Love by Assistant (The Harringtons Book 3)

by MacKenzie Shaw

  Contents

  Book Series Title

  Copyright

  Introduction

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

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  About the Author

  The Harringtons

  Love by Assistant

  Book Three

  MacKenzie Shaw

  Copyright © 2018 by MacKenzie Shaw. All rights reserved.

  This book is intended for readers 13+.

  It is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, businesses, events or locales is purely coincidental. Reproduction in whole or part of this publication without express written consent is strictly prohibited.

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  Melody Chambers was duped into taking the Executive Assistant position at Harrington Enterprises by her employers previous assistant who was retiring. She wasn’t hired for her professional skills, instead she’d been hired to fill another vacant position of … boss’s wife and he doesn’t have a clue.

  Alex Harrington has let his work slide, almost losing an important contract because of his unprofessional attraction to his new assistant. Melody is nothing but professional towards him and doesn’t show any hint of interest, so he tries to work through this unrequited attraction. What will it take for him to finally bite the bullet and ask her out. Quite a lot as it turns out …

  CHAPTER ONE

  Alex Harrington sucked in a deep breath, looked over the conference table at the representatives from Maxwell Holdings and then back at the folder he’d brought with him for Maxwell Developments. He slowly released the breath out. Marcus, his elder brother and CEO of Harrington Enterprises, of which he was Vice President, was sitting to his right and gave him a nudge with his elbow, raising his right eyebrow as if to say ‘what’s going on?’

  Marcus had every right to question his actions. He’d been letting things slide for a while now, well for three months, one week, four days and, he looked at his watch, about one hour and thirty-six minutes. Ever since Melody had walked into his office with her bubbly blonde personality and a sweetness that drew him in like a bear to honey. No matter what he did, he just couldn’t get his head straight. No woman had ever made him lose himself before and he didn’t like it. No, not one bit.

  He picked up his cell and discretely sent a text to Melody, his executive assistant, the cause of his unprofessional behavior, He needed her to pick up the Maxwell Holdings folder from his office and bring it to the conference room. He just hoped he’d done the analysis on the right company. He knew he’d done a complete forecast analysis for someone, but couldn’t for the life of him remember which one, nor any of the figures or results.

  “What’s up with you?” Marcus hissed at him under his breath.

  At that moment there was a knock at the conference door and in walked The Siren that had him acting all out of sorts. She gave the room a full mega-watt smile, showing off her perfect pearly white teeth, “Sorry for the interruption, gentlemen.” Her voice had a hypnotic sound that made him act like a love-struck teenager again. She placed the folder in front of him, professional and efficient as always, and left. He hoped he’d manage to at least mumble a thank you, but he couldn’t be sure.

  Marcus elbowed him with his razor sharp elbows, going for damage this time. “Seriously?” he hissed, “Melody? Melody has you all bent out of shape. Alex this meeting is important. You’d better pull yourself together or get out of here before you do any permanent damage. We need this contract.”

  More guilt piled up on the guilt already there. It had been his sole responsibility to know the account inside and out and he’d let himself get distracted … again. Facts and figures were his comfort blanket. He knew how to read them, work with them and at times, manipulate them, better than anyone he knew, until that fateful day when they’d stopped talking to him. They knew he’d found another interest, even if it wasn’t entirely his fault.

  He used to be so reliable and on top of things. After Marcus met Carly, his now wife, and wanted to scale back the hours he’d been working, he’d picked up the slack, gladly. By scaled back, Marcus was now working a normal forty hour week instead of eighty and Alex didn’t want to think about how many hours he was putting in at the firm. He did know he didn’t have a life outside it and now that he wasn’t as productive as he used to be, the extra hours didn’t mean anything other than he was in his office more often than he wasn’t. Something had to change and soon.

  He turned to Marcus and flashed him an apologetic smile, “I’m good. I’ve got this,” he told him. Alex discretely slipped the wrong folder under the one he was holding and flicked it open, trying his best to look confident in his actions. He just hoped for some recognition to register into his awareness, and by the middle of the second page he almost had it, and by the fourth page he was relieved to remember most of the information. All he had to do was focus.

  “Gentlemen, shall we begin?” he asked the three men across the table. David Maxwell was the CEO of Maxwell Holdings, on his left was his son Aaron Maxwell and to his right, his attorney, Robin Pullen. He passed a handout to everyone at the table so that they could follow along with his presentation, then stood up so they could get started.

  Harrington Enterprises were looking to buy-out Maxwell Holdings, while keeping the management team in place rather than replacing them. There were a few companies interested in the deal, but Alex was determined be the winner. Marcus was here as the charm offensive, while his task was to blow them away with facts and figures. It was show time.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Melody Chambers slipped behind her desk and let out a sigh of relief now she’d got out of the conference room in one piece. On the outside she portrayed a strong, capable and professional woman, whilst inside she was a total fidgeting mess. That man.

