Double crap.

I hadn’t liked dealing with Aiden before, with my shields up. I definitely didn’t want anything to do with him now when I was tired and hungry and exhausted. Pretending I was none of those things, I stepped into the elevator and lifted my chin in his direction.

“Mr. Winters,” I said, and looked to the number panel beside the door. P1 was lit. My parking spot was two floors below. I started to shift the box in my arms so I could hit the button when Aiden stepped in front of me and hit it for me. Of course, he knew where I parked. He probably knew my bra size.

At that thought, I swallowed. Hard. Based on the way his eyes had lingered on my breasts when he’d shaken my hand earlier, I had a feeling if he tried to guess my bra size he wouldn’t be far off.

“Looking forward to starting your new position tomorrow?” Aiden asked, back to leaning against the wall of the elevator, his brown eyes locked on my face. There was something lurking there, and I suspected it was a laugh. He had me cornered, and he knew it.

“Of course,” I said, raising my eyes to his. “I appreciate the opportunity.”

“Oh, I’m sure you do,” he said, not even trying to hide the amusement in his voice.

This was bad. I looked away, fixing my gaze on the closed door of the elevator, wishing it would move faster. How could we not be at P1 already?

The elevator stopped on two and the doors opened to admit two marketing executives I knew by face, but not name. They nodded to Aiden and me as they filed in. Aiden took the opportunity to step closer, giving them the side of the elevator he’d vacated. He stood beside me, the light wool of his suit coat brushing my arm.

There were layers of fabric between us, but I could feel the heat of his body. A warm, woodsy scent surrounded me. Not cologne. More like soap and man. He shouldn’t smell this good. I tried to ignore the way my heart thumped harder as I breathed him in.

I did not need this.

I did not need to be aware of Aiden Winters as a man. I had enough trouble as it was. Not that I would do anything about it.

Obviously.

That would be beyond foolish. While my plan was admittedly not the best idea I’d ever had, I wasn’t a fool.

I mean, I could see that Aiden was attractive. Objectively speaking, he was beautiful. Handsome. Smoking hot. Dark hair with hints of auburn. Warm, bittersweet chocolate eyes fringed by thick lashes. Strong cheekbones and luscious lips.

He was tall, I guessed 6’3” or 6’4”, with broad shoulders and a powerful build. I knew he worked late almost every night and was in early, but somewhere in his busy day, he had to find time to work out because there wasn’t a hint of anything soft about him. No padding under his chin or roundness to his belly. He was all lean strength and tightly coiled energy.

At 5’8” I was a little taller than average and still he loomed over me, even in my heels. Just standing beside him, I felt surrounded. The elevator came to a stop at P1 and the two marketing executives stepped off.

Aiden did not.

I gave no hint of the spike of panic in my chest or the way my empty stomach clenched tight. Why was he still in the elevator? All the executives parked on P1. What did he want from me?

Ugh, stupid question. He probably planned to stare me down until I collapsed in a quivering mass of guilt and nerves and confessed everything.

Good luck, Mr. Winters. Scarier men than him had tried to stare me down and failed.

I fell back on the cool smile I’d perfected when I was under pressure and said, “Did you lose your car, Mr. Winters?”

“You can call me Aiden, Violet,” he said, turning a little to face me, his posture inviting me to do the same.

I ignored the offer of intimacy, noticing that he hadn’t asked permission to use my first name. Earlier he’d referred to me as Ms. Hartwell.

He was trying to unsettle me.

It was working.

“No thank you, Mr. Winters. I prefer formality in an office setting.”

I heard a low sound in his throat and couldn’t stop my eyes from flashing up to his. I almost took a step back at the heat I saw simmering there.

I wanted out of this elevator and away from Aiden Winters.

Suddenly, I wasn’t sure I could do this. Maybe there was another way we could get Chase his company back. We could sue, or…but we’d been through that already. I never would have jumped into a ridiculous scheme like this one if we hadn’t already exhausted all of our other options.

I just needed a little more time.

I wasn’t going to run scared until I’d gotten what I needed.

The doors opened on P3 and I stepped out, more than ready to leave Aiden Winters behind for the day. He followed, keeping pace beside me as I walked down the long row to my car.

