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Chapter One
Crystal
My hands are sweating and I feel like I could faint at any second.
Why am I doing this? I could just do my job, be good at it, and maybe someday I'd get promoted without this charade.
Who am I trying to fool? I would never get a promotion from a man like Jack Harden: assertive, arrogant, and filthy rich. He came to the ground floor where I work twice since the day I started working at this company about a year ago, and he didn't even look in my direction.
He doesn't talk to people like me, he's always busy. I truly wanted to get a promotion, not deceive anyone, I even made an appointment with his secretary. He told me he'd call me back when “Mr. Harden has a free minute.”
A minute. Not even half an hour. This man couldn't even find a minute to meet me. It's been five months since then, and his secretary has never called me back.
That's why I cheated. I lied in a résumé, masquerading as a potential new hire. Jack organized a contest for applicants to present a marketing strategy for a new skincare line his multi-billion-dollar company is launching in a couple of months.
And I did. I presented not only a new marketing strategy, but I also gave recommendations as to how they can improve the new line.
I knew that my résumé was fake, and even if Harden gets angry with my suggestions, he’ll never find out who I really am.
I knew my chances were approximately close to zero, so I just sent my strategy and continued working.
But here I am, at Jack Harden's office on the upper floor of the building he owns right in the center of Los Angeles.
He asked me to meet him. Well, not exactly me, the person I pretended to be.
And now his secretary, Chase, is looking at me suspiciously. He was probably expecting to see a guy when he arranged the meeting.
Or is he looking suspiciously at me because he recognizes me? We met at last year’s Christmas party. Chase was following his boss's every step, but Harden only made a speech and left the party ten minutes after.
No, he couldn't recognize me from the party. There were like three hundred people there.
"Mr. Harden is waiting for you," says Chase, and I stand up carefully; my legs are shaking as I walk.
When Chase opens the door for me, I inhale deeply and step inside.
There's nowhere to run anymore.
Jack Harden is typing something on the phone when I come in.
I don't know what to do, but I'm not used to taking a seat without permission, so I just stand motionless, waiting for him to notice me.
"Mr. Aguas, please have a…" Jack Harden rises from his chair, puts his phone away, and looks at me.
He stops talking when he realizes he's talking to a woman.
Oh, gosh, how can he be so attractive? The last time I saw him, I couldn't sleep for days after, thinking about him. I even dreamt that I stayed late at work and he came to my office and took me right on my desk.
Yeah, I know, it's super unprofessional to think about my boss that way, but what can I do? He's a tall, well-built, dark-haired man who has unbelievable sky-blue eyes.
According to all those magazine lists, Jack Harden is a bachelor of the year. Of course, I was thinking about him while pleasuring myself. I'm a thirty-five-year-old woman who hasn't had sex for almost two years.
When he looks up at me with those deep blue eyes, I freeze. Those eyes are even more intense in person than in photos I’ve seen in magazines. They’re even deeper. Maybe it's because of his light blue shirt, which emphasizes them, or perhaps it's because of those unbelievably long, dark lashes he has.
Why do men need lashes like that? It's totally unfair.
I remind myself that I already fell for eyes like that once. I’d barely turned seventeen when a man exactly like Jack Harden got me pregnant: he was handsome, with huge blue eyes, and came from a wealthy family. He was my school sweetheart.
I won't let myself make the same mistake again.
