“Ashton, I loved your father, but he was never home. He worked all the time. Mike was there. He was a warm body next to me. I was lonely.” Tears formed in her eyes and she sniffled from the cold.
“Don’t give me that. Yes, Dad worked all the time, but that was so he could give us all the things that we enjoyed. And yes, Debra, you certainly enjoyed the lavish lifestyle all those hours of his work provided.” I balled up my fists tightly in my coat pockets.
She nodded miserably.
“Yes, I did. But, Ashton, there were things going on that you can’t understand.”
I towered over her.
“Try me, Debra. I’m not a child anymore.”
She bit her lip.
“No, Ashton, you’re not. You’ve grown up to be such a handsome young man. You look so much like your father did at your age.” She reached up to brush her fingertips through my hair.
Backing away, I looked at Amber watching us her face full of concern.
“Look, Debra, you picked a great day to reappear in my life after being gone for over thirty years! Today of all days when I’m honoring the man who looked after me, loved me, and raised me! My heart is shattered, Debra. I can’t do this with you today.” I turned to walk back to the waiting car.
“Ashton! Please don’t go. I want you to understand.” She jumped in front of me.
Searching her gray eyes, I saw what I didn’t want to see. I saw the mommy I had once loved so much. The mommy who’d pushed me in the swing that hung from the huge, old oak tree in our yard. The mommy who’d tucked me at night and rubbed my aching muscles after playing outside all day. The mommy who’d put me to bed on Christmas Eve after baking cookies for Santa and who sang ‘Away in the Manger’ before I went to sleep. She was still there inside the body of this drunken, disheveled woman.
As I lost myself in her eyes, the ice that had encased my heart for so long was beginning to melt. But the sharp, stinging pain of her leaving brought me back.
“What is it, Debra? Amber is waiting for me.”
She shifted her weight stomping her feet to warm them.
“Ashton, I’m not well. I guess you can tell that by looking at me. What I did years ago…it wasn’t right. I’m sorry.”
“Why didn’t you write? Pick up a phone and call me? You could’ve done something!” Rage filled me.
“Ashton, I did write. You didn’t get my letters?” She looked perplexed.
“Debra, you didn’t write. You didn’t send me a single fucking birthday card.”
Tears coursed freely down her face.
“Yes, I did, Ashton. I don’t know why your father didn’t give them to you.”
That was it. How dare she blame my father for what she’d done!
“Debra, this conversation is over. Dad wouldn’t have kept anything from me. He was the one who held me night after night when I couldn’t sleep after you left. He’s the one who took care me all those years after you left us.”
Debra shook her head. She spread her hands helplessly.
“Ashton, I don’t know what to tell you. I did write you a letter every single week until you were eighteen years old. I sent a card every single birthday. I sent a card the day you graduated high school and college. I have every news article ever written about you in a drawer.”
Feeling sick, I wanted to run away from her and never see her again. But something in her eyes told me she was telling me the truth. I couldn’t stand knowing that my father would’ve kept something so important from me.
“Debra, I’m leaving now. Keep your apology. I don’t want it. If you feel the need to apologize to someone, go say it to him.” I gestured to my father’s casket still awaiting burial.
Without saying another word, I walked back to the car. Amber opened the door and threw her arms around me.
“Oh, Ash, I’m so sorry. How could she show up today?”
As I held Amber tightly, I watched my mother slowly stagger over to my father’s casket. She sat down on one of the green velvet chairs and sobbed into her hands.
“I don’t know, Amber. Something tells me this won’t be the last time I see her.”
Present Day
“Ash! I have the best news!” Amber, my secretary, was waiting for me when I arrived at the office. She was waving her arms over her head wildly.
Walking towards her, she threw herself into my arms.
“Whoa, Amber, slow down! What’s the news?”
Releasing me, she snatched a file folder off of my desk.
“This! Look!”
I took the blue folder from her and glanced through at the documents. My eyes widened.
“Oh my God, Amber! Do you know what this means?” My heart thumped wildly.
As she jumped up and down with excitement, her full tits jiggled.
“Yes, Ash! It means that---“
“---S & G is going to accept our offer!” I slammed the folder down. I, too, felt Amber’s excitement. This is exactly what I’d hoped for!
“Wow! A cause for celebration this early in the morning! I’m going to have to break with my ‘No Drinks Before Lunch’ rule.” Excitedly, I raced over to the bar in my office.
“I think this calls for something special, don’t you?” I reached into my liquor cabinet to retrieve a bottle of champagne.
