His Irresistible Secret Lover

Heather's POV:

I was extremely happy.

With my limbs languidly splayed across the king-sized bed, and my nether regions still throbbing from the intense intimacy it just experienced with the man taking his bath the adjacent room, I couldn't help but feel like the luckiest woman in the world.

It wasn't every woman out there that could boast of catching the fancy of one of the nation's finest, youngest, richest and most endowed eligible bachelors, not to talk of having a conversation with him. Yet, here I was in Asher Welty's bed, naked-still recovering from a recent dance of passion, in his house.

No other woman on the surface of earth had that privilege but me.

It didn't matter that all of this was a super secret affair, or the fact that the terms of our little tryst were defined by him and the amount he insisted on paying to keep it going. What mattered was the exclusivity we had to each other's body. For almost three years, Asher's body had been mine alone and vice versa. It wasn't like I ever dreamed of being with anyone else besides him; he made me lose interest in other men since the first night we ever shared.

It was funny, how fate, which normally dealt blows that made my life a sick joke, decided to smile on me at the one of my darkest points; my mom had been terminally ill when I graduated from college, and while all her savings had gone into giving me a quality education, no one was willing to hire a designer with no work experience. I found myself stranded, broke and desperate to save the life of my mother–the only constant that remained in my life after the gruesome death of my dad.

My desperation had conditioned me, even though it took the death of every moral construct for me to do so, into being a stripper at an elite-only nightclub. Asher and I had met there, in a storybook manner if I might add; I was almost molested by a couple of spoiled children of moneybags and Asher had swopped in to save me. I couldn't say for sure if it was the instant chemistry that sparked up between us or because of my profuse gratitude that made me give in to his advances that night, but almost three years down the line, I was still so grateful for that that one-night stand that was the genesis of an amazing sexual adventure.

However, as I watched Asher barge into the room with an expression that was hard to read, wearing nothing but a heavy towel lazily wrapped around his lean waist, I couldn't help but feel like something was off.

First, he had stood me up two months ago when he abruptly left the country. I wanted to ask him what was wrong when he texted me, long hours after his initial order for us to meet up, informing me that I should leave and that he wasn't going to be in town for a while. But I knew from past experience that he was likely to be irked by the question if I asked and would likely rub it in my face that I was neither his wife nor girlfriend, but a paid lover. So I'd held my peace.

After two long months of craving him badly and resorting to pleasuring myself with toys-which was against Asher's rules-he'd summoned me over out of the blue. He barged in earlier with the same granite look and was extra rough while we were at it. While I didn't mind the latter, I couldn't help but worry that now the euphoria of our desires for each other was dissipating.

Asher unceremoniously dropped the towel to the floor, and for a full minute, my mind was distracted as I admired the walking Adonis; the defined lines of his toned biceps shone in the moisture of his fresh shower. His milky skin rippled and stretched as he pulled on his designer briefs and left it hanging low on his lean waist, giving me a sneak peek of the v-line of his lower abdomen. My eyes lapped up his almost-nudity with a level of hunger I didn't know existed. An involuntary gasp escaped my lips when I realized where my traitorous thoughts were beginning to wander. My face began to heat up in a blush.

"Take a picture, Heather. It'll last longer." That was the first nonsexual and longest sentence he'd said to me since he walked in, and even then, it came out as a snap.

I knew Asher wasn't normally this grumpy. I was confused as to what was going on.

"I'm sorry. Is anything the matter?"

"What do you care? Shouldn't you be picking up your stuff and getting the hell off my property?" Asher didn't even let me finish before snapping his reply.

I flinched in surprise and pulled the thick covers of his bed closer to cover up more of my body, as though that would be effective in shielding me from the sting of his harsh words.

"I'm sorry," I muttered sheepishly under my breath and began to do his bidding.

The rest of Asher pulling on the same expensive outfit he came in with while I pulled on my own clothes went by in tense silence. I heard him mutter profanities under his breath as I pulled on my panties.

I flinched in surprise when I felt his hands around the small of my back. My shock went on further when he pulled me onto the bed, sat me down and sat down beside me. It wasn't the first time, Asher would display any emotion beyond lust towards me, but it so scarcely happened, that it was the least of what I was expecting from him at that moment, especially after he just snapped at me.

I didn't know what to expect when he called my name and picked my hand to hold in both of his.

"I know that contract doesn't expire for another five months, but I am terminating it today and relieving you of your duties today."

My heart skipped double beats at the announcement.

"What?" Was the only word my brain could think of.

"What I mean to say is, today is the last day we will ever meet."

And just like that, my happiness came to a grinding halt, my entire heart shattering to pieces.

