by Clare Morgan
© Copyright 2016 by (Clare Morgan) - All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events are products of authors’ imagination. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. No part of the book may be reproduced or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
BACK TO THE STARS
(Alien Romance)
Table of Contents
Back To The Stars
Bonus Book: Saving Ila (Lesbian Romance)
Bonus Book: The Stranger I Fell In Love With (Alien Romance)
Bonus Book: Saving Her From The Pole (Comedic Romance)
Bonus Book: The Sexy Cowboy’s Seduction (Western Romance)
Bonus Book: The Last Break (Western Romance)
Back To The Stars
Chapter 1:
It was one of those lazy Sunday mornings, where all Lisa wanted to do was simply stay in her bed and doze off. Having a break back working schedule meant that there was hardly time for your own self.
Lisa Catcher was 26 and had a great job to keep her happy. Yes. Her work hours were insane and there were days when she questioned everything about her frigging life. But, in the end, she knew that she had been lucky to have found a job which helped her have a great lifestyle.
She worked six days a week and as she was directly assisting her boss. She even had to spend a lot of extra hours in the office, but at the end of the month, when she got her fat paycheck, she knew every effort was worth it. Living in New York City was never easy and the expenses could shoot sky high.
Thanks to her well-settled job, she never had to bother about the growing list of expenses. Shoes were her guilty pleasure. She knew she had just two feet but she literally had a wardrobe full of shoes.
This is why she worked so hard because she wanted to have the kind of life wherein she could go all out and afford all that she wanted. Of course, she had a huge bucket list like anyone else and she was still to strike off most items from it.
Dump the wrong guy
Find true love
Travel to Europe
Bungee jumping
Travel to space
One perfect selfie
Yes, she was one of those people who were still to figure out how to take that selfie. She would see all other girls acing the art of selfie and there she was - every time she took one, she ended up looking like a potato.
Her bucket list kept growing and yet the list of things she actually did stay intact. But, on Sunday mornings, she didn't think of any of these all she gave a damn to was her sleep.
True to God, Lisa loved to sleep; she could do it all day. After working her heart out for the rest of the week, she slept half of the Sunday as she wanted to relax her body and enjoy her day off after all she had earned it.
She knew that she had literally no social life and it had been a long time since she went out with her friends. But then some things in life often came at a price. She had a very clear plan of what she would do later in life.
She wanted to spend her twenties working her ass off and earning a million bucks. Once she had ample money, she would then spend the next decade of her life enjoying and living off what she had already earned. Wasn’t this a really great plan and one which she couldn’t wait to implement so she could pat her own self and say, “Lisa, I am so proud of you.”
Of course, Lisa knew that these were all dreams and what would actually happen was something she could only wait and watch. Yes, she wanted to believe that she would turn all these facts to be true, but in the end, she had never been too sure of her tomorrow, leave apart a decade.
As she drifted in the land of dreams, she wanted to break free of every other thought and relish the pleasure of having that one off day which everyone desperately needed. She had no desire whatsoever to roll out of her bed but her phone kept on beeping and she realized that it must be something urgent or else no one would bother to disturb her on a Monday morning.
As she scooped her phone from under the pillow and glanced at it, she saw she had five missed calls from her boss and ten texts. With a dread, she read the texts and found that by the time, he had left five texts, he had become furious.
“Lisa Catcher, pick your damn phone up,” his last text read and without wasting another moment, she quickly picked the phone and dialed her boss.
***
Ashton Harley was one of the meanest badass bosses anyone could hope to get. There was a part of Lisa that was sure that Ashton suffered from split personality disorder. There were times when Ashton was really friendly and he would spend time having fun and won’t boss her around.
However, right in between the candid moments, he would suddenly withdraw himself and won’t pay any heed whatsoever to all that Lisa had to say. He would get strict and business-like and would rebuke her for not being professional enough and storm out of the room.
There were times when Lisa felt that he lived different lives or he had a huge secret that he guarded against the rest of the world. It was so hard to decode the mystery which her boss was. Everyone at the office knew that Ashton lived a kind of secret life.
As long as he was in the office, he devoted his time to work, but there was no clue about his personal life. The details of where he lived, who he dated, what was his family and every other tit and bits of personal detail were hidden. He wasn’t the kind of person who liked talking about himself and so he kept everything a secret.
Lisa had worked very closely with him and she was his own personal assistant and even then she hardly managed to get any kind of inside details. She had even tried to find some kind of information, but he had given her one look and said “Don’t ever try to cross that limit. You have a boundary and we are professionals here. Keep things professional, Lisa. It would be good for the two of us.”
Lisa had felt hurt and she was sad at how easy it was for Ashton to rub her off. She definitely didn’t deserve to be treated that way. But she was just another employee and Ashton was her boss and she didn’t know what else to do.
