Page 54 of Lucas

The press loved him and so did most women.

When she’d first started working for him, she’d noticed that the women in the office building tended to wear their tops a little tighter on the days there were department meetings.

But Bria couldn’t fault a single one of them.

Every time Ashton sent her an email, her pulse leapt to life.

God help her when he would come out of his office and walk to her desk to personally deliver notes that needed to be typed up. His dark hair always look tousled, like someone had just been running their fingers through it, and it framed a chiseled face that made her breath catch every time she looked at him.

With the bluest of blue eyes and lips that looked like they could kiss the hell out of a woman, he was pretty much a walking orgasm.

And he had a body straight out of Men’s Health, which you could see even when he wore his trademark suit.

More times than not he’d take off the suit jacket and roll his sleeves up to his elbows, and his forearms were tan and smooth and firmly muscled.

It was insane the way her blood pounded in her chest when she caught a glance of him as he strode past her desk.

Every once in awhile, she thought she caught him staring at her with this look in his eyes. Like he wanted to know what was under her conservative blouse and pencil skirt. Not that she really found it remotely possible that he felt any interest in her. She knew this fantasy was all in her head.

He could have any woman—literally, almost any woman—that he wanted.

She might have given more than a passing thought about what would happen if he turned just a little and in that deep voice of his, demanded that she unzip his pants and take his cock out.

But she was twenty-one, inexperienced and the last woman a sexy man like Ashton would notice. She took good enough care of herself that her curves looked good on her five-five frame and the dozens of pencil skirts and colorful blouses highlighted that fact.

So no, she was pretty sure she never even crossed Ashton’s radar as a possible conquest. Because Ashton Carter definitely had a preferred type of woman; namely tall leggy gorgeous supermodel types like the ones that were draped on his arm every week.

Tall and leggy Bria was not.

She was just his assistant and that was that.

And besides—she’d done something quite scandalous to get this job. She was lucky enough to have gotten away with her crazy stunt, and now she just wanted to keep her head down and cash those checks.

But a smile still lifted her lips when she glanced at Ashton’s closed door.

If nothing else, he fueled her daydreams and made her job that much more exciting, even if he did intimidate her to no end. Who wouldn’t love to come to work every day for a sexy man like Ashton Carter?

Bria forced herself to focus again and take a deep breath. Her work was not going to do itself and she never went home until all if it was done.

She gave her job everything she had and refused to slack on a single detail.

And right now, Bria was translating Ashton’s notes into coherent sentences for the proposal he was working on.

There would be more rounds of edits after this, but he liked to see a draft of his organized thoughts before he went any further. Bria had learned quickly that Ashton was meticulous about his business. It showed and was why Carter Media was the largest news outlet in the country.

“Ms. Long, a moment please.”

She looked up and saw Ashton standing at the threshold to his office as if he’d just appeared there by magic. His lips were tight and he didn’t wait for her to answer before ducking back inside and leaving the door open.

Apprehension made her muscles tight. She didn’t know if she should grab her notebook or not, but at the last second, she did just in case he needed her to jot anything down.

“Close the door and sit,” he said as soon as soon she walked through the door.

Her feet froze at his request. Never before had he asked for a closed door meeting. Trepidation crawled over her as she did as he asked and then moved into his office.

“The notes you needed will be ready in about an hour,” she said. “It seems like your meeting this week was a good one? Adding another radio station to your portfolio?”

Bria took the seat across from him and waited for him to answer.