Page 7 of Never Bed the Boss
Lilah.I can’t help but notice how my name rolls off his tongue. He knows my real name. He knows I stole his watch. And now I’m stuck in an elevator with him.
“Very good, Mr. Blacke,” Silas says.
My throat constricts. I was warned about Mr. Blacke all day even though I wasn’t going to be working directly with him.
He’s ruthless and cold.
Temperamental.
A genius but an egomaniac.
Keep your head down and stay out of his way.
The benefits are great though!
Just my luck that I stole something from the devil himself.
Asher doesn’t take his eyes off of me as he says, “And turn off the camera, Silas.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll cut the feed immedia?—”
Asher presses a button, silencing the intercom. He steps back, squaring himself to me as I take in every inch of him. You’d think that after sleeping with him, I’d be less intimidated. I’ve seen every inch of him. I’vehadevery inch of him. Repeatedly. But now that I’m face to face with him again, I feel the same tightness in my chest and fluttering butterflies that I had a few weeks ago but with way more intensity.
We were never on equal footing, but now more than ever, I’m feeling the gap between us.
“I’m sorry,” I mutter, stepping backward until my back is firmly pressed against the wall. The tension is suffocating in this enclosed space. I’d give anything for those doors to open up, but I know that’s not going to happen. My small string of good luckI’ve had over the past week has been crushed. “I was in a bad place.” I try to reason with him, but it doesn’t seem to be doing anything.
Asher steps forward and I step sideways. He doesn’t back down, edging closer to me without saying a word. Why isn’t he acknowledging my apology? I have nowhere to go as I walk backward along the walls of the elevator, delaying as long as I can until we reach wherever he’s taking me. Whereishe taking me? My mind races at all the possibilities, none of them good.
I swallow, gripping the metal handrail like a lifeline. “I gave it back.” The words are swallowed up by the air as he finally erases the distance between us.
His scent is doing strange things to me, dredging up memories of our night together. The bar. The elevator. His suite. His lips on mine. His hands all over me, clawing, gripping, kneading. Tangled sheets. Ripped clothes.
“Strange. I don’t recall ever receiving my watch. But it doesn’t matter. You stole something from me that night far more valuable than a watch,” he says, brushing my cheek with the back of his hand.
My throat bobs as I try to ignore the cinch in my belly. “What?” I mutter, but my voice is so soft and brittle I doubt he hears it.
Asher draws a line with the pad of his finger down my lips, along the column of my throat, pausing at the neckline of my blouse. I’m squirming as my body ignites from Asher’s gentle caress. He’s hardly touching me but it’s so intimate and achingly slow. And as much as I don’t want to admit it, I want so much more than he’s giving me right now.
I’ve never had someone so intensely focused on me. I’ve never felt soseen, so turned on by eye contact. But with eyes as gorgeous as his, and a face and body to match, it’s fair to say I’ve never met anyone capable enough before.
I open my mouth, hoping to end the silence between us that seems to extend forever, but the moment my lips part, Asher captures them with his mouth.
Flames lick the darkness behind my eyelids as Asher’s tongue spreads against the seam of my lips. His hands grip my thighs, digging into me as he lifts me, pinning me against the wall. I wrap my legs around him, grinding against him as he kisses me harshly with so much need and hunger.
“You,” he growls against my lips once he finally breaks the seal.
Asher grabs my wrist, shoving it against the wall before gripping the nape of my neck with his free hand and resuming his full-frontal assault on my mouth. He tastes like sin and his lips sear mine like a brand, marking me as his. I lap him up, urging his tongue deeper.
“You stole yourself away in the middle of the night.” He nips my earlobe and then at my neck.
“Thief. Liar,” he snarls into my ear before kissing me harshly along my jaw. “You’re never going to steal from me again.”
Buttons fly off my blouse as Asher rips it in half, unhooks the front of my bra, and buries his face into my breasts before dragging his tongue along my sternum, up my neck, and then back to my mouth.
Oh. My. Sweet. Jesus.
“You’re mine,” he growls, whisking me out of the elevator as it opens to a room even grander than the Ridgeway’s lobby. I hardly have the chance to take it all in before the breath is knocked out of my lungs, the cold leather of the couch sizzling against the heat of my skin.
