’s grown into an incredible woman. I find myself wondering why someone hasn’t married her yet, but at the same time I’m glad they haven’t. Because I want her like I haven’t wanted another woman in a very, very long time. I have to wonder if I’ve ever wanted a woman as badly as I want Alyse.
As I’ve always wanted her.
I’ve known Alyse since my older brother, Gray, started dating her sister, Livia, over eight years ago. Even then I was irrationally attracted to her. I shouldn’t have been. She was seventeen, in high school. I was twenty-one, in college. She was jailbait, but that didn’t stop me from having a brief summer fling with her. I’ve had a lot of women over the years, too many, in fact, and I’ve pretty much forgotten all of them.
Except Alyse Kingsley.
She’s simply unforgettable, as is that Fourth of July where we almost made the biggest mistake of my young adult life. Being attracted to Alyse was one thing. Actually acting on it was something else entirely. Except we did. Had my twin not caught us in the boathouse at that moment, I don’t think anything would have stopped me from taking her that night. Right or wrong.
I saw her briefly a couple of times after that, but we never acted on our attraction again. Ever since I saw her just two months ago at a family dinner in Detroit, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Livia’s baby sister. Or the fact that she’s no longer a baby, but a twenty-five-year-old fucking hottie that my cock is begging me to take on a long, sweaty ride.
When I saw the bruises on her arm, I about lost it and pounded her meathead boyfriend’s face into the concrete. Just thinking about it now makes my blood boil with rage. I wasn’t kidding when I told Alyse I’d kill the fucker if he ever put his hands on her again. If I so much as glimpse one mark next time I see her, I’m sure my brother Luke can hook me up with someone who would be all too happy to make that happen.
Knowing that both the Natalie and Alyse discussions are closed, Conn’s quiet as we finish our weight training. Forty-five minutes later we’re showered and enter the elevator.
I punch the button for the thirty-fourth floor harder than I mean to, frustration still coursing heavily through my system. By now, I’m not actually sure what I’m frustrated about most. Natalie, for fucking up my life; Alyse, for driving me batshit crazy with a voracious craving I need to quench; or meathead, for putting his…anything on the woman I want.
Or it could be my lack of getting laid in weeks, because all I can think of is sinking into what I know will be the best pussy I’ve ever had. I just don’t know what I want beyond that. In my gut, however, I know it will be more. I’m already almost savagely possessive of her and she’s not even mine. Yet. I’m very worried that once I have Alyse, I’ll never want to give her up. I’m not sure I’m capable of giving her everything she deserves either.
The elevator doors open. It’s not even seven yet, so the floor is quiet and most of the assistants haven’t arrived yet, except mine. As the CEO of CFC, CoIloway Financial Consultants, I usually split my time between the branch in Detroit and our headquarters in downtown Chicago. When I’m in the Chicago office, my assistant, Tara, puts in long hours, always making sure to arrive by six-thirty. CFC is one of the three companies my brothers and I own together under GRASCO Holdings and since I’m also on the board, I tend to put in long, grueling hours.
“Any news on the audit?” Conn asks, as we exit the steel cage.
“I have a meeting with Sheila Willis today at three. They’re supposed to finally have a full report after two goddamn months.” A few months ago, an accounting discrepancy of over a half million dollars was brought to my attention. Though I have my suspicions about what’s happening, I’ve kept them to myself. Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer, a wise person once said. In business, I have found that’s some very sound advice. Someone’s going to jail over this, and it’s not going to be me.
“Good. I’m off to Cincinnati later for a meeting tomorrow, then headed to Mom’s on Wednesday morning. See you there?”
“Yes. It will probably be late when I get there, though.”
We part ways and I spend the majority of the day on phone calls and in back-to-back meetings. I barely have time to wolf down the roast beef sandwich Tara ordered for me from my favorite deli down the street. I ate it so fast, I now have indigestion. At three, there’s a soft knock on my door before it opens.
“Your three o’clock is here, Asher,” Tara announces. I don’t know Tara’s exact age, because I’ve never asked, but if I had to guess, I would put her in her late forties. She’s soft-spoken, has three grown children, and has been married for almost twenty-five years. After all these years, her husband still does romantic, off-the-cuff little gestures that light her face aglow. For the first time in years, I find myself a little envious that I don’t have that kind of love, but since seeing Alyse again I wonder if it’s possible to find that. I think maybe it is, if I just open myself up to the option that not every woman out there is a two-timing, cheating whore who’s only after my money. This wispy, feisty little twenty-five-year-old woman has me actually thinking of possibilities, and I haven’t done that since Natalie.
“Thanks, Tara.” I smile, steeling myself for a rough meeting with Sheila Willis. We’ve used Willis’s auditing services for over twenty years. Hank Willis was an old friend of my dad’s. Sheila, Hank’s daughter, is only a year younger than my twenty-nine years and she’s always had a thing for me.
Unfortunately for her, the feeling is not mutual.
Unfortunately for me, one alcohol-hazed night changed everything.
My father had just passed away two months before and we were holding our annual Christmas party, to which we routinely invited some of our closest vendor partners. Hank’s wife had recently passed away as well, so he brought Sheila as his plus one.
Grief plus alcohol…bad fucking combo.