In less than half an hour, her boss had called her to his cabin and then just like she had assumed, he apologized to her for being too rude.
That was the first time when Lisa had said it out loud, “Sir, I think you should see a doctor. I have a feeling you may be suffering from split personality disorder.”
Ashton had stopped looking at the file he was reading and gave Lisa one glance.
“What?” he said and Lisa immediately regretted saying it. The moment when she had spoken about the disorder, Ashton had looked perfect, but it felt like he was slipping back to his mean badass mode.
However, Ashton surprised Lisa by breaking into a hilarious laugh.
“Goodness, Lisa Catcher, you are one hell of a woman. Seriously? You have the audacity to tell your boss that he suffers from split personality disorder! You know what, I envy you. I envy the kind of confidence you have.”
“Sir, I am not sure if you are being satirical or you are really praising me and to be honest, this thing is not doing any good to my so-called confidence,” Lisa stuttered and she couldn’t understand why on earth was she being so goddamn honest.
She could have just kept her mouth sealed and could have concentrated on her job. That would have been so much easier than all of this.
�
�Take a seat, Lisa, I would like to know more about how you reached the assumption and before you get paranoid, let me assure that I am not by any means offended. I have just never been so bamboozled before as no one had ever dared to say something like this to my face.
I know I am the subject of too many jokes and a lot of top cases for plenty of secret societies in my own office, but, no one has been daring enough to come up to me and tell me about what I may be suffering from. So, I appreciate your skills,” Ashton said and looked at Lisa with his azure blue eyes.
“I am still not sure if I have offended you. If I did, I want to tell you that I really don’t mean it. I mean you are just like so guarded all the time. Whenever I have something to tell you, it is impossible to predict how you are going to react.
I have seen you when you are so friendly and caring. You have a soft side of you which you do not tend to let out too often. But, it feels like the moment you realize that you have been too friendly and you have let your gourd skip, something in you clicks and you end up being the badass mean boss you mostly are,” Lisa said and then almost banged her own head to the desk because what the fuck!
Who even tells their own boss that he is badass and mean? She was literally screwed and she knew that this might end up being the last day at the office. She mentally calculated the possible options she had. It should take one month of notice period before she would have to drag her sorry butt out of the office.
There was no chance that she would get such a high paying job, but then again, she would have to change her lifestyle a little. She could try and scoop some good job at journalism industry and maybe, she would find one in a month.
When she looked at Ashton, she saw that he was looking at her dreamily.
“You are not firing me?” Lisa asked almost in a whisper as she didn’t want to hear the sound of being fired out aloud.
“Why would I?” Ashton asked clearly shocked.
“I just called you badass mean boss. You are not going to fire my ass out of the office right away?” Lisa asked once again and a lot more audible this time because she wanted to be sure about it.
“Oh, how can I when you swing into my room every day with that hot ass I always wanted to grab?”
It was Lisa’s turn to be really shocked.
“Are you on drugs? Did you drink early morning? Are you having a temperature?” Lisa asked a string of questions because she was quite sure that Ashton was not being himself.
He laughed once again and then closed the gap between them and told, “I have been thinking of you since a long time, since the time you had joined me as my assistant and came in my office swinging that sexy ass, but, somehow I am not the guy who mixes personal and professional life. Moreover, I am the last person you should be involved with because let’s just say, there are complications. In your own words, no one wants to be with a guy with a split personality disorder,” Ashton said and winked.
Ashton had thought that Lisa would sympathize and maybe apologize and say things like, “Oh you don’t have the disorder!” He was sure that she would try to sugarcoat, but Lisa once again surprised the hell out of him when she said, “So, you really have the split personality disorder. Damn, I know I was right. It is such a thrill to know that you are right, isn’t it? Even though I truly feel for you, I mean, no one deserves to go through the trauma,” Lisa trailed off as she realized that it was one of those bad days where no matter what she thought, her actions proved that she was mother of dumbness and all she wanted was to dig a grave and bury herself in it.
She looked flustered and Ashton clearly enjoyed the moment.
“I haven’t taken any tests and I can’t be sure about it right now, but I think you do have a point,” Ashton said and smiled.
“I am once again sorry if any of this seemed to offend you, but I really think that you need to get more grip on your life. I mean it is alright to keep per personal and professional life separate, but it is like you have two personalities right at your own office,” Lisa said wanting to express herself clearly.
Chapter 2:
Ashton seemed to be in a great mood and he continued to talk to her. He was friendly and listened to everything with rapt attention. Lisa realized that she had all this bottled inside her and she needed to tell Ashton about it.
She went on and on and literally told him everything she wanted to. At the end, when she looked at her boss, she saw that he had a smug expression on his face and she sheepishly grinned at him.
