I tore myself from going down memory lane for what seemed like the hundredth time, then stepped out of the elevator when I reached the fourteenth floor and headed straight for Ky’s office. After knocking once, I opened the door and stepped into his overly-large corner office, with views that made me constantly green with envy.
He was sitting behind his desk, tapping away mindlessly on his laptop, and his head snapped up at the intrusion. The narrowing of his eyes disbanded when his gaze locked onto mine.
“You’re early,” he announced happily, and rose from his desk. With two large strides, he was in front of me and pulling me in for a side hug.
“Want to grab some lunch before the meeting?” I asked, returning his hug.
“Sounds great. Let me finish this email, and then I’m all yours.”
He returned to his desk and started tapping away, while I headed for the visitors couch near his floor-to-ceiling windows. I pulled my phone from my purse, and started mindlessly flicking through Facebook to waste time. The usual whining and complaining, beautiful baby announcements, and photos from people’s weekend shenanigans filled my timeline.
What the fuck?
I inhaled sharply and stalled when a photo appeared and was linked to Josh’s wall. There I was, fast asleep, with a content smile playing on my lips. I was curled up, hugging a pillow, with a navy blue comforter covering my body.
With shaking hands, I scrolled down and looked at the comments.
Mitch Edwards: Is this your new girl? Fuck me, how do you get so lucky?
Angela South: Why haven’t I seen you lately? I miss your hands and mouth.
Samuel Decker: I’d love a piece of that ass. Why are you taking photos, you should be fucking her.
Mel Brown: She isn’t even that pretty. Call me soon babe.
My focus centered on the comments of the girls who’d obviously had a piece of Josh. At least I had something in common with them; we were all notches on Josh’s belt. The final comment under the photo caused my heart to hammer like crazy in my chest.
Josh Crawford: Prettiest girl in the world and all mine.
There was that word again: mine.
I hastily clicked out of Facebook and locked my phone. Josh couldn’t creep into my mind while I was having lunch and a meeting with Ky. What was Josh thinking? Why would he post a photo like that when we both knew Eden was just as addicted to Facebook as I was?
“What was that?” Ky asked beside me, his eyes locked firmly on the screen of my phone.
I had to think quickly. How could I possibly explain why his brother had a photo of me on his Facebook, asleep, and with an epic sex haze covering my face? Oh god, now I was thinking about sex with Josh. Shut up, hormones. “It was your brother being an idiot. Let’s go and get sushi,” I finally said, cringing at the weakness of my response.
Anxiously, I watched Ky process what I said. After what felt like an eternity, Ky swallowed my words as truth and I unleashed the breath I didn’t realize I was holding.
“Let’s go.”
After the ten-minute walk to Sake, we took a seat at our usual table, and I couldn’t ignore the questioning looks Ky continued to fire at me. Being best friends with him was amazing, but it was also impossible to hide anything from him. He wasn’t as thorough as Josh at reading me, but he had his own unique way, and right now, he was trying to read me, because he had the look plastered all over his face.
“Has Lachlan been in contact with you? I am so fucking sorry all that shit went down. If I had known . . .”
My regret of not being honest with him still sat heavily in my heart. He was my best friend, and I needed to make it right between us. “No, he hasn’t, and I don’t think he will. Josh made it very clear that he should stay away from me. I’m moving on, Ky. Full force. And I just want to forget that I gave him a second chance. I’m spending some time finding myself again, and I’d really love my best friend to help me with that. I am so sorry that I didn’t say anything to you.”
“I’ll help anyway I can, and please, no more apologies.” The smile he offered in reply disappeared, and his eyes narrowed as he gave me the don’t-give-me-bullshit tone. “Now tell me what’s got you so on edge today?”
I clutched the glass of sparkling water that was placed in front of me, and lifted it to my lips. I needed a moment to figure out what the hell I was going to say. How could I possibly tell him that his brother had ravished me, given me more orgasms in two weeks then my ex gave me in two months, and that I was still throbbing in beautiful delight as I sat across from him?
“I’m just tired. It’s been a big couple of days with moving back home and working on the blog. Lots of emails, phone calls, and not enough sleep.”
Being under Ky’s intense glare caused me to become a mass of anxiety. Seriously, these Crawford brothers were going to leave me with early-onset grey hair and wrinkles at the rate they were going. I continued sipping my water and tearing at my napkin. I felt his eyes bearing into me, and my head snapped up at the sound of his soft laughter.
“You do realize that’s a sign of sexual frustration.” He laughed and nodded to the pile of torn napkin in front of me.
Water shot up my throat and threatened to escape out my nose as I started choking. My unfortunate scene only encouraged Ky’s laughter to grow louder. Once I got myself under control, I shot Ky a look of pure fury and folded my arms across my chest like I was a child throwing a tantrum.
“You’ll have to go out with Josh one night and rectify that,” Ky continued with a touch of tease to his voice.
This was getting worse by the minute. Little did he know that his brother already rectified any form of sexual frustration I would have for eternity, and had single handily ruined me and my vagina for any other man.
“My frustration is none of your concern.” I pushed my little pile of shredded napkin to the side and avoided his gaze. I could feel my cheeks flushing. This was horrendous.
“One night out with Josh and you’ll find yourself a man to scratch that itch.”
My eyes shot wide. “For the love of all things holy, can you please not mention the words ‘scratch that itch’ when referring to my sex life?”
“Whatever you say, Ash, but you know I’m right. One night out with Josh and you’ll be a changed woman.”
He had absolutely no clue how right he was.
My meeting at Bangs and Beats was productive and Josh free. I sighed in relief as I walked toward the elevators to head home and get a start on my new assignment. Though I wasn’t styling with Alessandra anymore, I was contracted for some advisory work on an upcoming issue, and I couldn’t say no to the opportunity.
I felt him before I saw him.
The familiar scent that caused shivers to run down my spine and goosebumps to take over my skin hit me, and my eyes slammed shut as I felt his heat penetrate my back.
“You thought you could come to the office and sneak away without seeing me?”
“I had a meeting with Ky,” I whispered breathlessly.
“My office is right next door, Ashy.”
Josh grabbed my waist. His hands felt like they burned through the material of my skirt and hit my skin. His breath danced over the sensitive area of my neck, and I involuntarily shivered in delight.
“I’m just heading home,” I stammered, and turned to face him. That was my first mistake. My eyes took a life of their own and traveled down his body. The perfect amount stubble graced his jaw, his hair was wild, and his body was covered in a tailored charcoal grey suit with a dark blue shirt. Damn it to hell, he was dangerous to my libido.