I Think I Have A Lot To OFfer A Man Like You Who: Ash and Bianca Where: The elevator When: Early afternoon
Ash was thinking about Mai and sort of absently wandering down the hall outside his room toward the elevators. He was trying to decide what he felt like doing. He had a planning notebook and his laptop under his arm. He really needed to get out of his room; he wanted to see what Mai was doing. He needed to get work done. He pushed the button and stepped into the elevator. He settled against the back wall after pushing the button for the lobby. He’d work first and then go see Mai. There was only a brief sensation of going down when the car stopped and the doors opened again. They almost began to close again when Ash heard a shriek of frustration outside them.
“Oh my fucking… hold the fucking door, please!” Bianca demanded loudly. She’d been fast walking down the hall away from Kyle’s room with her suitcase rocking on its wheels behind her. She’d been about to pull the case into the elevator when it had toppled, pulling her wrist at a slightly painful angle and holding her back. Which just added to her aggressive frustration. She almost kicked the elevator doors but Ash had managed to push the button to send the doors open again.
He lifted a brow and took her in. She was probably a pretty girl when her face wasn’t twisted in such a snarl, her knuckles white on the handle of her suitcase which she abused into the elevator.
“Thanks,” Bianca said in a tone that said he was completely unhelpful. Then she looked up at his face and her expression softened immediately into a little bit of a simper. “I mean, you kind of saved my life just then,” she said sweetly, her pupils dilating. Mama like. He was tall, dark, and gorgeous. She recognized him too. He was a big man in the philanthropy scene. She’d been on the arm of a television producer at one of his fundraisers. She’d wanted to claw out the eyes of the girl he’d left with. “Mr. Asher,” she added so that he knew she was aware of who he was. Stroke the ego. Maybe she’d take him back to her room with her. Scratch a few itches.
Ash found himself smiling tentatively back at her, feeling she was vaguely familiar. Apparently she knew him so that probably meant she was one of those models that had waltzed through one of his fundraisers on the arm of some random wannabe. Which he supposed he couldn’t hold against her. She was beautiful and probably appreciated being told so which was something the wannabes were very good at doing.
“Have we met?” he asked her, pushing his hair out of his face.
Bianca could have cursed herself for not having taken more time on her appearance when she’d gotten up this morning. In spite of that she knew what she was working with and pushed the stop button on the elevator. The car came to a halt and she sidled up closer to him. “Not officially, I’m sure. I’m Bianca van der Noorden and, Mr. Asher. Uh may I call you Ben?” she asked, her tone syrupy sweet.
Ash gave her a bemused look and then shrugged. He wasn’t really Mr. Asher here in this strange place anyway. He wasn’t sure he appreciated her forwardness though. Stopping the elevator, moving closer. It all spoke of overconfidence and/or aggressiveness, both of which he wasn’t really interested in. Still, he could at least be polite and hear her out.
“Ben,” she said, her voice almost a throaty sigh as she said it. “I think that I have a lot to offer a man like you. Business-wise, of course.”
“Oh, of course,” he said as though he actually believed that was what she meant. He’d met more than enough of his fair share of girls like this one. Status climbers willing to use their feminine wiles to get ahead. He was curious though what her proposal would be.
Bianca smiled widely and bit her lower lip strategically, looking down and then up at him again. “I’m an actress and a model. I get work because I am very persuasive,” she said truthfully. Her hand, which had been moving as she spoke, landed on his forearm.
Ash glanced at her hand and then back at Bianca. “Oh?” he asked, an edge of disinterest in his tone.
Bianca picked up on the disinterest immediately but it didn’t cause her to falter even a hair. She just had to work harder. She could do that. She reached out a finger and trailed it along the front of his shirt toward his belt. She opened her mouth to speak again when he grabbed her wrist, preventing her from reaching the belt. She made a soft, surprised sound, her eyes still bright with what was supposed to be some hidden mischief.
Ash pushed her hand back down to her to her side with some force, earning him a more surprised widening of her eyes. “Ms. van der Noorden, girls like you are a dime a dozen. Throwing yourself at me in an elevator isn’t even remotely the way to catch my attention. Do you know how many girls have done almost the very same thing since I earned my first million? I’m sure you don’t. You think you’re the only one with game and that I’m easily flattered. You’re wrong on both counts. So I suggest that you take your place with your case and set us going back down again.”
Bianca’s eyes dimmed to slits. She retreated to her side of the elevator, most definitely pouting and feeling even more pissy than ever. She crossed her arms over her chest and did not push the button. He could do that himself if he was going to be an asshole.
Ash watched for a long moment before stepping forward and stabbing the button with his finger. Why in the world had he ever left Mai’s room? If he’d known he was going to run into this garbage he would have really thought hard about maybe skipping the medication and staying in bed with her. “You do realize that you should have more self respect, right?” he asked Bianca who huffed.
“Look, you don’t know a damn thing about me. You have no idea what I do and don’t have in the self respect department,” she said, arms folded across her chest, toe tapping because the elevator seemed to be taking its sweet time. She was not used to being rejected and it made her angry.
“I know that you think you can buy what you want with sex,” he insisted, not sure why he felt the need to call her out further on this.
Bianca gave him a withering look that didn’t even faze Ash. He’d had plenty of that sort of thing leveled at him. She turned more toward him but stayed put. Her voice got very soft and was almost just a growl when she spoke next. “Just shut the fuck up, you pretentious bastard.”
Ash couldn’t help it. She was getting so out of control that he was actually laughing silently, his shoulders shaking slightly. He knew though that the worst that could happen would be she’d start screaming. Who cared if she did? She only made herself look like more of an idiot than she already did.
She could see him laughing and it enraged her. She gritted her teeth and opened her mouth to spit as much vitriol at him as she could muster when the elevator stopped with a ding.
Ash put up his hand and chuckled. “Save it for your therapist,” he said and headed out into the lobby.
Bianca stomped her foot and stalked out of the elevator after him. She had one finger up at his back, unable to let it go. “You know what is wrong with guys like you?”
Ash turned around on her but kept walking backward. He waved his free arm to the side. “I don’t care,” he said then turned and headed quickly out into the courtyard away from her. He was pretty sure that if he ever saw her again, he was never holding the elevator or he was walking in the opposite direction immediately
Bianca watched him go and wanted to scream. Instead she stomped into the bar. She was going to get good and well wasted now. Fuck the spa if there was one.