Seducing powerful men into telling her all of their secrets is Scarlett Ambrose's specialty. Ace Hardwood is probably no exception.
*
The gorgeous, confident and charismatic Scarlett Ambrose is perfect candidate to help Terrence Burke take down the...
"I sit around and wonder about the fire in your eyes, the movement of your fingers, the way you slowly complicate my life."
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Ace Hardwood may have been an impatient man, but he was always composed.
His stoic façade hardly ever wavered. All his employees, counterparts, colleagues, rivals alike knew about Ace's tolerance. Newspapers and tabloids may have always wondered about his love life, but never had there ever been a scandal where Ace Hardwood lost his cool. Never had he been involved in a physical altercation; never had he raised his voice to anyone; never had he caused a scene.
It was a fact that was almost universally acknowledged.
Which is probably what had made his rage on that particular day so surprising.
That morning he had arrived at office with his usual composure intact. He had greeted everyone in the elevator politely, as he usually did; he had complimented Gretchen on her choice of colourful scarf; he had retorted to Scarlett's snarky comment about how he never tells Michael that his scarf is pretty and he hadn't even minded when Scarlett mentioned that he had forgotten his tie pin.
At nine-thirty when he left for a meeting, everything was as usual.
When he returned at one in the afternoon, however, his face was clouded over, his eyes were murderous, his jaw clenched and unclenched and there was a clear sign of anger on his handsome face. He slammed the file he was holding into the trashcan by Gretchen's desk and practically kicked in the door to his office.
Scarlett emerged from her office, hearing everything through her open door. She glanced at Gretchen, who was watching the trail of fire Ace had left in his wake. Gretchen looked back at her, as she walked down the short hallway.
Scarlett nodded her head with a frown, silently asking Gretchen what was wrong.
Gretchen gave her a small shrug and shook her head, indicating that she did not know.
Scarlett looked at Ace through the open doors. He stood at end of the room, leaning against the glass pane with one hand gripped into a fist, grinding his jaw. Without really thinking of what she was doing, she walked in, slowly, barely making a sound.
She went all the way up to Ace, standing a few feet away, listening to his deep, frustrated breaths.
They both stood in silence, watching the world below them.
When Scarlett broke the silence, she spoke quietly. "Tell me what happened."
Ace's hand that hung at his side was clenched into a fist, white at the knuckles. The vein in his neck looked close to bursting. His jaw was clenched and he said nothing.
Scarlett took one step closer to him. "I often find that saying what's bothering me out loud helps me gain a lot of clarity on it."
Slowly, Ace straightened a little. "I worked on that project," his voice was low, like a rumbling, "I flew out to make sure that I have it intact to present it today. I could have made a change, but that bastard Terrence Burke beat me to it." He slammed his hand against the window pane. "And he got it."
