Scandal: A BAD BOY Romance Novel Read Free Page A

intercepted. Shut up, mind, I snapped back at it.
    Lastly, I've established that Blake Slate is a very important client to Harding & Co. Harding & Co's most popular product is a sleek, yet fast, tablet, and we're currently working together with Mr. Slate to have all of his award-winning apps preprogrammed onto our tablets. The deal would net both parties billions, and if I could help Harding & Co secure this deal in any way, then that would secure my promotion here. Then I'd definitely be able to help my parents move and get settled here, I thought longingly.
    For the past two months, I've worked my ass off trying to organize the perfect meeting in London. Blake Slate was currently residing there with his wife for an awards ceremony, and he wanted to meet with a representative from Harding & Co to hash out the details. Unfortunately for me, that representative was Asher Harding. What Asher didn't know was that he would have Paisley May, the head of the PR department, as his escort, to make sure he acted appropriately throughout the trip and during the business meeting. For the past month, I'd been helping her type up the rules she'd be enforcing while in London. This was extra exciting for me since if I could impress her with my work ethic then it was a serious possibility that she'd talk to Mr. Harding to take me onto her team. What was also exciting was waiting to find out how exactly she planned to enforce all of her rules, because I could honestly never imagine Asher following through with rules like 'no more than 3 drinks in one night.'
    "Mr. Slate, I am so sorry for keeping you waiting," I apologized as I picked up the receiver.
    I've also learned that Blake Slate was a very no-nonsense man who got straight to the point. So much so that our conversation was over within minutes. Details for the flight and meeting location were confirmed for the following week. I opened a new Word document and quickly typed up the information we just discussed in preparation for my meeting with Paisley, Asher, and Mr. Harding.
    "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,