45

The cream dress Scarlett adorned clung to her figure in the most flattering places and alluded to intriguing details, causing the busy businesspeople in the midst of their morning rush to momentarily pause and stare at the new arrival.
Even Michael, who had been dispatched to welcome Scarlett at the entrance, couldn’t resist taking in her appearance-from the stylishly coiffed brown hair reminiscent of a Silver Screen starlet to the signature red lips, down to the gold embellishments on her cream stilettos.
He marveled at her adeptness in walking gracefully in high heels as she approached him.
“Good morning, Ms. Ambrose,” he greeted her in a low voice with a smile.
“Michael,” Scarlett nodded.
“You look nice,” Michael commented, guiding her towards the elevator at the back.
“Didn’t I look nice two days ago, Mike?” Scarlett inquired as she stepped in.
“You look nice, as always,” Michael amended, eliciting a smile from Scarlett. He swiped his card and pressed the button for the fortieth floor.
“Thank you,” she replied.
“We should probably become friends,” he suggested conversationally.
Scarlett glanced over at him. “Why?”
“Well, we’ll probably be seeing a lot of each other.”
Scarlett shook her head ever so slightly. “Ace really likes his goon, huh?”
“I’m not a goon.” Mike leaned against the mirrored wall.
“Whatever you say, goon,” Scarlett sighed, playfully. She wasn’t certain yet if she could trust Michael, let alone befriend him.
When the elevator doors opened, the environment Scarlett witnessed was entirely different from what she had seen two nights before.
Two receptionists sat at the front desk, both engrossed in conversations on their respective headphones; people were bustling around, heading to their workstations. The eerily quiet floor Scarlett had observed before was now bustling with activity.
People stopped and turned to catch a glimpse of the new face, but as Scarlett was accompanied by Michael, no one dared to ask questions. The employees of Woods Towers knew better than to question their boss or his right-hand man, Michael.
“You’ll probably meet a lot of people doing what you’re doing,” Michael informed her, “It’s best if you keep those people and the things they say to yourself.”
“What exactly will I be doing?” Scarlett inquired.
Michael nodded his head forward. “He’ll tell you everything you need to know.”
Scarlett shifted her gaze from Michael to Ace, who stood a few feet away. He was clad in a navy-blue suit, standing tall and staring at her with hooded eyes. All his features looked dark, perfectly complementing his bright green eyes.
Green eyes that observed his newest employee as she came to stand near him.
“Ms. Ambrose,” he nodded, “Nice to see you right on time. Come, let’s get you settled.”
Ace turned on his heel and walked away, while Michael gestured in the direction Ace went, encouraging her to follow him. The soft thumps against the carpet confirmed to Ace that Scarlett was following him.
“I’ve arranged your office,” he informed her.
“You mean yours?”
Ace threw a smirk over his shoulder at Scarlett. “That wasn’t in our agreement. Now, I’d like you to meet Gretchen Williams, my secretary. Nothing happens in this office without Gretchen knowing about it. Gretchen, this is Scarlett Ambrose, my new PA.”
Ace gestured towards the maternal lady, who eyed Ace skeptically over her glasses before turning to Scarlett and offering a friendly smile. Scarlett reciprocated with an easy smile, feeling entirely comfortable around the woman.
“If this one bothers you, baby,” Gretchen motioned to Ace with her index finger, “You let me know.”
Ace raised his eyebrows. “You both work for me.”
“You wouldn’t know what to do if it weren’t for me,” Gretchen retorted, prompting Scarlett to stifle a laugh.
Ace looked over at Scarlett sharply. “Come on, I haven’t got all day. You can ask Gretchen about where things are around the office.”
Scarlett waved a hand at Gretchen and followed Ace. He led Scarlett down a corridor off the entrance to his office and into a room.
Though smaller than his office, it was still spacious, featuring a desk and a tall office chair. The view might not have been as spectacular as from Ace’s own office, but it was still a sight to behold, with window panels streaming in plenty of natural light.
“This will be your room,” Ace said, “Until I fire you.”
Scarlett raised an eyebrow. “What makes you think I won’t leave before that?”
Ace smirked. “You wouldn’t be able to bear leaving me.”
Scarlett rolled her eyes.
Ace studied her profile as she looked out the window, noting the ski-slope of her nose and the brighter shade of red on her lips than the burgundy she had worn when they first met. She stood tall and confident, as if nothing in the world could hinder her.
“Your desk,” Ace cleared his throat, gesturing to the desk. Scarlett walked over to it, running her fingers along the edges.
