Page 7 of Secret Desire (Sapphic Billionaire Club #3)

Maeve

I woke up Sunday morning wrapped around my best friend’s little sister. We were both naked and after spending most of the night making each other come, we’d slept late. Later than I usually did.

“Oh crap,” I groaned.

“What’s wrong?” Ashley mumbled.

“I didn’t mean for you to sleep over.”

She rolled over to look at me, a frown creasing the space between her eyebrows.

“What’s the problem?” she asked. “I’m not some random chick you hooked up with on a street corner.”

“It’s not uncommon for Ariel and Grace and I to be in and out of each other’s houses, especially on the weekend,” I explained. “We don’t stand on ceremony. We just come in. And you and I agreed to keep this… whatever this is… just between us, remember?”

Ashley rolled her eyes. “I liked you better when you were moaning my name and begging me to make you come again.”

And now I was wet. Again. She sat up, and my eyes went right to her full breasts. Breasts that I’d worshipped with my fingers and tongue multiple times last night. They swayed slightly as she moved.

“What time is it anyway?” she asked.

“Nine thirty.”

She blew out a sigh and stood up. “I’ve got to go anyway. I’m meeting someone for brunch and I’m going to need to shower and change before I go.”

I felt a completely inappropriate flash of jealousy.

“Who are you meeting for brunch?” I asked with forced casualness.

Ashley looked over as she shimmied into her underwear. “No one you know. Why?”

“Just wondering,” I shrugged, feigning a casualness that I didn’t feel. “I thought maybe we could hang out or something.”

Ashley hooked her bra behind her back then arranged her full breasts into the cups before answering.

“Two minutes ago you were upset I was still here, now you want to hang out?” she asked incredulously. “Either this is a secret, or it isn’t. Don’t give me whiplash.”

I jumped out of bed and Ashley’s gaze traveled down my naked body before bouncing back up to my face.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know how to do this,” I said softly. “Last night was… like nothing I’ve experienced before. But what happens now?”

“We agreed to hang out and see what happens, right? Be friends with benefits?” she reminded me as she pulled on her dress from last night. “I think we both had a good time, right?”

She looked over at me for confirmation and I nodded.

“Perfect. So we’ll figure out another time to hang out. Maybe at my place next time so you don’t have a morning panic.”

“You know why we need to keep this a secret, Ash,” I said. “It will be as bad for you as it will be for me if this gets out, especially this soon.”

She sighed. “Yeah, I know, but I have to tell you, this felt like something more than just a casual fuck between friends to me.”

The look she gave me was uncharacteristically vulnerable, and I immediately crossed the room to take her into my arms.

“I don’t know what this is, but it’s not a casual fuck,” I said firmly. “I… this feels different from anything else I’ve experienced, and I’m going to be honest and tell you that it’s messing with my mind. You don’t fit into any of the boxes in my brain.”

“I fit into all your boxes,” she teased. “You just can’t confine me in one.”

She leaned forward and pressed a quick kiss to my lips. “I’m going to head out. Let’s take some time and figure out what happens next, okay? We have a busy week at work anyway, we won’t have time for canoodling. We can talk in a few days.”

“Okay,” I agreed, even though I wasn’t very happy about it. Then again, I didn’t know what the alternative was. “I’ll see you at work Monday then?”

“Yeah. I’ll take the stairs just in case,” she said, walking towards the bedroom door.

“It’s a long way down,” I protested. “Take the elevator. I’ll go with you and make sure no one’s coming down before you get on.”

“Fine.”

Four days later I was going crazy. It was a super busy week and between meetings, work-related social events, and doing actual work, I put in several ten hour days.

Throughout the week I had several meetings with Ashley.

Every time I saw her across the conference room or ran into her in the hallway it was all I could do not to pull her into my arms, kiss her senseless, and tell everyone she was mine.

Except she wasn’t. And she couldn’t be. That didn’t keep me from wanting it to be true though.

We were finishing up a meeting on Thursday when Theo came into my office.

“Just the two people I want to see,” he said, pointing between me and Ashley. “May I have a few minutes?”

Ashley and I exchanged a look as the other people left the room. I knew she was wondering if Theo had figured out that something was going on between us now. I wouldn’t put it past him to watch the security cameras to track everyone’s comings and goings.

