Page 2 of Secret Desire (Sapphic Billionaire Club #3)

Ashley

“ I don’t know if this is a good idea,” I repeated for at least the third time this week.

My sister gave me an impatient look across her desk.

“Ash, I’m not going to force you to work with me if you don’t really want to, but I’ll remind you that AGM is one of the most successful development companies in the Midwest.” She pinned me with a hard stare. “I’ve got people beating down the doors begging to work here.”

“I know,” I said in a conciliatory tone. “I just don’t want people to think I got this job because my sister is one of the company founders.”

“Who cares what they think?” she asked.

Not Ariel. She’d stopped caring what people thought long ago. Of course when you were as rich and powerful as my sister was, people cared what you thought, not the other way around.

“Besides, everyone here knows that you’ve made a name for yourself in this field already.

If I just saw your resume and portfolio, I wouldn’t have hesitated to call you in for an interview.

Anyone who doesn’t know what your qualifications are, they’re the problem, not you.

You’re here because you’re qualified, not as charity.

We don’t hire anyone who isn’t the best at what they do. ”

“No, you’re right, and I’m sorry to sound ungrateful.”

My sister wasn’t exaggerating, every designer or development professional in this city would give their eye teeth to work here.

AGM had an excellent reputation, and the fact that it was run by three strong women made it even more attractive for those of us who’d had bad experiences with men in the industry.

Like my smarmy boss at my last job. It was bad enough he took credit for all my work, but the way he couldn’t keep his hands off me was another thing entirely.

I mean sure, I guess I could have gone to Human Resources when his incessant hitting on me turned physical, but my knee making contact with his balls sent a much more effective message.

Fortunately for me a trio of my coworkers were standing right outside the glass wall of the conference room and saw the whole thing go down. Needless to say, my old boss was fired. I still resigned -- after negotiating a generous “keep quiet and don’t sue us” settlement, that is.

That money gave me a nice emergency fund. I made good money and had a healthy savings account, and it was nice to know that I had enough money to deal with anything that came up. The last thing I wanted to do was go to my billionaire sister and beg for money.

Although we’d never been particularly close, I knew she wouldn’t hesitate to help me if I asked. But I’d never ask.

“Besides,” Ariel continued, “Maeve will be your boss, so that will keep people from thinking you’re getting any special favors from me.”

My mind went to a very inappropriate place when I thought of Maeve and ‘special favors’ in the same sentence.

I had a crush on Maeve the entire time I was growing up, although it wasn’t until I was in high school that I realized that’s what it was.

Right about the time I realized that I was a lesbian.

Unfortunately, Maeve had always treated me like a little sister. And while she’d been nicer to me growing up than my own sister, my teenage fantasies were crushed when I turned eighteen without a declaration of love from Maeve.

I hadn’t seen her since my high school graduation until I attended Ariel and Sophie’s engagement party a couple of months ago.

I’d walked into the restaurant where the event was being held, seen Maeve, and promptly crashed into someone, spilling their drink on both of us.

I’d spent the rest of the party trying to avoid her, but now that Maeve was going to be my boss, that tactic likely wouldn’t work.

“Hey Ariel. Hi Ashley.”

Speak of the devil. I stood up to greet Maeve as she walked into Ariel’s office.

She’d been pretty when we were younger, but now she was stunningly beautiful.

She had long and thick golden hair, eyes that were blue or gray depending on the light, thick pink lips, and a little birthmark at the corner of her mouth, kind of like that model Cindy Crawford.

Today she was wearing a tailored dress, black with a light white geometric design, that hugged her curves. My eyes dropped to her breasts before snapping back up to her face. I resisted the urge to fan myself as my pulse picked up.

Damn it, this was inconvenient. I’d almost convinced myself that what happened at the engagement party was just some kind of a stress reaction to what was happening at work.

But no, I still had a crush on Maeve. Or something.

I didn’t really have the words to describe this intense physical reaction to her.

“Hey Ash, are you ready for your first day at AGM?” my new boss asked in a friendly tone.

My sister had started the development company years ago with her life-long best friends Maeve and Grace, using each of their initials for the company name. Maeve was the Chief Executive Officer, Ariel was the Chief Operating Officer, and Grace was Vice President.

AGM specialized in commercial development, mostly nightclubs and restaurants, although they occasionally worked on projects with an attached residential component or wellness spaces. And they had a plan to start branching out into hotels.

That’s where I came in. My specialty was designing high end places where people could be pampered.

“I’m ready,” I answered Maeve, getting out of my chair to extend a hand like the professional I was supposed to be. “Thank you for the opportunity.”

