Free Beyond Bliss by Delia Foster

thrived off the chase.
    Off the chase of obtaining the impossible.
    But now sweet Sophie Harlow was trying to kill him.
    He was a man who believed in taking care of his health. He worked out regularly, and had even installed a gym in a small room off of his office so he could stay in shape and work off stress when it hit. It was a good thing he didn’t suffer from high blood pressure or poor health, because he’d nearly been knocked off his ass when he’d seen her this morning.
    Her small, curvy figure had been poured into an excuse for a suit. She’d been wearing fuck-me heels, and she’d had on her pearl necklace … and then, she’d just stood there, staring at him with those incredibly warm, dark brown doe eyes and an innocent expression on her face.
    He’d wanted to throw her on Rosie’s desk and fuck the daylights out of her, security cameras and public space be damned.
    “She’s hot,” Rosie offered unhelpfully.
    He growled in frustration.
    “Nice, too. Not like your usual.”
    No, Sophie was nothing like his usual. She was perfect. Sweet, and sexy, and completely unable to keep emotion off of her expressive face. He wasn’t exactly sure how or why she was a lawyer, and there was the distinct possibility that she wasn’t even good. When he’d met with Carson McPherson, the man had tried to dissuade him from retaining Sophie, offering him a choice of one or several of his best attorneys for the same amount of money he’d offered.
    But he’d resisted. It had to be her, or he’d take his business elsewhere.
    And now he’d gotten what he’d wanted, but he’d also possibly compromised his company and the livelihoods of hundreds of his employees because he was thinking with his dick.

Chapter Nine
    It was the longest month of her life.
    She'd been following Liz's plan to a T, but he didn't so much as blink at her. If they passed each other in the hallway, he would nod cordially and keep moving.
    The asshole couldn't even deign to speak to her.
    Several times she'd been tempted to stomp into his office, which just so happened to be conveniently right next to hers, and demand that he explain exactly what she was supposed to do and why her presence was required in his offices. There had been no mention of the "big deal" he'd spoken of earlier.
    Her first assignment had been to review the company's standard offer letter and finalize it with Sally, the HR director. There had been enough legalese in the letter for her to suspect that a lawyer had drafted the original document. She'd been confused, but she made a few edits before handing it back over to Sally. The other woman had wordlessly nodded her agreement to everything she’d suggested without any objections or meaningful feedback and promptly escaped her office.
    Now, she was collating various policies and procedures into an employee handbook, inserting various legal terms and clauses where she thought it was appropriate.
    She was bored out of her mind.
    She’d done more challenging work as an intern. If she’d been allowed to keep her caseload, it wouldn’t have been so bad, but because she was exclusively retained, she couldn’t work on anything else.
    Asshole.
    What made everything worse, was that she was under a microscope. His employees gave her a wide berth, but she caught the curious glances they shot her when no one thought she was looking. There were only three people in the office she could talk to, and two of them were usually too busy.
    Rosie, who served as receptionist and assistant to Lucas, was a hoot. She was hugely pregnant and possessed a rapier sharp wit. Even though she gave her boss a hard time, she was intensely loyal to him. The few times Sophie had tried to bring him up to see if she could get more information, the other woman had shut her down within seconds.
    Sean, his best friend and partner, was a shameless flirt. Harmless enough, although he seemed to only bother her when Lucas was in the vicinity—which never happened