Perfect Harmony
Page 1
Perfect Harmony (New Adult Contemporary Romance)
by Sarah P. Lodge
Published by Vanishing Point Publishing, 2013.
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
PERFECT HARMONY (NEW ADULT CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE)
First edition. August 12, 2013.
Copyright © 2013 Sarah P. Lodge.
Written by Sarah P. Lodge.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE | Melody
CHAPTER TWO | Chase
CHAPTER THREE | Melody
CHAPTER FOUR | Melody
CHAPTER FIVE | Chase
CHAPTER SIX | Melody
CHAPTER SEVEN | Chase
CHAPTER EIGHT | Melody
CHAPTER NINE | Melody
CHAPTER TEN | Melody
CHAPTER ELEVEN | Chase
CHAPTER TWELVE | Melody
CHAPTER THIRTEEN | Chase
CHAPTER FOURTEEN | Melody
CHAPTER FIFTEEN | Melody
EPILOGUE | Melody
CHAPTER ONE
Melody
“Hello? Anyone there?”
The man’s voice reverberates down the gloomy hallway. It sounds so bitter and admonishing, almost like he knows I’m hiding behind the photocopier, too frightened to make a peep.
My hand claps to my lips, muffling my breath mid sob, and I withdraw further towards the ground.
It’s Friday evening and the office skyscraper is a graveyard. I thought I’d be alone, but working so late into the night, I forgot to take into account the security guards who patrol the top floor.
I know there’s no reason to be afraid - I do work here. And I work damn hard. I could just pop out now and say a few words and he would come to the conclusion that it was just a silly misunderstanding.
Yet, all I can do is hold my breath to my chest and cower on the floor.
The light from his torch breaks through the darkness and rolls over the wall next to me.
“Anyone?”
I bite my lip and, as the circle of light swings to the window adjacent to the guard, I quietly dash into the private office behind me.
My elbow nudges the door closed.
“Must be going crazy,” says the guard.
I sniff and a tear rolls from my puffy eyes as I wait for him to return to his desk on the bottom floor.
The tear splashes on to the papers I’m holding and I realise I’ve been clutching my stupid admin work all this time to my chest, like it’s a baby.
The elevator dings and I relax a little.
Now I can cry in peace.
Today has been so gut wrenchingly horrible, it almost makes me laugh when I think about it. After months and months of procrastination, I’d finally steeled myself into going to the gym for the first time, only to drop out after only half an hour when some slender specimen of beauty eyed me up on the treadmill. I knew she was laughing at me, or worse, pitying me.
But then, I also knew on some level that she wasn’t thinking that at all. She was probably just waiting for me to finish so she could hop on to the first free machine. But my irrational mind wouldn’t let me think that, even though I knew it was the case.
I didn’t want to leave - I knew it was silly, but that little voice in my head kept chirping away. So I ran home.
Only to stumble upon my roommate/ex-best friend in the middle of screwing my boyfriend.
Make that ex-boyfriend.
The same ex-boyfriend who promised to act as my agent and make me a star. But now it’s just a fleeting dream.
I ran through the rain swept streets to the nearest pay phone and rang home for some kind words and comfort, only for my father to brush me off with a few monosyllabic responses and lecture me on why this was the exact reason I was being dis-inherited. And then he hung up.
It had been one hell of a day.
Remembering I still had admin work to catch up on, I sought solace back at the office, hoping to drown out frustrations with paperwork.
It was already six o’clock when I arrived at the Harmony Records skyscraper. I may only be a low level administration assistant, but it was easy to sneak in through the employee entrance and make my way to the top floor without anyone seeing me.
Liz, my roommate/ex-best friend, she would have relished sneaking in. I’d only worked here for three months, but she’d been working at the record company for over three years and knew the place inside and out. And she was always such an adrenaline junkie.
Maybe that’s why she slept with my boyfriend.
I exhale a heavy breath and lean back against the giant oak panel door, remembering the look on Liz’s faces when I sprang her and Richard. She was so surprised, she practically fell off the couch. And then she pulled her pants up and cried, begging me for forgiveness. But I couldn’t hear her, my mind paralysed in shock. And that was when Richard made their betrayal actually sound like it was my fault.
Thank God for admin work. I never thought I’d say that, but anything to take my mind off this mess is a blessing.
This job is all I have now. And thank God that security guard left.
I can’t let anyone see me like this - all puffy eyed and red cheeked, holding on to some silly files like they actually mattered.
A shiver rushes through me and I suddenly realise I’ve never been in this office before.
It’s dark and cavernous, with a bitter chill floating in the air. There’s barely any furniture, in fact, the whole room is very Spartan, except for an expensive wooden desk that shines in the twilight cascading through the giant floor to ceiling windows. Beyond them, the New York City skyline stretches like mist into the horizon. The Hudson is almost visible through the crack in neighbouring skyscrapers. As I stand and stare, my head tilts back and I drink in the gorgeous frescoed ceilings.
