Chapter One
Lena Scott walked nervously into the office of Ashcroft and Associates. This was her sixth interview this week and she had more that afternoon. She was glad it was finally Friday and that she had no interviews scheduled for the weekend. She had been searching for a job for several weeks, ever since she had been let go from her job as a loan specialist at the bank.
Let go, the politically correct term for fired. The way her supervisor had put it to her was that she was released from her position. She still couldn’t believe they had fired her. It hadn’t even been her fault. Ms. Brighton, her supervisor, had been very kindly to her for the few years she had worked there.
That totally changed after Franklin Franks II, the manager’s son, was finished with her. She had broken her rule of never dating anyone she worked with—Frankie. A rule she had put in place when she was let go from her first job in banking. Frankie had been so convincing and charming, promising everything she wanted to hear. She hadn’t had a clue as to what he was up to or capable of.
Lena wasn’t naive. She knew the score. Frankie wasn’t the first workplace romance she had been involved in. The other one had gone bad, too, and she had been released from that job also. Two jobs in banking in seven years and she was fired from both of them, for the same thing. That was why she was applying for a job in a security agency. She knew absolutely nothing about the security business, but she needed a change. Besides that, none of the interviews she’d had with people in the banking business had been promising.
Twenty-five interviews in four weeks and nothing, not one callback, nothing. Frankie promised to blackball her and he had. Most of the applications she put in were never responded to. She filled out applications day and night on the internet trying to find something. Anything. Her meager savings were almost gone, her car payment was overdue, and she had a box of ramen noodles in the cabinet. Desperate wasn’t the word for it.
Steeling herself for another letdown, she knocked on the door that was simply labeled “Security,” hoping it was the right place. The address was right.
“Come,” a deep male voice said from the other side of the door. Lena wondered what the body attached to that voice looked like. Probably nothing like what her imagination had thought up. No one looked that good. She heard a click and the door swung open. She walked into an empty office and stood there for a moment looking around. “Sit,” the voice said again.
The picture in Lena’s mind became clearer. He would be tall, very tall, and would have wide shoulders, an athlete’s frame, maybe like a football player. A man that knew how to handle a woman.
She could also picture his girlfriend. He wouldn’t be married. He would date a different woman every night and they all would be beautiful, tall, thin, long flowing hair, the opposite of Lena
. Lena wasn’t short at five feet six inches, but slim, no. She had a few extra pounds she needed to drop. Baby fat, her mother called it. She had tried to explain to her mother that most people lost their baby fat before they hit their thirties, but her mother didn’t seem to hear her.
She looked around and didn’t see anything but a small sofa against the wall. She sat on the very edge of the seat and nervously smoothed down her skirt.
The man in her mind would still tower over her, and he wouldn’t care about those extra pounds.
There was nothing but the couch. No table, no magazines, nothing. She took a small mirror out of her bag and checked her makeup and hair. She sat nervously clenching and unclenching her hands, wishing she had thought to stick her e-reader in her purse.
She sat, purse in her lap, her hand fiddling with it for what she was sure seemed much longer than it actually was. After a few minutes she heard a knock at the door. She looked around and didn’t see any other doors except the one she had come in. She wondered why the person who had invited her in wasn’t answering the door.
The knocking continued incessantly until Lena couldn’t take it anymore. She didn’t even know if the door would open. Smoothing her skirt again as she stood, she walked over to the door and opened it a crack. “Security,” was all she said.
“Is this the Ashcroft Security office?” The most amazing man stood on the other side of the door. He was tall, several inches taller than Lena, his big frame filling the doorway. His head almost reached the top of the door and his shoulders were so wide he could hardly fit through it. He looked like a weight lifter and it was all Lena could do to keep from drooling at him. It was as if the man from her imagination had come to life. He had dark brown hair and steel-gray eyes that looked as if they could see deep into her soul. A rugged face and strong chin. Not a classically handsome man, but rugged. The look of someone who had seen the best and worst life had to offer. Lena wanted to sit him down and hear his life’s story. It would be interesting, she was sure.
“Yes,” she answered. “The owners are busy at the moment. I’m Lena. I’m waiting for an interview. Are you here on business?”
“Yes,” the man answered and pushed his way into the room.
Lena wasn’t sure what to do and stood watching the man as he made himself comfortable on the couch, right where she had been sitting.
The man patted the seat beside him, silently asking her to sit.
Lena looked around again, and seeing no other option other than standing there like an idiot, she sat on the edge of the couch smoothing her skirt again, a nervous habit she had acquired since she started going on so many interviews.
“So you’re here for the receptionist position?” the man asked.
“Yes, I applied by e-mail and then did a phone interview with Mr. Ashcroft. This is my first time being here.” Lena didn’t know why she was volunteering so much information. She didn’t know this man from Adam, but she felt very comfortable with him.
“So have you done this kind of thing before?” he asked.
“Kind of. I worked in banking for a long time, but I’ve done some receptionist work,” she answered.