I roll my eyes. There is no getting through to him—it’s like beating a dead horse.
“Well, if you’ll excuse me, I’m exhausted from the first day.” I rise from my seat and stretch.
“Ahh, yes. How’d that go? Any hot new employees?”
My jaw tenses, and I clear my throat. “It went fine.” I leave it at that. “And my employees are off-limits, but feel free to stop by sometime.”
I walk past him and stop in the doorway, bracing my hand on the frame, glancing at the back of Asher’s head.
“Oh, and Asher? If you’re going to bring your sluts home, at least keep them in your room and not in our shared spaces.”
The sound of his laughter fades as I leave and make my way to my bed.
“Whoa, look at you, asshole—all professional and shit,” my brother’s voice calls out from the doorway of my office.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Harrington, he just barged in wouldn’t wait for me to call you.” My usual bubbly blonde secretary, Taylor, scurries into the office after him, a scowl upon her face.
I stand, buttoning my coat. “It’s okay, Taylor. He’s my brother. Asher, this is my secretary, Taylor.”
He extends his hand and takes hers in his own. He creepily brings her hand to his lips. “Lovely to meet you, Taylor. I hope we get to see each other often.”
Her demeanor quickly shifts as she lets out a weird giggle sound that I have never heard her make before. Is she seriously eating this up? Great, I assume I’ll be getting a new secretary soon enough after he fucks her and doesn’t call her again. I roll my eyes. “That will be all, Taylor,” I dismiss her before he starts stripping off her clothes right here in front of me. She nods and quickly leaves.
“Way to be a buzzkill, big brother.” Asher scoffs and plops into the seat across from my desk. I retake my seat and lean back, the leather squeaking under each precise moment.
“Well, as I told you, my employees are off-limits, especially to you.” I look up and find Asher spun around looking out the door in Taylor’s direction, or possibly trying to scope out the other female employees. “Or did that just go in one ear and out the other like everything else I say?”
Asher startles at my slightly raised tone on the last statement. “Huh?” He spins around and settles back into the chair.
“What brings you around here, anyway?”
It’s been three weeks since I started here, and he has never stopped by. In fact, I haven’t seen too much of Asher period. He’s been easily distracted by something or someone. Much like me, I’ve definitely had a distraction. It’s honestly pretty hard to focus when a gorgeous five-foot-three brunette goddess walks around the office.
“I was meeting a friend for lunch who has an office a few blocks away. I had some time to kill, so I thought I would pop in and see this place in action.”
“Is this friend a woman?” I ask, wondering who it is my brother spends all his time with.
“No, thank you very much. This is a guy.”
I arch an eyebrow.
“Not like that, you asshole. I met him out at the club the other week, and he’s been showing me the ropes of Willow Creek.”
I nod.
Asher leans back in his chair. “So, now you know what I’ve been up to, what’s new in the world of Bentley Harrington. Did you ever find that piece of ass from the club that other week that you couldn’t stop talking about?”
Of course, karma is back to bite me in the ass because before I have the chance to say anything, there’s a knock on my door. Said brunette goddess is standing in the doorway wearing a simple purple dress and black heels. I pray with everything that is possibly holy that she didn’t hear Asher call her a piece of ass.
When my eyes meet hers, she gives me a soft smile, and I can’t help but return it. We have somehow made it through the last three weeks unscathed.
“I’m sorry to bother you, Mr. Harrington.”
I quickly rise to my feet. “I told you to call me Ben.”
I adjust my jacket buttons in hopes that it at least covers my hardening cock with her standing in front of me. Okay, so maybe unscathed isn’t the right word. While I may not be able to act on my feelings in real life, in my dreams and fantasies I have had her every which way I can and then some.
“Right, of course, Ben.” She smiles again. “I was going over the vendor contracts for Best Of, and I have some questions and concerns I wanted to run by you.”
Asher clears his throat, and she jumps. She must not have seen him there. It’s nice to see for once a woman not affected by my brother’s so-called charm.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you had company. I can come back.”
Asher stands and glides over to where she stands in between the door and my desk.
“I’m sorry, I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Asher Harrington, the better-looking younger Harrington brother.” That’s right—even though Asher was at Eiffel Park that night, he was up in the VIP section with those blonde bimbos.
He reaches for her hand and brings it to his mouth, brushing his lips against her knuckles, just like he had with Taylor. My blood begins to boil, and my fists clench.
She stares at him but not like most women do—more like she’s disgusted by him. Attagirl. She pulls her hand back and looks at it as if now covered in toxic waste before wiping her palm on her dress. “Lexi Baker.”
“And what is it you do here, Lexi.” I hate the way he says her name as if he were imagining moaning it. I bite back the gag at thinking of my brother and moaning in the same sentence. “I hope that someone with a gorgeous face like yours doesn’t keep herself cooped up in an office all day.”
Is he seriously hitting on my girl? Woah, she’s not even your girl, Ben. Okay, it’s time to break up this little shitshow unraveling before more me before I break my brother’s face.
“Lexi here is our events director.”
“I see.” Asher looks her up and down and acts as if he actually cares. I want to slap the shit out of him for even looking at her. He looks back at me, and I try to relax my expression. But it’s too late; Asher takes in my demeanor and Lexi once more.
Thankfully he doesn’t say anything, just rubs his jaw and gives me a sly smile.
“Well, I won’t keep you any longer. It was nice to meet you, Asher.” She then turns back to me. “Ben, if you can give me a few moments of your time later, that would be great.”
“Yeah, I’ll come down to your office in say twenty-five minutes? I’ll have Taylor run out and pick us up some lunch, and we can eat and go over all of that. Just tell her whatever you want to order.”
She bites her lip nervously, and my mind goes back to the night when she knew what I liked. I loved it when she bit her lip as I explored her with my hands. Fuck! Get your head out of the gutter, Harrington. Maybe I should take a leave of absence or something or perhaps attempt dating.
“Oh, okay. Sure.”
“You didn’t have other plans, did you?” I shouldn’t have assumed she was free.
She seems so nervous. Was that too much? Too forward? “No, that’s fine. I’ll see you then.”