I wander over to the desk and set my files down. My eyes find a single sheet lying on the desk and are drawn to the letter’s header.
Chase Strong. CEO.
Oh god.
Panic tears through me as I realise why I’ve never been in this office before. It’s my boss’s office. No, worse. It’s his boss’s office.
I hold the paper up close to make sure I’m not imagining anything.
Foot steps echo behind the gigantic oak doors.
“No, sir,” says the guard again.
I drop the letter in fright and it glides under the desk.
“I checked but there’s nada...I mean nothing. There’s nothing going on up here. Very well, sir. I’ll return to my desk.”
A moment later, and the elevator dings once more.
My shoulders relax. I’m in the clear.
The office door creaks open.
Operating on pure instinct, I dive into the shadows under the desk.
More footsteps. They edge closer, tapping over the hard wood flooring.
“Whoever you are, come out this instant.”
The baritone voice doesn’t belong to the security guard. It’s too deep and harsh.
My heart thunders against my ribcage.
Who the hell is this man? Why does he have to be here and why now? Why the hell isn’t he across town at the ballroom, knocking back champagne flutes and dancing with all the other employees in the name of charity?
I peer at the windows behind me and see the obscured reflection of a man’s silhouette, his broad shoulders and hulking frame illuminated in the dim light from the hallway.
He’s standing in the doorway and blocking my only route of escape.
Suddenly, I realise I left my files on top of the desk. The man would only need to move forward a few steps and he’d see them haphazardly strewn there, so obviously out of place in this office.
Maybe even lose my job.
“Right, I’d had it. Out. Now. This is your last warning.”
My skin flushes with a red heat.
I know that husky voice. It isn’t a security guard and it definitely isn’t a junior manager or design executive.
It’s the CEO himself.
Chase Strong - a twenty-something self-made billionaire playboy and CEO of one of the largest multinational record companies on the planet. Tall, dark and ridiculously handsome, the stories of his wild life are legendary in every corner of the world. Every girl who works in the New York headquarters, from lowly secretaries up to regional managers and even the vice president, lust after him like a swooning teenager on prom night. He takes them into his bed and promises to make them a star, but he’s always gone by morning.
And now he’s about to catch me in his office.
I back up further until I’m submerged in the shadows and the cool touch of the cedar brushes against my arm. My breath held, my mind runs rampart, begging for him to give up and turn around and leave me alone in my misery.
I beg that I remain as invisible to him as I do to every other man I’ve ever encountered.
My heart pounds against my chest faster and faster. Blood throbs in my ears.
Please leave. Please.
I hear a sigh.
“Guess I’m mistaken.”
Footsteps echo across the floor and I hear the large oak door creak open.
And close.
I breathe again.
Thank god.
I crawl out from under the desk and stand up, staring through the window at the serene New York City skyline.
“That was easier than I thought,” a deep voice growls in the darkness.
A large hand reaches out and grabs my wrist. I shriek as it spins me around.
The desk lamp flicks on and a cone of blinding light fills the vast office.
“You’ve made one hell of a...”
He sees me for the first time and pauses for a moment, his eyes wide.
“...Mistake...”
His six-foot body towers over me and I’m paralysed. He continues to scan me with those jet black ovals, and I realise just how damn true the rumours were.
Chase Strong is absolutely gorgeous. From his broad shoulders, to his thick arms and a body under his tuxedo that gives the impression he was carved out of marble, he’s the most handsome man I’ve ever seen.
I hush, stunned into silence.
He scratches his designer stubble, his look still hard and inquisitorial, made all that more intimidating by his jutting square jaw. I can almost feel his eyes piercing into me, dissecting and analysing ever part of my body and mind.
“I know you,” he says.
It wasn’t a question.
“What do you think you’re doing here?” he asks.
He turns my wrist over in the dim light and a spark shoots through my body. He sees my hand grasping the letter that glided under the desk.
“It...it fell on the floor,” I stutter.
He lets go and I quickly place the sheet back on the desk. His eyes never leave me.
“Who are you?” he says.
“What?”
“Your name. What is your name?”
“Melody,” I say. “Melody Watts.”
“And what, Miss Melody Watts, are you doing in my office?”
“Oh, I work here. I mean, not here here. In the building, I mean. Downstairs. I’m an admin assistant.”
His eyes remain sharp and bore into me.
My cheeks flush hot as his gaze traces me from top to bottom. I must look terrible - he’s dressed in an impeccable Italian tuxedo and here I am, in my frumpy sweatpants and pink sweatshirt.
“And what admin,” he says at last, “were you performing in my office, all alone, at seven o’clock on a Friday night?”
“I...I...”
“Well?”