In a very weak moment, I ended up banging Sheila against the women’s bathroom door. To me it was a quick fuck and a much-needed stress reliever; to her it meant a diamond, a honeymoon in France, and happy-fucking-ever-after.
Before that night, I tolerated her failed attempts to trap me. After that night…well, let’s just say if she could cut off my dick and get away with it, she would. I slept with one eye open for months afterward, worried she’d break in and make good on her threat.
Luckily, I didn’t work with Sheila often over the years. But if I could have predicted Hank would die just a few short months ago, Sheila would take over his business, and I would have to be constantly subjected to her, I would have found another audit firm before that fateful day. We have three months left on our current contract and then it’s buh-bye Sheila. Until then, I have to deal.
Tara steps aside and Sheila walks into my office, her attitude cocked and her feathers on full display. But like a female peacock, hers are dull and drab. They don’t attract the opposite sex. Only, because she can’t look behind her strut, she can’t see it like everyone else.
I contain my eye roll as she strolls in.
“Sheila, nice to see you again.” I wave for her to take a seat.
“Save it, Asher. We both know that’s not true.” She walks by me with barely contained disdain. I follow her, taking a seat behind my desk. Jesus, this is bound to be a painful meeting.
“Have it your way. What did you find?” I ask, leaning back in my chair, trying my best to intimidate her. She just shakes her head.
Bitch.
“Slightly over half a million dollars is unaccounted for. I suspect misappropriation of funds, but as you know, we don’t have that auditing expertise in our small firm, so you will need to hire a forensic auditor.”
Fuck. This was exactly my fear. We have an embezzler in our ranks and I need to find out who it is and stop them. They’ve already stolen over half a mil of my company’s money. Probably more by now.
“Can you tell how long this has been going on?”
“Sometime within the last twelve months since our last audit. I went back and checked the work papers from last year to ensure we didn’t miss anything, but that audit is clean.”
So sometime within the last twelve months. This has been going on under my nose for up to a whole year and I was none the wiser? Ouch. That stings. Some motherfucking heads are going to roll, the first being my CFO. How the hell did he not know about this for a goddamn year? Either he’s incompetent or he’s the culprit. I’d bet money on the latter.
“Anything else?” I want to get this meeting over with so I can formulate my next steps. And they happen to involve a chocolate-eyed beauty that I’ve been wanting to spend some quality time with. Now I have a valid reason.
Sheila pulls out a couple of papers from her folder, laying them on my desk. “I have a few recommendations for forensic audit firms. Ones we’ve used in the past that produce solid work. They’re reputable.”
The one thing I would not do is take any of Sheila’s recommendations. I’d just as soon scour the damn phone book, picking one blindfolded. Besides, I already know exactly who I’m going to hire.
“Thank you. I’ll call you if I have questions after I read your report.”
She rises, not acknowledging I said a damn thing, throws her briefcase over her shoulder, and turns to leave. Three months, I tell myself. Just three more fucking months.
After she exits, I quickly pull up the Internet and type in “ARK Consulting,” the name of Alyse’s auditing firm, which I remember from our family dinner. Her forensic auditing firm. Exactly what I now need.
After several minutes of perusing her website and reading client testimonials, I call her office and talk to a lovely woman named Heather. I find out that Alyse will be in on Wednesday, so I ask Heather to send me client reference phone numbers and to block the afternoon for me, starting at noon. I schedule the meeting under the name GRASCO, as I don’t think Alyse is familiar with our holding company name. For now, I want to keep my identity under wraps. I don’t want to give the lovely Alyse time to formulate reasons why she should deny my proposal.
Thanking Heather, I hang up and ponder how my impending discussion with the stubborn Alyse will go the day after tomorrow. Her clients seem relatively small, so I have no doubt this will be a big job for her tiny firm, but if you listen to Livia talk, she’s as brilliant as she is beautiful. I also overheard enough of her conversations a couple months ago with my mom to know she’s extremely passionate about what she does.
In the end, I have to make a business decision to hire the best auditor. I have every confidence that after I check references at the end of our meeting on Wednesday, the firm awarded that job will be ARK Consulting.
“Tara,” I call through my open door.
“Yes,” she yells back.
“Clear my calendar on Wednesday. I have a last-minute business meeting in Detroit that came up.”
“Will do.”
I smile to myself as I sit back and stare at the picture Alyse has posted of herself and her team on her website.
So professional.
So prim.
So proper.
But I know something kinky and adventurous lurks beneath the straitlaced persona she puts on for everyone else. That side is something I have a visceral need to explore, expose, and exploit.
I didn’t miss her sharp intake of breath when I told her I meant to own her. I didn’t miss the quick flutter of her pulse in the slim column of her neck when my mouth was at her ear. And I most certainly did not mistake the scent of her desire as I stood within an inch of her supple lips, wanting desperately to capture them with mine, making good on my promise to own her right then and there.
Remembering all of these things, as though they happened yesterday, it’s not surprising that my cock jerks at the thought of being buried inside her slick, velvety warmth. What is surprising, however, is the strange and foreign sensation I feel in the middle of my chest at the thought of simply having her in my bed and holding her in my arms.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I’ve never been able to forget her. I’m beginning to think that Ms. Alyse Kingsley may be a game changer. I have to wonder, though…am I ready for the game to change?
I think the answer to that finally is…yes.
Yes, I am.