The devil wears Versace (Lashton)

Information

Ashton ate slowly as Leliana rambled about different things. He still needed to get information from her but he wasn't sure how to do it.

"Is that your phone?" Leliana asked breaking Ashton from his thoughts.

Sure enough, Ashton's phone was buzzing on the table next to him.

"It's Luke, I'm sorry, I have to take this." Ashton apologized as he answered the phone.

"How's it going?" Luke asked as soon as he heard Ashton's voice.

"Fine." Ashton answered vaguely.

"Can you be any more vague." Luke snapped.

"Sorry, it's just hard to say at this point." Ashton said not looking at Leliana.

"Well have you gotten any info yet?" Luke huffed.

"Not yet, I'm still working on it. But the flights are taken care of." Ashton said trying to hide the topic in case Leliana started to question.

"I'm gonna need a better report within the next hour. Call me." Luke demanded before hanging up.

Ashton sighed as he put his phone down.

"Hey, don't let him get to you." Leliana said lifting Ashton's chin so he was looking at her.

"I need a drink." Ashton sighed again.

"Ooh, good idea." Leliana nodded.

-

"So then I tried flirting with him at the gala but wouldn't have anything to do with me. I've never told anybody this before but I hate Luke with all my heart." Leliana rambled.

"Why is that?" Ashton asked interested. She had, had a few glasses of wine and was very talkative something Ashton was planning on using for his benefit.

"Ever since I was sixteen my parents wanted me to own Versace and Gucci. When I wrote the proposal against Luke's father he backed down and Luke stepped up causing my proposal to fall through. My parents were pissed. For three years now I've been trying to work with him to combine the companies and take it out from under him." Leliana was offering the information easier than Ashton expected.

"So you're going to pitch the idea this weekend?" Ashton asked.

"That's the plan. Zayn Malik and Jade Thirlwall said I have a good case. I just need to get the marketing council on board then we can start the merger." Leliana explained.

"What would cause them to say no?" Ashton frowned taking a sip of his beer.

"Luke would have to write up his own proposal that they liked better or he'd have to have something to pin against me causing my proposal to void out." Leliana answered simply.

"Good thing he doesn't have anything to pin against you." Ashton smiled trying to be subtle as he pressed for more information.

"Yeah, like if he knew about some of the things I've done in order to make numbers work to get this proposal to look good, I'd be in big trouble." Leliana said taking another sip of wine.

"Like what?" Ashton frowned.

"I can't tell you." Leliana giggled.

"Fair enough." Ashton nodded. He needed to talk to Luke.

"Oh my goodness, what time is it?" Ashton checked his phone to find 3 texts and two missed calls from Luke.

"Shit, Luke has been trying to get ahold of me. I have to call him back. I'll be right back." Ashton jumped up and hurried out of the restaurant.

"Braxton, where the hell have you been? You were supposed to call me." Luke barked into the phone.

"I know, I'm sorry, I was getting info and lost track of time." Ashton apologized.

"Did you get anything useful at least?" Luke snapped.

"Yes." Ashton told him everything Leliana had told him.

"Perfect, now we need to find out what she did to make the numbers look good." Luke said thoughtfully.

"I'll keep trying." Ashton said.

"Good, call me when you get home."

"Yes, sir." Ashton agreed before hanging up.

-

Ashton lead Leliana up to her condo. She could barely stand.

"Let's get you to bed." Ashton said gently pushing Leliana into what Ashton assumed was the master bedroom.

"But I'm not tired." Leliana slurred.

"But you're extremely drunk." Ashton said with a chuckle.

Ashton laid her on her bed and slid her heels off of her.

"I had so much fun tonight." Leliana mumbled closing her eyes.

"Me too, I'm going to get you some water." Ashton smiled before making his way to the kitchen. He got a glass of water and returned to Leliana's room to find her already asleep. Ashton covered her with a blanket and made his way out of the room.

As he was walking to the front door he stopped short when he saw an envelope that read confidential on the front. He turned it over to see the seal already broken. Carefully he opened it and pulled out a small stack of papers. It was the proposal for the merger. Ashton felt a smile creep on his face. Perfect.

As he was flipping through the pages a zip drive dropped to the floor. Written on the side were the words hard copy. Ashton grinned widely slipping the drive into his pocket before putting the pages back.

-

Luke looked over to see his phone illuminate with a text from Ashton.

"I have something you want to see."

Luke bit his lip at the choice of words.

"Come over." Luke replied eagerly. He was excited to see what Ashton found and also excited to see the brunette himself. Luke hated to admit he was jealous of Leliana because he didn't know why he was but he definitely was.