Except this time, I wasn't drunk.
Veda set the whiskey down out of reach and picked up my coffee, turning to hand it out to me, but all I could see were warm brown eyes that expressed concern and compassion.
She didn't back down, even when I confronted her right in front of my entire board.
She stood her ground, made me a fool, called me out, and now she was trying to help me?
"I…" I muttered, physically incapable at that point of forming words.
"It's okay, Mr. Locke… I just don't think drinking is what you need right now."
When I didn’t take the coffee, she set it down, but I knew what I wanted. And my body decided I needed it too.
In two strides, I was standing so close, our bodies almost touched and my hand was curled around her neck, pulling her toward myself.
No woman in this world had ever stood up to me like that and stuck around to find out why it wasn't a good idea.
Veda Porter had done it twice in one day.
And I let myself unravel.
My lips hit hers so fiercely she mumbled, a little off balance, before grabbing my lapels and kissing me back.
This was bad.
This was very bad.
4
VEDA
When his lips hit mine, I froze, eyes wide open as I nearly fell over backward.
Clayton wasn't kidding when he told me in the bar the night he asked me to do this that Asher was a very broken man.
I just didn't realize how needy he was too.
Not when he tore me apart in front of his board, not when he kissed me like a raving lunatic, and not even when my hands gripped the lapel of his coat and pulled him down harder.
Wow, what a kiss.
It was searing.
The sort of kiss that literally takes your breath away because it lasts so long and is so deliciously incredible, you don't want to pull away.
Asher's tongue invaded my mouth like the troops storming Normandy while his hands greedily pulled me harder against hisbody, which, judging by the press of his firmness on my thigh, very much liked it too.
My hand went to my skirt pocket. I pulled out my phone as Clayton had told me to do, and there wasn't a thought behind it.
This was a job I'd been paid half a million dollars for already.
I was doing what I was told and nothing more, or at least that's what I told myself as I lifted both of my arms and wrapped them around Asher's shoulders, opening my eyes long enough to navigate on my phone screen to the voice memo app.
I hit record and locked my screen, and then I set my phone down and got lost in his touch.
"My God, you drive me insane," he snarled, but he was still kissing me aggressively, now tugging at my silk shirt too, like getting it off me was more important than air.
"Yeah, well it's a short drive," I mewled as I helped him peel the silk away so it wouldn't rip.
