She’d started working out with him every morning, always in awe when he continued to pump weights after he was done with his cardio. Although she did a lot of walking, she was a wimp next to him, doing her time on the treadmill and the bike, completely exhausted when she was done. She finished, huffing and puffing, before Kade had even broken a sweat.
Stopping to stretch her back, Asha sighed as she stared at Kade’s bedroom wall. After finishing the painting of a leopard in a rain forest on his den wall, she’d moved up to the master bedroom, still contemplating exactly what would fit here. There was nothing really intimate about his bedroom. It was a minimalist type of room, just like the rest of the house, and it lacked color.
She smiled as she remembered Kade telling her to paint every wall in the house, and his grimace as she’d told him that doing every wall was overkill. He could use some accent and color, maybe one wall in most rooms, but he didn’t need every wall painted. Unhappy with her answer, he’d grumbled, but he hadn’t mentioned it again.
He lets me be free to use my talent. He trusts me with his home.
Kade valued her opinion and he listened to her when she had an idea. He made her feel…important, and she carried that emotion close to her heart. No one had ever made her feel appreciated or valued, and Kade was slowly showing her that she had worth, that she was worthy of far more than she’d experienced in the past.
“Asha?” A deep baritone sounded near the door, startling her, and pulling her abruptly from her wandering thoughts.
Her eyes flew to him, and her breath caught as she saw Kade standing in the doorway with an amused grin.
Her hand to her chest, she said, “Sorry. I was thinking.”
Looking incredibly handsome in the suit and tie he’d worn to the office, her heart lifted at the sight of him, still managing to be uniquely Kade by wearing a colorful maroon shirt and a tie with very ornate cornucopia for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. On Kade, it looked nothing less than masculine and splendid, an image that always made her heart smile. He had his own style, and he was completely comfortable with it. It was one of the sexiest things she’d ever seen.
“What were you thinking about?” he asked curiously, shedding the jacket of his suit and tossing it on the chair.
You. What else do I seem to always be thinking about these days?
“Your wall,” she answered hastily, turning her eyes back to the wall she had been contemplating. She was way too preoccupied with Kade, and she needed to get him out of her brain. He was a client, and maybe a friend. But she couldn’t think of him as anything more than that. “Did Travis like your new image?” she asked curiously, wondering what his twin had thought of Kade’s bright shirt and tie.
Kade let out a bark of laughter as he undid the knot on the tie around his neck. “No. He said the tie and shirt weren’t really a step up from my shirt with the dancing hotdogs that I wear to the office occasionally.” He yanked the tie from around his neck and tossed it on top of his suit jacket. “How did I end up with a brother with no sense of style?” Kade asked mournfully. “Nothing but dark suits and ties. He looks like a funeral director. The only one who saves him from being completely morbid is his secretary, Ally, who he still insists on calling Alison even though she hates it. Or if she’s really annoying him, she’s Ms. Caldwell.”
Asha laughed. “And what is she mostly?” She’d met Travis just the day before, and although he was cordial, he was rather intimidating. It was almost difficult to believe he and Kade were brothers, much less twins. The two of them were incredibly different.
“Ms. Caldwell. She’s almost always in trouble with Travis,” Kade answered wickedly. “But she challenges him. She’s good for him. I think she’s one of the few people in the office who isn’t terrified of him.”
“I’m surprised he hasn’t fired her.” Asha picked up Kade’s tie and jacket, ready to put them in the dry-cleaning pile in the laundry room.
“I think he secretly likes her, in an antagonistic kind of way. And she’s damn good at her job. Travis knows things at the office would descend into total chaos without her,” Kade mused, sitting down on the bed to pull off his shoes. “Put those back or I’ll put you over my knee,” Kade growled. “You aren’t my servant. I’ll take care of them…eventually.”
Asha’s eyes shot to Kade’s face. He was completely serious, and he wasn’t happy. Flustered, she tried to think of how to explain that sometimes she liked to do things for him. “I was just—”