Chapter 170: No Need to Be Polite
"Uh, I was just upset, okay? At the time, I heard them say you were keeping a college student, and I... Wait, how did you know I hired male models!?" Leah Sinclair suddenly realized, her eyes widening as she stared at him.
"What do you think? Ethan Shaw told me all about it. You were on a video call with Sheila Hughes, surrounded by a bunch of male models. Besides... I’m the one who bought Nightfall."
Asher Keating glanced at her. If Leah Sinclair hadn’t been working part-time there and didn’t love drinking there, he wouldn’t have been bored enough to buy a bar in Eldoria just for fun.
"So... Asher, did you really find a female college student?" Leah Sinclair finally stammered out the question that had been weighing on her heart for nearly half a year.
"Yes. Got a problem with that? Who are you to me?" Asher Keating replied coolly.
Leah Sinclair’s heart felt as if it had been squeezed by a fist, and her face went pale. Even though she’d heard the rumors before, hearing Asher Keating admit it himself made her sick with pain and regret.
’What was I just doing? Asher already has someone else. By kissing him just now, was I knowingly being the other woman?’
Asher Keating froze for a moment. He realized this girl really did believe everything he said. He quickly pulled her back into his arms, coaxing gently, "You silly girl. I was just teasing you. I’m sponsoring a college student. Her family favors sons over daughters and didn’t want her to continue her education. I’m just her sponsor, I’m not keeping her."
With red-rimmed eyes, Leah Sinclair looked at him, took out her phone, and with trembling hands, opened a photo she had saved. "Then... then what about this? The New Year’s Eve photo Ethan Shaw posted... wasn’t she... nestled right next to you? And that day... when I was on the video call with Sheila, you and she were both gone."
Asher Keating took the phone, raising an eyebrow. He hadn’t paid any attention to the photo Ethan Shaw had posted. After zooming in to look, he explained, "She had a question she couldn’t figure out, so she came to ask me. I was just explaining it to her. She left right after we finished talking. I walked her out, and then I went home."
Leah Sinclair just stood there, stunned. ’So all my jealousy, all my misery these past few months... it was all for nothing? Asher never found someone else at all?’
Asher Keating looked at her dazed expression. ’The photo was posted on New Year’s Day,’ he thought. ’So she’s been thinking I found someone else since then. Is that why she didn’t tell anyone she was coming back this time? Was she planning to just make a secret trip and then sneak away again?’
The thought annoyed him, and he pinched her chin. "You go abroad for a bit and forget how to use your mouth? You couldn’t just ask me?"
"I didn’t dare."
Leah Sinclair pulled his hand down and burrowed into his embrace. "Asher, don’t... don’t leave me."
Asher Keating’s breath hitched. He scooped her up with one arm and started walking upstairs. "I’m taking you right now."
Once in the room, Asher Keating kissed Leah Sinclair and didn’t let go. As her clothes came off, Leah felt a sudden chill. Coming to her senses, she blushed and pushed him away. "Asher, let me take a shower first."
After such a long flight and dragging that heavy suitcase all over, Leah Sinclair felt sticky. So, Asher Keating carried her into the bathroom.
From the bathroom to the bedroom, they changed positions several times, neither willing to let the other go. It seemed Asher Keating couldn’t get enough, and Leah Sinclair held on, refusing to let it end.
Leah Sinclair felt as if her senses were filled with nothing but the scent of Asher Keating. Her consciousness scattered and reformed, then scattered again, adrift in a hazy tide.
"Be gentle."
Asher Keating’s voice was low and deep, laced with a smile.
Those two words made Leah Sinclair’s already crimson face burn even redder. She buried her head deep in Asher Keating’s chest, too shy to say another word.
But Asher Keating chose to be wicked, going gentle one moment and hard the next, until the woman in his arms couldn’t even manage a complete moan.
More than three years, over a thousand days and nights of bone-deep longing, were transformed this night into the frantic, tangible beating of two hearts.
It was past four in the morning when Asher Keating finally rested. Leah Sinclair had absolutely no strength left, lying limply in his arms and drifting off to sleep. Asher stroked her back idly as he slowly began to speak. "I went to see you."
Leah Sinclair, who had been on the verge of sleep, immediately looked up at his words, her face a picture of surprise. "When? How did I not know at all?"
"When I went to sign the contract to buy that bar. I was right next to your seat."
In truth, there was no need for Asher Keating to go in person, but he went anyway. ’Even just a glimpse of her from afar would be enough,’ he had thought.
And as it happened, Leah Sinclair was at the bar that day. He sat behind a curtain, listening to her chat with her classmates.
When she left, Asher Keating watched through the one-way glass as she waved goodbye to her classmates at the door. Heaven knows how much self-control it took for him not to rip open the curtain and grab her.
Leah Sinclair’s heart felt a mix of sweetness and sorrow. She hugged Asher Keating and nuzzled against him. "Asher, just wait for me a little longer. Once I go back and get my diploma, I’ll come back and never leave again."
Her nuzzling tickled Asher Keating, and he gave her waist a light pinch. "Don’t tempt me."
Leah Sinclair immediately stopped moving. Before long, exhaustion won out over everything else. For the first time in a long while, she slept soundly. Asher Keating waited until her breathing was completely steady, then shifted, carefully slipped his arm out, covered her with the blanket, and got up to have a cigarette.
He lit his cigarette and picked up his phone. There were messages from Ethan Shaw, Riley Sterling, Chester Hale, Nathan Grant, Shawn Grant, and even Mason Grant. They all said the same two words: "You’re welcome!"
A slight smile touched Asher Keating’s lips. He replied to each of them with the same two words: "Get lost."
Looking up at the inky black sky, Asher Keating felt his heart truly settle for the first time in three years. He was no longer adrift, no longer lost, and that feeling of peace came entirely from having Leah Sinclair by his side.
It was because of Leah Sinclair that Asher Keating had accelerated his plans over the past three years. He had never intended to seize power so quickly; he had always preferred a slow and steady approach.
In a year and a half, Asher Keating dismantled the power of the Keating family’s first branch. Now, that side of the family held only ten percent of the Keating Group’s assets—even less than Theodore Keating had in his day. The old Mr. Keating also claimed he was getting old and became a chairman in name only.
The presidency of the Keating Group was formally handed over to Asher Keating. In the time that followed, he swiftly and aggressively took control of more than half of Riverfall’s economic sphere.
Morgan Sterling was so thoroughly suppressed by him that he was powerless to fight back, and ever since the incident three years ago, Madeline Sterling had been sent directly back to Arcadia.
In those few years, Asher Keating not only took control of the Keating Group but also conquered half the business world in Riverfall. During the most difficult period, he went days and nights without sleep and didn’t return home once for nearly a whole month. Sean Yates and Edward Yates pulled all-nighters right alongside him.
Ruth Hughes brought him a different variety of food every day, but he still lost a great deal of weight during that time. It pained her so much to see him like that that she cried, grabbing his hand and saying she would go abroad herself to find Leah Sinclair. Asher Keating stopped her.
Finally, six months ago, on the map of Riverfall hanging in his office, Asher Keating finished planting the Keating Group’s flags over more than half of the territory. Only then did he allow himself to slow down.
He looked at that map, his heart filled with a mixture of pride and sorrow. He didn’t care what anyone else thought of him. All he wanted was to use all this to bring Leah Sinclair back to his side.
History is always written by the victors.
After finishing his cigarette, Asher Keating went into the bathroom to wash his hands before getting back into bed. Just as she had countless times before, Leah Sinclair instinctively sought out his scent and snuggled close. He felt a mix of amusement and satisfaction as he gathered her into his arms, gazing at her intently.