CHAPTER 9
The flight on the private jet had been long, but Asher’s Miami villa was nothing like the suffocating penthouse I’d lived in with Matt and Maya. The air smelled different here. It smelled of sea salt, lemon trees, and freedom. When the car rolled up the long gravel drive and the gates closed behind us, I realized for the first time in years that nobody could reach me.
It was the perfect honeymoon destination.
“This is your sanctuary now,” Asher said, watching me as I stepped out. His hand hovered near my lower back, guiding me carefully but never forcing.
The villa rose from the cliffside like something out of a dream. White stone walls, tall windows reflecting the endless stretch of ocean below. Unlike the sterile glass towers back home, this place was alive. Flowers spilled out of planters, the shutters were painted blue, and I could hear the faint sound of waves crashing against rocks far below.
I turned in a slow circle, drinking it all in. “It doesn’t feel real.”
“It is.” His voice softened. “Nobody here but you and me.”
I smiled faintly. “That’s what scares me.”
Later, we sat outside on the terrace, watching the beautiful pink and orange sunset. The staf had brought out plates of grilled fish, warm bread, and fruit glistening in bowls. I hardly touched
Asher noticed. “You’re not eating.”
“I’ve lost my appetite.”
His dark eyes studied me. “Because of me? Or because of them?”
I set down my fork with a clatter. “Because every time I try to eat, I hear Maya’s laugh. I see Mat holding her hand. I see my uncle at my father’s desk acting like it belonged to him.” My voice broke, and I pressed my napkin against my mouth. “I should hate them, but what I feel is worse. feel… invisible. Like I was never enough to begin with.”
Asher leaned forward with his elbows on the table. “Invisible? Jada, you’ve been the brightest flame in every room since the moment I met you. Matt didn’t make you invisible, he was just too small to see you.”
I blinked at him, stunned by the conviction in his tone. “You sound like you mean that.”
“I do. I promise you, I do.”
I turned my face away, but the tears slipped anyway. For months I’d been ice, steel, the untouchable heiress who could stand in boardrooms and destroy anyone with a single sentence. But here, with Asher watching me like I was the only thing worth looking at, the armor cracked. “He never loved me,” I whispered. “All those years, all the promises, Maya was always there. In his eyes. In his heart. I was just… convenient. I was just his ticket into my father’s fortune.”
I didn’t expect Asher to move, but suddenly he was beside me, taking the napkin from my hand and wiping my cheek gently. His touch was comforting, not pitiful. “Don’t give him that power. Don’t rewrite your worth based on his betrayal.”
“I don’t even know who I am without the company,” I admitted. “Without my father’s name. That’s
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all anyone’s ever wanted from me. Money, influence and access. Even Matt. Especially Matt.”
“And me?” His voice dropped lower. “What do you think I wanted?”
I laughed bitterly. “Revenge. To see him suffer.”
“That was part of it.” His jaw tightened, but his eyes softened again. “But if revenge was all I wanted, I wouldn’t be here right now, Jada.”
The words hit me like a slap. My breath caught, because I knew he was right. He could have let me drown in that house with Matt. But he didn’t. He came to save me. He stayed.
“Then why?” I asked quietly.
His thumb brushed a stray strand of hair from my face. “Because even when you were Matt’s you were never really his. I’ve known it since the day I met you. And I hated him for having you. I hated him for not seeing how stupid he was for treating you like shit. For wasting you.”
My heart hammered so loudly I was sure he could hear it. I should’ve looked away, should’ve bulled back, but I didn’t. I let him touch me. I let him tilt my chin up so I had no choice but tc meet his gaze.
The silence between us was charged, the air thick with something neither of us dared to name His lips were so close I could feel the heat of them, the faint brush of his breath teasing my skin
This time, I didn’t stop myself.
leaned in, closing the gap, and his mouth claimed mine with a hunger that stole the air from my ungs. It wasn’t careful, it wasn’t patient. It was years of restraint snapping all at once. My hands found the hard line of his jaw, the heat of his skin under my palms, and he pulled me flush against him with a groan that rumbled deep in his chest.
‘Asher…” My voice broke against his lips, but he didn’t let me go. His hand slid into my hai tilting my head back, deepening the kiss until sparks lit behind my eyes.
When he finally pulled back, his forehead rested against mine, both of us breathing hard.
‘You think I’ve been waiting all these years just to hold back now?” he murmured, his voice rough with desire. His thumb traced the line of my lower lip, swollen from his kiss.
Heat coiled low in my belly at the promise in his tone, at the way his gaze burned into me.
‘Then don’t,” I whispered.
His mouth crushed mine again, and this time there was no hesitation. My fingers tugged at his shirt, desperate to feel more of him, and his hands roamed down my back, firm, claiming, leaving fire everywhere they touched.
The world outside… the boardroom, Matt, Maya, Uncle Henry, it all faded into nothing. Here, in his arms, there was no war, no revenge, no empire at stake. Just us. Just this.
When we finally broke apart, both breathless, he pressed a kiss to my temple, his words a vow against my skin.
“You’re mine now, Jada. Not as revenge. Not as a weapon. Just mine.”
The waves roared louder below us, crashing against the rocks. I wrapped my arms around myself and stared out at the horizon. “The next move belongs to me,” I said firmly. “I won’t let them take one more thing from me. Not my company. Not my name. Not my life.”
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Beside me, Asher straightened. “And I’ll be there for every move. Every strike. Every battle. You no longer have to fight alone.”
I turned back toward him, and for the first time in months, maybe years, I allowed myself to
believe him.
And in the stillness of that night, I realized I wasn’t afraid anymore.
Asher looked up at me with a mix of mischief and desire in his eyes. “Now, Mrs Galanis, why don’t we take this up into the bedroom and see what we can get up to?”
My cheeks reddened like a teenage girl’s. “Gladly, Mr Galanis.”
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