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

Maeve

I left Ashley’s new office and walked directly into my private restroom, closing the door behind me and leaning against it with a shaky sigh. What had just happened? Had I just had ‘a moment’ with my best friend’s little sister?

I sank to the floor, grateful that the housekeeping crew kept this space spotless. Other than a brief sighting at Ariel’s engagement party, I hadn’t seen Ashley in years, not since she was eighteen.

She’d changed a lot over the years. She held herself with a confidence she didn’t have back then.

Her light brown hair was straight now, blown out to fall to her shoulders in a sleek curtain.

Her curves had filled in, and while she was still lean, she had softly rounded hips and breasts that were more than just a handful.

Not that I noticed of course. She was my best friend’s little sister and my new employee.

I definitely should not be thinking about her breasts, that was strictly forbidden.

I should keep my focus on her face. Yes, that’s it.

Those intelligent brown eyes, creamy smooth skin, the pert little nose that upturned just a little bit.

And those thick lips, highlighted by a shiny pink gloss. I’d love to see those lips on my…

Wait, that was a bad direction. I should focus on her professional credentials, which were impressive.

She’d made quite a name for herself in the city, designing both residential space and luxury spas.

We didn’t have a lot of capacity on the team in that area, and when my partners and I discussed offering Ashley a job, we’d figured that her skills would transfer over to some of our other projects as well, including the boutique hotel projects we were pursuing.

I’d offered to be Ashley’s supervisor. I figured it would be too awkward for her to be working under her sister, especially given that they still had a little sibling…

well, not rivalry exactly, but there was definitely something there.

It was like they’d never taken the time to get to know each other as adults.

And Grace had until recently been working two jobs, so Ashley working on my team made the most sense.

We could have assigned her to one of the other managers on the team, but I nixed that, deciding that I’d take her under my wing.

Now I was regretting that decision, because I’d taken one look at Ashley and fallen completely in love with her. Ridiculous, I know. It wasn’t exactly love at first sight, or maybe it was, because it was my first sight of her as an adult, other than a brief contact at the engagement party.

I had a feeling that I was in big, big trouble.

I just needed to keep things professional with Ashley. After all, she’d just left a job with a boss who hit on her. I was not going to be the next boss who sexually harassed her.

With a sigh I pushed myself back up to standing. I was supposed to be a badass CEO. It was time I acted like it. Time to get back to work.

By the end of the day I was feeling frazzled and out of sorts.

Every accidental sighting of Ashley made me feel like more of a creep.

To make up for being distracted I worked late, then headed upstairs to my condo.

Usually the familiar surroundings calmed me, but not tonight.

After wandering around aimlessly I decided I needed to exercise to clear my head.

I put on my swimsuit and headed up to the indoor/outdoor pool on the top floor, swimming hard until I was exhausted. Then I soaked in the hot tub until the rest of my stress faded away.

I was feeling much better after some time in the water. This area was private to me and my best friends – well, and Sadie now – so I didn’t bother with a cover up, just drying myself and throwing my towel around my neck so I could go back to my place to shower.

I got onto the elevator. It went one floor down, then stopped on Ariel’s floor.

I assumed it would be Ariel or Sadie, but to my surprise it was Ashley who was waiting to get on.

I’d never even seen her in the building before although I was sure she must have visited her sister from time to time. They were strangers, but not estranged.

“Oh. Hey Maeve,” Ashley said, clearly as surprised to see me as I was to see her. “I, uh, I had dinner with Ariel and Sadie.”

“That’s right,” I said, remembering Ariel’s earlier invitation.

Of course I managed to run into Ashley the one time she was up in here in the private residence area. It’s the way my life was going right now.

The doors started to close, so I stuck my hand out to stop them. “Hop on.”

Ashley walked onto the elevator, and the small space suddenly seemed super hot.

When I glanced over, Ashley’s eyes were fixed on my body, eyes traveling from my breasts to my ankles, her gaze so warm I could almost feel it on my skin.

Given that I was wearing a boring and functional one piece bathing suit that was suitable for swimming laps, I felt flattered by the attention.

So were my nipples. They were standing at attention, poking through my swimsuit. I cleared my throat to pull Ashley’s attention back to my face.

“Did you have a nice swim?” she asked. “Ariel showed me the pool the first time I visited her here. It looks lovely.”

“You’re always welcome to use the pool,” I said, immediately imagining her in a tiny bikini. “The hot tub too.”

A vision of the two of us making out in the bubbling water hit me so hard that I had to press my thighs together.

Keep your mind on work, I reminded myself sternly.

Suddenly the elevator stuttered, shaking the car and making Ashley gasp.

“It does that sometimes,” I assured her. “We have a maintenance inspection in a few weeks and they’re going to check it out.”

Ashley nodded, but I noticed that she had a white knuckle grip on the handrail now. Meanwhile I was deep into a ‘trapped in the elevator and making out’ fantasy, which was not helpful.

“How was your first day?” I asked, trying to distract her. And me.