“Are you stalking me, Mr. Winters? I know you didn’t park here.”

“Not stalking you, Violet,” he said, that laugh still lurking beneath his words. “Just walking you to your car.”

“Is that a service you offer all of your executive assistants?” I asked, tartly.

“On occasion, if necessary.”

“I was told the parking garage was secure. No dark corners here,” I said, raising my head to take in the abundance of LED lights in the ceiling. Much like the rest of the Winters, Inc. building, the parking garage was immaculate and brightly lit. It was probably safer than the gated parking behind the condo I lived in.

“Oh, it’s secure,” Aiden affirmed. “Still, I like to be thorough.”

There was no hiding the suggestive meaning in his words. I fought a shiver as my brain flashed through all the ways Aiden Winters could be thorough. I don’t think I’d ever been so grateful to see my car.

Surprise stole his laughter when we stopped behind my electric blue Volkswagen Beetle. I had daisies appliquéd on the back window and a pink-haired troll doll hung from the rearview mirror. The car was cute, spunky, and seriously fun to drive.

I’d made a dent in my savings account buying it a few years before. Most people would think it wasn’t me, but I knew different. Maybe my Beetle didn’t match my outside, but it went with my inside just fine.

I ignored Aiden’s considering gaze and unlocked the doors, carefully fitting the cardboard box in the back beside my purse before opening the driver’s door and preparing to get in. Sending Aiden a dismissive glance over my shoulder I said, “We’re at my car. You can go now.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Violet. Don’t be late.”

My hands were steady as I slid the key into the ignition, but my heart was pounding so hard I was sure he could hear it. He stepped back from my parking space and dropped his hands into his suit pockets, waiting, watching, as I put the car in gear and pulled out. I felt his eyes on me as I drove away.

Thirty minutes later I’d changed into yoga pants and a T-shirt and was waiting in front of the microwave for my frozen dinner, a glass of wine in hand. I’d pulled the pins from my hair and washed my face.

Professional Violet was gone, left in the closet and bedroom along with my suit and hairpins and makeup.

Alone in the condo, there was no one to see. I didn’t have to be perfect. For a little while, at least, I could just be me—messy and emotional and scared to death. In the morning, I was going to get up, put on my armor and carry that box up to the tenth floor where I was going to take my position as Aiden Winters’s newest executive assistant.

I couldn’t afford to be messy, emotional, or scared.

Not until this was over.

After a night of fitful sleep, I opened my eyes to the blare of my alarm and a suffocating sense of dread. It wasn’t too late to quit. I didn’t even have to quit, I could simply not go back. I could just stay here, holed up in the condo until I found a new job, one far away from Winters, Inc.

I could forget about CD4 Analytics and justice for Chase.

Except that I couldn’t. Chase had always looked out for me. He always had my back. He’d worked so hard building that company. I had to try to fix this.

There was no way Aiden Winters was innocent. I just had to keep looking and I would find what I needed.

Resolved, I dragged myself out of bed and into the shower. The scent of sweet peas, flowery and clean, woke up my brain and I went about the business of erasing the Violet who left her hair loose and wore yoga pants and bought a bright blue Volkswagen Beetle.

I pulled my hair back into a tight chignon and dressed in my plainest, most severely professional black suit, embellished simply by pearls at my ears and around my neck. Only my dangerously high heels gave a nod to any sense of feminine fashion.

I got off the elevator on the tenth floor to see the first desk, the one normally occupied by the most junior of Aiden’s assistants, unoccupied. The other four executive assistants were already there, their desks arranged in a quadrangle, facing each other.

That they intended to exclude me couldn’t have been more obvious, but just in case I missed the message, all four of them studiously ignored my entrance.

Fine. I wasn’t here to make friends.

More than that, I could see where they’d be irritated. I didn’t have an MBA. I hadn’t fought tooth and nail for the opportunity to work side-by-side with Aiden Winters. I’d been plucked from project management in a new division for no reason anyone but Aiden and I could fathom.

I might have understood their attitude, but I wasn’t going to put up with it.

Setting my box of things on the empty desk, I turned to face the others and said, “I’m Violet Hartwell. I’m assuming Mr. Winters told you I’d be joining you?”

