Married by Midnight (The BAD BOY BILLIONAIRES Series, #12) by Judy Angelo Read Free Book Online Page A

showed up at his office dressed in a simple black skirt, black pumps and white blouse.  She looked like a schoolgirl, not someone newly employed to a company promoting high fashion.
    The afternoon before, he’d bullied the poor girl into accepting his job offer.  She’d hesitated and then began to object, saying she’d like to think about it, but he’d told her he had to have her answer right then or the offer was off the table.  She’d confused the heck out of him, looking eager one moment then frightened the next, but his threat of withdrawing the offer did the trick.  She accepted. 
    And now she was here, even though after she’d gone through the door he’d begun to doubt that she would return.  He was glad she did.
    Just like he’d known she would Sharon took the girl under her wing, making her feel so comfortable that the tight grimace she’d been wearing when she walked in relaxed into a genuine smile.
    Reed left the two women going through a stack of files and headed back to his office where he was soon absorbed in planning his next major event, the Paris Fashion Week scheduled for April.  He was surprised when maybe an hour later he heard a knock on the door and Sharon walked in.  She was not smiling.
    Reed frowned and laid the paper he was holding on top of the shiny desktop.  “Is there a problem?”
    She shook her head but then she checked that she’d closed the door fully.  Satisfied, she turned and approached his desk.  “How much do you know about this girl you hired?”
    His frown deepened.  “Nothing.  Or next to nothing.  Why?”
    “So I guess you don’t know that she’s practically an orphan in her own home.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”  As he was speaking he was rising.  He got up and went over to pull out one of the chairs so that Sharon could sink down onto it.  He knew his assistant was a tough cookie but, as hugely pregnant as she was, he wanted her off her feet as much as possible.
    “Thanks,” she said as she leaned back into the chair and thrust her feet forward, staring at them quizzically like she hadn’t seen them in a long time.
    Reed went back to his chair.  “So what were you saying about her being an orphan?”
    Sharon tore her eyes away from her feet.  “Say thank God you’re a man,” she said with a wry grin, “and never have to go through this.  My ankles look like tree trunks.”  Then she sobered up.  “But anyway, that’s not important.  What’s important is that Golden almost didn’t make it to work this morning.”
    “And why is that?”  Reed cocked his head as he stared at Sharon.  Her story was getting stranger by the minute.
    Sharon straightened up in the chair.  She looked like she wanted to lean forward but then seemed to change her mind.  Her balloon-shaped belly was probably a hindrance.  “She was trying to explain to me why she seemed so apprehensive when she came in this morning.  She wants this job, there’s no doubt about that, but apparently her stepfather is against it.”
    “Her working in the fashion industry?”
    “Her working at all.”  Sharon shook her head. “Can you believe it?  It doesn’t make any sense.  The girl is twenty years old and he doesn’t want her to go out to work.”
    “You’re right,” Reed said, watching the righteous indignation cross Sharon’s face.  “It doesn’t make sense at all.  Why would he adopt an attitude like that?”
    “Something to do with her mother and his wanting to take charge of everything.”  Sharon shrugged.  “That’s as much as I could figure out from the little she told me.  It sounds to me like the man is nothing but a control freak who’s trying to keep her and her mother under his thumb.  Why else would he want to prevent the girl from earning a living?”
    “Sounds to me like he’s bent on stifling her independence,” Reed said, his thoughts going to the girl who was working just outside his office door.  Now he was