Chapter 3
ASHER
My head throbbed as I stared out the window, letting time tick by while I obsessed over how reckless and foolish I'd been yesterday afternoon when my new "intern" stood a little too close to me.
Or that's what Clayton had called her, though I knew he thought of her more like a babysitter.
A grown man, and he was treating me like a child. It was infuriating. Especially when I acted like a child, proving him right.
I was stewing, drumming my fingers on my desk and staring at the occasional bird that flew past my window.
The board meeting started in less than twenty minutes and I felt seriously unprepared for it.
I should've spent my evening last night preparing to make the case for the new acquisition I'd been working on the past few months.
Instead, I sat agonizing while refilling my whiskey tumbler so many times, I eventually gave up and drank straight from the bottle, and now I was regretting it.
Besides the pulse behind my eyes that pinched when I breathed too hard, my entire body shook and I felt parched.
Hangovers were never something I got used to because I was usually smart enough to pace myself or at least drink a bunch of water while drowning my sorrows, but Veda Porter was a worm in my brain that ate me alive all night, even long after I fell asleep.
The heat of her body as she stood so close I could taste her, and the feel of her tits crushed against my chest when I pulled her in, had wrecked me.
I hadn’t touched a woman since Emma died, and I didn't know what came over me.
I almost kissed her.
And I was wasted on the clock when I did so.
Clayton would have a field day if he knew that.
He'd move immediately to have me terminated on a vote of non-confidence.
It was just the sort of thing he was waiting for to move in and snatch my position of power, and I was just foolish enough to deliver it to him on a silver platter.
"Christ," I grumbled to myself and stood, pacing to the window where the distraction was stronger.
At least here, the movement from the traffic on the street below would give me something to stare at so I wouldn't be stuck in my head so much.
I'd been spiraling again for weeks after a month or two of doing better.
The drinking slowed, at least for that short time, but it was approaching the anniversary of Emma's death and after just rebounding from the last anniversary I hated so much.
"Mr. Locke?" I heard, and it wasn't the soulful voice of my assistant, Penny.
I scowled at my own reflection as if warning myself not to get out of control as I turned to see Ms. Porter walk in carrying a cup of coffee in her hand.
After suffering that near catastrophe yesterday, I didn’t even know if she'd show up today, but here she was in her tight pink skirt and flowy silk blouse with ruby lips plumped up and eyes that skimmed my body from head to toe.
Veda Porter was a walking red flag to all that was good in my world, dangerous in the deadliest way, because I was a weak man around a strong woman and she was a powerhouse without trying.
"Put it on the desk," I told her, because I wasn't about to let her get close enough that I could smell the perfume she was wearing.
Yesterday, it undid me.
Drunk or not, I wasn't a stupid man.
She was ravishing, and she carried herself like she knew it.
"Yes, sir." Veda strolled in on those sky-high heels with legs for days that grabbed my attention.
I cleared my throat, but I couldn’t pull my attention from her as she walked around my desk and set the mug down, unfortunately a little too close to the edge.
When she backed away, her sleeve caught the rim and the cup toppled, dousing my Italian leather computer chair in hot brew.
"Crap!" she hissed, dancing backward as the coffee sluiced off the desk and dotted her shoes, but she avoided being scalded.
"Oh, my God." My temper erupted like Mount Vesuvius without making a pass through frustration or irritation.
I'd had a short fuse for months, maybe years now, and the slightest thing set me off.
My team called me the "intern eater" because I chewed them up and spat them out like rotten meat. "Do you have to be so clumsy!"
Veda straightened, standing with her head down, watching the coffee puddle and drip from my chair as I stomped over to her.
"How much effort does it take to be careful? Huh? Can't you see how expensive that chair is? And now I don't have a coffee to drink. You're clumsy, and you need to get that cleaned up and get me a new cup immediately."
My chest puffed out a little as I pulled my suit jacket open and planted my hands on my hips.
Veda nodded a few times and said, "Yes, sir, Mr. Locke. Right away." There was no whining or apologizing a million times.
Veda didn't sniffle or plead for forgiveness.
She plucked a few tissues from the box on my desk and dropped them on the floor, then grabbed several more and wiped the chair down before scooping them all into the trash.
