Scandal: A BAD BOY Romance Novel (3 page)

"What'd I tell you about not working on your
books
at work?" Asher's smooth voice interrupted my note-taking, a sneer slightly tainting his tone on the word 'book'.

"I'm not," I responded as cordially as I could.

If I'd learned anything in the past two months, it was that I should try my best to not react to Asher's taunts. Asher had seen me draft an outline for my upcoming steamy romance novella in the cafeteria and enjoyed bringing up that information whenever he saw me.
Teasing would probably be the more correct term,
I thought, remembering one particularly crass time when I'd run into him at Starbucks and he'd asked if I'd written any scenes involving the V lick lately. When I frowned in confusion, he showed me what he meant by spreading his index and middle finger into a V and briefly flicking his tongue between his fingers. When I just gaped in response, he asked, "Don't even try to bullshit me with the innocent facade." Then he winked and slipped out of the cafe, a steaming cup of black coffee in hand.

And I knew he was doing it on purpose, so I stopped reacting. Even though I'd get butterflies every time he teased me or looked at me in a certain way, I learned to keep my face as stoic as I could until he looked away. It had worked the last several times like a charm and I thought it would work now, but instead he stayed in place, casually leaning against my desk.

My eyes flicked over to him before returning to the screen--I tried to look at him as little as possible, because he annoyed me.
Because he distracts you
. I pushed the thought out of my mind. Today he was wearing black jeans and a Rolling Stones t-shirt which exposed his perfectly sculpted arms, his suit jacket slung casually over his shoulder.
You do not go for guys like Asher. Asher would be a bad influence. You want a sweet family man you can take to mom and dad.
Plus
he's the boss's son.
I repeated my daily mantra to myself. My dirty, shameful secret that I found Asher Harding irresistibly sexy--and equally infuriating. I wrapped up my notes for the meeting and clicked the 'print' button.

"You sure? Looks like you have all the inspiration you need right here judging from your cheeks."

I glared at Asher, my hand flinging up to my cheeks. I was always an easy-blusher, but it certainly didn't help that he was always staring at me.

"It's hot in here," I snapped, grabbing the notes and standing from my seat.

Asher chuckled in response, but before he could shoot back a witty response, I was saved by David, one of the Quality Assurance employees who had found his way to my desk.

"Lane, a bunch of us are going out to The Pub, wanna come?"

"I'd love to," I responded, relief flooding in me for the interruption and for the fact that I'd get a drink after this. I
need
a drink after this. Even if it was at a bar with the most unoriginal name in the world.

"What an excellent idea," Asher said in his most proper tone, flashing us his cockiest grin. "A drink after work sounds marvelous."

I squeezed my eyes closed as I felt my nerves fray a little bit more.
He's coming to spite me, I just know it.
I could practically taste it.

Asher was eyeing me devilishly, his icy blue eyes gleaming, as he shrugged his suit jacket on.

"Actually-" I started, thinking it wasn't too late to back out yet.

"We have a meeting to attend. Miss Lane?"

I bit my tongue and nodded. I could see Theodore Harding waiting in the conference room already. There was no backing out now.
I'll just have one drink and go home,
I thought, but I already knew this was going to end up being a terrible idea.

The countdown to 5 PM felt like an eternity. Meetings were never fun, but they were even more intimidating when there was not one, but
two
, Hardings in the room.

After I'd gotten back to my desk, Clara gestured to my phone with her head and I noticed the flashing blue light, indicating I'd received a message. The message was from her and it linked to a series of news articles.

What is this?
I wondered as I clicked it. People around me were already packing their belongings up for the day, so I knew I only had a moment to read it before the rest of my coworkers came to get me before heading over to The Pub.

The page loaded slowly, but my eyes widened as soon as words began to form on the site. I quickly wished that it had loaded even slower. The picture in itself was pretty incriminating: it was undoubtedly a naked Asher (his ink is telling) with his genitals blurred out. He was towering above a skinny little blonde thing, a fistful of her hair in his hand and her mouth around his... I stared, transfixed by the image, and a stab of jealousy pierced my chest. I tore my eyes away, reading the caption instead, which read: "ASHER PUTS THE 'HARD' IN HARDING & CO WITH SHOCKING SEX SCANDAL... AGAIN!" My eyes skimmed the article and widened as phrases like SECRETARY and PRISON SENTENCE practically jumped out at me. I felt sick to my stomach.

Clara was next to me in a flash, excitedly whispering, "I know, right? It's so crazy! We were all wondering why Mr. Harding brought him here when he was running the other Harding & Co location just fine. Apparently, he told his secretary that he'd fire her if she didn't sleep with him in the office." Somehow, Clara's voice became even more hushed as she added dreamily, "Not that that'd be the
worst
thing in the world. But anyway, all of this was just leaked last week but it happened over year ago--one of the girls from marketing found it.
She
said that he'd received an 8-year prison sentence for it but was able to shorten his plea to one year."

My eyes widened and I turned to look at Clara's round face. "
What?
"

"Right?"

She was absolutely loving the office drama and continued excitedly sharing all of the juicy details she'd learned. Meanwhile, all I could do was gape at her like a lunatic. As much as Asher pissed me off, he wasn't dangerous enough to warrant an 8-year sentence... was he? And more importantly: what had he done?

"...and
then
after that, his secretary claimed he sexually assaulted her and sued him
and
Harding & Co! I don't think the press knows that part, so don't tell anyone, but Theodore Harding bribed her and the cops and media. I guess that's why they never made an effort at sharing the information. I guess they finally leaked it since he went from prison straight back to Harding & Co as if the assault didn't matter. Like, I thought it was bad enough when I read about him getting a
blow job
at a 3-Michelin star restaurant, but this is way worse!" The words just kept tumbling out of Clara's mouth--except
blow job
, which was whispered--and I gave her a weak smile for the information overload.

