Seducing powerful men into telling her all of their secrets is Scarlett Ambrose's specialty. Ace Hardwood is probably no exception.
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The gorgeous, confident and charismatic Scarlett Ambrose is perfect candidate to help Terrence Burke take down the...
"If flowers can grow through blankets of snow, there is hope for me."
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Scarlett Ambrose sat at a table surrounded by some of the most affluential people from the city she called home and experienced one of the strangest, most novel, most heart-warming experiences of her life: a sense of friendship.
Suddenly, sitting there, it didn't matter that the only people she had met before that date were Ace Hardwood and Aiden Carlisle. It didn't matter that she was an assistant. It didn't matter that she hadn't known them or worked with them for years.
The only thing that mattered was that she had a friendly smile and one of their own had given Scarlett the stamp of approval.
She stood there as Ace introduced her as one of his colleagues – not his secretary or PA, unlike the other men before him – to Rosalie Darling-Carlisle, Jenna Kingsley and her brother, Dr. Elliot Kingsley, Isabella Hammond and Erica Sommers.
All of them spoke to her with the familiarity with which they did to each other.
She found herself seated in between Ace and Isabella, whom they all called Isa, engaging in tinkling conversation with all of them as she sipped her champagne. She looked over at Ace, who sipped his fingerbreadth of scotch, sparingly, like it was the last scotch on earth and realized that he was probably at least marginally comfortable around these people.
He didn't have that strange neutral expression on his face; instead he wore a small smile, much gentler than the ones of the others', but a smile just the same. He twirled his glass in his hand, listening to the story that Elliot was relating to the group and smiled over at Scarlett.
There was a lull in the conversation as Elliot's story ended and Isabella turned to Scarlett.
"So, you've been working with Ace for a couple of months now?" she asked, drawing the attention of the group to the newest addition to their ensemble.
Scarlett, never apprehensive, never unconfident with new people, nodded.
Isabella sighed. "How many times has Brad Windom hit on you?" she asked, in a voice that almost said that she had heard that too many times.
Scarlett's eyes bulged as she stole a glance in Ace's direction.
"Oh, Ace didn't say anything," Isabella shook her head and rolled her eyes, "We've all been hit on by Brad Windom," she gestured around the table and Erica and Jenna seemed to be nodding a lot more heartily than Rosalie. "Probably, even Aiden."
Aiden feigned outrage and looked around the table, quizzically. "Why me?" he asked, "Why not Ace?"
"Because you're nice," Isabella replied, easily, "And if there's one person Brad Windom might actually be at least a little scared of, it's Ace."
"So, I'm not scary?" Aiden asked, sounding amused as Scarlett looked over at Ace. He seemed more interested in his glass than in what was being said about him.
