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CHAPTER 1
Alexa Worthington’s heart began to beat erratically as she sat up on her bed glaring at the screen of her laptop computer. The display read ‘sending message’ then the confirmation screen popped up. Something was not right. She just sensed it. A green tick appeared on the screen followed by ‘Message Sent.’ She glanced further down the screen and there it was:
Recipients
Jess Tandon
She continued to look at the screen but didn’t think too much of it at the time. Then it struck her hard like a bucking bull at a rodeo.
“Crap!”
Alexa felt as if she were going to have a cardiac arrest.
“Lex? What’s up? What’s wrong? Did you send the e-mail to me?” Her friend Jessica Macy Brown, who went by the name Macy, queried as her voice boomed through Alexa’s speaker phone.
Alexa’s entire body went cold.
Did she send the email?
Oh, yeah! Her salacious e-mail assignment to her critique partner got sent all right. To the wrong recipient!
Alexa had stayed up late that night working hard on creating a sizzling love scene for her online romance writing course—the assignment was due the next day. Heck, Macy and she had enrolled joking that maybe one day they could become published novelists and maybe even quit their day job—if they were lucky.
The trouble was, she named her character after her sexy, arrogant boss Jesse ‘Jess’ Tandon, CEO of TLC Advertising as her leading man—the hero of the story. Heck, a woman could fantasize couldn’t she?
The online workshop was more or less therapy for her. It had been two and a half years now since Eric, her serious boyfriend of one year, died overseas in the Middle East while serving in the Armed Forces. It took her two years to finally deal with the tortuous pain of her loss.
Now she was ready to move on filling the empty void in her heart and her soul. Macy had encouraged her and told her that taking the romance writing course would be a fun way to dream, release her tension and believe in happily-ever-after again. She really needed to focus on the beautiful aspect in the world for a change. Something she thought she would never ever be able to do again.
She glanced over her notes that were spread out over her bed. It was already late at night and she would have work in the morning. Her stomach tightened in knots when she read over her own words.
Jess Tandon is hot. If he were any hotter he’d be a fire hazard!…I’m addicted to his firm flesh, the spicy scent of his aftershave and his dark sexy eyes framed with the longest lashes I’ve ever seen on a man. The delicious feel of his smooth skin on mine…. I crave his taste… his hardness thrusting inside my walls of desire….His muscular, well-defined body holding me, bringing me to the brink of ecstasy…. His soft lips brushing mine…
Alexa squeezed her eyes shut and held her head in her hands sensing a migraine coming on. A feeling of horror washed right through her. She couldn’t even go further reading what she had just written—words that were never meant for Jess to read. After all, it was a private in-class assignment. Oh, why did she have to name the character after her sexy boss?
“Oh.My.God.”
“What?” Macy’s voice was impatient now.
The recipient should have read Jessica Macy Brown, not Jess Tandon.
How the hell did she make that happen?
“I’m screwed. I’m so dead.”
“What is it?”
Alexa got up from the bed and paced frantically. The screen was still on the e-mail confirmation waiting for her to hit the ‘Okay’ button.
No. It’s not okay!
Her life. Her career. Everything she’d worked for flashed through her mind. One by one, her dreams toppled like her grandfather’s antique toy soldiers.
Her thoughts whipped around frantically in her mind. Then like a merry-go-round it stopped at one memory she had of Jess at TLC Advertising.
It was a serious meeting with the company’s lawyers. Jess had been slapped with a sexual harassment suit that was deemed later to be fabricated by a disgruntled ex-female employee. Then the company’s accountant and part owner. The L in TLC. His ever so stoic, old-fashioned older half-sister, who could practically be his mother, Lee Leon warned all employees about sexual harassment in the office and inappropriate conduct. She fired two employees on the grounds of misconduct for sending inappropriate e-mails to each other as per violation of the company’s bylaws.
And Jess became totally distant after that time. His personality hardened somewhat and though he kept his courtesy, he eyed his employees especially the females with suspicion almost every time. Who could blame him after what happened?