  When she’d interviewed for the executive assistant position it had been the previous assistant, Mary, that had interviewed her. Mary was retiring after working at the company for forty-five years and was looking for ‘someone special’ to hand over her duties to. She’d made out that the Vice President was a middle aged man who did nothing other than work and sleep and had been held up in a meeting, therefore unable to attend the interview. Melody now knew that sweet old woman that she’d felt sorry for was actually a conniving, devious old woman, who’d obviously doted on her employer.

  Mary had stayed for a week after Melody had started to show her the ropes and she realized now, to make sure she didn’t meet Mr Harrington until after Mary was out of the picture. On Mary’s last day she’d made it extremely clear to Melody the real reason she’d been hired … to seduce ‘poor Mr Harrington’. ‘All he does is work and it’s not good for the poor man. He needs a wife. Now his brother’s been taken, it’s time for Alex to find a good woman too to stop him working so hard. He needs a life outside this office and you’ll be a good fit for him,’ she’d told her.

  At twenty-three she was too young to get married, not to mention she didn’t want to marry a middle-aged man and certainly not one she didn’t love with every fiber of her being. She wasn’t ashamed of being a romantic. It wasn’t until Mary had left for good that she’d been introduced to ‘poor Mr Harrington’ who was anything but poor and certainly not middle-aged. He was over six foot of gorgeousn
ess, short dark brown hair, deep brown eyes and a smile that made her melt every time he flashed it her way, which was getting less and less each day. She’d kicked herself for not doing more research on who she’d be working for and gave herself another kick for falling for Mary’s sweet old lady act. She’d planned all this, down to the last detail. Her own grandmother was similar and she should have seen the signs.

  There was one good thing she realized, during the second week of working for Alex, no Mr Harrington, using his surname allowed her to stay professional. It was when she called him Alex that she became a bumbling mess of hormones. What had she been saying? Ah yes, Mr Harrington had no idea of the ulterior motive for her being hired, which had been a blessing but it didn’t help that she knew. It had put ideas into her head and given her many sleepless nights.

  She sighed, knowing she couldn’t keep this up. She didn’t want to be the cliché assistant falling for her boss, even although technically, that was why she’d been hired. She’d worked too hard to complete her business degree and work her way up the corporate ladder and wasn’t about to give it up to become a stay-at-home wife to a workaholic. She knew there was no way she’d be able to continue to work in the office. Office gossip would be ripe about how she’d set her sights on Mr Harrington as soon as she’d stepped through the door. Stop dreaming about what can never be.

  Mr Harrington should be in his meeting for the next few hours. She’d ordered lunch for them so knew she was safe, at least until then. She fired up her web browser and typed in the local job board website. She loved her job with Harrington Enterprises but knew she couldn’t continue working here every day, knowing she was falling deeper and deeper in love with him, while he very rarely even gave her the time of day. He’d even stopped speaking to her, preferring to text or email any instructions. No, it was time to find a new job and stop daydreaming.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Alex was relieved to be back in the safety of his office. The meeting with Maxwell Holdings had gone well and he was expecting to receive their signed contract within the next week or two. He was glad he’d managed to salvage the meeting after picking up the wrong file whilst thinking of her instead of focusing solely on the business at hand.

  Who was he trying to kid. He was always thinking about her and it was getting worse. He must look like a love struck puppy around her. He was just grateful that she never mentioned his unprofessional attitude towards her. She was always polite and professional and had never once given any indication that she’d noticed him drooling over her.

  There was a knock at his office door and Marcus walked in, his face was blank so Alex was unsure of whether this was going to be a good visit, or one where he should have stayed in bed this morning.

  “I think we, or rather you, have a serious problem you need to deal with,” Marcus said, with a smirk as he motioned towards the door, or rather his assistant behind the door. Luckily Marcus had waited until the door shut and he was fully in his office before speaking. This was the last conversation he wanted Melody to overhear.

  Alex groaned as he’d tried his best over the past few months to keep Marcus in the dark about his infatuation with his assistant. However, due to his performance, or lack thereof, this morning, the cat was well as truly out of the bag. It was saying something that he’d managed to keep it away from Marcus for so long, he could thank Carly, Marcus’ wife for keeping him focused on her, rather than on his slow demise.

  “I’m sorry about earlier. It was just a slip …”

  “A slip? If you hadn’t pulled it out of the bag earlier we’d be having an entirely different conversation. Lucky for you your bad days are better than most people’s good days, mine included.”

  Alex stayed quiet as he knew his brother had more to say and wasn’t about to give him anymore ammunition.

  Marcus smirked, “So Melody, are you going to tell me how and when this happened? I can’t believe I missed it! Why did you hire her if you thought she’d have this affect on you?”

