by C. A. Harms
He didn’t pause before turning around, walking back to his office, and not so quietly closing the door behind him.
“On second thought, do you have anything with a plunging neckline and a high slit on the side?” Lex asked. “You know, something to expose your thigh instead of these slacks you’re wearing.”
I ignored his question as I tried to figure out what in the hell just took place. “Does he think I work here?”
Lex grinned. “He barely knows the names of the people in this building with the exception of me and a handful of others. He doesn’t mingle, he doesn’t make friends. So don’t take offense that he presumed you were an employee,” he said as he leaned back, placing his hip against the edge of his desk. “’Cause if he would have taken the time to look up, I can guarantee he wouldn’t have dismissed you so quickly.”
I turned just slightly and looked over my shoulder at the door Mr. Montgomery had just retreated through, and my mine wandered for a moment. I had spent entirely too many years being brushed aside by arrogant men who thought I was only there for their enjoyment. They saw me as nothing but tits and ass Jase brought along for them to ogle. My opinions and needs didn’t matter; in fact, most believed women truly had nothing important to say.
An overwhelming flare of irritation ricochet through me as I decided those times were over.
I pulled my attention away from the office door and faced Lex once again. His smile almost depleted my anger.
Almost.
“I came to deliver these papers.” I shook the packet I’d been holding so tightly that I crinkled the edges. “I plan on doing that now.” I arched my brow. “Are you gonna stop me?”
Lex shook his head, still smiling a little too widely than the situation warranted. “I’m sure I’ll pay for it later, but, sweetheart, I can’t let this chance pass me up. Because something tells me you may be just what the boss needs to bring him down from the pedestal he’s placed himself on. And I can’t wait to see it happen.”
He pushed off his desk and eagerly rubbed his hands together as he walked around the side and looked over at me as if to say, Let’s get this show started.
I’d felt like I stepped into some kind of reality show. The situation was just as comical as it was strange.
And I was about to face one of my biggest fears.
I squared my shoulders and stormed toward the office door without any further hesitation.
ASHTON
MY OFFICE DOOR OPENED, AND I didn’t lift my head to even acknowledge Lex. “Unless you’ve come to tell me that Stewart Mercer has a damn good excuse for standing me up, then I don’t have time for a briefing, Lex. I have too many things to do without hearing an account of your weekend drama.”
The clearing of a throat gained my attention. I looked up and instantly felt like the air had been knocked from my lungs. I had no idea who this woman was, but she had a direct connection to my cock, which was growing quite excited.
I chose to remain seated as she took a few steps into my office, never taking her eyes from mine.
“Mr. Montgomery, first I would like to say if you want a coffee, get it yourself.” I narrowed my eyes at her, because people, whether inside or outside this building, rarely approached me like this. But she was strong and confident and oozed a take-no-shit attitude.
She was fucking gorgeous.
“I’m Kiera Masterson with Stockman and Wright. I am not your glorified errand girl. And I sure as hell am not one of the many women I’m sure would bend over backward to make you happy.” She tossed the manila envelope onto my desk and continued to stare at me with the sexiest fucking look. She was shooting for something completely different judging by her stance, but my cock didn’t get the memo.
“I’m not here to suck up to you, which I’m more than positive everyone else who enters the doors downstairs comes here to do. I am simply here to deliver that to you.” She arched her eyebrow at me as if daring me to say anything out of line.
I couldn’t control the smile that spread across my face.
Who the hell was this woman?
“Now that I have completed my assigned task, I’ll be going.” She spun around on her heel, and all my attention was focused on her ass as she exited my office.
I didn’t even give a shit that she had just obviously served me with legal paperwork. All I could think about was keeping her here as long as possible.
I pushed back from my desk, hurried around the side of it, and jogged toward my office door.
Of course just outside my office, Lex was leaning against the wall, smiling knowingly. He of all people knew my history. He knew everything I’d spent months avoiding, and of course the arrogant ass was just eating this up.
I chose to ignore him as I moved quickly toward the fiery brunette who stood just before the elevator doors, tapping her foot nervously as she pressed the Call button over and over.
“Doesn’t matter how many times you tap it, she’ll come when she’s ready.” I didn’t analyze how the words may have sounded until I’d said them. The gorgeous beauty spun around to face me, her eyes narrowed in irritation.
“Well, if you were doing it right, she’d come without too much effort,” she challenged.
“Is that so?” I stepped closer. “Why don’t we go back to my office and you can show me what it takes for you to reach that peak.”
She laughed, not heavy laughter that echoed throughout the room, but more of an annoyed bark. “I’m sure that line has worked for you before. In fact, I’m sure you rarely have to ask twice for a woman to kneel before you, but I can assure you I’m not most women.” The elevator chimed, announcing its arrival. Never once did she falter.
I watched without speaking as the doors behind her slid open and she stepped backward into the elevator.
“I have no interest in you, Mr. Montgomery. Not today or any day after.” She tapped the button, and the doors began to slide shut.
“We’ll see about that, Kiera,” I said just as they closed.
I stood in place as I thought about the way she challenged me. I had never in my life been as turned on as I had been in that moment.
