I look into the beautiful brown flecks of his eyes, surrounded my warm honey and I melt.
“I am. I’m here. With you.”
His shoulders relax and he kisses me softly on the lips. “Good, because I have something to show you.”
I want the kiss to continue but he takes my hand and pulls me out of his office and over to the elevator.
“Where are we going?”
“Surprise.” He leans in and kisses me again and before I know it the elevator has arrived and we get in. He hits the button for thirty-three and we make our descent.
“Are we going to your company floor?” I ask.
“My company?” He tilts his head, confused. “They’re all my companies.”
This time it’s my turn to tilt my head and look confused.
Alexander explains. “This entire building is occupied by companies we own or are partial owners in. If we have stock in it, it’s here.”
I look over at the elevator panel of forty-two buttons. I was just coming to grips with the fact he owned the building, but not everything that occupies it. Minus the two-story lobby and his office floor that leaves thirty-nine floors of businesses. Alexander Asher runs thirty-nine companies. At least. That’s assuming there is only one business per floor. When I heard it referred to as the “Asher Empire” I thought it was all in jest. I didn’t realize there really was an empire to run.
The doors open when we arrive at the thirty-third floor. In front of us is a glass-panelled wall with the name Black Dog etched in the glass. There are still people occupying the space, working as if it were three in the afternoon, not eight-thirty at night. When the people see him, they immediately stop what they’re doing, straighten up and give him a professional greeting.
I laugh inwardly at the thought they find him so intimidating. Lord knows I did the first time I met him but when he lets you in he can be pretty adorable, like that time he wore flip-flops for the first and last time.
“What are you smiling about?” He is holding open a door with one hand and pulling me inside a darkened room with the other.
As I pass through the doorway, I give him a kiss on the cheek. “Just you and your adorableness.”
His smile reaches his eyes. “I’ve never been called adorable before.”
Alexander flips on the lights and room comes alive. I flutter my eyelids to make sure I am seeing this correctly.
We are inside the booth of a recording studio. The black panels of the recording equipment with their various buttons and levers that I have no idea how to use are in front of us. A couple of computers are there as well with two large sofas on the opposite wall. In front of the equipment is a wall of glass looking into a large recording space that is currently empty except for lone band equipment and a few microphone stands.
“You own a recording studio?”
Alexander has a look of pride on his face. “Lifelong dream. I bought Black Dog earlier this year. We just moved them in this fall. Everything in here is new.
I look over at him incredulously. “Weren’t you sailing the seven seas earlier this year? When did you have time to buy a record label?”
Alexander laughs. “You’d be surprised what you can do over the phone.”
I roll my eyes and run my hand along the control panels. I was working on something in a studio like this before the accident. It was a new sound that I’ve been searching for since.
Two strong hands rest on my shoulder as Alexander walks up to me from behind me. “I was thinking we could run it together. You can make music again.”
My body tightens at the idea. I pushed that dream aside. I was just coming to accept my new life without being in the spotlight, without feeling the song playing through my fingers.
“Alex—”
“I love when you say my name.” His arms circle around my waist as he circles me around and pulls me into a kiss so powerful I forget what I am upset about. How could anything in this world bother me when I am in Alexander Asher’s arms?