جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 40

“What deal?”, Aria asked, careful to keep her hands steady. She thought she was crazy, but her husband was crazier, he pressed close enough that her knife had begun to pierce his skin. “You help me, and I don’t hurt your family in my little quest”, he murmured into the tiny space between their faces. Aria’s face felt hot, her body also felt hot. It was like his breath fanning her face was taking the place of his hands. Goodness. Aston Beaumont was even hotter up close. She couldn’t fathom it. Why would such an infuriating man be so perfectly crafted? His dark eyes were clouded over in the lust of the entire moment, and Aria knew hers weren’t far behind. Damn it, they were insane. “You breached the deal, Beaumont”, she gritted her teeth, snapping herself out of the hypnosis he was trying to put her under. “On the contrary, we haven’t even begun”, he said, releasing her unfree fist from his grip. Aria, startled but determined not to lose the upper hand, immediately grippe

The hallway was lit warmly, the rich gentle orange lighting serving to mimic the ambiguous feeling in Aria’s stomach as she took robotic steps towards the living room.To hear whether or not her grandfather planned to send her one and only light to Wotushong.Aston pushed open the door to the living room, the man who had grinned and breathed against her face was nowhere to be found. He was radiating nothing, he was now like a massive blank wall, impossible to read.Maybe this was how he climbed above Arthur, by being completely unflappable in his presence. "You look well, Aria," Arthur said, not even looking her way. He sounded like a man admiring a painting he’d insured. "A little harsh on the dark circles, but well." Aria smiled without her permission. He had clearly inspected her thoroughly before pretending to throw away his face. "Grandfather. I didn’t expect you." "I missed my great-grandson," he said simply, his line of sight guiding Aria to look at the door that led to t

The whirr of the coffee machine shot Aria out of her thoughts and she clicked the button to stop it from grinding more.For the first time since she got back from France, her thoughts weren’t scattered or all over the place. No. They were all revolving around one man.Aston.Ugh.“You seem a little overqualified for this job”, a low pitched feminine voice sounded behind her, and Aria held back the urge to roll her eyes.She had worked at Rothschild enterprise for a grand total of seven weeks. This lady had been bothering her for the past three.“You don’t say? Excuse me”, Aria said politely, flashing her teeth without any feeling behind it.She knew exactly why she was bothering her. She wasn’t the only one. “Are you always like this or do you just hate me personally?”, the beautiful blonde woman raised an eyebrow and blocked Aria’s way.“I’m always like this. I’d like to get this coffee to its owner now, please get out of my way.”“I’m your superior. You should be less rude”, the wo

The post-it note said Liam had asked her to meet him at 3pm without fail. According to the perks within her new shitty job, as long as Hartie wasn’t negotiating a meeting, she was free to clock out by 2pm.As far as she knew, her halfsister had left the office after Devan left her cubicle.If the company wasn’t paying overtime then she wasn’t staying to pay attention to Liam.She packed up her bag and deftly looked around for a second before remembering and straightening without care.They had isolated her here. She had no coworkers. She was just supposed to sit tight in a narrow cubicle in a narrow hallway that nobody ever passed by.A small, almost sad smile lifted her lips.Her only fault was being born to Camille. She also wanted a comfortable office. She also wanted to negotiate deals. She had spent all her life learning, but she was only ever good enough to bring Hartie coffee.…No matter! It was only a matter of time. For Asher, and for herself, she would rise above all thes

“Sentimentality? I’m not sentimental towards fucking Liam”, Aria scowled subconsciously. “It’s simply about practicality.”“Practicality,” Aston repeated heavily. Aria felt the subtle edge of scolding in his tone but…nah that wasn’t possible. Aston was a block of ice. “Is it practical to let a man manhandle you? Because in my world, Aria, that’s called a liability.”Aria bristled. She let HIM manhandle her and he didn’t call that a liability — well, ‘let’ was a heavy word. She could harm Liam, threaten him to stop, push him away. But she couldn’t do much to Aston. She didn’t think she could do much even if she had added more years of training to her belt. “It’s practical because if the Rothschild heir turns up with a crushed windpipe in the company garage, my mission ends before it starts. I need access, Aston. Not a murder investigation.”Aston’s mouth moved into a straight line before he pursed his lips. Aria employed all her years of serious training on stealth to unabashedly star