Her smile as she said, "Be right back," was jarring.
It left me utterly speechless long after she took the mug and breezed out of my office like nothing had happened.
I stood there stunned and staring, wondering if she hadn't heard me or if she was oblivious to the shouting.
Most interns wilted like a desert flower when I raised my voice.
One in particular tried to tell Sherise in HR that I should be sued for verbal abuse, then quit when Sherise suggested if he'd done his job better, there'd have been no need for my temper flare.
My team often had to clean up my messes like that, but this?
Veda had acted like what just happened was perfectly normal, and it unsettled me.
My head spun for a few moments while I checked the time on my cell phone and decided another encounter with her in my office wasn't a good idea.
Clearly, my temper was overcompensating for the insane attraction I felt toward her—about which I was baffled.
I hadn't been even slightly intrigued by a single woman since I met Emma, and now one had entered my orbit who threatened to unravel me thread by thread, one thought at a time.
Deciding to not be here when she got back, I picked up my portfolio for today's meeting and strode into the hall, hoping to be safely in the company of at least a half-dozen board members before Veda discovered me with the fresh coffee.
I was halfway to my goal, and the board room, when she caught up.
Her heels clicked violently on the floor behind me, or that's how it seemed because of my headache.
I winced and side-eyed her as she fell into step without speaking, then I took the mug from her but didn't drink from it yet.
"Meeting starts in seven minutes, sir, but I suggest you have some of these." From her pocket she produced a pill packet and popped the cellophane, freeing the pills.
I looked down and noticed a water bottle tucked under her arm and the portfolio clutched in her hand.
"What?" I grumbled and scowled at her.
"Some pain meds, for your headache… And water."
I tucked my portfolio under my arm and held my hand out for her to drop the tablets into my palm and felt seriously confused.
I'd just bitten her head off on her second day of work and she was tending to me the way Penny would. "Take it," she barked, holding out the water now.
"What makes you think I need this?" Reluctantly, I popped the pills into my mouth, actually thankful for a change that someone so annoying was being helpful and not ticking me off.
"You're hung over," she said as I screwed the lid off the water and drank deeply.
It was exactly what I needed, and I found her gently prying the coffee mug from my hand as we rounded the corner toward the boardroom.
"So, that makes you better than me?" I asked, finishing the water but eyeing the coffee. It likely would've only served to dehydrate me more, and she was right. I needed water.
"I didn't say that." Her smile was dazzling, perfect white teeth and a dimple on her left cheek. My God, what was I doing noticing that? "I was a bartender in a former life. I know how to take care of men like you."
The words stung because I wasn't sure how to take them, but we turned into the boardroom and I didn't have time to question her intent behind them.
I let it slide, deciding that her kindness, and her ability to stand up under my scrutiny moments ago, probably warranted a bit of grace.
But I held on to the edge of my temper with a bit of tenacity because meetings like this required a bit of a steel backbone.
"Gentlemen," I projected, and the men, and few ladies in attendance, around the table settled.
Veda stayed by my side, waltzing right to the head of the table with me, and I watched Clayton's eyes track her movements.
Of course he would.
He probably hand-picked her to hover around me like a helicopter and report back to him.
Even Veda seemed to acknowledge him as he pulled up a free chair and situated it beside where I normally stood for board meetings.
All of it was obviously a show designed to upset me and get me rattled, and it was working.
I didn’t want it to be working, but deep inside my chest, I felt a swirling, a craving for a drink that I knew I couldn’t control.
Luckily, I had woken up without anything to drink at home and this meeting had been my primary focus.
When it was over, I could have a few sips to release the tension in my chest and the rest of the day would go better.
Everyone settled while I opened my folder and laid it out.
They'd all been given the same reports that I had in my portfolio, and as I picked up the file and started reading from it—the one Ms. Porter had corrected yesterday before our near kiss—I got a little flustered.
All I could think about was an unshakeable feeling that Clayton hired Veda on purpose because she had a striking resemblance to Emma, albeit a lot younger.
My eyes tried to track on each individual line of text, but they were bugging out and jumping around.
"So…" I continued reading, "top-line growth for Q3 came in at fourteen point one percent—"