“Wow, Ash, isn’t that one of the bottles from your father’s prized collection?” Amber asked, peering at the bottle’s label.
“Yes, Amber, it is. It’s Krug Clos d’ Ambonnay, 1998. It was one of my father’s most expensive bottles.”
Her eyes widened in surprise.
“Are you sure you want to open that now, Ash?”
I nodded, popping the cork. The champagne fizzed out of the bottle. Amber laughed as she attempted to catch some of the bubbling liquid.
“Why wouldn’t I? This is a momentous occasion, the birth of our new company!”
Filling two champagne glasses, I handed one to Amber.
“Here’s to our brand-new company and all the exciting adventures that it entails.” I clinked my glass with hers.
Amber sipped the champagne as she sat in a huge, beige leather chair across from mine. Her blue high heeled shoe swung from her foot.
“How about toasting to new beginnings?” she asked, thoughtfully studying my face.
I cocked my head to the side considering what she’d said.
“What new beginnings are you referring to?” I finished my champagne quickly and poured another glass.
“Well, you and Veronica have ended things again, we’re starting this new business, and it looks as though S & G will be ours, so I’d say those are several new beginnings.” Amber’s fingers lingered on her collarbone tracing it lightly with her long red fingernails. Gazing into her eyes, I could see the desire burning within them. She wanted me.
As more than just a boss, more than just a friend.
I filled her glass again.
“To new beginnings!” I held my glass high.
Amber stood up and walked over to me. She touched her glass to mine.
“To new beginnings!”
As we finished our champagne, Amber took both our glasses and sat them down on the glass-covered table.
Taking the edges of my collar, she pulled me to her. Our lips were inches apart. Her big, firm breasts pressed against my chest.
“Amber, what the hell are you doing?” I asked, surprised by her forwardness.
“Exactly what I’ve wanted to do for the past six years.” She pressed her full red lips onto mine.
I melted feeling the electricity between us. I kissed her back passionately feeling my cock hardening.
Still, this wasn’t right. I couldn’t let her do this. Grabbing her shoulders, I pulled away from her.
“Amber, we can’t do this. You’re too valuable to me to risk losing you for something like this.”
She smiled provocatively running her hands over my chest.
“Something like this? Ash, I know you wa
nt me too. This would be the perfect way to celebrate.”
My cock throbbed painfully. Oh, I wanted her, but I didn’t know if I could have her.
After my painful breakup a few months ago with Veronica, I just couldn’t get involved with someone again. Amber was too valuable of a person, too much of a friend to me to be just another meaningless fuck.
“Amber, I do want you, but Veronica---“
“---is gone now. So, what do you have to lose?”
I threw up my hands.
“Everything! Amber, you’re my best friend, my confidant, and my secretary! I don’t want to do this now.”
Amber placed her fingers over my lips.
“Shhh, Ash. I’m a big girl. I know what I want and I know what you want. Let’s start this business the right way.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but she clasped her hand tightly over it.
“Not another word, Ash,” she whispered.
With that, I stood astonished as she slapped my ass.
“Now, what do you say we have dinner tonight at my place and then do what we’ve both been wanting for years?”
My eyes widened as I grasped the implication of what she’d just done. Oh, that sexy, tricky woman!
Topping me from the bottom.
That was a first for me. I felt excitement building within me. Maybe Amber could be more than just my secretary. My cock leapt at the thought.
Grasping her wrists, I spun her around.
“Get ready, Amber, for the time of your life. You want to play in my world I suggest you have a high pain threshold.” I raised my hand and slapped her on the ass hard.
Crying out with pain then pleasure, she turned to wink at me.
“Thank you, sir. May I have another?”
Spanking her ass again, I pushed her towards the door.
“Now let’s go, Amber. Things are about to get---“
“---heated? I’m so ready.”
So was I.
Shattered: A Bad Boy Romance
Copyright © 2017 Ashton Blackthorne
Published by: Blackthorne International
All Rights Reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means – electronic, mechanical, photographic, recording or otherwise – without prior permission from the author.
Broken: A Dark Alpha Male Romance
Copyright © 2017 Ashton Blackthorne
Second Edition
Published by: Blackthorne International
All Rights Reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means – electronic, mechanical, photographic, recording or otherwise – without prior permission from the author.
Be sure to check out the other Ashton Blackthorne books:
Shattered: A Bad Boy Romance Available NOW!
Bound by Him: Veronica’s Story Available NOW!
Twisted, Book One in the Dark Series COMING May 2017
Insatiable Series Box Set Page 25
