BREACH (Breach #1)

Chapter 1

It started out as one hell of a morning, so of course it had to be a Monday. It didn’t help that I only had three hours of sleep, thanks to work keeping me up at night. My brain was unable to shut down.

I needed coffee.

Stat.

The day had to get better—the new hire was starting. Maybe I wouldn’t be in the office until midnight almost every night. The prospect of having a life again, thanks to the new employee, was wonderful. Not that I had much of one before. I’d been working sixty to seventy hours a week for the last four months since Vivian left us high and dry. I needed a vacation.

Hell, I’d settle for leaving before five one evening a week.

I pulled into the parking lot, zipping into my usual spot, and looked into the rearview mirror. My usually bright, expressive eyes were dull and bloodshot from lack of sleep, reflecting dark circles underneath and standing out against my pale skin. My hair was not cooperating, dirty blonde strands sticking up in all directions. I brushed it before I left, right?

In my current state, I wasn’t sure of the answer to my internal question. I dug through my purse, locating my hair screws—the most wonderful hair invention ever—and threw the bird’s nest up into a quick, tight bun. Looking down, I noticed a run in my hose that started from my knee and ran all the way down my calf.

Great. Another thing to add to my already spectacular morning.

I hated wearing pantyhose, but they helped keep my legs a little warmer when I wore skirts in the winter. Surreptitiously, I pulled my skirt up to my waist. My hips jutted forward, feet braced against the floor. I pulled my pantyhose over my ass, down my hips, and peeled the offending material off my legs. As I settled back down, I gathered the flimsy fabric and threw it into the passenger side seat.

I braced my body again, hips in the air, to pull my knee-length skirt back down. When I turned to grab my purse, I was startled to see someone watching me.

Fuck.

The driver in the car next to mine was sitting with his sunglasses on. Yeah, like those were needed with the 90 percent chance of rain we were due to have today. I stared at him for a moment, watching a smirk slide across his face. My skin heated, and I cursed at the blush I knew was blossoming.

I flipped him my middle finger before stepping out of the car. Like I gave a f**k what he thought.

I made my way to the double doors and stepped through, taking the elevator up to my floor, and walked back to my office. Well, it had been my office alone for the past few months, but now it was going to be “our” office in the next hour or so. I groaned at the stack of papers that awaited me. The stack had doubled in size over the weekend.

Didn’t anyone take a day off? It was clear they had no idea how long it took to go over and prepare all of their documents.

The bright yellow Post-it Note greeted me as I tried to sit down. It was attached to a file: Vivian’s file. Great.

My former partner and office mate was suing my employer, Holloway and Holloway Law. “Termination without notification or provocation” being her case. It was a turn of events we all found quite ironic, seeing as she was the one who left for lunch one day and never returned. Job abandonment was what it constituted. I took it as her final “Screw you, Palmer.” She knew I’d be the one having to go through it all.

I groaned. As much as I hated how overworked I was of late, I hated working with her even more in our shared office. It felt cramped when she was around. I could never get away from her annoying behavior or loud voice even if I’d wanted to, thanks to the sheer volume of work we received every day.

I was antsy already as I looked at the piles, still surprised the desks didn’t buckle under the strain of all the files. So, I wound my way to the break room and got myself a cup of coffee.

After getting a cup of fresh-brewed coffee from the break room, I finished up some paperwork left from Friday. Once completed, I began sorting through the new piles, finding the items that were urgent.

I loved coming to the office early in the morning, before the rush of people. It was quiet, and I could concentrate on my work without disruption.

I was halfway through the stack of files when a knock on the door drew my attention away.

“Delilah, do you have a moment?” Jack Holloway’s familiar voice called from the doorway.

“For you, sir? Always,” I replied with a genuine smile. My boss, Mr. Holloway—or Jack, depending on the occasion—was always kind and easy to talk to, making it a pleasure to give him whatever he wanted. I knew it was because I craved his kind, gentle words—ones that were rarely offered to me by anyone else.

“I wanted to introduce you to your new roommate before the announcement was made.” He stepped aside and let a man pass him.

My mouth dropped open at the tall, god-like man with light brown hair and seductive blue eyes that stood before me. I sat in stunned silence, eyes wide. Was Jack serious, or had my brain shut down?