“What is it Theo?” I asked in my best ‘I’m a busy CEO’ voice as I stood up to encourage him to be brief.

While that voice intimidated most of our staff, it did nothing for Theo. He just raised an eyebrow at me and quirked his lips.

“It’s about Grace.”

I plopped back down into my chair. “What about her? I thought she was perking up now.”

She’d still been obviously depressed when Ariel and I had an AGM partners meeting with her yesterday but for the most part, she seemed to be feeling at least a little bit better.

Or she was getting better at hiding her misery, afraid we’d descend on her apartment and drag her out of bed again.

I was pretty sure she got bruised last time.

“We got a very nice architectural proposal for the Clark Street project,” he said.

“I should go,” Ashley said. “Architecture is not in my purview.”

“Wait,” Theo instructed. “The proposal is from Nicole Lowenthal’s new architecture firm.”

“Nicole submitted a proposal to AGM?” I asked in surprise. “I’m surprised she would do that after everything that happened.”

I turned to Ashley. “That’s the woman Grace is in love with,” I explained.

She nodded, which told me she’d heard the story from Theo already.

“I may have visited her and encouraged her to submit a proposal,” Theo said.

I frowned. “Why?”

His eyebrows raised high on his forehead.

“Are you kidding me? First of all, she’s very talented and we could use a good architect on the team.

Second, she and Grace are perfect for each other, which we all know, and even though they’re madly in love, they aren’t going to do a damned thing about it without a little help from us. ”

“How did Nicole look?” I asked.

“As bad as Grace,” he confirmed.

I suspected as much, but it was nice to know that Nicole was as devastated by the break-up as Grace was, even though it was mostly Nicole’s fault.

“I have a plan to get them back together,” Theo said.

I straightened my spine. “Great, what do we need to do?”

A few days later I sat at a table in our back conference room with Theo and Ashley while Nicole talked to us about her proposal. Every few minutes her eyes darted towards the window next to the conference room door, as if she was nervous that Grace would walk by and see her here.

“This all looks great Nicole,” I told her enthusiastically.

My reaction was authentic. Nicole had clearly done her homework on the project, and we already knew that she’d fit in well with our team from our work together on the Grant Park College proposal.

We hadn’t gotten that job, but none of us were surprised, given that we’d been competing against national firms with much more resources than we brought to the table.

The silver lining to the whole thing – besides Grace and Nicole falling in love that is – was that thanks to her parents’ bad reaction to us losing the bid, Grace had finally cut ties with her family company and was working with us at AGM full-time.

“This is exactly what we’re looking for,” I continued. “You’re hired. Ashley, can you go grab a sample contract for Nicole to take with her?”

Theo, Ashley and I had planned for this part like we were staging a Broadway performance.

“Sure.”

Ashley left the room, and per our plan, five minutes later she texted me.

“It looks like Ashley needs help. She hasn’t been working here that long,” I told Nicole. “Excuse me, I’ll be right back.”

I hurried out of the room, knowing that Theo would duck out next, then make an excuse to bring Grace to the conference room. I wasn’t sure what he’d planned next – I wanted plausible deniability in case it didn’t work out and Grace got mad – but I had no doubt he’d give it his best effort.

As I walked down the hallway I saw Ashley going into the supply room. Looking around to see if anyone else was around, I slipped in behind her, closing the door and leaning against it.

She looked over her shoulder and smirked. “Are you looking for a new notebook too?”

I shook my head and walked closer. Ashley turned around, leaning her back against the shelf behind her as she watched me with hooded eyes.

“Then what are you doing in here?” she asked softly.

I reached up and pushed her hair behind her ear, then left my hand on the side of her head, fingers stroking her hair.

“I’ve missed you this week,” I said softly.

“We’ve seen each other every day,” she reminded me.

“Not the way we saw each other Saturday night. I’ve missed that a lot.”

Her eyes darkened at the memory. “I thought you needed time to get over your freak out.”

“I do. I did.”

She nodded. “We shouldn’t do this here.”

“I know.”

We stared at each other for so long my eyes started to lose focus, making her face turn almost blurry. Maybe it was the close quarters, maybe it was hot in here, but the air turned heavy and I suddenly felt like I was standing at the edge of a cliff.

“Are you just planning to stare at me?” she finally asked.

I shook my head. “No.”

I moved closer and then we were kissing again. Finally.