The one closest to me, a dark-haired man in his mid-20s with a rumpled shirt and a cup of coffee at his elbow gave me a sideways look and said, “Sure. I’m Thomas.” Pointing at the other executive assistants in turn, he said, “that’s Marisela, Henry, and Peter.”

The other three gave me cool nods but stayed silent. Thomas went on, “Until you’re assigned specific work, you can answer phones and do the filing. Notes on phone protocol are in the top drawer of your desk. Coffee, copier, and fax are in there.” Thomas gestured to an open door on the far side of the room. “The rest of us have full plates, so don’t expect us to hold your hand.”

“Understood,” I said. Turning my back to them, I unpacked my things. I desperately wanted to put my coffee mug to use, but I had a feeling that phone was going to start ringing any minute, and I had no idea what phone protocol involved. I pulled the file from the top drawer and began to read.

I’d handled at least a dozen calls, most of them correctly, and finished reading the protocol file before I gave in to the need for caffeine. Standing from the desk, I picked up my mug and said to the room, “I’m getting coffee. Cover the phones for a few minutes.”

I knew better than to wait for agreement. I doubted any of them would ignore Aiden’s phone while I was away from my desk, but asking permission to get coffee would be a mistake.

They already hated me. If they thought they could bully me, my life would be a misery.

The coffee machine was sleek, high-end, and I was pretty sure it could make any coffee drink on earth. Unfortunately, I had no idea how to make that happen. I stood in front of the touchpad and screen, squinting as if that would make the button’s purpose clear.

Normally I’d ask a coworker for help, but not today. Not when my coworkers looked like they’d be just as happy to poison me as help me make a cup of coffee. I pressed a few experimental buttons, one that looked like a mug of coffee and another that looked like it would add cream, and listened to the voices filtering in from the outer office.

“I can’t believe we have to put up with her,” a female voice said. Marisela.

“I pulled up her résumé. She’s got no business sitting at that desk,” a male voice put in. Not Thomas.

“She must be fucking him. How else would she have gotten the job? He doesn’t even need another assistant.” Marisela again.

“Her?” That was Thomas. “The ice queen? No way. I’d be surprised if she fucked anyone, much less the boss.”

The other assistant, the one who hadn’t spoken yet said, “You guys know Winters doesn’t do that. I’ve got no clue why he would have hired her, but there’s no way he’s sleeping with her.”

“Probably not,” Marisela agreed. “Anyway, she’d have to melt enough to pry her legs apart. She won’t last long.”

“And hey,” said the one who’d stood up for Aiden, “now we have someone to stick with the phones, and the files, and whatever other grunt work we don’t want to do.”

At that insight, the conversation ended. They probably thought sticking me with the phones and the filing was a punishment. If I’d actually wanted the job, it would have been. As things were, I was more than happy to be out of the loop. That just gave me more time to dig around on the computer and in the file room. If they were going to freeze me out, I’d have a better chance to continue my investigations.

I left the small break room with a cup of black coffee. Not quite what I’d been going for, but it was caffeine and it smelled like heaven. My four coworkers studiously ignored me, and I returned the favor.

The ice queen comments used to sting. I was over it. When I was alone, or with Chase, I could relax. Laugh. Sometimes I was almost fun.

Around other people I froze up, my shyness translating into a chilly formality I could never quite break down. I’d had friends in college, girlfriends, even dated some. It had been easier back then, finally away from home and surrounded by other kids trying their wings for the first time.

Maybe if things had gone differently at that first job, maybe if everything that came after, with my boss and my parents had worked out, maybe then I’d be different. Maybe I’d be better at joking around and laughing. Maybe I’d be able to loosen up. Make mistakes.

But things hadn’t gone differently. I’d spent my entire life trying to make my parents happy—trying to be perfect—and the first time I made a mistake my life had fallen apart. When the dust settled, all I had left was Chase. He was the only one I could trust.

I wouldn’t take that risk again. Not with my heart. Not even with friendship. The only person I trusted was Chase. Everyone else was on the other side of a thick wall and I had no interest in letting them in.

If that made me a frigid bitch of an ice queen, then fine.

I could live with that.

I didn’t need friends.

I just needed to bring down Aiden Winters.