Sweet Obsession (Nights Series #4)(4)

Luke sobered when he saw the flush of color painting Ash’s cheekbones and ears. He masked a grimace, straightened, and shifted his rock-hard dick from the taut flesh of Ash’s inner thigh.

Ash blinked, an odd mixture of relief and disappointment flashing across his face. He flattened his hands on the desk and started to rise as Luke stepped away from him.

“Ouch!”

Luke startled at Ash’s muttered exclamation. He looked down and saw the cut on Ash’s hand where he’d pressed his palm against the sharp end of a stapler.

“Damn it, be careful!” Luke said gruffly.

He pulled Ash up until he sat on the edge of the desk, grabbed his hand, and kissed the small wound. Heat shot through Luke when the salty sweet taste of Ash’s skin and the coppery tang of his blood hit his tongue.

Ash went deathly still, shock widening his pupils.

Luke stiffened.

Fuck.

He couldn’t believe he’d just done what he used to do all those years ago, when Ash was still a child.

It was a ritual they’d instigated from the very first time Ash started to walk. Whenever Ash took a tumble, whenever he scraped a knee or grazed an elbow, he would always run to Luke first and present his wound for him to kiss it better, much to the amused dismay of Ash’s parents and the delight of Luke’s own father and mother.

Although the age difference between them spanned over a decade, Luke had always treated Ash like the little brother he’d never had and the rite of soothing Ash’s battle injuries was one Luke had cherished until the young Colby heir entered his teens and outgrew it. They had remained close, their attachment to each other untouched by distance even after Luke started traveling the world in his new role as one of the CEOs of his family’s business.

Until that fateful day six years ago, when their entire world had come crashing down around them.



Ash registered the exact moment Luke shut him out.

He was amazed he was even thinking coherently at this point, so overwhelmed was he at the sinfully sensual feel of Luke’s lips and tongue against his skin. It had been well over a decade since Luke had last kissed him this way.

Luke released Ash’s hand and walked stiffly around his desk to the glass wall overlooking the glistening waters of Marina Bay. He raked his fingers through his hair and let out a frustrated sigh, the lines of his shoulders rigid while he gazed outside.

“I’m sorry,” Luke murmured after a short silence.

Ash blinked, still frozen on the edge of the desk. He shifted his feet to the floor and stood staring at Luke on shaky legs, his brain struggling to process what had just happened.

Including the shocking fact that the man he loved had been gloriously hard for him.

Luke finally turned and looked at Ash, his face cast in shadows by the bright light behind him. “I’ll get the car to take you home.”

A sliver of the anger that had burned through Ash a minute ago surged inside him once more, dampening the frisson of excitement running through him.

“You still haven’t answered my question, Luke,” Ash said in a hard voice.

Luke hesitated. “We’ll talk. Tonight.”





Chapter 4





Ash stared at the luxurious concrete and glass mansion before him.

Luke’s home was located in a secluded area of Sentosa Island, half an hour from Marina Bay. Dusk had started to fall by the time the chauffeur guided the car through a set of imposing electronic security gates and onto a drive spiraling up through thick woodland.

Lights became visible between the trees after some five hundred feet and the land started to open out. The house finally appeared around a curve, a white geometric construction spread out over one level on the summit of a rise, with a two-story block jutting out at one end.

As an architectural design major, Ash could tell how much passion and thought had gone into creating this place.

The car slowed and stopped in a courtyard fringed by manicured lawns and lush vegetation. Ash got out and shrugged his backpack on his shoulder, eyes roaming admiringly over the stunning building while the driver took his travel case out of the boot.

The thick walnut door fronting the property swung open on silent hinges. A petite woman stepped out. She was dressed in a pink kebaya—a traditional Indonesian outfit—and looked to be about fifty.

“Mr. Colby, it is nice to finally meet you,” she said, pressing the palms of her hands together and bowing.

Ash emulated her greeting.

“You must be Xin Yi,” he murmured to Luke’s housekeeper.

The woman smiled. “Just call me Xin. Please follow me.”

Ash thanked Luke’s chauffeur and headed after the housekeeper. He stepped inside a beautiful hallway dominated by a solid ebony floor and paused to take in the mansion’s remarkable interior.

The building opened up before him, an artfully conceived design of whitewashed concrete walls and wood partitions that created an illusion of modern rooms within what was effectively one giant, open-plan space. Glass walls with sliding doors spanned the north-facing aspect of the home and overlooked a patio and sundeck enclosing a swimming pool running half the length of the mansion. A short expanse of manicured lawn edged by tropical fruit trees gave way to thick woodland. The landscape artist who’d designed the gardens had evidently wanted to preserve as much of the natural terrain as possible.