Lydia’s lips pursed thoughtfully. “What’s the business?”
“Nothing as refined as TAG,” Aspen answered. “West Enterprises is into a little bit of everything, honestly. My father is big on diversification.”
Lydia’s eyes widened. “Goddamn. Talk about holding an ace up your sleeve.”
“Yeah, well, I just care about making things easier for Eve,” Aspen replied honestly.
“Christ, you really are a white knight, aren’t you?” Lydia teased, though not unkindly. She clearly approved. Her eyes sparkled as she asked Eve, “How do you not just jump her when she says shit like that?”
“I honestly don’t know,” Eve said. “I just have an overdeveloped sense of decorum, I guess.”
“We’re working on it,” Aspen joked. Her stomach fluttered at the pretty blush that warmed Eve’s cheeks, and she couldn’t resist leaning in to drop a light kiss her perfect lips. “You’re adorable.”
“You both are,” Lydia countered. She heaved a sigh. “But I really do need to talk to Felicity about a thing. And the Morrisons are watching us like hawks. So let’s go get your fake reunion over with, and then you two can slip off somewhere more private for a little lapse in decorum while I talk business. Deal?”
Aspen glanced at Eve. She smiled when Eve’s blush deepened just a touch as she bit her lip and nodded her consent, and squeezed her hand as she told Lydia, “Deal.”
Eve stopped on her way back from the restroom to watch Aspen, who looked to be deep in conversation with Kit Hawthorne and Jack Watts from Titan Technologies that her father had been courting for years. Titan had its hands in everything from nanotechnology to environmental tech and landing them as clients would be a coup for the firm, but the tech giants had gracefully sidestepped every inroad the firm had made. Including the time three years ago when her father had tried to use her as an envoy.
She hadn’t realized at the time what was happening when her father introduced her to the gorgeous, willowy CEO—she’d just thought that they’d finally accepted her sexuality and were introducing her to a woman they approved of. I’d been Kit who’d clued her in—apparently her father had been angling to introduce them for years. Eve had never been more embarrassed in her life than she’d been in that moment, but Kit been impossibly kind to her and furious on her behalf.
Eve had been shocked when she crossed paths with the dark-haired beauty at the following glad-handing soiree, and Kit had been perfectly impish in her admission that she did it just to make her father pay for what he’d tried to do.
Literally.
Usually to the tune of the high five-figures, if the grumblingrumors Eve had heard were correct.
Where Kit went, Jack followed, so she’d crossed paths with them on several occasions since that disaster of a weekend, and she quite liked them both. However, she didn’t like Kit’s wide, playful smile as she leaned into Aspen and said something that made Aspen throw her head back with laughter.
Still, she had to admit that Michael hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d extolled Aspen’s virtues to sell her on Aspen as his replacement—Aspen certainly knew how to work a room.
“She is something, isn’t she?”
Eve nodded at Lydia’s assessment. “She is.”
Eve’s stomach gave a glorious little flutter as Aspen chose that moment to look up from her conversation. The heat in Aspen’s gaze as their eyes locked was palpable, and she bit her lip against the way her body reacted to it. Aspen’s gaze never wavered as she said something to the Titan execs that made them laugh, and a ridiculously sexy smile spread across her lips as she left them to saunter her way.
Eve’s pulse pounded in the base of her throat as she stared, entranced by the subtle sway of Aspen’s hips and the way her slacks tightened around her thighs as she walked. On the surface, Aspen was all coiled muscle and cool confidence in a way that dared anyone to not look at her, but what made those qualities even more appealing was the gentleness Eve knew lay beneath.
“Christ, Eve. Put your pants back on,” Lydia chuckled.
Eve frowned at her dumbly. “I’m wearing a dress.”
Lydia smirked and waggled her eyebrows. “Not for long, if the look on your face means anything.”
Eve blushed. “It’s not like…” Her voice trailed off into a smile as Aspen drew near, and she wrapped an arm around her waist to tug her into her side. “Hey, you.”
“Hey, yourself.” Aspen’s arm flexed around her waist. “It’s not like, what?”
“Nothing. Just girl talk,” Lydia replied smoothly. “How’re things with Troublesome Twosome?”
“Oh, you know…” Aspen huffed a little laugh and shook her head. “They’re Kit and Jack.”
Eve blinked at the familiarity in Aspen’s voice as she spoke of the duo. “You know them?”
Aspen pressed a gentle kiss over Eve’s temple. “We went to Stonebridge together.” Her arm tightened around Eve’s waist. “They’re going dancing and wanted to know if the three of us would like to join.”
“They’re trolling for ass, you mean,” Lydia corrected with a little laugh.
