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“I don't know,” I said playfully. “I guess you'll just have to show up and see.”
“One thing about me you should know by now, Aspen,” he said. “I always show up.”
“Goodnight, Crossland,” I said.
“Goodnight, Aspen,” he echoed back before we hung up.
I fell back against my pillows, still in a state of shock as I set my alarm for a totally different reason.
He’d altered my world in a matter of hours, taking off the undue stress that had been weighing on me since we entered our agreement. Hell, I was certain that if I’d told him three weeks ago he would’ve rushed to solve it then. And it wasn't in a malicious way or a controlling way, but in a genuinely helpful and healthy way.
It was something I was entirely unused to.
I'd been used to doing things on my own and only depending on myself for years. Allowing somebody else to take some of the burden? That was unheard of for me. And I wasn't exactly sure how to handle it.
Luckily, I didn't have to sink too deep into it. Because Crossland and I were held together by a string of ruses and games and banter. Sure, we had some electrical chemistry, but that was it. His eagerness to help was absolutely and understandably also for his benefit.
All I needed to do was remember that and not fall into whatever fairy-tale world he lived in on a daily basis.
Because I only had a temporary pass, and the last thing I needed was to pretend like this was going to be my forever.
CHAPTER 10
Crossland
The past week had been one of those fast-paced weeks where the days blurred together, and I wasn’t exactly sure what day it was by the end of it.
Aspen had made the India trip more enjoyable, but it had been a non-stop string of events, business meetings, and negotiations. In the end, I’d managed to successfully invest in a growing company in the energy research and development industry. It was another asset to add to my arsenal, but something about this trip just hit different. I’d never spent so much time with one woman before, and I never knew how nice it could be to have someone to talk to throughout the ups and downs of an endless string of meetings.
And Aspen never yawned during the events, never rolled her eyes, or begged to be taken for a ride on the jet or the yacht. She engaged in the conversations with the power players in the room, not so much as flinching when speaking to some of the country’s wealthiest entrepreneurs. She was fun as hell to watch, not to mention drop-dead gorgeous, but the combination was nothing compared to the way she’d check in with me between meetings.
I’d never had that before.
Never had a partner who was invested enough to ask if I was emotionally drained or angry due to a deal going sideways. It was refreshing, and it made a little piece of me wonder if there was something to this whole monogamy epidemic that had afflicted my friends recently.
Not that Aspen and I were an official couple. On the outside? We looked like the perfect pairing—laughing, flirting, and sharing little moments of intimacy for the whole world to see. On the inside, we were simply business partners.
A business partner I genuinely couldn’t wait to see the next day.
A business partner I was growing increasingly attached to.
A business partner I’d made come on my tongue two weeks ago.
I tried to force the thoughts out of my head as I finished setting up the dinner I’d picked up for the two of us, making sure everything was set out on the dining room table I rarely used unless Bristol and her husband were in town.
Aspen would be here any minute, and if I kept thinking about her flavor bursting on my tongue, I’d answer the door sporting the hard on that plagued me every single time I thought about that night.
Hell, I’d walked around half-hard all throughout the events last week, unable to stop the red-hot thoughts I had about her every time she walked into the room. It didn’t matter if she was dressed in a ball gown or those silky pajamas she liked to wear to bed, I wanted her.
There was no denying it. We had some intense chemistry, but I hadn’t crossed that line again since the night we played the Reapers. And she hadn’t broached the subject either, so we’d kept everything PDA friendly when in public, and kept our distance when in private.
I hated to admit that it was killing me, and I didn’t know what the hell to do about it.
I wasn’t just attracted to Aspen on a physical level, even though her emerald hair and curves turned me on to the point of madness, but I found myself attracted to her personality—to the way she never tried to cover her laugh, the way she called me on my bullshit, the way she never let anyone look down their nose at her, the way she loved her sister and nearly broke herself in order to provide for her. All the little nuances that made herherhad me excited every time I saw her.
I didn’t exactly know what to do with all the new sensations cropping up around her, so I was content to do what I normally do—just roll with it. She wasn’t a puzzle to solve. She was a paid-for partner, and if at the end of our contract I managed to find a friend in the process? Bonus for me.
A knock on the door jerked me out of my thoughts, and I quickly sat the last of dinner on the table before heading to open it.