“This is Nathan Thorne. He’ll need your guidance until he’s acclimated to how we operate. Please take good care of him.”

“Delilah, was it?” the god asked with a smirk. A smirk!

He held out his hand, and with reluctance, I slipped mine into it. We shook for a brief moment before Mr. Holloway toted him away for a chat before the big office reveal.

I remained in silence while my still coffee-addled brain processed the newcomer.

Then it hit me.

Shit!

It was the guy from the parking lot. The sunglass-wearing moron.

I could already tell he was going to be trouble. He was way too good looking, and all the women would be falling over themselves to get to him…in our office.

Perhaps Vivian wasn’t that bad after all.

My attention returned to the endless piles in front of me, and I resumed my work. It wasn’t until after lunch that Nathan came back. I spent the next hour helping him get set up—time I didn’t have to give. It was a bad idea, the monumental kind, to be that close to him.

We weren’t very far in when the innuendos began and my patience started to wear thin.

I leaned over him to guide the mouse where I needed it. “Okay, so here’s the path to the shared drive. All documents have to be saved out on this drive for backup purposes.”

“You know, you don’t have to climb all over me to get my attention. Lifting your skirt works very well,” he said.

My blood was on fire, even more so than it had already been due to annoyance. “Sorry, I didn’t realize there were any voyeurs around. Next time, I’ll lock myself up in an empty room to spare you.” I rolled my eyes before getting back to the task at hand, ready to show him the next step.

“Spare me?” His eyebrow was c****d, a curious look on his face as he took me in.

“Yes. Temptation is the road to Hell, or at least that’s what I hear.” I once again tried to draw his attention back to the computer screen.

He smirked, something I was already beginning to loathe. “You think I’m tempted by you?”

I thought about the answer, though I knew it already, but decided to string him along. “No, but I don’t want to give you the opportunity to be tempted by me.”

“Why so hostile?”

“Look, Nathan,” I huffed. “I’m here to do a job, not to flaunt my breasts around to catch your eye. I like my job, I like doing my job, and I want to keep it. Plus, I know you are not, and will not be, interested in a woman like me, so why even try? Now, can we get back to your tutorial?”

“How do you know?”

My jaw locked, eyes closing before I turned to look at him. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” he replied. His voice had dropped, now hard and cold, no hint of flirtation. “How. Do. You. Know?”

He was demanding, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. My façade was slipping, so much that the words came out as nothing more than a whisper. “Just drop it.”

“How?”

“Why would anyone?” I sneered at him before taking off to the restroom.

Shit, s**t, s**t!

I paced the length of the bathroom, taking deep breaths to relax and regain my composure. He’d made me slip, probing me with questions that were best left alone. The answers to those questions brought up emotions best left buried in the past.

After about ten minutes, it seemed safe to exit. When I entered our office, he was staring at me with a perplexed look on his face. He didn’t speak, for which I was thankful. I walked back to my desk, bringing my chair around to his and resuming our tutorial.

“Email and contact lists. Then we can see if you have access to the programs IT was supposed to set up over the weekend.”

“You’re very peculiar, Delilah.”

“I’m just a woman, Nathan. Nothing special,” I replied before focusing back on his computer.

“Do you have to do that?” My teeth were grinding after almost five minutes of pen-clicking from my new office mate. The sound was so loud it was echoing off the walls, distracting me from the contract in front of me.

Nathan continued his assault on the pen’s button. “It’s my thinking tool.”

I glared at him. “Well, your thinking tool has me thinking about all the ways I could harm you with it.”

He stared back at me, defying my request and clicking it again. “That time of the month, Palmer?”

“You’re an asshole. Get back to work.” I forced my attention back down to the papers in front of me.

“Which leads me to the question: what have you been doing for the past four months?”

Death wish. He had one.

I knew the blood vessel on my forehead had to be protruding from the annoyance and anger he was eliciting. It had been three days since he began, and Vivian was looking like a ray of sunshine compared to him. I swear he was trying to get under my skin, provoking me. I just wanted to know why.

“Hi, guys!” a feminine voice called from the door.

I wanted to scream.

