Page 7 of Executive Ink

Ashlynn cleared her throat, needing to get out of this situation quickly before she couldn’t look at herself in the morning. “Have fun at your lunch. I have a meeting.” She gave Jessica a nod before barely glancing at Jax—she wasn’t sure what she would do if she stared at him for too long.

Jax just gave her a knowing smile before nodding. “Enjoy your day,” he whispered, and Ashlynn took off. She didn’t run toward the elevator, but it was damn close. She heard Jessica whisper quickly to her brother and had a feeling it was about her, so she kept her chin up and did her best to ignore it.

Ashlynn would not see Jax again. There was just no way it could work, and she’d already told herself she didn’t have time for men. Today was just a coincidence. Nothing more.

And if she kept telling herself that, she just might believe it.

A few hours later, most of the rest of the company had gone home, and Ashlynn had just watched a spectacular sunset from her corner office. Of course, she’d merely glanced at it since she had around four hundred things left to do on her checklist, but she’d noticed it, which was far better than most days.

Yes, she was a workaholic, but at least she was aware of it—something that couldn’t be said for most of her friends and coworkers.

And though, yes, her mind was on work and finalizing the deal she’d made in Atlanta, that wasn’t the only thing she was thinking about. No, it was the other event that had happened in Georgia that occupied far more of her thoughts than was healthy.

Jax.

He lived in Denver.

He’d been in her building that afternoon.

His sister worked with her.

And though she’d left him in the lobby without a look back, she had a feeling that wasn’t the end—no matter how much trouble doing anything more would be.

With a sigh, she rubbed the back of her neck and frowned at the numbers in front of her. If they were starting to blur this early in her evening of work, she should probably go home and eat something so she could work some more. She’d been smart that morning since she hadn’t been able to sleep the night before—thanks to naked dreams of Jax and that beard of his—and had put some food in her Crock-Pot. When she got home, she’d have a perfect chicken, potato, and veggie medley waiting for her.

At that thought, her stomach grumbled, and she saved her file before closing out of her programs. Screw it. Between thoughts of food and Jax, she couldn’t focus.

She might as well get one of those things since she wouldn’t be having Jax tonight.

Or ever, she reminded herself. She wouldn’t be having Jax ever.

“Knock, knock, princess.”

Her head shot up so quickly she almost fell back in her chair. “Jax?” she breathed, then cleared her throat. “What are you doing here? How did you get into my office?” And why did she keep accusing him of things when he flustered her?

Jax tilted his head, and his hair fell over his eyes. “It’s late, and there aren’t that many people in the building. Your assistant, Neil, let me in when I told him who I was.” He raised a brow. “The guy seemed to grin at the introduction before letting me back on his way out.”

She was going to kill her assistant—well, not really because he saved her life daily, but still. She’d deny him his favorite creamer or something. She hadn’t meant to blurt out what she’d done with Jax in Atlanta, but she could never hide things from Neil—not when it mattered. The man seemed to be a matchmaking fiend, and it would annoy her, except he was happy with not one but two people—a man and a woman—in his triad. He had his happily ever after and wanted Ashlynn to have one, too.

Only she didn’t have time for that.

“Neil is fired,” she said simply and held back a laugh at Jax’s eye roll. His sister had done the same thing earlier, and she couldn’t help but think how alike they looked with that action.

“Sure, Ash, sure.”

She swallowed hard and finished packing up her purse to give herself something to do with her hands. “Why are you here, Jax?”

He moved closer, and she held back a shiver as she looked down at his hands. Those hands had touched her, caressed her, had made her come with just a brush of calloused fingertips on her skin.

And she still didn’t know his last name. Or his profession. She knew nothing about him, and yet here he was, in her office, in her hometown…and she didn’t know what came next.

“I’m here because you are; because no matter what we said back in Atlanta, there was something between us. And I’ve got to think, an opportunity like this? Where we’re together again out of all the places we could be? We can’t let this chance pass us by.”

She licked her lips, her breath shaky. “Why are you here, Jax?” she repeated. “What do you want from me?”

He was closer now, so close she could feel the heat of him on her skin. He should have looked so out of place in her high-rise office, yet for some reason, he seemed like he belonged. She wasn’t sure what to think about that.

“I want you,” he said simply. “I didn’t have enough of you that night, and I want more of you now. Anything you can give, Ash. Anything.”

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