Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 83986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
“What’s that?”
“He’s never going to marry me.”
Ainsley and I just looked at her because really, what were we supposed to say?
Crossing her arms, Sienna sighed deeply. “Damien’s family is in Chicago,” she explained. “He was in New York this past year for a merger, but he’s going home soon.”
I had gotten that from different conversations. Small wonder I hadn’t run into him at home—he hadn’t been in the city.
“He wants us to do the long-distance thing, since I can’t leave New York,” she said sadly. “My family is there, all my friends—not these people here, but the women I share my life with. My career is there. My life.”
“Long distance can work,” Ainsley told her. “Look at Ash and Cooper. They’re committed, and if you are, it’s doable.”
She took off her oversize sunglasses then, and we both saw how red and puffy her eyes were. “Not when it’s with someone who doesn’t really care.”
Ainsley stepped forward, arms open, and Sienna basically fell into her.
“I’m sorry I screamed the first night when your daughter was coming toward me.”
“It was Valentino,” Ainsley said, chuckling.
“But Cooper didn’t care,” she said, starting to cry.
“Yes, but Cooper was wearing a dark suit, sweetheart, which is not at all the same.”
“It’s Tom Ford,” I mouthed to Ainsley.
“Zip it,” she returned, making her eyes big so I would.
Once Sienna cried all over Ainsley, she cried all over me, and we made plans to see each other in the summer because she had to be in Chicago for a meeting at Sutter, a global real estate company based in my city.
“I won’t be with Damien by then,” she sniffled. “So maybe you could introduce me to your friend Rais?”
I smiled and nodded.
“That sounded like she might be healing already,” Ainsley commented once Sienna left us. “And who is this Rais?”
I found him in my contacts and turned the phone to her.
“Oh my. Look at him,” she said wistfully. “Are his shoulders quite that wide in real life?”
“Cooper,” Jeff yelled at me, and when I turned, he shook his head at me.
Apparently, I was not allowed to show Jeff Cushing’s wife man candy.
Ash had given the bad news to the bride that he would not be staying, but between paying for the wedding and allowing her trust to be paid out, there really was nothing she could say but thank you. We left without having to speak to anyone else.
At the airport, I got my first taste of what being with Ash in the wild would be like as so many people came up to say hello. He was gracious, but when I got the text that Jared Colter’s plane was on the tarmac, I immediately extricated him from the crowd.
“I need to—”
“No,” I said sharply, pointing toward the door a man had just opened for us. He was taking us to the hangar where the jet was waiting. “We’re leaving now.”
He dropped his head, but I noted the quick flush on his cheeks and the shy smile. There was no doubt that Ashford Lennox liked to be told what to do. At least by me. I also loved that he was wearing my sweater. It was ridiculous to see that chocolate-brown shawl-collar cardigans were suddenly trending after the short time of us being at the airport and people spotting him in one. Watching him pull the collar over his face and inhale was amusing as well.
“That doesn’t even smell like me,” I grumbled as we walked through the heavy steel door and it was closed behind us.
“Yes, it does,” he murmured, leaning into me, kissing the side of my neck. “But your skin is even better.”
“You’re very romantic, you know,” I told him as we walked hand in hand toward another set of stairs.
“With you, yes, I seem to be,” he said, drawing my hand under his arm and around so I was holding on to him even closer.
I’d been on Jared’s plane before and was impressed, since I myself did not own a private jet. Ash didn’t say anything.
“No? Not fancy enough for you?”
“It’s wonderful,” he told me. “But most importantly, your boss graciously loaned this to us so we didn’t have to wait and could simply leave. I will always be grateful.”
“Me too,” I agreed, flopping down in my seat, smiling as he took the one right next to me and immediately leaned into my space.
Before we landed, he told me to put on my sunglasses.
“Why?”
“I don’t want you to go blind.”
I had no idea what that meant until we walked out into the main terminal of LAX. He wasn’t even kidding. The sound of all the cameras clicking at once was one thing, the flashes were a whole other story.
“I’m sorry about this,” he said, close to my ear. “I should have asked Levi to have a car here for—”