Her brow furrowed. “But you said this is who you are. What you are. How can you never have asked another woman for these things? I doubt you’ve been celibate forever.”

He laughed. “No, indeed not. The women I’ve been with all knew the score. What I expected and what I’d take. But I never considered those actual relationships, because going in, she and I both knew it was very temporary. Hardly what I’d call an actual relationship.”

“So I wouldn’t be temporary?” she asked, voicing perhaps her biggest fear. That he’d grow tired of her in a week’s time and simply move on to someone else.

But then what was she expecting? What was she even asking for? Something long-term? How could she ask that of him when she wasn’t sure she wanted something more permanent? It was a huge leap to be making. It was possible that she wouldn’t be able to handle the demands he made. And yet, the idea of him only wanting a temporary fling unsettled her.

“I can’t say with any authority what you’ll be, Josie,” he said in a quiet voice. “But what I can say is that no, you most certainly will not be temporary. I intend to keep you for a very long time. And if it makes you feel better, I’ve never asked a woman for anything longer than a few weeks, and none of those women had the hold on me that you already have.”

Warmth traveled through her veins, sending pleasure into her chest. It was silly. This giddy feeling that she was somehow more to him than any other woman. But what woman didn’t like to feel that way about the man she was with?

No matter what the future had in store for them and any relationship they entered, she was comforted by the thought that for whatever reason, he felt for her what he hadn’t felt for another woman.

“I won’t take long,” she said. “Just give me a few days to sort it all out in my head.”

He nodded. “That’s fine. I’ll give you my cell number. When you’ve had time to consider everything I’ve said, call me and we’ll have dinner in my apartment. Then, if you’ve agreed, we’ll go over the terms, or rather my expectations.”

She frowned. “Shouldn’t we do that before I make my decision?”

He smiled. “That’s where trust has to enter, Josie. Consider what I’ve told you, how it will be, and then when you say yes, we’ll go over the more intimate details of our arrangement.”

Chapter eight

Ash wasn’t someone who liked waiting around. Especially for something he wanted. He was too used to getting what he wanted, when he wanted. No wasn’t a word in his vocabulary and the more time that passed since his dinner with Josie, the more on edge he felt.

Not even the situation with Brittany had been able to distract him from his preoccupation with Josie.

His sister had settled into her apartment and had reported to work at the Bentley in their administration. So far she seemed to be doing well. He received regular reports about Brittany from the manager, who was satisfied with her performance so far. He’d commented that she was punctual, a hard worker and seemed eager to make her job a success.

Tonight he had dinner plans with Brittany, and he would have looked forward to it were it not for the fact he had yet to hear from Josie. It had been a week since their dinner, and he’d been very confident that he’d hear from her in a matter of days. He’d seen the look in her eyes. She was intrigued. She was obviously attracted to him. And the things he’d offered seemed to appeal to her.

So why was it taking so damn long for her to respond? Or did she even plan to? Maybe she’d gotten home and immediately talked herself out of a relationship with him.

He knew he should have pressed for an answer the night they’d gone to dinner. She’d been precariously close to consent. He’d seen it in her eyes and in her body language. Whether she consciously realized it or not, she wanted him and she wanted the kind of relationship he proposed.

This was new territory for him. Never had he been in a position where he had to wait for a woman to make up her mind whether she wanted to be with him. The women he’d been with in the past hadn’t hesitated even a minute. They’d been all too eager to hook up with him, no matter how long things lasted.

And in fact, there had been several who hadn’t gotten the message that they were over. The last woman he and Jace had been together with—not counting Bethany—had not taken the end of her fling with him and Jace well at all. She’d been pissed and acted very much the woman scorned even though he and Jace had made it abundantly clear that it was a temporary arrangement.

He replayed the evening Josie and he had dinner. Yes, he’d definitely been blunt and straightforward. Maybe that scared her. Maybe he’d come on too strong too quickly. But he didn’t want to mislead her. He wanted her to know exactly what she was getting into with a relationship with him.

“Hey, man.”

Ash looked up to see Jace standing in the doorway of his office. Ash motioned him in and Jace sauntered toward the desk, closing the door behind him.

“You’ve been quiet lately. Anything wrong? How has the fallout over Brittany’s defection been?”

Ash rolled his eyes. “Predictable.”

“Meaning what?”

Jace took a seat across from Ash and pinned him with an inquisitive stare.

“Oh, you know my dear old mother and father. Dad is too much of a spineless wimp to do or say much of anything. He just toes the line with Mom and whatever she says goes.”

“They been giving her shit?” Jace asked with a scowl.

“Well, they showed up at the apartment you’re letting her use. Ordered her home and told her to quit being a child. This is a thirty-year-old woman my mother was dressing down, mind you. When Brittany refused, Mom wanted to know how she afforded the apartment she was living in and how she was making it on her own. Brittany told her it was none of her business how she got the apartment and that she was making it like most people made it. By working.”

Jace chuckled. “Good for her. Wouldn’t have thought she had it in her to stand up to the wicked bitch of the east.”

“Me either to be honest,” Ash admitted. “But she seems determined to make a break from the family. I’m proud of her. Mom can be intimidating and you have to understand until recently Brittany has always done what Mom wanted her to. No questions asked.”

“Must be a hard adjustment for her,” Jace said in sympathy.

“I’m having dinner with her tonight. You and Bethany want to join us? I’d like Brittany to meet Bethany. Brittany hasn’t associated with the best female friends. They were never her real friends and Brittany knows that. When the chips are down, they aren’t riding to her rescue. They dropped her like a hot brick.”

