Chapter 83: Have I Been Spoiling You Too Much?
Asher Keating sat on the sofa without a word. Leah Sinclair went to the bathroom, got a towel, and carefully began to dry his hair. She agonized over what to say before finally speaking up. "Third Master Keating, last time... it was because I was returning to my hometown, and Dr. Hale happened to be going there for a seminar. That’s why I went back with him."
Asher Keating let out a soft, cold laugh and finally spoke. "No wonder you refused when I offered to have Sean Yates stay and accompany you back. Turns out you already had your own private escort."
"That’s not it! The two things are completely unrelated. It’s just... Dr. Hale happened to be going there for a conference, and he could take my grandmother for her check-up. It saved her the trouble of traveling back and forth."
"Mm, what a coincidence."
Asher Keating’s tone was icy. He was inexplicably furious. Back then, because of the incident with Madeline Sterling, he had been worried she’d be upset and had rushed back to explain things to her.
Who would have thought that while he was being photographed with Madeline Sterling, Leah Sinclair was with Chester Hale? And she hadn’t mentioned a single word about it. If Zion Sawyer hadn’t brought it up today, he suspected she would have never told him.
Leah Sinclair was filled with regret. She hadn’t told him in the first place because she was afraid of making Asher Keating angry, especially since he had specifically told her to stay away from Chester Hale.
Although he’d told her that after the trip, she was overwhelmed with guilt when she recalled how patiently Asher Keating had explained the situation between him and Madeline Sterling that night.
"Third Master Keating, I was wrong."
Leah Sinclair put down the towel and leaned in to kiss him. Asher Keating pressed his lips together and turned his head away. Her kiss missed. Staring at the hard line of his jaw, she somehow found a surge of courage, turned his face back toward her, and pressed her lips to his.
Her soft lips moved against his for a moment, but he refused to yield. Leah Sinclair looked up at his face, feeling discouraged again.
She carefully shook his arm. "Third Master Keating, I know I was wrong. I won’t hide things from you anymore. I’ll tell you everything. Please don’t be angry."
Asher Keating watched her look of utter remorse with cold eyes. He reached out, pinched her chin, and forced her to meet his gaze. "Have I been spoiling you too much lately? Is that why you’re starting to keep your own little secrets?"
"No!"
Leah Sinclair met his gaze and hurriedly said, "I... I don’t have any other secrets. And I could never have feelings for anyone else."
This wasn’t a lie, and Asher Keating knew it. But the thought that he had been holding back, refraining from formalizing their relationship because he was afraid of making her uncomfortable, only for her to turn around and learn to hide things from him... How could he not be angry?
When Zion Sawyer had mentioned that Leah Sinclair liked someone, his mood had actually improved, since he knew that person was him. After all, she hadn’t hidden the fact that she liked someone—only his identity.
At this thought, some of Asher Keating’s anger subsided, replaced by a sense of helplessness. Their current arrangement really did put her in a position where she wouldn’t know how to explain it to others.
’Maybe I should find a chance to end this arrangement early. We could date openly. That way, at least she wouldn’t have to be so timid and afraid of people finding out.’
Seeing his expression soften, Leah Sinclair quickly continued, "Third Master Keating, I promise, I’ll tell you everything from now on. I swear, if I ever hide anything from you again, may lightning str—"
Before she could finish, Asher Keating pressed her head forward and captured her lips. His kiss was dominant and urgent. Leah Sinclair didn’t dare pull away; she could only clutch his bathrobe and try her best to respond.
After a long while, Asher Keating finally released her. "If you spout any more of that nonsense, I’ll punish you properly later."
Because of the long kiss, his voice was a little husky. To Leah Sinclair’s ears, it felt like a feather brushing against her heart—ticklish and irresistible. She couldn’t help but lean in and kiss him again.
This time, Asher Keating didn’t reject her kiss. Leah Sinclair’s soft, gentle kisses wore away the last of his anger. He stripped off her clothes and carried her into the hot spring pool.
Asher Keating remembered how, when they were talking about working out earlier, Leah Sinclair had asked Zion Sawyer if the gym had a pool. He asked her, "You know how to swim?"
The warm water of the hot spring made Leah Sinclair sigh in comfort. This area was sectioned off and the lighting was dim, so she didn’t feel as shy. She answered softly, "I do. There was a reservoir in my village. Grandma never let me go, she was afraid I’d drown, but I’d always sneak off to swim."
"Weren’t you afraid of being seen?" Asher Keating was a little speechless.
"No! That was when I was just a few years old. I stopped going after I became a teenager. I know what shame is."
Asher Keating took off his bathrobe and stepped into the hot spring. The water was a bit hot, but very comfortable. He slowly approached Leah Sinclair and let down her tied-up hair.
They were face to face, so close their breaths mingled. Leah Sinclair’s face suddenly flushed red. Without his glasses, Asher Keating’s features looked a bit colder than with them on. But in the current lighting, softened by the steam from the hot spring, his face actually seemed gentle.
Asher Keating looked at the woman before him. Her face was flushed, either from shyness or the steam, and her beautiful eyes, fixed on him, were especially alluring.
He reached out and pulled her into his arms. The feeling of weightlessness in the water made Leah Sinclair instinctively cling to him. He never let her go after that, showering her with delicate, insistent kisses.
He knew that what Leah Sinclair couldn’t resist most were his tender, delicate kisses. Sure enough, after a short while, soft, shallow moans began to escape her lips. Asher Keating held her up. Her hair drifted with the ripples of the water, and with their movements, the waves in the hot spring pool spread outwards, again and again.
In Morgan Sterling’s villa, he heard his phone chime a few times. He got up and picked it up. His assistant had sent him a video of Leah Sinclair being held hostage in front of the Aevon Group building a couple of days ago.
It was a video shot by a passerby and posted online. Edward Yates had noticed it earlier and reported it to Asher Keating, who had paid to suppress its popularity. However, it had still circulated within a small circle.
After watching, Morgan Sterling raised an eyebrow. "Heh, Third Master Keating really is taken with that Leah Sinclair. Keeping her as a mistress isn’t enough, he even got her a job at his company?"
His voice woke the person sleeping in his bed. Morgan Sterling chuckled, tossed his phone aside, and lowered himself back onto her. He bit down on her shoulder. "Awake? Then let’s go again."
Slowly, Morgan Sterling’s thoughts drifted to the night he lost a hundred thousand to Leah Sinclair. He remembered her long legs as she sat on the pool table, the hickey he saw when he grabbed her collar.
He recalled the first time he met her, how she was so stubborn, on the verge of collapsing but still gritting her teeth and drinking. The way her beautiful eyes had looked at him defiantly, telling him she’d sing until he went bankrupt. All these images replayed in Morgan Sterling’s mind. He let out a low laugh. "Thinking of running away?"
The person beneath him didn’t dare to provoke him, answering with a trembling voice, "No, I don’t want to run."
"No? Don’t you want to run away badly? We’ll see how you run."
"Leah, you can’t escape."