Can't Let You Go

Chapter 45

"How was lunch with your friend?" Ashton asks Emily when she returns late in the afternoon.

"A little frustrating. We had our wires crossed and I went to the wrong place first and I had to go all the way across town."

"Who was this person again?"

"Just someone from my old high school. We'd lost touch, but I ran into her a while back."

"Oh, okay. Hey, have you made a decision on anything yet?"

"On what?"

"On the location of your studio or on which company you'll work with for the ski resort project."

"It's so hard to pick which studio option I want. There's pros and cons to all of them."

"You picked this building really quickly when we were apartment hunting. Maybe the reasons you chose it can be applied to your studio. Why did you pick this place?"

"Oh, I don't know. The aura? The fact that it was a tear down inside and I could completely redesign it myself? The location? Everything I guess. I just love it. I never want to move."

"If we applied those criteria to the studio options, then I guess you'd pick the place in the high rise on Bryson Avenue. It's a blank slate and has those exterior walls which are practically full height windows. Plus it's close to Hazen Holdings, so it would work really well if you decide to partner with them on the ski resort. That will be going on for years, you'll have to be over there all the time."

"Those are good points and that location is probably the right choice since you suggested it. You're the best at looking out for me." She kisses him and slips into his lap.

He slides one hand up her shirt and the other up her skirt. "Yeah? How are you going to thank me? Like this?" He kisses and gropes her. "I deserve a real big thank you for making all aspects of your life so easy to connect with that one common thread. I've practically tied you up with a bow."

"I think you're mixing your metaphors, Babe." She unbuttons her blouse.

"Am I? I don't think so, because that one common thread is Will Bennet and you're ready to give yourself to him all over again, just like you did the first time, for your birthday. Which one of you counted as the present?"

"I don't know what you mean." She licks and nibbles on his ear.

"I didn't mention it before because, at the time, I was in Alaris looking at studio spaces to surprise you, but I saw him. Will Bennet. In this building. He lives here, too."

She tries to pull away and look at Ashton's face, but he grips her strongly and won't let go.

"Has for ten years according to Max at the front desk."

"But--"

She cuts off her sentence with a moan as Ashton sucks the spot on her neck that makes her wet.

"I know how your brain works as well as I know how to hit all the right spots on your body." He touches her damp panties to illustrate the point. "I knew something was strange the moment you told me you didn't want me to come along to Hazen Holdings. I just didn't expect that the man you told me was Liam Hazen is actually Will Bennet."

"Ashton, you've got the wrong idea."

"Have I?" He sucks her neck again.

"The tension between the two of you in the office yesterday was so thick. It must have upset him to see you with your fiance after having you all to himself for so many weeks. Is he just as good as you remember him or were you telling me the truth when you said I'm the best you've ever had?" He rubs her through her panties. "Do you moan loudly and shout his name when you fuck him?"