“Michael will bring you your staff ID within the day. You can bring in a few personal items if you like, but please don’t clutter up my office space with every knick-knack from your past. There’s a printer in the corner, and you can ask Gretchen where the copy machine and the coffee machine are.”
“What will I be printing and copying?” Scarlett asked.
“All in good time,” he reached into his jacket pocket and brought out a phone, “This is my personal phone. No one has this number except for a few women I used to know and my sister. No matter what, you tell the women that I’m not available. I don’t care what you tell them; just make sure they don’t bother me and that they don’t call again. The only person I care about who might call on that phone is my sister, Emerson. She will call on that number only if she can’t get through to me on my work phone, which I have on me all the time.” He tapped his pocket, indicating the presence of his phone, “If she does call, your job is to get that message to me as soon as possible. Understood?”
Scarlett nodded.
Ace reached into his jacket pocket and brought out another phone. “This is your work phone,” he handed the phone to Scarlett, “It already has my number as well as Gretchen’s, Michael’s, Hank, my driver’s, Vince, your driver’s, Belinda, my housekeeper’s, and my tailor’s.”
“You have a tailor?” Scarlett asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Giuseppe knows exactly how I like my suits.”
Scarlett rolled her eyes. “Of course, you have an Italian tailor on speed-dial.”
Ace huffed. “You can call Gretchen if you need anything, but you must not call me, especially during work hours, except in an emergency.”
“What do you classify as an emergency?” Scarlett asked, resting her palms on the desk and leaning over it.
The position made the hint of her cleavage almost impossible to overlook. Ace cleared his throat.
“Taxes or death,” he said, simply. “So, it’s not an emergency unless the Grim Reaper or the IRS calls?”
“Calls me,” Ace clarified, “I don’t care if they call you.”
“You don’t care if one of your employees is arrested on tax evasion?” Scarlett asked, trying to see if she could psych him out.
“Ambrose, don’t be stupid. I looked into your criminal and financial background before hiring you,” Ace said, flippantly, “You have a healthy credit score.”
“Creep,” Scarlett said, crossing her hands over her chest, “So, you don’t consider the most hilarious anecdote I heard from one of the girls who will almost definitely call this phone?” She shook Ace’s personal phone at him.
Ace came forward, placing his knuckles on Scarlett’s desk and leaning over it, getting close to her. Scarlett stared back at him. When he spoke, his tone was measured, as if he was carefully choosing each word. “Let me make myself very clear, Ambrose. I don’t want to hear from any of them, nor do I want to know what they said to you. You can listen to all the anecdotes you like, as long as you finish the work that I have assigned you.”
“I still don’t know what you need me to do,” Scarlett said, imitating his tone with a small, crooked smile.
“I have a very busy life, Ambrose,” he said, leaning even closer, “Gretchen manages my professional life, and you will manage my personal life. I will keep you informed of the various appointments I need to keep personally, and you will make sure that I keep them. You will run errands for me and do what I ask you to do. If I tell you to rent me a movie from a video store, you do it. If I tell you that I have a wedding to attend, you remind me to send you the registry for you to choose a good gift from me, and then you make sure I attend said wedding. If I tell you that I need you to dig a ditch for me under the full moon at dawn and bury a time capsule there, you do it. And you do not ask questions. Is that clear?”
His handsome, chiseled face was mere inches away from Scarlett’s. Her job here wasn’t only to do as Ace asked, but also to find out all the information she needed for Terrence Burke. She lowered her eyes slowly to his lips and then quickly back up to his eyes. Scarlett wasn’t unfamiliar with what turned men on. “Clear,” she replied, softly.
Slowly, Ace straightened. “Good,” he nodded. “I have some meetings scheduled this morning, so I’ll check on you later. I’ve emailed you a drive link,” he flicked his hand towards the laptop on her desk, “I need you to go through the pictures on it and select the best ones. Once you’ve narrowed them down, email them to me. I need to approve them for the papers.”
“That’s it?” Scarlett asked.
Ace smirked. “Oh, and,” he leaned in towards her again, gesturing for her to do the same with his finger. Scarlett leaned over the table to hear him whisper, “Make sure you don’t fall in love with me after looking at those pictures.”
Scarlett straightened herself, scoffing, making Ace chuckle. “You are the most arrogant prick I’ve ever met,” she said.
“Your honesty would be refreshing if I didn’t already know that,” he said, backing away towards the door, “I’ll see you soon.”
He walked out, leaving Scarlett alone in her new office.
She sat down in her new office chair and gave it a literal whirl, overjoyed to have a chair that spins. She did it again and again, laughing as the euphoria got to her.
