Page 70 of Wretched Heart
I return his gaze with a curious look of my own. “Do you ever smile?”
“I’m here to work, Maddison. And you’re disturbing me.”
The way he keeps calling me by my full name grates on my nerves, but I don’t correct him. I don’t want to give away a weakness. “I can see that,Asher,” I reply, using his full name too. It’s a small victory, if only in my mind.
Ash continues to scowl.
“I rarely get a smile from Mace either,” I note, glancing over at one of the less troublesome brothers. Mace’s attention is fixed on one of his screens, but I know he’s paying close attention. It’s what he does best. I turn back to Ash. “Personally, I think there’s a sensitive soul beneath that mask of his. But I’m yet to work out what you’re hiding.”
“It’s best you never find out,” Ash warns.
I finish my toast. “Challenge accepted.”
I’m about to jump off his desk when he puts a hand on my knee. I’m wearing a light summer dress and although his hand remains on the fabric, I feel the heat of his touch. My heart stutters, but it’s not the kind of jolt that Hunter’s touch provokes. This feels predatory.
“Is there a particular way you have in mind for getting to know me better?”
I forget to breathe. I’ve got the situation all wrong. I’d been working on the theory that Ash either dislikes, or is afraid of women. I’d presumed I was exploiting a weakness, but what if he’s as soulless as he appears. What if he thinks he can punish Hunter’s disobedience by hurting me?
It doesn’t make sense. There has to be more to Ash than he wants me to see. His brothers admire and respect him.He can’t be a monster. He’s trying to intimidate me. Or else…
I peel his fingers away from my knee, and remove his hand as if I’m picking up something nasty from the floor. “Nice try, Asher,” I say before looking over my shoulder towards the door. “Morning, husband.”
Hunter has adopted the Griffin stony face. Maybe he’s slow to react because he’s tired, but I think he’s just leaving it to me to deal with his brother.
I scoot off the desk, and as I go to pick up my laptop, I catch sight of the sweat marks I’ve left on the polished wood where my ass had been. Old me would have cringed with embarrassment, but I’m not about to apologize for being human. “Sorry about that,” I say, using the hem of my dress to wipe at the mark. “It must be all the cum your brother filled me with this morning.”
“Jesus,” Ash curses under his breath as a chuckle comes from Hunter’s direction.
I’m not surprised that Reid is also sniggering, but to make my victory complete, I catch Mace grinning too.
Treating Ash’s suggestion that I leave their office with the contempt it deserves, I set myself up at the conference table. I’m going to be surrounded by all four brothers, so I opt for a position closest to Hunter, but facing Ash. I want to keep him in my sights, and for him not to forget I’m here.
“Are you going to be OK there?” asks Hunter.
“I can always desk hop when there’s one free,” I say as I return to Ash’s desk to pick up my coffee and the rest of my toast.
I’m about to leave Ash in peace when I spot one of my yellow pencils. It’s not the one Hunter stole, but it holds certain associations and I’d rather not see it in Ash’s hand. “I’ll just take this too. It’s one I’ve been playing with.”
Hunter’s laughing again, which makes Ash scowl as he watches me take up my position directly opposite him. “Couldn’t you go and work at the paper mill? Isn’t that where you should be anyway?”
“No, she can’t,” Hunter answers for me. “She doesn’t go anywhere without me.”
Ash shakes his head and absorbs himself in his work. We all do, and I pretend not to eavesdrop on the conversations that pass between the brothers. I know most of what they discuss, even the things that relate to their other businesses because I’ve been helping Hunter organize the mess of files on his laptop. I have to bite my tongue when he claims not to have seen the accounts for one of their distilleries, but when it breaks out into an argument with Ash, I scribble a note telling him where to look.
I turn in my seat to slide the note across Hunter’s desk. “Stop arguing,” I say under my breath.
He looks at the note, then at Ash. “Maybe I’ll just take another look at my files.”
When I turn back, Ash eyes me with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion. I don’t imagine my apparent control of his brother improves his opinion of me, so I put my head down and continue raking through Morgan’s emails.
The morning ticks by, and I’m preparing to admit defeat when my hand stills. The latest email I’m reviewing is a seemingly innocuous conversation thread between Morgan and a customer I’ve never heard of, but there’s something about the exchange that makes me stop and read it again.
Needing a second pair of eyes, I forward it to Mace, then sit back in my seat, stretching my back.
“Mace, I’ve just sent you an email.”
He slides his gaze towards me while his head continues to face the screen he didn’t want his attention drawn from. “If only we had the technology to notify us when someone sends an email,” he says, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
