Page 29 of The Boss
“Everything’s going well,” Stu said, turning his attention to me as Saya walked off. “I have a couple security guys in plainclothes in the crowd, following certain people we know might cause…problems.”
My hand clenched into a fist. Apparently, Stu and I needed to talk about those guys because they’d clearly missed following our biggestproblemearlier. But this wasn’t the time for it. For now, I’d offer just a simple instruction.
“Make sure you keep one of those guys on Zed the rest of the night. Don’t let him alone with anyone.” Stu frowned, his eyes darting from me to Ashlee and back again. I could see him starting to put the pieces together, but I spoke again before he could ask questions. “Ashlee and I are going to head out. My apologies for missing dinner.”
I’d fill him in at a later time, but he had to know to keep Zed from groping anyone else at the party. It’d also be a good distraction when Stu inevitably asked why I’d shown up here with Ashlee. I liked that he didn’t have a problem telling me what he truly thought, but I had a feeling that would come back to bite me in the ass with this. At least he wasn’t as blunt about it as Finley. Stu was, after all, an employee and not my partner.
“Before you go,” Stu said, focusing his attention on Ashlee, “I just wanted to tell you what a great job you did, all of your research and work was essential to putting together a great event.”
She smiled at him, a genuine, sweet smile. “Thank you. That means a lot. I’ve learned so much from you.”
“You’re a quick study,” he said. “I can’t wait to see what you do with the next one.”
I resisted the urge to hurry Ashlee along, to get her somewhere alone where I could tell her what I wanted. I didn’t want to make Stu any more suspicious than he already was. I knew my reputation, but I didn’t do this with women who worked for me.
But I couldn’t walk away unless Ashlee told me to go, and I planned to work to make sure that didn’t happen. That was weird for me. Usually, I just had to show interest in a woman to get her into bed. I had a feeling Ashlee wouldn’t go easily.
“Thank you,” Ashlee said. She glanced up at me, her hand tightening on my arm.
Had she figured out what I was thinking? Did her squeeze mean that she was thinking the same thing? Dammit. I wanted to know what was going on in that head of hers.
“I think you can take things from here,” I told Stu. I kept my eyes on Ashlee and told myself that it was because I was trying to imagine what she looked like naked and not because I didn’t want to see Stu’s disapproval.
He was an employee, not a friend. When it came to my personal life, I didn’t let anyone tell me how to live, not employees or friends. I felt a little twinge as I thought about how isolated that made me, but I pushed that aside. I’d chosen this life, and it was better for everyone that I had. I wouldn’t disappoint anyone, and I didn’t have to hide who I truly was.
I escorted Ashlee to the exit, pausing just inside the lobby doors to text my driver. While we waited, I finally made my move.
“I want you to come home with me.” I covered my surprise that I’d invited her home rather than to a hotel. If I back peddled now, I doubted I’d get another shot. “But I’m not saying that as your boss, but as the man who made you climax with his fingers.”
She flushed but didn’t pull away from me. In fact, it took her only a couple seconds to give me an answer. “Okay.”
Not a ringing endorsement, but I hadn’t realized how much I’d been bracing for a refusal until she’d spoken. Based on the expression on her face, she hadn’t been expecting her answer either. I wasn’t going to waste it.
I made a mental note to discuss Zed with HR and then took Ashlee out to the car. As I slid in next to her, I gave my driver instructions to take us to my place and ignored the look of surprise that he shot me. I was still spinning a bit about it too.
None of this was how things normally went. I wasn’t sure yet if that was a good thing or a bad one.
Nineteen
Ashlee
When I began today,I’d never expected to end up here, in the back seat of Nate Lexington’s car, my insides a mess of aroused knots. I couldn’t decide if I was terrified, anxious, turned on, eager…too many different emotions were tangled up inside me for me to identify which one was the foremost.
I’d spent the day trying to pretend that it was just another day at work despite the fact that I was still getting sideways looks from half of my co-workers. My thoughts had been caught up in the possible repercussions of my attending tonight. More gossip. Mr. Hancock and Ms. Lamas looking at me or treating me differently. Nate flirting and me not knowing how to handle it.
Nothing had prepared me for the reality.
From the moment his ex had come up to us, I’d felt things taking a strange turn, and everything from that moment on had made my head spin. Him making me come with his fingers had been the last surprise of the night…or so I’d thought until we were waiting for his car and he asked me to go home with him.
He hadn’t spelled out things, but I wasn’t an idiot. If I went home with him, we’d be doing a whole lot more than kissing and touching. He’d been careful about making sure I was clear that he wasn’t asking me as my boss, and that confirmed for me that if I asked him to stop at any point, he would, but I wouldn’t be able to say I hadn’t gone into this situation with my eyes wide open.
The only thing that was really giving me pause was that I didn’t know how to tell him that I was a virgin. I’d dated a couple guys here and there, but we’d never gone beyond kissing and over-the-clothes petting, which meant that what he’d done tonight was already more than I’d ever done with another person.
I wasn’t waiting for marriage, and I didn’t have any illusions about love, but I didn’t know if Nate would understand that. Being a virgin at twenty-three wasn’t exactly abnormal, but most people assumed that if someone made it through college without having sex, there was some deeper reasoning behind it. For me, the timing had never been right, and that had been my choice.
The brush of knuckles down my cheek pulled me out of my head.
“Don’t disappear on me, Red.” He caught my chin and turned me toward him.