Maeve’s eyes dropped to my outstretched hand, and I saw her suppress a smile as she extended hers as well. Great, the woman I had a crush on still thought I was amusing. Although she wouldn’t think anything of it if a stranger offered her a handshake.

I stepped closer, and the toe of my shoe caught on something on the carpet.

Suddenly I was pitching forward, my arms windmilling as I tried to prevent a fall.

The next thing I knew, I was crashing into Maeve’s soft body.

Her arms went around me, preventing me from hitting the floor, and we both grunted as the impact knocked the air out of us.

I looked up into her startled eyes, a dark gray right now, and winced.

“Oops, sorry about that.”

“Way to make an impression on your first day,” Maeve joked.

We stared at each other for a long, charged moment, my heart thudding in my chest. I had the strangest urge to stretch my head forward and kiss her.

Ariel cleared her throat, and I realized we were still holding each other. I cursed my pale skin as I felt a flush of embarrassment rise up my cheeks. Stepping away from Maeve, I turned my attention back to my sister.

“Put in a work order to get that loose carpet fixed before someone else trips on it,” Maeve told Ariel. “Someone’s going to get hurt.”

“Yeah yeah.”

Seeing that my sister would forget about it within the next thirty seconds I made a mental note to tell someone about the loose piece of carpet.

“HR will do an orientation with you and our other new hire,” Ariel told me. “That will take several hours. But first, Theo will get you set up in your new office and help you log onto the network.”

“I’ll take you,” Maeve volunteered before turning to my sister.

“Great thanks.”

“Before you go,” Ariel stopped me. “Sadie and I would like to have you over for dinner tonight. If you’re free that is.”

Well, that was a surprise. I wasn’t estranged from my sister or anything, but we also weren’t particularly close.

I saw her on holidays, and we usually texted once or twice a week, but unless there was something we needed to talk about, we didn’t usually hang out.

Our seven year age difference had always been a barrier, and it was only recently that Ariel had seemed to acknowledge that I was a grown woman and not just some pesky kid.

Then again, Sadie had softened my sister.

Her partner was good at poking fun at that big ego Ariel had, and for her part, Ariel seemed devoted to Sadie.

I was glad to see it. Our parents had a long marriage, but I wouldn’t say it was particularly happy.

It was nice that at least someone in the family had found true love.

My eyes strayed to Maeve again before I could stop them, then I remembered my sister’s invitation.

“Sure, that would be nice. What time should I be there?”

“How about six?” Ariel suggested. “I have a conference call at five, but it should be over by then and we can head upstairs together.”

The AGM offices were located in AGM Tower, my sister’s pride and joy.

She and Grace and Maeve had built this project together after their company took off.

Sleek and modern, it took up an entire city block on Chicago’s prestigious Gold Coast. It was a mixed use building housing a restaurant on the first floor, an exclusive nightclub on floors two and three, then two floors of offices for AGM, along with several floors of high end condos.

The top four floors were private though.

The three business partners had each taken a floor for themselves, building their private residences.

The top floor was a shared recreational space with a pool, gym, game room, and a sauna.

Next to all this luxury, my perfectly nice apartment on the near north side looked like a dump.

“Six is fine, I’ll see you later.”

I followed Maeve down the hall, my designer’s eye appreciating the understated elegance of the space.

“This is your office,” she told me, leading me into a modern space with a desk, small conference table, and floor to ceiling windows looking out over Lake Michigan. It was twice as large as the office I had at my last job.

“Nice view,” I said.

“My office is right down the hall,” Maeve said. “I’ll ping Theo and let him know that you’re ready for him. You’ve met him before, right?”

“No, not yet.”

Maeve gave me a strange look.

“That’s weird, he’s one of your sister’s best friends.”

I shrugged. “Ariel and I have never been close. I was shocked when she called me and suggested that I come work here at AGM.”

I wasn’t even sure how she knew what happened with my former boss. I hadn’t mentioned it to her, and I certainly hadn’t said anything to our parents, who seemed to think I was an irresponsible fuck-up. Then again, the grapevine in Chicago operated fast, so Ariel probably heard it that way.

“Maybe this will be a good opportunity for you and your sister to get to know each other as adults,” Maeve suggested. “Working together could be good for you.”

“Maybe.” I had my doubts. My sister had never been particularly interested in me. Then again, she’d been busy building an empire.

Maeve patted my arm, and I felt a little zing of electricity where her palm touched my skin. She stared at her hand with a tiny little frown, telling me that she felt it too. Then she pulled back suddenly, like I’d burned her, and headed for the door, walking quickly.

“I’ll see you this afternoon.”