Ace Hardwood stood at the door, watching his brand-new employee behave like a child. He cleared his throat, an amused, crooked smile on his lips.
Scarlett stopped immediately, shocked.
“Here is a list of extensions and important numbers that you need,” he said, walking over to her desk and handing her a sheet of paper, “Gretchen will send you my schedules, so that you know where I am at each moment of my professional day. You can only divulge that information to my sister. Understood?”
Scarlett bit down on her lip and nodded.
“And Ambrose,” he made a spinning motion with his finger, “Don’t get barf on my carpet.”
“Oh, I’m sure your carpet has had enough bodily fluids on it,” she said, leaning back with a smirk and crossing her legs.
Ace leaned closer and raised an eyebrow. His voice was gravelly and deep when he spoke. “I said ‘don’t get barf on my carpet’. I didn’t say anything about other bodily fluids. If you want, I could even prove to you that I mean it.”
“Don’t you have a meeting to lord over?” Scarlett asked, playing off his fiendish remark.
“Don’t worry, Ambrose. I’ll be back to lord over you.”
He turned and walked to the door.
“What do I call you?” Scarlett asked, making him turn with his signature smirk on his face.
“In the office, you can call me Mr. Hardwood. Outside, well, I guess we’ll just see.”
With one last pump of his eyebrows, he was gone.
Scarlett opened up the laptop on her desk and opened the mailbox. There sat a brand-new email from Ace with the link he promised it would have.
It took her to a drive filled with hundreds of pictures of Ace taken at various events, wearing various suits, with a myriad of different women fawning all over him.
Clicking through each picture, Scarlett analyzed his face and body language, trying to piece her target together. An hour into her sorting, she got up and moved to stand at one of the cabinets in the corner of the room because she despised sitting for long periods of time.
Rolling her shoulders, Scarlett moved batches of the best photos into a folder for Ace.
The man turned up two hours after leaving his new PA to check up on her. He poked his head around the door to her office, but didn’t see her at her desk.
He opened the door fully and stepped in to see her standing in a corner, bent over her laptop, a frown of concentration contracting her brow.
“What are you doing?” he asked, leaning his weight on the doorknob.
Scarlett raised her head and looked over at him. She surveyed Ace from top to bottom, before turning back to the screen. “Hatching a plan to catch the road runner.”
“Why aren’t you at your desk?” he asked.
“I don’t like sitting for a long time.” Scarlett shrugged.
Ace walked up to her and stood behind her, watching what she did over her shoulder. The muscles in Scarlett’s back tingled.
“Having fun?” Ace’s mouth whispered close to Scarlett’s ear, making her inhale sharply. He laughed.
“I’m almost done,” Scarlett said, after the initial shock wore off, “I can’t believe you made me quit my job with Dan to sort pictures for you.”
Ace leaned against the cabinet and looked her dead in the eyes. “I promise you, Ambrose, you’re going to have fun.”
Scarlett looked at him. He was standing close to her, his hand inches away from hers. Slowly, she trailed her eyes up to Ace’s, lingering for a moment on his lips. She dropped her tone into the sultry one she used to get what she wants. “Are you going to show me a good time?”
Ace smirked, amused. “I can show anyone a good time. Before anything, you need to organize my personal schedule. I’ll get you my notebook. I need you to get the random appointments I’ve written in it and make it into a schedule and make sure I stick to it.”
“I can just get it from your office,” Scarlett volunteered, figuring it was the perfect opportunity to find some information.
Ace shook his head. “I’ll get it for you. And remember, Ambrose: no one is allowed into my office when I’m not there.” He leaned in. “You’ll only have fun if I’m there, anyway.”
Scarlett rolled her eyes. “Just get me the notebook, jackass.”
“That’s not what I said you could call me in the office,” Ace wagged a long index finger at her.
“Please get me the notebook, Mr. Jackass Hardwood,” Scarlett mocked.
Ace scoffed. “Do you even know who I am? Everyone in this office respects me, but you…” he said, leaning against his arm, “I should fire you for being so flippant with me.”
Scarlett raised her eyebrows, with a smile. “Do it,” she challenged.
Ace shook his head. “I’ll get you the notebook,” he stood tall and smoothened out his jacket, “Tomorrow, I need you to come to my house in the morning and collect a suit. I need you to take that to Giuseppe and have him fix it and bring it to me before four. Understood?”
“I have a feeling Giuseppe and I are going to be best friends,” Scarlett said, pursing her lips.
“And you’ll learn to love it. Just like I’m sure you’ll have no option, but to love me.”