Beth D. Carter [Carter - Untraceable (World of Danger Book 2)

Present Day

The first time Mae Sawyer had laid eyes on Joseph David Harlan the Second, lightning struck. Literally. A freak electrical storm hit just as she had sat down at her desk on her first day of work, striking the nearby transformer which had plunged the whole building into darkness.

Emergency lights had come on, people went rushing to and fro. Then the companys generator kicked on and Mae had seen the most perfect specimen of man ever to grace the planet. Hed strode through the lobby like a Roman god, forceful and mighty and barking orders like hed been ordained king. Shed sat at her cubicle, mouth hanging open, admiring the six-foot-four heavily muscled body of her boss. Everything about him screamed dangerous even though hed worn an impeccably tailored suit and high polished shoes, and had a neatly trimmed beard. No one could mistake the hard glint in eyes so deeply blue they looked like glittering sapphires, or the determined length of his stride. Even his hands, although manicured to perfection, had fisted with purpose. Then hed disappeared behind the door separating the busy office administration of his securities firm from the back offices no one was allowed to enter. Mae had never been the same since.

Since that electrifying day, shed worked hard, staying late whenever she had to or running errands that werent necessarily in her job description, waiting for any chance to see her enigmatic boss. Joseph David Harlan the Second was admired by many but when shed tried to find out information or even Googled his name, she always came away with the same basic facts. Hed been born to the wealthy Harlan family and grew up in New Yorks high society that entailed all that money could buy. His mother had died in a freak boating accident when he was twenty. Hed finished his business degree early and had a stint in the military before taking over his fathers security firm. He might have been born with more money than Croesus, but Mae couldnt help but admire him as a self-made man. As much as he might be on peoples tongues, he was an enigma to the world. He never did interviews. He wasnt on social media. And, as far as Mae knew, he had never formed any long-term attachments to women. All the society gossip sites showed a new woman on his arm in every photo.

He was always the first to work and the last to go home. In fact, he might even live in his office, for all she knew. The back offices were strictly off-limits except for contracted customers, officials, and his two business partners, Lee Masterson and Mason Lake. She often wondered what he did back there and if it resembled anything like Batmans Bat Cave or Supermans Ice Fortress.

Over the months, shed melted every time he walked through the administrative side, watching him, studying him, and ignoring the fact that most people might call it borderline stalking. Mae liked to think she was admiring him from afar. Semantics aside, she sat in a cubicle that faced the glass wall partition that separated the offices from the lobby, so she was able to admire him whenever he walked through the front of the building. She worked as a secretary to one of the sales associates, mainly punching in data. A nine-to-five job that wasnt very challenging but held overwhelming benefits, the main one being the divine man currently heading out of the lobby and into the back offices.

Oh my, she whispered, her mouth going dry and her panties going wet.

Mae sucked in a deep, ragged breath as her eyes followed his lithe walk. She couldnt help but drool a little over the exceptionally toned physique. The chest and shoulders of chiseled marble. The narrow waist tapered down into thighs that flexed hard muscle with every step and a perfect, rock-hard ass. A quiver fluttered in her belly as her usual daydream of him exploded in her headrunning her hands over every square inch of the perfect hunk, her tongue lapping over every plane of delicious skin. Her imagination shocked even herself, although she had no illusions that Joseph David Harlan the Second even knew she existed.