Chapter 37

ASHER

I swing the door open, devoid of any excitement.

The sight of the person bold enough to disrupt my sleep only makes me grumble in annoyance.

Maddison is standing there, flanked by a couple of hotel security guys.

“She claims she has a morning meeting with you,” Darren informs me hesitantly.

~Does she?~

~Was this part of our agreement?~

I can’t recall any mention of this in our contract.

I glance between the three of them, then back to Maddison.

Her eyes are wide with what looks like fear.

Is she scared I’ll turn her away, or is she afraid of being here?

I can’t tell, but I don’t leave her standing there for long.

With a forced smile, I open my apartment door wider and invite her in.

“Seven-thirty, right?” I confirm with her.

“That’s the time,” she responds quickly, her voice revealing her nervousness.

“Thanks, guys.” I smirk, watching Maddison step into the apartment before turning back to the security guys and shutting the door in their faces.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I ask her.

“Where are they?” She rushes through the apartment, her eyes darting around like she’s lost her mind.

She bypasses everything else and heads straight for my bedroom door.

“In bed,” I answer, following her with sleepy steps.

“What did you do to them?” she hisses at me, her tone laced with venom.

For a moment, I feel a sting of hurt.

~Does she really think I’d harm either of those girls?~

After everything I’ve shared with her…

I might have expected such a reaction from the other two, but not from her.

Not after I laid my cards on the table and expressed my desire to help her and any other girl trapped in that hellhole known as Sanctum.

“Nothing,” I mutter, moving to the other door to open it.

The door creaks open, and I make a mental note to get some oil for the hinges.

She rushes over to peek inside.

I follow her gaze to see the two girls lying peacefully next to each other, just as they were when I left them last night.

“You—” she begins to say something but stops when Addison sighs in her sleep.

I walk away as Maddison enters the room, and I slump back onto the sofa. I curse under my breath, frustrated at the lack of sleep I got last night.

Instead of sleeping, I spent the night pondering over everything and nothing while riding a cannabis high. And now, I have to entertain Maddison, for whatever reason she decided to show up here.

I wonder, did Fennick send her to check if I’ve harmed the girls? Or did he send her to make sure I’m keeping my promise about why I brought them here?

I don’t have to ponder over this for long because she soon exits the bedroom, closing the door behind her.

“You didn’t touch them,” she observes, and I wonder how she can be so sure. I could have. I could have fucked both of them by now and still had them tucked neatly in bed.

“Who says I haven’t?” I retort casually, irked by her assumption that I haven’t. I don’t understand why it bothers me; I have no intention of touching them.

But her presumption annoys me beyond belief.

“They don’t have any marks on them…” she informs me, dropping her stuff on the floor. She’s dressed in her Starbucks uniform, and I grumble.

“Shouldn’t you be heading to your second job?” I comment.

“Yes… I should, but first,” she replies, climbing onto my lap, catching me off guard. I freeze, keeping my hands away from her as I stare into her beautiful eyes.

“What—” I start to ask, but she silences me with a finger to my lips and a dazzling smile.

“Choose me, not them… I can make it worth your while, Asher. I know things they haven’t even thought of yet,” she says, grinding her hips against mine.

I watch in shock as she tosses her hair over her shoulder, her hands roaming over her body, unbuttoning her shirt. One button. Two buttons. Three.

“Stop. What are you doing, Maddison?” I ask, incredulous.

“Let me please you,” she suggests, her hands finding purchase on my shoulders as she changes her movements.

I can’t deny my body’s reaction.

Of course, it’ll respond when a beautiful girl is moving on top of it.

Her face is stunning, her breasts full, and her cleavage enticing, but there’s nothing in my mind that wants this. For the first time ever, I genuinely don’t want the girl straddling me—the one who’s offering herself up for a quick, no-strings-attached romp.

She’s undeniably attractive, too…

“Maddison, no,” I say firmly.

“Hope,” she corrects me, blatantly disregarding my refusal.

“Stop it, Hope. I didn’t bring them here for that, and you know it. I’ve told you this before,” I confess. Her look of disbelief tells me she’ll never believe that my intentions were purely to help them.

She continues to grind against me, undeterred. Despite my best efforts, my hands have found their way to her backside, failing to keep her still as I gaze into her eyes.

She’s so exposed in this moment. There’s so much I can see, even though I barely know her.

Something inside me whispers that she needs this; she needs to release some tension; she needs the climax she’s working toward. So, I sit there, a passive observer, watching her, admiring her as her breath quickens, her hands leaving my shoulders to play with her own breasts.

Her eyes flutter shut as she tilts her head back, facing the ceiling. She’s lost in her own world, completely surrendering to the sensations coursing through her body.

So, I find myself assisting her—drawing her down onto me, moving her along my length, providing the friction she hadn’t given herself.

But I take nothing; I don’t position her where I want her, and I don’t touch her where I’d prefer. I only give her what she needs.

And she shatters, spectacularly so—her upper teeth biting into her lower lip.

Her jaw tightens, and a soft, barely audible moan of pleasure escapes from the back of her throat. She’s breathtakingly beautiful when she climaxes; it’s just unfortunate that we met under such circumstances.

It’s unfortunate that I suspect she’s being held here against her will. It’s unfortunate that I’ll never touch her the way other men have, because that would make me no better than them.

And when she’s finished, she collapses onto my chest, her head resting on my collarbone as she gasps for breath.

“You needed that, didn’t you?” I ask.

I can feel her smile against my skin, but she doesn’t say a word, doesn’t make a sound.

She completely ignores me. That silence is answer enough.