Ethan, he feared, he might lose forever with this recent decision. The boy was as anti-marriage as they came and most of that fell on Vance’s shoulders, he knew. He’d enjoyed a brief affair with a paralegal which resulted in Ethan’s birth. A year after Zoe’s death Ethan’s mother killed herself and he came to live at Silver House. Despite the fact that he was born a year after Chase and a year before Jackson, the boys took to one another immediately. They were close and always had each other’s backs. But those were the only relationships Ethan gave a damn about. He kept his women for no more than three dates and then he moved on.
He’d hate for his boys to lose their birthright but he would hate it more if they followed his path and ended up lonely old men dating women young enough to be their daughters. Hell.
***
Chase was still fuming as he climbed the stairs to the gold room. He knew his dad loved to play the benevolent overlord but this was taking things too fucking far. He couldn’t think about that now, he had to work on the Steele Tech acquisition if he wanted it done by the end of this quarter. After a quick trip to his room he knocked on Brooke’s door and entered after a few muffled words and his heart rate doubled at the sight before him. Brooke, sexy and efficient Brooke was standing before him like a vision from the gods of lust and sex. Wearing nothing but a small scrap of black lace and a matching bra dangling from one arm, she wore a startled and slightly dazed expression at his intrusion.
The heat in her eyes, Chase was sure, mirrored his own. He took in every detail he could absorb. Her full breasts with stiff raspberry tipped nipples, that flat stomach tight with muscle and the flare of her hips calling out for his touch. Those high cut, barely there panties left very little to the imagination, giving him a glimpse of the small heart shaped patch of hair underneath made him clench his fists rather than run a finger up and down her sweet spot. He took one long look at the miles of leg on display before mumbling his apologies and shutting the door. “Shit,” he knocked his head on the heavy wood door behind him. “Brooke meet me in the library in thirty minutes.” He ran down the stairs as fast as he could as though he could outrun the image of his assistant looking like a walking wet dream.
After three hours of almost total silence in the library, both Chase and Brooke were ready to call it a night. The work was done but the room was thick with tension, both thinking about what happened earlier. Chase couldn’t even look at her without seeing those sweet pink nipples begging to be tasted by his mouth, those long legs wrapped around his neck, his hips as he thrust into her over and over again. For her part Brooke kept replaying the heated look on his face as he took in her naked body. She knew she was decent to look at with lots of wavy dark blonde hair, bright green eyes and more curves than she would like, but the way Chase looked at her in that moment made her feel like she was as beautiful as the women he was often photographed with at parties and fundraisers. Who are you kidding, he was simply reacting to a naked woman. Not you, she reminded herself. She had to remind herself time and again because she was moving on from her ill-advised crush on her boss.
“Let’s call it a night. We’ve done all we can and we can send the contracts to the lawyers tomorrow for review.” He stood, shaking out his stiff muscles and held the door open for her.
“I’m not going to argue with that.” She smiled shyly and slid carefully between his big body and the small doorway. She felt the heat of his body close behind her as she walked up the stairs, cringing at the thought of her big ass in such close proximity to his face. She quickly shook it off. If he doesn’t want to see it, he shouldn’t be so close dammit. At the door to the gold room she turned around to find Chase chest to chest with her. “What time should I,”
Before she could say another word Chase’s hands cupped her heart shaped face and his lips were on hers. Gentle at first and then hot and intense as he claimed her lips. His tongue worked magic on her mouth, inside her mouth, sending sparks of desire and electricity shooting throughout her entire body and centering at her increasingly wet core. She leaned in and pressed her body against his bigger, harder body and she let him own her mouth. It was a heady feeling to be the sole focus of Chase Silver and his wicked mouth and Brooke soaked it all in, giving as good as she got. A moan split the silence and she realized it was her but she didn’t give a damn. Chase was kissing her, taking over her mouth as though it was his. She could feel her arousal growing, the telltale moistening between her legs, her nipples hard to the point of pain. And she felt Chase pull away from the kiss. A dark frown marred his gorgeous face, his eyes more grey than blue at the moment and her heart sank. He regrets the kiss. She stood stock still as he frowned and muttered a barely audible, “goodnight” before slamming the door behind him.
Tears welled in her eyes, rejection washing over her like a warm suffocating blanket. She couldn’t believe it, she had come so close to forgetting about him and his handsome face and fun loving smile and he’d sucked her right back in with that hotter than hell kiss, only to frown in disgust like she was some ugly mutant. Well to hell with you Chase Silver and your bone melting kisses!
Two hours later and Brooke’s devastation and rejection turned into white hot anger. She’d been at a slow boil for the first hour after his door slammed on her heart and her ridiculous crush, but now she was just pissed off. How dare he make her feel like she was one of his discarded lovers, she was his assistant dammit. At times she thought they might even be friends but now she knew. She knew she would always and forever be his trusted assistant. The woman who made reservations for his dates with other women, sent breakup flowers and gifts to the discarded women and intercepted angry post-breakup calls. She was fine with that. She was. Really.
What she wasn’t fine with, however, was her boss ramming his tasty tongue down her throat and then storming off as if she’d done something wrong. With all her pacing she had worked herself up to a good bit of mad and she knocked on the door adjoining their rooms to confront him.
Chapter Three
He heard the quiet yet insistent knocks at his door and went to open it, sure it was one of his brothers wanting to commiserate over Vance’s high handed behavior. It was Brooke. Correction, it was Brooke wearing a pair of impossibly tiny emerald silk shorts with a matching lace top. It covered almost nothing and he was so mesmerized by all the flesh on display that he failed to notice the angry glint in her green eyes or the aggressive stance she took across from him.
“My eyes are up here.”
He looked up at the icy tone and the smile died on his face. “Can I help you Brooke?”
“Not hardly. But you can tell me what the hell you were thinking earlier?”