Chapter 169: Well Done
"Nash’s? Let me check. She... doesn’t seem to have told me."
Mason Grant was about to scroll through his chat history with Nathan Grant when he saw Nathan’s message first: "If Leah asks for my address, just say you don’t know!"
"...Alright, you can get up now."
"Okay."
Mason Grant stretched lazily. As soon as the call ended, he quickly messaged Nathan Grant to get the gossip on what was going on.
After hanging up, Leah Sinclair was silent for a moment before forcing a laugh. "Sean Yates, maybe you should just drop me off now. I’ll see if I can get a cab back up the mountain."
"Second Miss Grant, this is the Silverwood villa district. It’s not easy to hail a cab here," Sean Yates said with a smile.
"Then just drop me on the side of the road when you head back down. I’ll get a cab from there," Leah Sinclair said, feeling extremely awkward. ’I never should have gotten in this car.’
"That’s... not a good idea. How about I just wait and..."
"She can stay at my place first. When Nash and the others get back, they can pick her up." Asher Keating, apparently fed up with their bickering, finally spoke.
"No, that’s okay! I can..."
Leah Sinclair quickly refused, but when she turned and met Asher Keating’s icy gaze, she immediately shut her mouth.
Sean Yates pressed his lips together to hide a smile and said no more, focusing on driving. It wasn’t long before he dropped them off at Asher Keating’s villa.
Asher Keating still had the same villa in Silverwood. After they got out, Sean Yates helped bring Leah Sinclair’s suitcase into the house and said goodbye to them both.
As soon as he left, Sean Yates sent a message to Ethan Shaw: "Delivered safely!"
Ethan Shaw replied immediately: "Nice work!"
Once inside, Leah Sinclair stood hesitantly in the entryway, just as she had the first time she came here four years ago.
Asher Keating turned to see she hadn’t followed him in. "Are you planning to stand there until they come back?" he asked coldly.
Only then did Leah Sinclair slowly shuffle inside and sit down. She glanced around. The decor was the same as before, completely unchanged.
For a fleeting moment, she felt as if she had truly returned to four years ago. ’I just wonder... if anyone else has been here since.’
Asher Keating opened the refrigerator and asked, "What do you want to drink?"
"Uh, beer."
The moment the word left her lips, Leah Sinclair wanted to bite her own tongue. ’Why did I say the exact same thing as last time?’
Asher Keating glanced at her, then pulled out a can of beer and handed it to her. It was the same brand, in the same packaging, as the one she had drunk here four years ago.
Leah Sinclair silently took it, clutching it in her hands. Asher Keating lit a cigarette and sat on the sofa. Neither of them spoke, and an awkward silence filled the air.
Leah Sinclair had been squeezing the can for so long that the cold beer was starting to turn warm when Asher Keating finally spoke. "How long are you planning to stay this time?"
Startled by the sudden voice, Leah Sinclair almost dropped her beer. She quickly tightened her grip. "I don’t know yet. It... depends on my mom."
Leah Sinclair had come back this time to attend Nathan Grant’s wedding, but also because Mabel Grant hadn’t seen her in a long time and missed her terribly.
But she was too busy to keep flying to Eldoria to see Leah Sinclair, and Leah had just finished her graduate thesis and had some time off.
Asher Keating remembered what Chester Hale had just told him—that the main reason Leah Sinclair was back was because Mabel Grant wanted her to go on blind dates. A wave of irritation washed over him.
He stood up, walked over to Leah Sinclair, and took the beer can from her hand. Stunned by his sudden movement, Leah was still processing what happened when Asher Keating pushed her down onto the sofa.
Asher Keating wasn’t wearing his glasses. Leah Sinclair stared blankly at his face, only inches from her own. His eyes held suppressed anger, and... was that a hint of longing?
A numb ache spread through Leah Sinclair’s heart. For more than three years, she had thought about Asher Keating every single day, wanting to run back to him countless times.
When the longing drove her mad, she would drink herself into a tipsy haze, only able to fall asleep while hugging his shirt. Ever since she found out he had someone else, the pain had become so unbearable she suffered from insomnia almost every night. She couldn’t sleep at all without drinking; the heartache was too much.
"Asher..."
Leah Sinclair’s eyes reddened. She had finally said the name she had repeated countless times in her heart for more than three years.
At her soft call, the anger in Asher Keating’s eyes slowly faded, replaced by a growing tenderness. Just as he was about to speak, Leah Sinclair grabbed his shirt and pressed her lips to his.
Her cool lips had barely touched his when, after a second’s pause, Asher Keating gave her no chance to pull away. Leah had only meant to give him a quick peck; she couldn’t control herself.
But Asher held the back of her head, parting her lips and teeth as a heavy kiss fell upon her.
The kiss was anything but gentle. Asher Keating was too domineering, too fierce. Leah Sinclair gradually felt her head grow fuzzy from lack of oxygen, but she couldn’t bear to let go.
Finally, Asher sensed the change in her breathing and slowed down. He didn’t let go, but his kisses gradually became gentle and tender.
Asher Keating’s lips moved slowly down to Leah Sinclair’s collarbone. When he reached the small mole there, he gently bit down.
The bite jolted Leah’s hazy mind back to clarity. She let out a soft hiss and heard Asher Keating’s deep voice, muffled against her neck, "You heartless girl. You haven’t missed me at all these past three years, have you?"
Leah Sinclair’s eyes instantly turned red. She wrapped her arms around Asher Keating’s neck, her voice choked with emotion. "I did. I missed you every day. I was going crazy thinking about you!"
Asher Keating lifted his head and pinched her cheek hard. "Missed me? You call that missing me? Not a single message, not a single phone call?"
"I was afraid to call you. I was scared that if I heard your voice, I’d lose all my resolve and come running back."
Leah Sinclair gazed at Asher Keating with something close to adoration. He hadn’t even given her a proper look all evening, but now he was looking right at her, pinching her cheek just like he used to. It all felt a little surreal.
Asher Keating straightened up and pulled her into his arms. "And what’s wrong with running back? Can’t I provide for you?"
"...That’s not it. It was so hard for me to finally get out there. I didn’t want to just give up. I wanted to become a better person, to not always have to rely on you to protect me," Leah Sinclair said, her voice muffled as she hugged his waist.
Asher Keating looked down at the woman in his arms. Of course he knew. It was precisely because he knew that he hadn’t forced her to stay by his side. Instead, he had chosen to let her fly away and grow her own wings.
"Asher, did you miss me?" Leah Sinclair asked, looking up at Asher Keating.
"What do you think?" Asher Keating felt like this girl would be the death of him.
"Then why didn’t you call me? Or come see me? You didn’t even look at me properly all night!" Leah Sinclair sat up and accused him, feeling wronged as she recalled his cold attitude earlier.
Her words left him speechless. Annoyed, he pinched her cheek again. "Who was it that said she needed to ’sort out whether she really liked me’? And did you even look at me tonight? How would you know I wasn’t looking at you?"
Leah Sinclair felt a pang of guilt. She had indeed said those words, and she knew they had hurt Asher Keating’s feelings back then.
And tonight, she had only dared to steal glances at him, so she really didn’t know if he had been looking at her or not.
Leah Sinclair rubbed the spot where he had pinched her and said pitifully, "I did steal glances. You had such a cold look on your face, I didn’t dare talk to you."
"Oh, I think you’re plenty daring! Hmm? Looking for male models overseas? The ones with the pretty blue eyes?" The memory alone made Asher Keating seethe with anger.