Page 12 of Fragile

Pursing my lips, I then muttered honestly, “Well he did suggest I’d orchestrated a friendship with you due to your net worth.”

Asher barked out a cough at that one, “Really? He said that?”

“Yep, something about a meal ticket,” I replied with raised eyebrows.

There was a three-beat silence.

“Fuck me, Leo, if only he knew. You haven’t taken a bean from me. You didn’t even accept my offer to pay for your last headshots. You should you know, that’s what friends do.”

Patting his knee I said, “I know and you’re kind Ash, but I want to make it on my own. That’s why I moved here.”

Asher’s boyish locks bounced as he nodded. “I get it.” There wasn’t much similarity between him and his brother; Ash wasn’t nearly as chiselled or as mean-looking.

My grin then widened and I wrinkled my nose at him. “And to be honest, you dress so scruffily, that at first; I thought you were worse off than me.”

Ash put on an affronted expression, but I knew he wasn’t really bothered. He was an artist and so was usually covered in paint or something.

“Oy, that’s my style,” he chuntered, jabbing me gently on the leg.

I rubbed my sticky neck, attempting to pull my hair off my back. I probably looked scruffy as heck too just then, pot calling the kettle black and all that. “I know, and it suits you.”

A thought then occurred to me as my eyes roamed over his features. “You don’t look alike; you and your brother I mean.” Gabriel was larger than life, with olive skin, black hair, and brown/hazel eyes. Ash was tall, with an athletic build, light brown mop-like hair, and green eyes.

“I look like our dad and Gabe looks like our mother; she’s half Greek.” Ah, that would explain his Mediterranean skin.

“But Gabe has both our parents’ temperaments; fiery and argumentative. I’m not sure where I get my nature. A distant aunt maybe?”

I nudged his arm playfully, as the car crawled forward in the rush hour, afternoon traffic. “Or the Postman?”

“Maybe,” he laughed.

We eventually pulled up in front of his building. There was a pull-in for the car to park temporarily.

“Do you need help with the bags Mr Asher?” Marco said respectfully.

“No, we’ll take it from here.”

We then climbed out of the car and Ash went around the back and started taking my bags out. I already had my purse and phone tucked in my jeans so I grabbed the bin bags and rucksack and he picked up my cases.

Thanking Marco, the big man then nodded and started the car, pulling back out into traffic. I wondered where he was going.

After Asher punched in the special access code, we rode the lift to the eighth floor, nervous knots and excitement twisted together in my belly.

A new adventure awaited and I couldn’t wait to see where that went.

I just hoped I managed to mesh with Gabriel, he held all the cards and I had the feeling that he wouldn’t be easy to live with. I sensed he got off on conflicting situations. He was training to be a criminal lawyer like his father and that’s what they thrived on—the thrill of the fight.

After that first meeting between us, I decided I would be on my best behaviour and wouldn’t do anything to antagonise him. I was shy and the most unargumentative person I knew so how hard could it be?

I was also kind and courteous and put others before myself, I couldn’t imagine that I would do anything to annoy him, not really. I had never had fallouts with friends or my foster parents; I wasn’t that type of person. I was accommodating; bossy just wasn’t in my nature, whereas Gabriel Knight was probably the opposite.

He could push as much as he liked but I would make it work.

The attraction I had felt towards him had been instant, but that was an appearance thing. His personality and that brooding aggressive bubble that surrounded him was certainly not something I looked for in a man. I was also too focused on my studies; boys just screwed things up. That’s why I hadn’t been on many dates since arriving in the city. Most of the males I partnered with at the company were gay and so no issues there. There were a couple of boys on Ash’s course who had asked me out and I’d gone for coffee with one of them, but it hadn’t amounted to anything. He spent most of our conversation talking to my breasts.

Nope. I wasn’t comfortable being surrounded by heterosexual guys who usually looked at me like a piece of meat.

Men could do one for now. My life wasn’t overly complicated and that’s the way I intended it to remain; for now, anyway.

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