“Sure. I’ll call Bethany and make sure we don’t have other plans.”

“Thanks. Will be nice to take my mind off other things.”

Too late he realized how telling that statement would be, and the last thing he wanted was to discuss it with Jace, who would most definitely latch on to it and wouldn’t let it go.

“Anything you need help with?” Jace asked, his brow wrinkled with concern.

“Nah. Not unless you have a way of making a woman acquiesce to your demands.”

At that Jace’s eyebrow lifted. “A woman? Do tell. This has to be worth the price of admission.”

“It’s complicated,” Ash muttered. “She’s being difficult.”

Jace laughed. “Show me one woman who isn’t!”

“Bethany,” Ash pointed out. “You’re a lucky son of a bitch to have her. She’d give you the moon and you know it.”

“So what’s the problem with your woman du jour?”

Ash scowled. “That’s just it. She’s not just any woman. I don’t know, man. She hits buttons that a woman has never pushed for me.”

“Oh shit. It’s happened,” Jace crowed. “The smug son of a bitch who gave me and Gabe so much grief has finally fallen hard and from the sounds of it she isn’t exactly reciprocating.”

Ash flipped up his middle finger. “It’s too early for that. She just intrigues me. I want her,” he said bluntly. “And I’ll do whatever it takes to get her in my bed. The problem is, she isn’t exactly tripping over herself to get there.”

“Now this is hilarious. Women kill themselves to get next to you. You’re the charming one. Not as hard-ass as Gabe and I are.”

Ash barely held back the snort. His friends were sadly mistaken on that score. He might give the appearance of being the easygoing, laid-back one, but when it came to women, what he wanted, what he needed? There was no charm, no being laid-back. It had been years since he’d let that part of himself go with a woman. He still remembered her fondly. He’d just turned thirty. She was a few years younger than him. They both wanted and enjoyed the same things and when he’d actually let her see him for what he was, she hadn’t balked.

He still thought of Cammie from time to time. Wondered where she was. If she was married with children. And wondered if she’d found a man to satisfy her submissive streak.

She and Ash had parted as friends. She’d wanted more than he could give her. At the time he was solidly married to his career, trying to make HCM into what it was today. She wanted to settle down, have a family, live the American dream. And Ash hadn’t been prepared to do that.

It wasn’t that he minded the idea of marriage to her. She was a beautiful woman, fun to be with. He could have grown to love her. He knew that. But he’d wanted to wait. He hadn’t wanted to marry her when he wasn’t absolutely certain he could provide for her every need.

Now? Marriage and commitment seemed to be the next logical step. Gabe and Jace had taken the plunge. They were all at a point in their careers where they could step back, relax, focus on things other than business.

But while Gabe and Jace had found that perfect woman, someone who embraced and accepted the kind of men they were and loved them in spite of their imperfections, Ash hadn’t yet met a woman who fulfilled the parts of his heart that weren’t satisfied by his career and good friends.

“She wants me,” Ash said. “She wants what I can give her, but as much as I can see that she wants it, she’s hesitant.”

“I know patience isn’t one of your virtues, but perhaps this is one time you need to get acquainted with the concept.”

The heavy amusement in Jace’s voice just made Ash grumpy. Patience? Definitely not one of his virtues. And he definitely wasn’t going to start getting up-close and personal with the idea now of all times. Not when he wanted something as badly as he wanted Josie.

And he still couldn’t explain it. Obsession. It was a word he’d associated with Jace when it came to Bethany, and Ash had come down hard on Jace for it. He hadn’t understood it. He’d even tried to talk Jace down, going as far as doing a background check on Bethany and then warning Jace off.

It wasn’t one of his better moves, because Bethany had been the best thing that had ever happened to Jace. It was a good thing his friend hadn’t listened to Ash’s advice, and now that Ash found himself in a similar predicament, he could well understand Jace’s uncharacteristic reaction to Bethany.

“Let me ask you something,” Ash said, his tone serious. “In the beginning with Bethany. Did you sit back and wait or did you move in, take charge and take over?”

Jace winced, his face contorting with a grimace.

“I tried at first to be patient, take things slow. But that lasted a very short period of time. I wanted to give her time to adjust. I mean, her circumstances were different than most. It made me crazy to think of her not having a place to sleep, and when I moved her into Mia’s old apartment it made me crazy because she wasn’t with me all the time even though we were together every day. But I wanted her in my apartment. As long as she was living somewhere else, I didn’t feel like she was completely mine. It sounds nuts but I wanted to know where she was every minute. It makes me sound like a fucking stalker, and maybe that’s what I was. Hell if I know. I just knew that I wanted her with me. Every day. In my apartment when I got home. In my bed every night. Not in another apartment where she could bolt at any time even though I had men on her.”

“Yeah, that didn’t work out too well if I remember right,” Ash said dryly. “Didn’t she bail on them and disappear for a few hours?”

“An entire day,” Jace muttered. “Hell, I thought she’d left me or walked out, but all she did was go find Jack, and I still get tense just thinking of all that could have happened to her in those few hours.”

“I didn’t get it then,” Ash admitted. “I thought you’d lost your mind. But I get it now, because I feel the same way about Josie. And it’s crazy. We’ve only seen each other a few times and had only one date where we actually spent more than a few minutes in each other’s company. I’m still kicking myself for not pressing her harder at dinner. She was so close to agreeing, but the dumbass that I am, I backed off because I didn’t want to overwhelm her, so I granted her wish for time to think. Well, that was a fucking week ago and I haven’t heard shit since our dinner.”