Big Ben - Book 1 (London Lords) (Paperback)

I forced my face into neutrality. “Rough go.” I kept staring at the photo with her and Ford and his hand dangerously close to her ass. Where my hand had been earlier that night.
My hands fisted and I forced them to unfurl. Didn’t matter that I didn’t know her. She felt like mine.

East scanned her information.  “Oh, she’s been with Ford for two years. As far as I can tell, they’re not engaged.”

My chest loosened. As if all of a sudden I could breathe. Game on. If he wasn’t going to put a ring on it, she was mine for the taking.

East whistled low. “Well, what do you know?”

I sat up straighter.  

He grinned. “It seems that we will have no problem finding Olivia Ashong.”

Bridge frowned before heading over to the bar and pouring himself a whiskey. “Why is that?”

“Because she works for us. She’s an admin to Kennedy Bright.”

She had been under my nose all this time? “How long has she worked there?”

East held up a finger.  “Looks like she started as a temp right around the time her mother died. And then Kennedy hired her on as a full-time executive assistant three months ago.”

“Okay, great. I’ll make the approach and get back the data.” I was going to approach her about a whole lot more too, like why I was in a perpetual state of semi-arousal just thinking about her.

East pursed his lips as he slid a glance over his laptop.  “I think I should make the approach. You already fucked it up, mate.”
My brows rose as I took the drink Bridge handed me.  

“Say what?” The hell I was going to allow him anywhere near her. Not with him looking like he could be the next Becks. No way, no how was that going to happen.
He didn’t seem to get the memo from my death-glare eyes. “Mate, you fucked it up by letting her see you in Van Linsted’s office. You flubbed the pass. I think you’re done.”

He was the one who was going to be done if he didn’t back off. “Now, just wait a minute. I made the best decision I could in the moment. And as for letting her see me, she was in the fucking closet. There wasn’t much to be done.”

We both glanced at Bridge, and he shook his head.  “I’m not in this one. You two sort it out.”

I pushed out of my chair to see what East was staring at. And then I saw it. There was a photo from the event when she was turning and looking over her shoulder at someone. Her dark skin glowed under the golden light. Even in the photo, her eyes spoke to me. She was in a word, stunning.
Her hair had been pulled back up her neck, with a few tendrils escaping. Skin the color of a fawn, high cheekbones, enormous almond-shaped eyes with lashes that fanned her cheeks. Fuck, she was beautiful.  
East sat back and crossed his arms. 

“It makes more sense for me to approach her.”

I laughed.  “Over my dead body. She doesn’t know you. She’ll recognize me.”

East pointed a finger at me.  “You see the look on your face right there? You’re already distracted by her. We made a pact, for Emma, for Toby… No more distractions by this side shit. We owe it to them.”

“I’m not distracted by anybody, ever. I will make the approach. We had a connection.” Total bollocks. I was ready and willing to kill East if he thought he was getting anywhere near Olivia Ashong.

I could see Bridge’s smug smirk behind his whiskey glass as he chuckled. East didn’t even bother to hide his laugh.  “Oh yeah, sure. If you think you can make it work, Casanova, make it work. We need that drive. And we need to figure out if we can trust her or not. Right now, she’s an unknown factor that could be dangerous to us. To this whole plan.”

“Yeah, yeah. I hear you. We’ll get it back.”
We didn’t have any other choice.