Page 50 of Twisted Truth

Jenkins is immediately on my heels but says nothing as I press the elevator button with too much force.

Asher Fucking Langford,I seethe, seeing red. How is it that I want to comfort him one minute and strangle him the next?The man is an enigma. But I can handle this. I just have to keep my head. I take a long, deep breath, and work to collect my thoughts.

Play the game, do it well, and get it over with,I remind myself for the second time this morning.

15

ASHER

Fuck whoever you want to fuck, and I’ll do the same.

We’re in this situation because you got caught sticking your dick where it didn’t belong.

I repeat her words in my mind, fury coiling in my veins. I’m about ready to walk down to her office and remind her who I am. That she works for me.

I take a deep breath.

It doesn’t help that Jenkins just texted me a rundown on the employee reactions to her as she moved throughout the building. The gossip and curious stares are to be expected, as well as the envy from some. But what I didn’t think through was the immediate fascination from some of the male employees. Jenkins told me the whispers he overheard, the blatant stares that he noted were more than just curiosity. I’ve unwittingly made Ella into the prized female of the company, and the men have noticed. I know she had a few male coworkers who thought she was beautiful or were interested in her before, Matthew did some combing through office gossip, but this is now a whole new level.

Hearing their words and thoughts, knowing the way theylooked at her, has my fury ready to boil over. How dare they look and whisper about her like that when as far as they know, she belongs to me. Every employee had better learn, and learn quickly, that they are not to mess with what is mine.

And Ella’s attitude on the matter only makes it worse.Fuck whoever you want to fuck, and I’ll do the same.

Not on your life, Ella.

Not on your fucking life.

“So, that sounded like it went really well,” Declan says with glee outside my office door.

“Fuck off,” I growl.

He howls with laughter.

Sterling walks up to the office door next, sipping his coffee at an absurd volume, with amusement twinkling in his eyes. “Trouble in paradise?” He smacks his lips after his drink.

“You can fuck off, too.”

Neither of them does any such thing. Instead, they barge into my office laughing and prowling like impish wolves. They sit in the seats opposite my desk, the figures of ease and contentment.

“What do you two want?”

“Oh, we just came to congratulate you on your new relationship,” Declan says, innocently.

“It looks to be going swimmingly,” Sterling adds.

The fuckers must have been sitting and listening outside my office like they did when we were kids, when they would spy on me outside my bedroom door. I close my eyes and massage my temples.

“The media is buzzing over her,” Declan says, more serious now. “And so far, it’s all positive. A miracle, if I’ve ever seen one. But I wonder how long that will last. Especially when reports of spats in the office leak to the press.”

I give him a hard look. “No one on this floor would dareleak something to the press. They all have too much at stake to risk my wrath.”

“Money is a good cure for wrath,” Sterling says.

“Trust me, it won’t happen again. I’ll be setting Ella straight tonight when we get home.”

“I bet you will,” Declan says, grinning like a fox.

“Not like that,” I snap. “Ironically, that’s the reason for our fight last night and this morning.”