I bite my lip and try to think of something to say. Anything. I couldn’t tell him the truth - that I was sobbing like a little girl over my boyfriend and I ran into his office like a coward so I wouldn’t have to face the security guard.
“Let’s try another question,” he says. “The Wiltshire Ball.”
“What about it?”
“Why aren’t you there? I asked for every employee to attend. It is for charity, you know.”
“I know. I mean, I’m sorry. I was going to go and I was all ready to when I got back from the gym - that’s why I’m wearing these clothes, by the way...”
He remains stoic.
I continue rambling. “My boyfriend. It’s a long story, but now he’s my ex. So, in conclusion, I lost my date.”
He smirks, though his smile is anything but humorous. For the first time, his eyes leave me. “You’re not the only one,” he says. “Must be something in the water.”
He paces around the room but I find it impossible to look away from his face. From his body. An aura of masculine beauty pervades every part of him, and the sexy baritone timbre to his voice makes my legs quiver, drifting over me like a magic charm until all I can think about is his strong powerful shoulders, his thighs like tree trunks... and those enormous arms...
I cut my thought process short. I need to stop thinking about my boss’s body...
His gorgeous and unfathomably well proportioned body...
No, this is bad.
I made it my mantra to remain invisible at work, ever since Richard got me the job in the admin department. The one thing, no - the most important thing, was I knew when I got this job was I had to stay out of the sights of my billionaire boss.
But lying about my true intentions and who I really was - it was so much easier before I ever met him.
Now, though, as his hypnotic gaze wanders over me, I fight the urge to blurt out the truth. I’m an awful liar and I have the worst poker face, but I know that this secret is so deep and dark that I would be risking more than my job if I blurt it out.
But his eyes are so hot and piercing. They drift me into a spell where I feel like I could tell him anything.
That I should tell him everything.
And he would forgive me and show mercy and all would be right with the world. And I wouldn’t have to lie anymore.
But I’ve been around powerful alpha males all my life. I know their kind and how they operate. He’s a famous playboy renowned for promising the world and leaving before the dawn; a man whose business prowess is only surpassed by the ruthless means he’ll go to achieve it.
A man like that could never show mercy. Not if he knew the truth about my father. Or worse - my brother. He’d fire me without question. Maybe even worse.
“Little Melody Watts. All alone in my office,” he muses. The light catches his face and I see a glint in his eye. He moves closer. “And these would be your admin files,” he says and flips one handed through the papers I left on his desk.
He’s so close now that I can practically smell his rich musk washing over me. It’s so warm and clean.
I quiver involuntarily.
“It’s an interesting lie,” he says.
“Sorry?”
“That you’re here doing admin work. For a start, outside of myself, no one enters my office unless it’s my secretary or by personal invitation. Then there’s the fact, Miss Watts, that you yourself admitted to working downstairs in administration. Now, I can only assume that translates to working in accounts, which gives you no reason for operating on this floor, let alone my office. Well?”
I dry swallow. My eyes bear down on the expensive wood flooring.
“I was working late. I like the quiet up here and I didn’t want to be around anyone.”
“You’re lying again.”
“I’
m not, I promise!”
“On a Friday night? Please. You were spying through my files. Weren’t you?”
“No! I wasn’t! Please, believe me.”
“Then tell me the truth,” Chase says. He folds his arms.
“I was hiding,” I squeak.
“Hiding? Hiding from who?”
“The security guard, at first.”
“And then?”
The truth is torn out of me, and it feels anything but cathartic.
“And from you.”
His beautiful green eyes widen at the statement. He taps his index finger against the desk.
“Why?” he asks. “The truth.”
My breath turns to stone in my chest. He’s so close to me, the heat of his body almost beats against my skin and my mind goes blank.
The soft lamplight bathes the room in a golden glow, but the corners of the room sit submerged in the deep inherent darkness of the cavernous room.
“I was crying,” I say. My voice is barely a whisper.
Chase leans closer to hear my words more clearly.
“I went home and saw...”, I continue, “...I had to be somewhere else, anywhere else. I had my employee ID and some work to catch up on and I was upset, so I thought I’d come here to get my mind off things but then the guard came and then you did and...”
“You didn’t want me to see you crying,” he says.
I nod, the lump in my throat the size of a bowling ball. I can feel more tears welling up, sitting on the tips of my eye lids and ready to spill out at any moment.
But I steel myself. I couldn’t weep anymore, especially not in front of my ridiculously powerful and famous boss.
He’s going to fire me, no doubt, for wandering into his office without permission, for not telling anyone I was in the building, for being unprofessional and for sobbing to his face. For everything.
But I don’t care anymore. I’ve lost everything else that mattered to me today - I might as well lose my job as well.
“I see,” he says after the longest pause of my life. I can feel his admonishing gaze bearing down on me. He’s certainly a tall man, and right now I feel like a field mouse waiting to be squelched under his gigantic shoes. “You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”