Page 56 of Lucas

Heat climbed into her cheeks. She couldn’t seem to find her voice.

“One phone call was all it took to find out the truth,” he told her. “Clean out your desk, Ms. Long. You’re no longer needed at Carter Media, effective immediately.” The cold, clipped tone of his voice made her cringe.

The bottom dropped out of her stomach. Any fight she had in her sank with it as she was filled with pure white-hot panic.

She couldn’t lose this job, not when her sister was counting on her.

Failure was simply not an option.

“Please, I need this job.”

“Something you should have considered before lying,” he said coldly.

It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him about Shana, about why she had to lie, but it was too painful. And besides, something told her that any emotional appeal wouldn’t matter to a man like Ashton Carter.

She needed to give him facts that he couldn’t dispute. She had to prove how indispensable she was and how much he needed her here.

“I’ve been here early every day for the past month,” she said in a rush. “I stay late. I always finish whatever you need done before I leave and have even gone above and beyond making sure your proposals were perfect. I’ve scheduled your travel details, made sure that your dry cleaning was ready before you needed it, and I even made sure that Joan Bickford had an appropriate retirement gift from you last week when you missed her going away party.”

Ashton leaned forward, his sharp gaze focused on her mouth. She knew she was word vomiting and that her face was covered in a sheen of sweat, but she had to make him reconsider.

She sucked in a breath and kept going before he could stop her. “I am a damned good assistant and the fact that I don’t have an Ivy League degree shouldn’t matter. Yes, I made a terrible mistake when I lied about the school I graduated from. But I’ve proven myself since I began working for you, and I’ll continue to prove myself if you’ll just give me another chance. I’m here now and I like working for you and I can do the job you need.”

Her voice broke and she clasped her hands in her lap. Tears burned the back of her eyes but she refused to let them fall. She would not cry in front of her boss, though she was sure he didn’t miss how glassy they were when she finally dared to look up at him.

His expression had not changed, but the lines on his face weren’t so hard now. His gaze held hers, demanded that she not look away, and she didn’t dare. Not even when he broke away first. She watched as he looked over her body without apology and when he lifted his stare again, his eyes were darker.

A different part of her body reacted to that look.

Unconsciously she licked her dry lips and his gaze dropped to her mouth. His shoulders tensed and she swore he sucked in a breath before releasing it and sitting back.

“Tell me something about you. A painful truth that you don’t want anyone to know,” he barked, his stare pinning her to the chair once again. “And it has to be something important, something meaningful…or we’re done here.”

She wanted to look away, wanted to get up and run out of his office. But another part of her was willing to do as he asked. There was something in his eyes that excited her, made her want to give into this strange request.

The timing could not be worse, but she couldn’t seem to stop staring at his lips.

“If you can’t even come up with one thing…” he said.

“I’m a virgin,” she blurted out. “And I’ve never had a real kiss from a man before.”

His entire body went rigid and her breath stalled in her lungs.

If possible his eyes went even darker. She knew he was trying to figure out if she really had been telling the truth, and it should be obvious to him by how red her cheeks were right now.

Why had she told him she’d never really been kissed? She knew why, because his lips had mesmerized her and all she’d been thinking about was what they would feel against hers.

And because it was the embarrassing, humiliating truth.

The air between them thickened and it took all her willpower not to run away.

When he met her eyes again, she swore she could see the blazing hunger in them. Her nipples drew tight and they had to be pressing against the thin material of her blouse.

“I will carefully consider my final decision.” His voice had gone a little deeper, hoarser and thick. “I will let you know tomorrow what I’ve decided, and that will be the last time we discuss this matter, Ms. Long.”

She felt herself nodding, but all the blood in her body seemed to be pulsing between her legs. “Thank you for considering,” she said breathlessly.

His shoulders went rigid and air hissed out from between his teeth. “You may go home now. We’re finished here.”