“I think I spoke way too much and crossed a lot of lines and broke too many boundaries, isn’t it? Am I going to be axed or do I still have a job?” Lisa asked.
“Tonight, I have a ball party to attend. You need to be dressed and I am going to pick you up at 7. This is to let you know that I have a life outside the office. While you were right about too many points, it is the time I fix some of the wrong assumptions you have about me. Me being Mr. Boring is one of them. As for your job, you get a hike of 10% from next month but make sure all that transpires between us stays inside this room,” he said and smiled at Lisa. Lisa could feel her toes curling side her shoes because that man looked so hot that he alone could be the cause of global warming.
Lisa had never really given herself the chance to surely look at Ashton. Now that she sat back and gazed at her boss, she could see how perfect he truly was.
Ashton had those azure blue eyes which could make women melt. He had a ripped body and his muscles oozed perfection. He was 6’ 4” tall and had the sexiest jawline ever. With his blonde hair that barely grazed his forehead and the piercing eyes and the luscious lips, he looked every bit a Greek god.
He looked like one of those models who could easily become one of the esteemed stars that could rule the world of modeling. He was beyond perfect and for one instant; Lisa wanted to be drowned in that moment.
“Is it a date?” Lisa asked and she mentally cursed herself as she knew that this was one of those days where she was destined to speak a lot more than what was on her mind.
“It is not a date, but it may turn out to be one,” Ashton said and then continued to gaze at her. His gaze dropped to Lisa’s little breasts and Lisa could see that he was thinking about sex.
“Leave Lisa, get to work and remember to be ready at 7 PM. I don’t like being late.”
Lisa could once again sense the change in his mood. As she had a great time with him already, she didn’t want to spoil her own mood by thinking more of it and decided to head back.
She kept working and finished her pending job before leaving at 5 PM. She was confused all along the walk back to her home because did Ashton Harley really want to go on a date with her. She had never in the wildest of her dream imagined that Ashton would be interested in her.
Lisa always thought her to be an ordinary girl with simply ordinary features. The fact that Ashton liked her and found her attractive was even news to her. She kept on giggling and there was a part of her that wondered if it was another of those Sunday reverie which she had.
However, after pinching herself repeatedly, she realized she was indeed living the moment – Ashton Harley wanted to go out with her. Yes, it wasn’t a date but he said that it may turn into one. She really had no freaking clue how the night would turn into, after all, it was the first time when she was going out with her split personality boss and would meet him outside the office premises.
She chipped in a quick prayer hoping that it would turn out to be a good day which she would happily recall.
***
Lisa spent a lot of time getting dressed and she was still indecisive as to what to wear. She didn’t know what was the event, what was the agenda, was she going there as a form of date and why was Ashton at all taking her?
With no details with her, she had no clue how to react and she wondered what to do. She eventually settled with a somewhat simple gown that had little-embroidered patches at the hem and had a plunging neckline that did wonders to her cleavage.
She applied
the right amount of makeup and accentuated her eyes. She wore her green contact lenses as she always looked dapper in them. With a hot red lipstick and the perfect face contouring, she was quite pleased with the way she looked.
She knew that this was the best she could look and as she wasn’t the one who fussed a lot about getting dressed she looked different, but the good kind of different.
“I hope this works. I hope Ashton likes the way I look,” Lisa told herself and then wondered what to do. It was 7 O’ clock and there were no signs of Ashton. What if he changed his mind and didn’t come to pick her up?
As time kept on ticking and Lisa saw that it was nearly 7 30, she debated changing her clothes. It was quite evident that Ashton was surely not coming to take her. She felt like a complete fool. Why had she made an ass of herself?
“Goddamn, son of a bitch, what the hell does he thinks of himself! It wasn’t like I begged him for a date. He would ask me to be ready and then ditch me. Men are dogs. No, wait dogs are so much better. Men are swine. On a second note, I think even swine are better than men. Anyone would be,” she said angrily to herself and just then she turned around to find Ashton waiting for her with a beautiful bouquet in hand and smiling at her.
“How did you get into my room? I mean I am sure I had locked my apartment,” Lisa stuttered as she clearly didn’t expect her boss to hear her long run of slangs and insults.
“You look so hot. Why didn’t I get the chance to see you like this before? And darling damsel in distress, you need some lesson on security and safety. You kept the key to your door hanging outside. Anyone could break into the house of the sexy lady and do a lot of damage,” Ashton whispered in her ears right before stealing the perfect kiss.
The kiss was everything both of them wanted. She had put on her strawberry red lipstick and Ashton could feel the essence of ripe strawberries in his mouth.
He knew that Lisa was definitely sexy, but never before had he seen her so hot and he had to try really hard to keep his hands off her.