“She’s a spitfire,” Lex said from just over my left shoulder.
I turned to face him, and for the first time ever I envied my assistant. He had spent time with her, and I suddenly wanted to know everything he knew about the gorgeous specimen that just rocked the floor beneath my feet.
KINSLEY
THE MOMENT THE DOORS SLID shut, I sagged back against the wall of the elevator. My heart had raced the entire time I’d spoken to him, but I kept my cool. Or at least I thought I did.
Suddenly I felt self-conscious as I wondered if Mr. Montgomery had noticed just how flustered I had become.
I’d walked away from my old life months ago, and ever since then I hadn’t felt any emotions other than fear and anger. I hadn’t expected to feel turned on and irritated here. I was also slightly disgusted that I felt turned on in the first place. Allowing a man that probably had a different woman in his bed every night to affect me was disappointing.
I didn’t even take the time to look back toward the front desk as I hurried past it and exited the building in need of some fresh air.
And distance.
What should have been a simple drop and go turned out to be a situation I was more than positive would linger in my mind for days.
I stared at my desk feeling panic rise within me. My hands shook as I fisted them at my sides.
“Well someone has an admirer.” I jumped at the sound of Meghan’s voice. “An admirer with some expensive tastes.”
She stepped past me and leaned over the large arrangements of long-stem roses that occupied my desk. The fresh scent of the flowers filled the air around me, yet I couldn’t appreciate them. I could only feel fear. Fear that Jase had found me and at any moment he would appear and drag me back to the depths of hell. He’d punish me for leaving and for all the things I’d done since then.
My breathing became more ragged, as if I couldn’t catch my breath.
Everything Meghan said echoed in my mind, yet I couldn’t focus on her words. The room felt like it was spinning.
I placed my hand on the back of the chair to steady myself. I couldn’t fall apart here. I had to hold it together long enough to call Rig and have him get me the hell out of here before Jase appeared.
“Who’s Ashton?” Meghan’s question gained my attention, and I looked up to find her holding a card as she stared back at me.
“What?” I croaked. My throat was so dry it burned.
“Ashton,” she repeated as she looked back down at the card. “It says, ‘I’m patiently waiting for your peak performance. Signed, Ashton.’”
I was instantly relieved even though I should be irritated at the audacity of this arrogant man. I should march straight over to Hampton Avenue and toss these gorgeous, over-the-top flowers through his office door. But I only felt relief and pure joy that they had been from Ashton Montgomery himself instead of the man I feared the most.
“So do you plan to give me even a hint about this mystery man?” Meghan asked as she took a seat on the edge of my desk, peering back at me curiously. “Because I haven’t heard you mention any man since you started working here. So this tells me he’s either a new someone in your life or he’s just too damn yummy to share.”
I wondered if I should reply strictly with a one-word answer: both? Because he was new and yummy. Instead I played it safe, because in all honestly this man wasn’t mine, nor had I planned on him ever being mine.
“Just an acquaintance, nothing more.” I shrugged it off as I reached around her and moved the flowers from my desk to the credenza behind my chair. The arrangement was so extravagant that I knew I wouldn’t be able to work with them planted in the center of my workspace.
“Wait, Ashton?” Meghan looked deep in thought and slightly perplexed as she closed her eyes. Silence set over the room. “Are you kidding me right now?” she squealed as realization set in and she placed her palms against the top of my desk. Her earlier confused look had been replaced with one of pure excitement. “These are from Ashton Montgomery, aren’t they?”
Instead of answering her, because quite frankly I was a little terrified of her joy about the situation, I just shrugged and began shuffling through the files on my desk.
“You’re dating Ashton Montgomery?” she squealed again, and the sharpness of it made me jump.
“Shh.” I attempted to calm her. Apparently Meghan was a high school girl trapped in a woman’s body at the moment. She was entirely to giddy and doing some type of happy dance as she spun in circles. “I am not dating him. In fact I didn’t even know who he was until a day ago when I served him with papers.”
She stopped mid-hip-shake and arched her brow in confusion. “You honestly expect me to believe he would just send flowers to someone that delivered legal documents? I think you’re holding out on me, Kiera. What did he do, bend you over his desk and do you right there?”
I felt as if my jaw hit the floor in shock.
“Please.” She waved her hand nonchalantly. “I’ve heard he has no shame. He’ll do it with anyone, anywhere.”
“Well, that’s disgusting.” And maybe a little hot. Not the random girls part, but definitely the locations.
“Please, you saw him. That man is gorgeous, and I’d definitely not question him if he spun me around in the center of his office, or any other location for that matter, and hiked up my skirt.” She fanned her face as she fell back into the chair opposite my desk.
I hadn’t had friends in so long I’d forgotten just how freely I used to discuss things in college, or even before that. Over the years with Jase, I had learned to keep my feelings to myself and just fantasize about the way I wished my life was. But in a weird way Meghan and her loose-lipped exaggeration of Mr. Montgomery’s sexcapades amused me.
“Since you insist that nothing happened, yet he still felt the need to send you these gorgeous flowers, please tell me you’re going to do something now.” She stared at me with her head tilted, an expectant look on her face.