  Shifting uncomfortably in his chair Alex confessed, “I didn’t interview her. I only met her after she’d been in the job for a week.”

  “How did that happen?” asked Marcus. “In the past we’ve always interviewed our own assistants, I mean, what if we didn’t get on with them?” He smirked and wiggled his eyebrows, adding, “or knew they’d get us into trouble with H.R.?”

  Alex let out a loud groan, “One word, Mary. Mary knew I was working on the mergers we had going on around the time she was leaving. You,” he directed a finger at his brother, “were totally wrapped up in Carly so I was picking up your slack, so when she offered to advertise, interview and hire a new assistant I figured she was the best person to know exactly what I needed. Looking at her resumé she was the best person for the job. She’s highly qualified, got experience working at Brookes and is professional in everything she does. She’s doing an even better job than Mary was, but don’t you dare tell Mary!”

  “I see,” replied Marcus.

  “I see? Is that all you’ve got to say?”

  “Look, I’m sorry about leaving you to deal with everything and we can look into either hiring someone or delegating some of your responsibilities. It still doesn’t solve the bigger issue of … what are you going to do about Melody? Is she going to be a long-term problem?”

  Alex wasn’t sure whether being honest with his brother about his true feelings towards Melody was the right move. He wasn’t even sure what his true feelings were. Were they an infatuation that would pass or was it something deeper? He scoffed, who was he trying to kid, they were definitely deeper and getting deeper every day. The last thing he wanted was for Melody to lose her job because he couldn’t be professional around her. It wasn’t fair to her. What he’d told Marcus about her being better at the job than his previous assistant was true. He’d be an idiot to lose someone who was an asset to both himself and the company. The thought of losing her to another company gave him a nasty feeling in the pit of his stomach. No, he’d just need to hide his feelings better and try to act more professional where she was concerned. If that meant delegating less to her and taking on more himself then he’d just need to suck it up.

  “No, she won’t be a problem. I think maybe talking to Dan Edwards about taking on some of my responsibilities might help relieve matters.”

  “I’m sure it will,” he said, walking towards the door. “It makes you wonder what Mary’s objective was when hiring her, doesn’t it?”

  That confused Alex completely, “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” he replied and left the office.

  What was he on about?

  CHAPTER FOUR

  A couple of days later Melody was checking her personal emails when she noticed an interview request from one of the jobs she’d applied for through the online local job board. She’d applied for a few jobs in a moment of weakness and now was second guessing herself. She loved her job at Harrington Enterprises and the benefits package was the best out of all the jobs she’d interviewed for the last time. It was another reason why she’d chosen this job, even with the previous assistant’s ulterior motive, which she’d chosen to ignore … mostly.

  She let out a sigh and closed her emails. She was going to stick it out here. There was no point going to another job when it was her own fault she was thinking of leaving. What if she had the same issue at another company? She scoffed at that idea. No, unfortunately what she felt for Alex, Mr Harrington wasn’t some school girl crush. She’d had a few of those growing up. No, this was definitely real. She was just going to have to suck it up.

  Ava, Dan Edwards assistant, walked up to her desk with a huge smile on her face, “Hey Melody, has Alex talked to you yet about giving some of his accounts to Dan? Dan’s just asked me to pick up some of the files so he can go over them. Alex is away for the next few days so Dan wanted to get them before he left, in case he had any questions.”

  Alex was going on
a trip? Why hadn’t he asked her to make arrangements?

  Melody forced herself to smile, the last thing she wanted was for Ava to pick up on any animosity between herself and Mr Harrington as it would be round the office, all twenty-six floors of it, before Ava had got back to her seat on the floor below.

  “Sure Ava, let me call through and see if he’s got the files ready.” She picked up the receiver and buzzed through to her boss, trying to keep her voice as cheerful as she could. “Hi, Mr Harrington I have Ava here. She’s looking for the account files for Dan. Are they ready for her to pick up now? He wants them before you leave for your trip.” She tried to stay professional, she really did, but she couldn’t help adding the snide comment about the upcoming trip that he’d forgotten to inform her about. She always booked his travel arrangements and knew about trips in advance. Never before had she found out after the rest of the office.

  “Ah yes, the files. Sorry Melody, the trip was short notice. I need to go settle a few things with David Maxwell and I thought it was easier for me to go to them this time around. I’ll erm need to go over a few of the arrangements with you when you’re free.”

  “Sure, no problem. Should I come in for the files, or send Ava?”

  “Ah well you’d better send Ava. There are a few things I need to mention about a few of the accounts. No point going over things twice,” he chuckled.

  “I’ll ask her to go in now. Thank you Mr Harrington,” she said and hung up the receiver. Ensuring her smile was well and truly plastered on her face she looked up at Ava and told her to go right in.

  With a smug look towards Melody, Ava swaggered towards the door to Mr Harrington’s office, “Thanks Melody.”