A Slave to Love, Broken Hearts, and Everything In Between

Chapter 4: Whisper, Part 1

Slave to Broken Hearts, Chapter 46: Whisper -- Ace POV

I was midway through rubbing the exhaustion from my eyes after finishing reading a particularly dull and large stack of papers concerning the annual budget when Jaime came knocking at my office door. Her presence was a reminder that this day was finally over. Perfect timing too, I was about ready to start a bonfire with all these reports. 

"There's someone here to see you," Jaime said, tucking her pen into her bun. "An old friend of yours. I told him to wait in eastern lobby."

I perked up immediately from where I had slouched back in my chair, back aching after pouring over papers for who even knew how many hours now. "An old friend?" 

Was it Blade? Was he finally going to put me out of my misery and talk to me again? Or was it bad news once more, like when Kiana moved out?

"Ricardo. I figured you would want to see him given your friendship and professional connections; I told him you were busy and he said he was happy to wait as he had a proposition to run by you," she said.

I had to give her credit, she delivered the news with a perfectly straight face. She knew as well as anyone his reputation, everyone who was in this business for five minutes did, as Rick's popularity and infamy almost surpassed even my own. Especially as his propositions tended not to be business related.

"If you're not quite done, I can go and tell him you'll contact him another time when it suits you," she continued, mouth twitching now.

Ha. As if I'd ever turn Rick away. It was a long day of work and while I was glad it was over and I'd be seeing Kiana soon--an already fantastic way to end a crappy day--getting to see Rick was extra wonderful and I wasn't sure how I'd gotten so lucky this evening.

"That wont be necessary, I'll talk to him," I said quickly, organizing the papers on my desk as efficiently as possible now that I had such a strong motivation to get me going. "Rick doesn't make house calls, not unless it's important so I'd better see what it's about."

While I was excited to see Rick after ages without, I still couldn't help being disappointed that it hadn't been Blade coming to pay me a visit. Wishful thinking of course. The guy knew how to hold a grudge, and if I had any doubts, I needn't look further than Eliza. Or Kiana.

Besides, if Rick was showing up out of the blue, it probably meant his proposition was going to give me a headache and a ton of paperwork, instead of the usual fun his presence normally brought. 

That didn't mean I wasn't excited to see him anyway though. I could look at that man for years and never be bored.

Jaime stayed to look over some last minute details for the meetings we had tomorrow while I hurried to the lobby, intent on laying my eyes on his handsome face even if he was delivering bad news; when it came from that mouth, nothing ever seemed quite so terrible. 

And there he was, in all his usual glory. The sight of him nearly knocked all the air from my lungs.

He must have come from some meeting himself, though his tie was missing, which left him in an open jacket, a tight button down and pants that were probably custom made to make him look absolutely mouth watering. He hadn't changed one bit, not since I'd last seen him a handful of years ago. Maybe less. I couldn't quite remember. Any period of time without him seemed torturously long and this particular year had been...busy. Either he had gotten more handsome and enticing with age or I was simply more desperate than usual with eight months of celibacy under my belt.

A fact that Lexi kept bringing up and annoying me with.

"You're a hard man to pin down," he said, leaning against the wall as his eyes raked my frame like he was trying to undress me with his mind. That alone, paired with vivid memories of him pinning me down quite effectively, was enough to send excitement tingling through me already. He crossed his arms over his chest, pulling his jacket tight over his muscled arms. I was damn near about to swoon.