here. He’d be demanding things from Rei.” I waggle my brows.
“Not if he wants to keep his football career, he wouldn’t.” Asher draws circles on Reina’s side with his finger.
She rolls her eyes. “You’re over the top, Ash.”
“But you already knew that, prom queen.” He kisses her forehead.
“Do I need to go?” I taunt. “Get you a key to a room, maybe?”
Asher gives me his signature blank look while Reina laughs. Then her smile turns mechanical when she directs it at Aspen.
I can tell she’s measuring her up and probably weighing her in that critical way she used to be famous for in the past. “And…you are?”
“Aspen Le Blanc.” She offers her hand. “Senior partner at Weaver & Shaw.”
Reina seems impressed, but her lips twist as she struggles to keep up her façade. “Aren’t you too young to be a partner?”
“So is Sebastian, but because of his gender, no one asks him that.”
“I didn’t mean it that way.” Reina sighs. “I’m just…surprised is all.”
“Don’t be. We’re unicorns, but we exist.” Aspen smiles at Asher. “Isn’t that right, Mr. Carson?”
Asher makes an absentminded sound, but doesn’t confirm or deny.
“I’ll be right back,” Aspen leans in to whisper, then kisses my cheek. “I’ll go steal their clients. Stall for me or I’ll be naughty when I come back.”
Great. Now she’s taking what Reina said as a serious offense. And since she noticed Reina was bothered by our closeness, she’s taking advantage of it.
“Who the hell is she?” Reina hisses as soon as Aspen disappears.
“I should be asking you why the fuck you were out to insult her.”
While Reina and I aren’t that close, we have Asher in common, and that makes us see each other more than either of us prefer.
“She seems annoying.”
“You don’t even know her, Reina.”
“He’s right.” Asher strokes her arm. “You were aggressive to a woman you just met.”
“Unnecessarily so,” I shoot back.
“She had a reason,” Asher tells me without breaking eye contact with his wife. “Didn’t you, prom queen?”
Only he would be patient enough to read behind her apparent bitchiness and actually discern why she’s acting the way she is.
Reina sighs. “She annoys me because she seems to have eyes for you, and I don’t like seeing you with anyone but Naomi.”
My jaw clenches. “But it’s okay to see Naomi fucking married?”
“I didn’t know that until she came back, and only through her photos in social columns. We don’t exactly keep in touch, except for a random text she sent from a number I couldn’t reach afterward.”
I narrow my eyes. “She sent you a text?”
“It was about two years ago. I think she was drunk. She said she didn’t think she’d miss her bitchy captain and then she begged me not to tell you because you guys are complicated.”
I should feel something other than bitter rage, but that’s the only emotion crowding in my veins and ripping into my bones.
Reina softens her tone. “And to answer your question, yes, it feels weird to see her with anyone else, too. I know it’s irrational, but I can’t digest the idea of you two being with different people.”
Asher strokes her hand as if in approval. Ever since they got back together, he always makes sure he’s touching her in some way. “That’s your opinion, but it’s not theirs, prom queen.”
“I know that. But I can’t help it.”
Fuck this.
Just when I’m attempting to get my mind off her, she comes back in uninvited.
Reina’s eyes widen as she stares behind me. I think Aspen has returned, but Reina’s lips move in a barely audible murmur, “Naomi.”
My body bursts back to life and it takes everything in me not to turn around and face her.
I don’t have to, though.
Naomi comes into view on the arm of her fucking husband and they appear to be headed our way. Her silver and black dress molds against her slim curves and hugs her perky breasts. A small amount of cleavage is visible, but there’s no trace of the hickeys I left the last time I saw her.
I made sure they were all over her tits so she must’ve used something to conceal them.
Naomi smiles at Reina and Asher, but subtly ignores me when she addresses them, “Hey, you two. It’s been a long time.”
“That’s an understatement!” Reina pulls her in for a hug, and that breaks Akira’s hold on her arm. Temporarily.
He greets Asher in his seemingly welcoming but actually stoic nature, then focuses on me. His dark eyes gleam as a slight smirk tips his