Women had been coming in all week to “introduce” themselves to Nathan. The amount of cleavage I’d seen that week alone was more than I’d seen in the entirety of my life, and I had breasts. They all had me wondering if every woman in the office bought a whole new wardrobe full of low-cut collars the night after he started.

I was also about ready to snap. Nothing was getting accomplished with their constant interruptions.

I watched for a moment as Kelly flirted with him. My nose wrinkled in distaste, wondering if I’d ever be able to tolerate him and if he’d ever stop baiting me.

He was a good lawyer, but it didn’t excuse his after-hours activities presenting themselves in my office during business hours.

He was hot, there was no denying that. I could agree with them there. I was a single, straight woman, not blind, deaf, and dumb.

Nathan smiled at Kelly. “What can I do for you?”

My hand was resting on my stapler. I resisted the strong urge to chuck it at his head while I stared at him.

He was encouraging them, causing me to want to strangle him. There was a witness, and I valued my freedom, so that plan was a no-go. If I was going to take him out, it wouldn’t be at the office. Maybe some dark alley late at night, where I wouldn’t get blood all over my desk.

With my annoyance at its limit, I got up and headed out, leaving what was bound to be a peep show. I was almost running as I muttered about refilling my coffee.

Upon entering the break room, I heaved a sigh at the sight of the empty coffee pot. Oh well. It meant fresh coffee for me and more time away from him.

“Hi, Lila! How are things going with Nathan today?” Caroline, my one friend and ally, asked in a teasing tone. I’d told her all about the situation with the asshole. The smile on her face faltered when she saw my expression. “Homicide is not an option.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at her dead-on comment. “Are you sure about that, Carrie?”

“Yes. The Boob Squad still coming around?”

“Boob Squad member number seven is in my office as we speak.” I plastered a fake smile on my face, attempting the best impersonation of them I could muster.

“Boob Squad” was the name Caroline had bestowed upon all the women who now seemed to have a route past our—my and Nathan’s—office.

She attempted to reassure me. “I’m sure it’ll get better. Everything has an adjustment period, right?”

I laughed at her optimism. “Sure, why not? Maybe hell will freeze over as well?”

I watched the coffee pot fill up and pulled it from the burner before it finished. I wished her a good afternoon with my now full cup in hand and turned to head back. As I left, she begged me not to end up in jail, but I couldn’t make her any promises.

When I returned, Boob Squad number seven was nowhere to be found, and I let out a sigh of relief.

“Which girl do you have your sights set on?” I took my seat, caffeine injection number five for the day in hand.

“Excuse me?”

“Which one? They’ve all been vying for your attention. Each wondering which one of them you’ll pick to screw first. I’m amazed they’re throwing themselves at you, not even caring about their jobs.”

“You’re talking about the non-fraternization policy.”

“Holloway is very strict on it now, ever since the Antonio and Karen incident. Lots of drama and problems there as a result. So, now they get rid of one or both parties. That’s why it surprises me so many of them are willing to give up their jobs for your junk.”

His face lit up with that smirk that made me—and every other woman in the office—wet. “I do have pretty impressive junk.”

I snorted, rolling my eyes. “Please.”

“Do I need to prove it to you?” He stood, hands at his belt buckle, pulling the leather through the first loop.

I hid my eyes behind my hand. “Keep it in your pants, Casanova.”

“I’m surprised you care about them.”

“I don’t.”

“Then don’t worry. One of the reasons I agreed to come here was because of their strict enforcement of no office fraternization. I thought it would keep them away, but it doesn’t seem to be enough.” He sighed, his expression becoming dark, turbulent.

“Do you want me to throw you a pity party because women are throwing themselves at you?”

My eyes widened at the look on his face. His eyes were now dead, holding none of the light and humor they did a moment before. The smile fell from my face. The arrogant look I’d been seeing over the last few days was gone, the playful glint replaced with a tortured darkness. My jaw slackened as the atmosphere changed.

“They should all stay away from me.” His voice was barely above a whisper as he spoke, right before getting up and leaving.

I couldn’t help but stare after him for a few moments before my gaze moved back to the work in front of me. A shiver ran through me as realization dawned.

There was much more to Nathan Thorne than what appeared on the polished surface.