“I’ll thank him for the flowers, but over the phone,” I assured her, and I almost laughed when her lower lip protruded in a pout.
“Sweetheart, I have been married for over six years. My husband spends more time with ESPN than he does with me. I’ve gone through a twelve-pack of batteries in the last month, and they were the long-lasting kind.” I pressed my palm against my mouth, hoping to hide my smile. “Sure, laugh it up, but when you’re done, I need you to call this man and go out with him. After you have a long night of mind-blowing sex, I will need you to come back here tomorrow and tell me everything. And I do mean everything, each yummy detail. I plan to live vicariously through your vagina, and from what I’ve heard that man knows what he is doing around lady bits.”
Movement in my doorway caught my eye, and I looked up and found none other than Mr. Wright standing there with a displeased look on his face. My cheeks heated, and I wasn’t even the one going on and on about my vagina.
“Ms. Dryers,” he said in a displeased tone. Meghan turned around cautiously. “If you’ve completed this very distasteful conversation, I’d like for you to get to work now.”
Bowing her head, she stood from the chair and moved across the room, passing Mr. Wright. Just as she was out of his view, she turned to face me and held her hand up to her ear, mimicking a phone. “Call him,” she mouthed.
And then she proceeded to thrust her hips forward twice before skipping down the hall oh so happily even after being reprimanded for her crude actions.
Mr. Wright only offered me a slight nod as he left my office, pulling the door shut behind him.
I was then left alone with the aroma of fresh flowers and heated thoughts of Ashton.
I had no intentions of calling him, or seeing him. He wasn’t the kind of man I should pursue. From what Meghan had said about his past, the man had heartbreak written all over him.
I’d lived that life once, and I had no desire to repeat those years. Even if the man made my heart race.
ASHTON
“ANY MESSAGES?” I MUMBLED AS I walked past Lex’s desk.
It had been two days since I had flowers delivered to Stockman and Wright. Three days since Ms. Masterson left my building. And three fucking days that I had been unable to get the vision of her sweet ass swaying from side to side as she stormed from my office out of my head.
I couldn’t remember being this frustrated since I was sixteen and was forced to watch Kibby Garrison practice her cheerleading moves in her backyard. I swear she would position herself just so I could see up her shorts. Damn dicktease.
It wasn’t like me to jack off to the image of any woman. Normally I would just grab the nearest willing woman and fuck her senseless. But the only woman I wanted beneath me at this moment was one that still hadn’t called to thank me for the flowers.
I didn’t fucking send flowers to women, but I was desperate to reach out to her. It was that or drive across town and visit her office. The flowers seemed like a less stalkerish choice.
Now I was even more frustrated and thinking I should have gone with option two.
“There are a few,” Lex said as he followed me to my office.
I placed my briefcase on my desk and turned to face him, trying not to appear too eager.
“But I can assure you neither of them are the one you were hoping for.” He grinned from ear to ear. This guy pissed me off sometimes. He was entirely too smug and chipper. But he had been with me from the beginning. He had struggled alongside me as I built my empire, and nothing would ever convince me to let him go. He was a savior, and one of the very few people I can say without a doubt I trusted fully.
Trust is a tricky thing for me. In my business, I rarely found anyone who didn’t want something from me. Most people lied and cheated to get to the top, and I knew plenty of bastards out there that would love to take me dow
n. That was one of the main reasons I chose to be nonexclusive with any female. I refused to be anyone’s meal ticket, and I refused to be vulnerable to anyone looking for access to my life.
“Just call her,” he said as he tossed the message slips onto my desk. “You’ve been an ass for three days, more than usual.”
Again I would allow very few people to speak to me in that manner. Lex always laid it all out without hesitation and spoke what was on his mind. He wasn’t shy and didn’t sugarcoat shit.
“Your patience is for shit, and you’re making me want to use up some of my vacation time to get the hell away from your cranky ass. So either you call her, or I’m taking the rest of the day off.” He cocked his hip out and rested his hand there, challenging me.
The elevator chimed, and the sound echoed throughout the open entry. With my office door still open, it sounded much louder than usual.
Lex spun around and shook his head in displeasure as he exited my office. Cocky little fucker. I approached my door and listened as he greeted our visitor, feeling disappointed when I realized it was just Farris, our mailman.
The frustration of wanting something that was apparently out of my reach was beginning to get to me. I never had to play games, or chase any woman. Getting women had always been easy for me—wink, smile, buy her a few drinks, and bam, next thing I know I’m waking up satisfied and ready for a new day. But Kiera was obviously immune to my charms.
I had to get my head out of my ass and move the fuck on. This shit was so out of character for me. I could have my pick of a hundred different women with one visit to the nearest restaurant, or fucking grocery store for that matter. Why the hell was I so hung up on the spicy brunette that still showed no signs of interest in me?
“Well it’s not a phone call but . . . ,” Lex announced from my door as he smugly walked toward me and held out the small envelope. “Here ya go.”
I looked down at the envelope, which was a soft shade of blue. Mr. Montgomery along with my address was scribbled on the front. The section for the return address was simply stamped with Stockman and Wright Law Office.