Heather's POV:

The reality of what Ahser meant began to dawn on me when he slowly dropped my hand on my lap and stood to his feet. A sob forced its way up my throat as a result.

"Why?" I asked calmly, contrasting the turmoil that'd broken out in my insides.

"Nothing," came his stoic reply. He took a few steps and turned around to look at me. "We're already well into the third year of the damn contract, so what does it matter if I terminate it now or in the next few months?"

I couldn't believe my ears. Really.

Just when I was beginning to become convinced that Asher cared about me in the same way I'd fallen hopelessly in love with him, he dropped this bombshell on me like it was nothing.

I'd thought, hoped, that he would ask me to remain as his lover, but without the restraints of the legal documents. Or that he would at least renew the contract when it ended. This shocking reveal wasn't something that I could ever have imagined.

"Is it something that I did wrong?" I questioned as I rose to my feet. "Am I not satisfying enough? Do you need me to improve on anything? Are you just tired of playing with–"

"No." He cut me short in a firm tone and began to walk away.

"You would have to do more than one worded replies, Asher!" My voice rose in a surge of anger. "I deserve a tangible reason for this move, at least."

"You deserve what I say you deserve, Heather! That's the term of the contract."

"You mean the contract you just terminated?" I fired back hotly.

"Well, if you must know, I reunited with the love of my life a few months ago, and we're making it official soon!" It came out in a thunderous boom. I didn't know if it was his voice or an external effect, but I knew time seemed to freeze as a result of that.

I blinked once and then again to be sure I wasn't staring at a horror movie or my worst nightmare.

"What?" I questioned silently.

"That's right, Heather," he spat in spite. "After enduring for almost nine years, I finally reunited with my love, and you think I'd want to keep mere distractions on the side to jeopardize my relationship with her?"

The initial urge to sob that I'd been able to force back down came back with a vengeance.

"You... you're not... you and women–"

"I'm never close with women? Is that what you wanted to say? That's because I was waiting for her, you see? I waited all my life for this moment. Do you see why I cannot risk continuing with this charade?"

His voice that began with a tinge of hardness ended with a load of tender earnestness. It was as though he was begging me to understand his point of view, but I was too busy trying to comprehend the words he'd described our relationship as.

First, he called me a mere distraction, and then he called what we shared a charade...

Where the fuck did I go wrong? I thought I had him! I felt that, even though he was taking his time to acknowledge it, he cared deeply about me. How could I be so blinded by my emotions?

How could I be so wrong?

"See," he said as he came to stand before me. "I know that this must be hard to take in. I know that it must be... a blow to your purse, so I'll pay you the balance of everything I would have paid you at the end of the contract, and you can have this house as compensation. If that isn't fair enough, you can renegotiate with my lawyer..."

The realization finally hit me like a glass of cold water to the face.

I was such a fool to have hoped anything good could come from a contractual sexual affair.

Asher had been clear from the get-go that he wasn't looking for a relationship or any related entanglement. He just wanted exclusive rights to someone he could fuck as he pleased and picked me as the sole candidate after our first time together.

It'd never been about emotions for him. Every single time he acted out of what I presumed as care or love, it'd only been him maintaining his glorified sex doll, and now that someone else was here, the real love of his life, I was no longer of any use to him. There was no need to keep me around or have anything to do with me.

"It's very generous of you, Asher," I said wobbly. "But I don't want any compensation from you. You've done more than enough for me already–"

"I insist–" he butted in quickly. "Even if you don't want the money, at least take this place. I have no use for it anyways."

He had no use for it anymore.

I chuckled out loudly, bitterly. "Why are you willing to splurge so generously on me, Asher? I'm only just a glorified plaything, after all."

"Heather," he called in that peculiarly tender way that always made my heart flutter, but this time, my heart only squeezed painfully in my chest, and I winced.

"I'm so sorry." He spoke again as he pulled me into his embrace. I stood rigidly there, refusing to relax in the ambiance of his firm hold, his disarming voice, and his intoxicating scent.

"I agree, Asher. Let's never meet again." I felt his hold of me stiffen before he suddenly retracted his hand like I'd just informed him I had a viral disease.

I felt bereft.

"So then goodbye," he replied in a normal tone, void of any emotions. "I'll give you till the end of the month to decide if you want the house or not–"

"I don't," I interrupted firmly, and Asher slowly shook his head.

"Okay," he replied and resumed his walk to the exit. He paused when he got there and raised his voice again without turning to look at me, "I'll have Liam drop you."

With that, he opened the door, walked through it, and gently closed it back. I waited for a few seconds to be sure he wouldn't open the door before doing what I'd wanted to do since he broke the news to me.

