For the second time this week, Ash has disappeared in the middle of the day without explanation. Every other hour of his schedule is very clear about where he is and who he’s meeting with.
But not this.
Wherever he is, he doesn’t want anyone knowing.
Not that all of his business is my business.
Still, when Friday rolls around, I am tired. While this job isn’t as hurried as waitressing, it requires more mental sharpness. Ash wasn’t kidding when he said that I’d be making more money, and I want to prove that I deserve the position. I am not the kind of girl to take a charity job. I want to earn it. Every moment of the day, I try to stay one step ahead of Ash and hisneeds. By the end of each day, it takes me a moment to get out ofgomode. And by the end of the week, I am spent.
As I wait for the workday to come to an end, I bring out my book. I’m ahead in my work duties and out of things to do. Ash has been in and out most of the day, so I am just waiting on him to get back before I head out. I open my book to the dog-eared page and indulge a little.
This book is angsty, forbidden, and loaded withsecond basecontent. Or is it third? I don’t know. All I know is I am halfway done with it, and they still haven’t slept together. They have done everything else. The oral sex scenes are hot and have me biting my lip and crossing my legs under the table. It’s not an easy task to do while wearing a pencil skirt.
The scene heats up, another mouth to pussy scene, and I read in anticipation as the character nears her much needed orgasm, when suddenly my office door opens.
“You’re here,” I say, dropping the book on the desk, knocking over my water bottle in the process.
“You’re still here,” Ash says, and something in his tone isn’t right.
“Did your meeting go okay?” I ask as I pick up my water bottle, knocking over a couple other things on my desk in the process. The book falls on the floor.
“It was fine,” he says flatly. I don’t know what else to say because I don’t know what the meeting was for.
“Why is your face all red?” he asks me, and I press my hands to my cheeks.
“Is it?” I practically stutter.
“Yes. You look like you have a fever,” he says. Then he touches the back of his hand to my forehead.
“I think it’s just warm in here,” I say. It’s a lie. My office is freezing most days, that I’ve considered bringing a blanket to work.
Ash walks over to the door and eyes the thermostat on the wall. “Sixty-five,” he says.
“Oh,” I laugh lightly. “I guess I’m warm-blooded. Must be the Irish in me.”
Ash looks over his shoulder at me and makes anMmmsound. Then his eyes lock on the front of my desk. The floor. The book.
He walks over and before I can do anything about it, he reaches down and grabs the book off the floor. “Reading on the job?” he asks.
“Oh, I was just…you weren’t here, and I finished everything I normally do on Fridays and–”
Ash opens the book to the dog-eared page, and I watch his eyebrows slowly arch upward as he reads. Meanwhile, my cheeks are burning.
“Interesting,” he says.
“I guess. If you’re into that sort of thing,” I say, waving it off. Then I swallow.
“Is this what you want?” he asks, holding the book up.
“I…I don’t…it’s just a book,” I stammer. How am I supposed to answer a question like that?
Asher continues to study me. Then he plops the book onto the desk and walks toward the door. With his back turned to me, I let out a sigh of relief, grateful that he left it at that.
Except he doesn’t walk out.
Instead, he closes the door, locks it and turns back to me.
Fuck.
