out him starting work. Maybe it also related to Sennet’s apparent willingness to ignore Asher’s father’s intrusions into him taking the job, if his father had indeed tried to interfere as he’d threatened.
At any rate, the phone call made his impatience to see Laila again spike. He wanted to share the good news. Talking to Sennet and making plans for his move to London also made him anxious.
He’d be leaving Chicago so soon. Leaving Laila’s arms.
He checked the clock on the desk and frowned. Where was she? She’d left after she’d showered and dressed earlier, insisting she just needed to run a couple errands downtown. She’d been elusive about what the errands were and why they were so important. It had been nearly three hours since she’d left. Had she been put off by that comparison he’d made to him wanting her to meet his parents and Driss bringing his fiancée home to Detroit?
He was in the process of trying to call her when a call came in from the front desk. It was his doorman. Laila had arrived.
He opened the front door a moment later. The question he’d been about to ask her about where she’d been and what had taken her so long faded from his tongue when he saw her glowing expression and the bag hanging at her side. A plaid gift-wrapped box stuck out of the top of it.
“I’m sorry I took so long,” she exclaimed, crossing the threshold and going up on her toes to kiss him. She smelled like autumn air and her fresh floral perfume. He resisted an urge to pull her closer and bury his face in her neck when she backed away. “I was having trouble finding exactly what I wanted.” She dangled the bag in front of him. “Happy birthday, Asher.”
“That’s where you were this whole time? Looking for a birthday present? For me?”
“Who else, goofy?” she asked, grinning and unbelting her long suede coat. She paused as she slid her coat off her shoulders. “Why are you frowning like that?”
“I would have rather spent the time with you,” he told her bluntly. “That would have been the gift I chose.”
A shadow passed over her radiant face. Regret spiked through him. “Picking out a special birthday gift for someone I care about is important. To me, it is. My mother spends months researching and thinking about perfect gifts for my dad and me for our birthdays. I only had a few hours.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, feeling stupid for his crassness. His damn insensitivity. He’d never get rid of that character flaw. “I’m not used to having anyone giving me presents.”
“I thought your parents were always giving you things.”
“Not things like this,” he mumbled, eyeing the elegantly wrapped gift with wary curiosity. He saw her questioning glance as they walked into the living room. He shrugged. “Not things that they took half a day to shop for personally. More like things they asked their secretary or lawyer to procure for me.”
“Like a car or this condo?” she asked as they sat down on the couch.
“I guess.”
“This isn’t anything like that. It’s not a big deal. It’s a new Burberry trench coat and an umbrella. I had to make sure you looked the part of a London bureau chief, didn’t I?”
“It is a big deal,” he realized, humbled. “That sounds great. If you picked it out, it is. I’m sorry. Just ignore me. You’re incredibly sweet,” he said, kissing her to underline his apology. Still, he was uncomfortable for some reason. He couldn’t help it. He was used to giving women presents and usually enjoyed it. It hit him that he’d never once given her anything—Laila, whom he’d most like to spoil. He needed to rectify that. The idea of her shopping for a gift for him made him feel weird. Awkward, but also . . . special. It wasn’t really a feeling he’d ever experienced before.
“Aren’t you going to open it?” she asked, her sexy, curling lips and bright eyes making him forget for a second what she was talking about. He leaned over and palmed her jaw, kissing her without restraint this time. She moaned softly. He felt her melting against him. He reached for her, and the bag dropped to the floor.
“Asher, what are you doing?” she mumbled when he pressed her back on the couch and palmed a breast. He groaned. She felt so good beneath the thin sweater she wore, so firm and soft. He’d never get enough of her beautiful breasts. He felt the peak harden beneath his stroking fingers. Her reaction enflamed him. He went to kiss her mouth again. She twisted her chin.
“Asher Gaites-Granville, you aren’t going to get out of opening that birthday present!”
He blinked in surprise at her scolding. She sat up, forcing him to straighten. She slid the gift out of the bag and plopped it unceremoniously into his lap, directly onto his erection. He started and grimaced.
“You are so odd sometimes. Who doesn’t like presents? Now open the damn thing,” she ordered, shaking her head, a smile peeking around her frown. She sighed and laughed when he began to unwrap the present in a desultory fashion.
“Then maybe we’ll see about giving you the birthday gift you clearly would have preferred,” she added drolly.
He grinned and started to rip the paper more enthusiastically.
• • •
They lay together side by side later that night on a mussed bed, Laila in the cradle of one of Asher’s bent arms. His fingers moved lazily in her unbound hair. They’d made love with the lamp on. He’d wanted to see every nuance of her giving herself to him.
“I got a call earlier today from my new boss at the Gazette,” Asher said quietly.
“You did?” Laila asked in a hushed voice. Had she stiffened a little when he’d brought up his job? It seemed more and more that they were veering away from the topic of his leaving next week.
“Yeah. You know how I told you that my father threatened to contact the head of Mandor Media Group and get me blackballed from my job? Well, either he backed off from doing it or Mandor decided it was worth the risk to make even more of an enemy of Clark and GGM.”