Lustfully Ever After by Kristina Wright Read Free Book Online Page B

dark and longish, his suit tailored to fit his bulky frame flawlessly. The truth was that Heath was a handsome man, but no one who worked for him even noticed his physical attractiveness anymore, so accustomed were they to the hideousness of his demeanor.
    It was when Julie looked into the man’s eyes that she saw what her father had warned her about. They appeared flat, dark
with hostility and emanating an energy about as welcoming as a prison. In fact, Heath had eyes of a lovely bright blue, but they had reflected darkness for so long that they appeared black to most who looked at him now.
    Julie’s father had been retained to conduct a one-hour session with Heath each morning for two weeks. Julie understood immediately the complaints of those who worked for him and the reason the board had procured her father’s services. The voice of the man in front of her was low and menacing, and not once while she was in his office did he smile. At times his demeanor seemed downright ferocious, almost animal-like in the refined environment of posh furniture and spectacular views from the broad windows behind his desk. That day’s meeting was the initial consultation, and Julie’s heart sank a bit as she realized she would be trapped in this office tower with him every weekday morning for the next two weeks.
    The beautiful young woman also found herself forgetting the attractiveness of Heath’s physical appearance as she interacted with the internal ugliness that had so obviously alienated his colleagues and employees. Even so, when she stood up at the conclusion of their first session, she found herself admiring his solid build and chiseled features, formed into a frown as frequently as they were. She approached him to shake his hand and bid him well for the day, and his eyebrows came together in an even deeper frown as he hesitated before offering her what may have been the coldest handshake she had ever experienced.
    As the week progressed, Julie discovered the predictable resistance to warmth or consideration that Heath displayed. Each day when she came and went, she passed by Vivian, the receptionist, who had made no secret of the fact that she found Julie’s job far from enviable.
    “Good luck doing that kind of work with such a beast of a
man,” she’d said not unpleasantly when Julie had introduced herself her first day there. “He’d just as soon growl a nasty comment at you as say hello.”
    Julie just smiled and went on her way. To be sure, she found working with Heath distasteful sometimes, and at times she even grew frustrated. But Julie had been raised very consciously, and she knew that the only way to overpower hate was with love. Love could take many forms—kindness, protectiveness, fierceness—but it was essential in all dealings in order for them to be true. So she took a deep breath and found that awareness in her heart, and she responded to Heath from that place.
     
    Though Julie was a clever girl and had discerned an understanding of many things about Heath thus far, she was unaware that an unwanted attraction he felt toward her was making him even edgier than usual. He felt no desire to give in to any kind of connection with anyone, and the carnal pull inside him whenever the image of the beautiful young woman floated across his mind was something he simply clenched his jaw against and pushed from his awareness, as he had so many other things.
    When she was physically present in his office, the challenge became considerably more intense. One such time he even found himself idly remembering the single unopened condom he had tossed carelessly in the bottom drawer the morning he had discovered it mysteriously lying beneath his desk. (This was only mysterious to Heath, because he was unaware of the pastime the cleaning crew had begun to enjoy of having irreverent sex atop his desk after hours.) When he realized where his mind had drifted, he had slammed a fist onto his desk and said some vicious thing