Page 72 of Captivated By You

Silence greeted me. I opened the door. The hallway was empty, as if Johannes had been spirited away. Fucker.

“Annoying little shit, your brother, isn’t he?”

“Ignore him.” I leaned against the door and crooked my finger at her. “Where were we?”

She swallowed, vulnerable Kiana making a swift comeback. I slid both arms around her waist, zipping her up.

“Did you really mean it?”

“Yeah, although my timing could have been better.”

“Your timing was perfect.” She raised herself up onto her toes and kissed me. “I love you, too.”

Chapter21

Asher

Conversely meeting my girlfriend’s parents

sporting a boner is not a good idea.

After an idyllic weekendspent at my parents’ house with Kiana and my family, I returned to work on Monday morning with a spring in my step and a dick sore from hours of constant fucking. Nothing like giving and receiving multiple orgasms to make a man feel like a king.

Alas, it didn’t take long for the crown to slip. Approximately seven minutes, to be exact. That was how long it took for me to boot up my computer, answer a couple of emails that Priya had marked as urgent, and open the presentation detailing the company’s last-quarter performance. The colorful graphs and flowery language couldn’t hide the facts laid bare in front of me.

Seventeen hotels had slipped below the minimum level of performance on several criteria set by the board, and one in particular had failed every KPI, from financial targets to customer satisfaction scores.

The manager at that property had slowly been letting things slide for a few months now, but I’d held off firing him in the hope that he’d pick his performance back up. He’d started well, and I wanted to give him a chance to prove himself. For all I knew, he might have personal issues he was dealing with that were affecting his performance.

The problem was that even after sending in a team to help him, the changes they’d implemented hadn’t taken hold, and now, just a few short weeks later, we were back to square one.

Sighing heavily, I opened my iPad and began making notes. An hour later, I buzzed Priya.

“Can you get the jet ready to leave for Chicago this afternoon?”

“Sure thing. How long are you planning to be away?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“No problem. I’ll get right on it.”

“Thanks.”

I sent the report to the board, delegating the other sixteen below-par performers to my deputy CEO, with an order to report back to me daily. Then I emailed Dad. He’d find out soon enough. Might as well head him off at the pass and let him know I’d seen the issue.

When he responded by asking if I wanted some company on the trip to Chicago, I almost agreed. Then a far better idea came to me. I replied, assuring him that I had it under control with a promise to keep him updated, and then I grabbed my jacket and phone and headed out.

On arrival at Kingcaid Seattle, I found Philippe in the middle of calming an irate customer. I hung back, watching how he dealt with the situation with alacrity. In less than a minute, the guest was laughing and joking and clapping Philippe on the upper arm as if they were long-lost friends. I waited until he’d finished, then wandered over.

“Philippe, got a second?”

I didn’t need his permission to take Kiana with me to Chicago, but it was a common courtesy to ask him, considering she was his direct report, not mine. Besides which, she was rabid in her determination to keep our relationship a secret. Even though the weekend had changed everything in my eyes, from a work perspective, our mutual declarations of love had changed nothing for her. And to prove that I took her feelings seriously, I’d agreed to her request that we keep to the arrangement to separate work and our personal lives. I didn’t like it. I wanted the world to know she was mine. But I’d agreed to it.

For now.

“Of course, Asher. My office?”

I gestured to him. “Lead the way.”

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