I broke down and wept.

Heather's POV:

A part of me hoped that Asher would barge back into the room to tell me that he was playing a prank or that he had given us a rethink and changed his mind. I hoped and waited for a miracle, any miracle, or that matter, to happen, and it stung even harder that nothing happened as time dragged on.

I cried until my tear ducts dried up, and my throat became sore.

I couldn't help but blame myself for everything that happened. I shouldn't have made the bold move of kissing him after Asher saved me from those horrible men who tried molesting me. I shouldn't have overshared my mother's predicaments when he came looking for me a few hours after I disappeared from his room the morning after that night.

I shouldn't have accepted the juicy contract he brought to help raise my mother's medical bills and my cousin's school fees. I should have said no to him, no matter how juicy it'd been. I shouldn't have felt anything for him beyond gratitude. I shouldn't have let myself feel sentimental about the memories we made within the confines of this fantastic house that Asher was so quick to discard.

As I pulled myself up to my feet and went around the house gathering all of my stuff together, the nostalgia of everything we'd done together began to hit me one after the other.

I'd once decided to bake him a cake on one of his birthdays, and I'd brought over baking supplies and equipment from my place. What began as an attempt to surprise him was swiftly redirected to a passionate session with him when he'd come in earlier than usual. I still remembered his eyes twinkling in mischief as he smeared my face with a little whipped cream while I was making up the icing for the cake while it baked.

I smiled in sadness as I emptied the equipment into the bin, remembering how he'd placed me on the counter, pulled off my clothes, and eaten me out to the point of toe-curling orgasm-one of the best I ever had.

The several times we'd made love in the shower visited me as I picked up my toiletries from the room, and the few times Asher had taught me how to play with the PS console, he got me as a gift also hit me when I went to retrieve the console in his game room. The late-night talks in his study, the cozy cuddling in his living room, the games of hide and seek, poker, chess, scrabble...

All of that, and he still threw me out of his life like a piece of used tissue.

Fresh tears threatened to fall once again, but I sniffed them off and focused on clearing out every single evidence of my existence in the building.

In a few hours, I was done and ready to go. Liam, Asher's assistant, was waiting for me by the car with a manila envelope in hand.

"You look terrible," he greeted as I approached.

"Thanks," I replied breezily. "You're not looking so bad yourself."

"Asher asked me to give you this," Liam extended the file to me when he got within reach.

"No," I simply said because I already knew what it contained.

"It's the purchase document for this house with your name on it," Liam explained to confirm my hunch.

"I know," I replied again. "And my answer doesn't change."

There was a tense silence as Liam eyed me knowingly and sighed. I knew he wasn't in the unknown about what was happening between Asher and me. It was uncomfortable for me that Asher had probably discussed my humiliation with him prior, and Liam was still his jovial, relatable self when he picked me up earlier.

I felt like a fool.

"I know you think of Asher as the bad guy now that things didn't go your way, but understand that it's not personal to him. Even though you were just a means to his satisfaction, he never treated you poorly. You equally benefited from this transaction as much as he did, so you shouldn't be pained by the fact that he found a better means and is no longer interested in doing business with you."

I silently collected the file and walked to sit in the car that transported me back to my flat. In the following days, I steered clear of everything and everyone, gorging myself into a stupor with liquor and ice cream. The words of Liam stayed with me, haunting me and reminding me of my reality.

A slut, an interim slut to pass the time while Asher waited for his true love. I wasn't worth Asher. I had never been worthy of his love, because I'd placed a price on it from the onset.

I didn't snap out of it until I absentmindedly picked up my phone and found several missed calls from Eudora and then an accompanying text that reminded me of her arrival back in town in a matter of hours and how I was responsible for picking her up at the airport.

The time read 8:50.

I hastily snapped out of my self-pity and put myself together. It was an equally hasty drive to the airport, but I was able to stop at my favorite restaurant to make a reservation for us to celebrate my cousin's arrival back into the country.

She'd been gone for so long that I was actually excited as much as I was anxious to meet her. Eudora and I grew up together after she lost her parents and I lost my dad in a single-car crash.

My mom had taken responsibility for catering for her since she was ten, and before I went to college and she left the country to study music, we were close. However, I could not tell how we would be now that she was a famous pianist with world recognition, and I was just a dejected nobody who worked online jobs as a ghost designer.

I wasn't jealous of Eudora. In fact, I was proud because I'd invested my resources significantly in her education, and it wasn't a waste. However, now that she was done with her studies, Mom was fully recovered, and Asher was out of my life, I could start on a new page and focus on making my 24-year-old life meaningful.

It was finally time for some self-love.