Other than a brief meeting with the rest of the team, I hadn’t spoken with her since I dropped her off in her office this morning.

Ashley brightened. “It was good. Everyone was really nice, especially Theo.”

Theo was Ariel’s assistant, our project manager, and the only person who seemed to fully understand our IT system, making him invaluable. He was also the resident busybody.

“Filled you in on all the gossip, did he?” I asked.

Ashley laughed. “I’ll never tell.”

The elevator dinged as it stopped at my floor. For some reason, I had the strongest urge to invite Ashley to come in. I reigned in the impulse.

“Well this is my floor,” I said unnecessarily. “I’ll see you tomorrow at work.”

“Goodnight.”

I could feel her eyes on me as I walked away but resisted looking back. And I definitely didn’t think of her as I tried to sleep that night.

The next day I had a supervision meeting with Ashley.

I needed to give her some assignments and check in about expectations.

Routine stuff, but it felt weird doing that with a woman I’d known since she was in diapers – and now had a crush on.

It was too bad we were both in the office, it would have been easier to have this meeting on Zoom.

“I’m going to have you shadow me for a while on the Clark Street project,” I told Ashley. “It’s what we generally do with new hires to ensure they learn the way we do things here at AGM. Then we can do a soft hand-off of the design team once you know all the partners on the project.”

“That sounds good,” Ashley said. “I looked at our application for the project and I think the combination of a wellness center, juice bar, and apartments will be a great project for me to get started on here. And I’m already familiar with most of the contractors we have on the project so it should be an easy transition. ”

“When did you read the file?” I asked in surprise.

“Theo gave it to me, so I read it last night before I went to dinner at Ariel’s,” she said. “I like to be prepared.”

I gave her a nod of approval. “Good job.”

We made eye contact and suddenly we were just staring at each other, neither of us moving.

Ashley looked good today. Totally professional.

Not that I expected anything less. She was wearing a navy blue pencil skirt with a white blouse, thin red belt, and red shoes.

Her makeup was subtle – a shiny pink gloss, a little mascara – if she was wearing more than that I couldn’t tell.

Her hair was smoothed back into a low ponytail at the base of her neck.

During our meeting she’d pulled out reading glasses, igniting wholly inappropriate librarian fantasies in my naughty mind.

We both jumped as I heard a knock on the door, finally breaking our eye contact.

“Do you have a minute Maeve?”

I turned to see Theo standing in the doorway. He was a tall, well-dressed black man with a shiny bald head, perfect white teeth, and the handsome face of a model. Ariel had literally plucked him off the street and given him a job, and he’d risen through the ranks to become her personal assistant.

Recently we’d given him some project management work as well.

Grace had dragged us into a giant collaborative application that involved her parents’ company as well as a company belonging to Grace’s high school rival, Nicole.

Although they weren’t rivals anymore... We’d all figured out they were in love with each other, even though Grace hadn’t admitted it to us yet.

“Sure, Ashley and I were just finishing up,” I told Theo.

Looking at my newest employee I added, “I’ll have my assistant forward you all of our meetings related to the Clark Street projects so you have them on your calendar.”

“That sounds great. Thank you for your time today, Maeve.”

Her words were appropriate. Professional. My thoughts, however, were something quite different. And by the way Theo was sizing us up, I had a feeling he knew it. He was way too perceptive.

“Are you coming to Found Family Dinner on Saturday?” Theo asked Ashley as she stood to leave.

“I don’t know what that is,” she said.

“Your sister organizes it with Maeve and Grace,” he explained. “It’s a monthly dinner at the restaurant for all the orphans.”

“Orphans?” she asked in confusion.

“People who aren’t close with their families. People who are new to town. Anyone who’s queer or queer-supportive and wants to enjoy good food, conversation, and dancing. I’m actually surprised your sister never invited you.”

“We don’t do much socially,” she said, looking uncomfortable. “I don’t want to crash her thing.”

“I’ll talk to her,” Theo said. “I’m sure she wouldn’t mind you joining us.”

There was a flash of something in her expression – hurt maybe – but it was gone quickly. I resolved to try to get the sisters to get to know each other better. Maybe I could enlist Sadie to help.

“No,” Ashley said. “Thanks for the invitation but I actually have plans on Saturday anyway.”

She was lying and we both knew it, but before Theo could pounce I said, “Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow Ash. Let me know if you have any questions in the meantime.”

As soon as Ashley left Theo dropped into the chair she’d vacated and leaned across the table, giving me a big smile.

“So… you and Ashley, huh?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said evenly, suddenly fascinated with my notepad.

“You were looking at that girl like you wanted to eat her up,” he said in a knowing voice that irritated me.

“She’s not a girl,” I snapped. “She’s twenty-eight.”

Theo smirked. “Don’t worry, she was looking at you the same way. There was definite eye fucking going on between you two.”

“No there wasn’t,” I said firmly.

Theo just stared at me.

“She’s my employee, and my best friend’s little sister,” I reminded him.

Or maybe I was reminding myself.

“I can’t wait to see how this plays out,” Theo said. “Now about my question…”