I couldn't believe it and it was becoming too much.

"Okay, stop," I said, shaking my head and half-tempted to plug my ears. "I really don't need to hear this."
Or think about this. Or see this.

Clara giggled. "Girl, are you kidding? I could hear about this
all day,
" she responded, mock-fanning herself.

I genuinely laughed then and shook my head, smacking her arm playfully. "You
would.
"

The crowd of pub-goers had gathered by the elevator doors, chatting excitedly. Asher stood beside them coolly, but he wasn't participating in the chatter. No. He was completely still, other than his eyes which followed and fixed themselves on his target: me.

"Favorite TV show?" Clara asked.

"Easy! Scandal," Stacey from the marketing department answered in the most exaggerated, sugary sweet voice.

I wrinkled my nose and tried to hide my disdain for the girl. Everything about her was over-the-top, from her loud laugh to her big, bouncy curls to her big, bouncy breasts. Which I was almost certain were fake.

Clara and a couple others drank to Stacey's response while nodding approvingly. David had suggested we get to know each other better through a drinking game. The rules were that you have to drink if your response is the same as an answer; the last person to put their glass down (if there are more than one responders) got to ask any other player a question. What I've learned from this game so far is that I don't have much in common with most of the people at this table and that I have
no
idea how Stacey got hired. Actually, that's a lie, I could probably guess exactly what she did to get hired. As soon as I thought it, I mentally facepalmed and shook my head.
Maybe Asher's crude arrogance is rubbing off on me,
I thought, angry at the mind that betrayed the person I was.

"Asher," Stacey smiled flirtatiously while pulling her chair closer to his, as if by doing that she'd be able to eliminate the three people sitting between them.

Asher raised a brow at her with detached interest. "Stella?"

"It's Stacey,
silly
," she giggled. "I get to ask you a question, and you have to answer." She moved her bubblegum-colored lips and tongue a lot when she spoke, I noticed. It was as if every word she said had an 'l' in it because she was
constantly
flicking it out of her mouth.

He took a swig of his whiskey and coke and leveled his gaze to hers. His expression bared his feelings and it reflected mine exactly:
you are insufferable with your high-school mentality.
Well, maybe he didn't feel the
exact
thing I felt, because that'd be really specific, but he at least looked bored with her obvious attempts.

"So... What's your... Favorite... Position?" she had lowered her voice and spoke slowly in an attempt to sound sultry, and I immediately decided that any faith I had in her morals and character had evaporated. Sometimes, you really
can
judge a book by its cover.

She was twirling her large, golden locks around her index fingers and shooting him fuck-me eyes with her caked lashes. It took everything in me to not groan and roll my eyes, so instead I took that energy and got up from my seat to get another drink before heading home. I felt like I needed it if I wanted to prevent the headache rolling my eyes that hard would bring.

"CEO, of course." He didn't take the bait, and my stomach fluttered. I expected him to approve of her advances and take her home, since she seemed to be the type of girl he was into.

I was already headed for the bar, but not before I caught Stacey giggling nervously behind me before shamelessly saying, "That's not what I meant,
silly
."

At the bar, I held my card out in front of me as an indication that I was ready to order and pay immediately. When I caught the bartender's attention, I asked for a vodka cranberry.
Efficiency is key here at Harding & Co
, Theodore Harding's voice echoed in my head. And boy, did I learn to be efficient.

"Really?" Asher teased from behind me. "You call that a drink?"

I took a sip of the sugary liquid courage and shrugged. "It's strong. It's delicious. It hits the spot."

"It sounds a lot like me," he responded with a wink.

Scrunching up my nose, I shook my head. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves," I shot back coolly. The butterflies in my belly told a different story, though.

"We'll see." His face was impassive, but his tone was cocky. He sounded so confident that I almost believed him. A hint of a smirk pulled at his lips. His lips. My eyes focused in on them, and I had to snap out of it, shaking my head.
Damn vodka is getting to me and making me weak,
I thought.

"We should head back," I said, turning to head back towards our table.

"Why?" Asher murmured, taking a step towards me. My heart began beating faster and I took another sip of my drink to calm my nerves. My eyes focused on anywhere but him.

I really
didn't
want to head back to the table. As much as I enjoyed Clara's company (David was okay, too), everyone else was insufferable to me. It almost felt like I was in the twilight zone, because Clara and David were just nodding along and making the same jokes as
Stacey
. It almost made me question Clara's true character, but then I decided that she's drunk and gets a pass. So, it was basically one big circle jerk around Stacey-esque jokes where everyone laughed. Everyone except me--and Asher. For a few moments throughout the night, it almost felt like we were connected and on the same time. We were probably even thinking the same thing:
what am I doing here?
Although, I almost certain I knew why
he
was here.

"Because it'll look weird if we stay here for too long?" I finally said it as if it was obvious, even though my intonation made it sound like a question.

"Do you always care this much about what other people think? I bet life would be a
lot
more interesting for you if you didn't hold back on your fire."

I looked up at him from underneath my lashes and knew my face was flushed. A lot of people saw me as the studious, ambitious girl, the one you could introduce to your parents and would always be a shoulder for you to cry on. Not many people saw the person I was deep down; not many people saw how much sass I held back on a daily basis. I thought I kept it hidden well after a lifetime of practice, but as I looked up at Asher, I knew I hadn't hidden it from him. He could see right through me.