Page 63 of One More Kiss

His Private Dancer

E.S. McMillan

Axel

“Hey Boss! You in here?”Asher called out from the other side of my office door.

“Yup,” I replied as I closed the laptop I was working on. Looking up as the door creeped open and Asher’s head poked into my dark office, I noticed the stack of papers in his hands. “Is that what I think it is?”

“Yeah, the currier just dropped them off. All they need is your signature.”

“Well, give them here.” My excitement was building and I couldn’t hold back the smile that spread across my lips.

Walking into my office, Asher hit the light switch on the wall and illuminated the small messy space. I knew I needed to clean up in here, but there were just not enough hours in the day to get everything done that I needed to. “I knew you were waiting for these,” Asher explained as he dropped the papers directly in front of me.

“You have no idea,” I said as I reached for the papers and started skimming through them.

“Everything ok?” Asher asked with a concerned laced voice. I was lucky to have him as one of my best friends and members of my band. I knew that he always had my back, no matter what the situation.

Averting my eyes up to his, I took a deep calming breath. “I just want to make sure every I was dotted and T was crossed. I can’t have any issues with this transaction.”

“Bella is going to love it,” Asher assure me as he dropped into the chair in front of my desk.

“Is everything all set?” Sabrina asked as she breezed into my office, shutting the door behind her.

“Hi Sabrina,” Asher said as he looked up at her. There was no hiding the red that colored his face and I knew exactly how he felt. Hell, I felt the same way about my girl.

Ignoring the man who was head over heels in love with her, Sabrina rushed over to my side. “Is that what I think it is?” Pointing to the stack of papers Asher just delivered, she leaned over my shoulder to start reading. “Have you signed them yet?”

“I was just looking over them to make sure everything was in order.”

“You better hurry up! It is almost five o’clock.”

“Shit!” I exclaimed looking up at the clock on the wall. “Where did the day go?”

“I don’t know, but if you don’t hurry up and sign these papers…”

“I know! I know!” I groaned out as I flipped through the stack of papers until I reached the final one. Grabbing a pen from my desk, I pushed the cap off with my thumb and signed my name on the dotted line.

“Are you sure you don’t want to look over these a bit closer?” Asher asked as worry painted his face. He was always a voice of reason for me.

“This has to be filed today,” I explained as I stood up and reached for the papers on my desk. Making my way across my cluttered office to the fax machine, I felt Sabrina moving around behind me.

“Bella is not going to know what to do with herself,” she said.

“I hope she loves this surprise,” I said as I started to load the papers into the machine. Dialing in the number to my lawyer’s office, I waited with bated breath for the machine to start scanning the papers.

“Love it? She is going to be blown away by this. Axel Bryant! You are making her dreams come true,” Sabrina exclaimed as she clapped her hands together and collapsed into my chair.

“After what my father put her through, I owe her this.” Memories of my father’s deceit floated through my head and I could feel my hatred for the man start to build up in the pit of my stomach.

“He did it because he wanted you back in his life,” Asher started.

“That is not the way to go about it,” I spit out as the final page was sucking into the machine. Collecting the scanned pages, I waited for the confirmation to print out.

“I know,” Asher whispered.

“It’s been over a year since all that mess,” Sabrina said as she stood up from my chair and made her away around the desk. “Don’t you think it is time to let it go?”

“Let it go?” I spit out as I turned to face her. I had to see with my own eyes if she was serious. A look of fear flashed across her face as pure rage contorted mine. “Let it go? That man almost took everything from me. I don’t know if I can ever let it go!”

“Time.” The single word fell from Asher’s lips as he looked over at Sabrina and placed a hand on her trembling knee.

Taking a deep breath to calm myself down, I looked down at the now crumpled up papers in my hands. Quickly trying to smooth them out, I walked back over to desk and dropped back down into my chair. “I don’t think I will ever be able to forgive that man for what he did to me and threatened to do to Bella. There are some lines that should never be crossed and he jumped over all of them.”

“Axel, he’s your father,” Asher said as he looked at me with sad eyes.

“And I am a grown man who should be able to choose my own path.” I was done with this conversation and wanted to focus on the most important thing right now, Bella Armstrong. I needed to make sure that everything was perfect for her surprise. This was my one chance to really make things right with her and I was not going to be distracted by thoughts of my father.

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