Ivan frowned and said, “Tell on you? About what? To who?”

“To Lucina about me coming to visit you. She’s so…” Ashley twisted up her lightly tanned face, with her dark eyes, and said, “Controlling. That’s why I took a break for a while. No offense, but I had to get away from her.”

“So why are you back now?” he asked her. Now she had him on guard. What was her motive?

She paced his living room and answered, “Well, first of all, I could use the extra money. And I missed being around some of the people.”

She kicked her shoes off and asked, “Oh, do you mind?”

Ivan shook it off. “Naw, go ahead and get out of your foot killers.”

When he looked down at her feet, he could see the imprints on her skin from her shoes. Other than that, her small feet were unblemished and pretty.

“Nice place,” she told him. “Did Lucina help you to decorate, too?”

“You know it.”

“Did she get you to change your look, with the low-cut hair, the diamond earring, and the expensive Rolex watch?” She had heard the rumored talk about it.

Ivan began to feel like the prize in a catfight. He smiled and said, “It sounds like you have some kind of competition thing going on.”

“Well, it’s obvious that Lucina tells everyone to stay away from you.”

“Because she doesn’t want to mix the business with complications,” Ivan responded. It made sense to him, although he planned to ignore it on occasion.

Ashley shrugged and said, “But I like you anyway. I’ve always liked you.” She stared right into his eyes when she said it.

He asked her, “Really?”

“Yeah. I just thought you were a cool person to be around. And I know you didn’t pay me any mind. You were just focused on what you needed to do,” she told him. “But I understand the business part of it, too. So I had to make sure that we could come to an understanding first.”

When she said that, all Ivan could concentrate on was her body in that dress again without noticeable bra straps or a panty line.

He joked, “So, what about you telling her on me?”

Ashley walked up close to him, close enough to be held and kissed. “Tell her that you did what?” she asked him.

She was a great tease. Ivan was ready to grab her and strip her clothes off right there, and give her what she was asking for. But before he could make a move on her, she made her move instead and kissed him on the lips. Then she slid down to her knees in front of him.

She said, “I’m not gonna tell anybody I did this,” and began to undo his pants.