Free Echoes in Eternity (The Pella Series Book 1) by Emine Fougner Page A

he lowers the brim of his hat, and says, “Ma’am,” obscuring his face with a disguised greeting, and walks out of the elevator and towards the back of the office. She leans back behind me with curious eyes, trying to remember something. Then shakes her head, and, looks up at me.
    “Who..” she asks unable to finish her sentence, her breathing increases. Then her finger points at the direction where Henry disappeared, and looks up  with questioning eyes, “who was that?” she asks in a soft, barely audible voice. He’s the man who aligned himself with your father, dedicated his existence in protecting us; put his existence on the line in our defense, in your defense countless times. One of the two people I ever let to question me to my face. My respect for him is immense; because he delivered you in your last existence after your mother died before giving birth to you, and brought you back to life when you weren't breathing. He’s Doc Henry. He’s my friend...
    “Someone I’m going to need in Arizona tomorrow,” I reply nonchalantly. She looks disappointed as if she was hoping for a different answer.
    A little “oh!” escapes her lips like a whimper. She straightens her back, nods, and walks into the elevator car.
    Still shaken, “Ciao, Alex,” she murmurs, making my heart lurch.
    “Ellie. Until tomorrow,” I say with longing as the elevator doors close.

CHAPTER III
    DAYBREAK
    Elissa Cassandra Duncan

     
    I’m confounded, thunderstruck! I could swear I saw someone out of my dreams. But he just turned out to be someone Alex... Mr. Pella, the painfully attractive, my possibly future boss needed in Arizona tomorrow. How long have I been in his office? It felt like years, and then no time at all. How could that be possible? I feel like I’m under some sort of spell, a spell I don’t want to wake up from for a change. My heart never stopped beating at top speed. I’m exhausted just with being in Alex’s... Mr. Pella’s presence. I better get used to calling him Mr. Pella if I’m going to work for him. I’m quite sure that all women who are in his acquaintance and men who are not straight as an arrow are just drooling over him.
    “Mr. Pella, Mr. Pella, Mr. Pella, Mr. Pella...  Alex,” I murmur unable to stop myself from reciting his name over like a soliloquy or mantra. Then my insecurity which I now wish to murder chides me, “He’s going to be your boss. Better get used to calling him ‘Mr. Pella’!” I sag against the elevator wall. I need the job. It's everything I would want from a career; something different every day, different places to go to with different cultures to learn. I am still freaked out about having to liaise between an intense, in control and utterly gorgeous man and the top businessmen of the world idea. But I have to get out of Sarah’s vicinity and her odious shrink.
    Can I really work for the most intense man I have ever met in my life, a man I feel a profound attraction to from the second I met him? But then this experience might give me something to break away from my dreams. God knows I’ve been trying something, anything and everything intense short of dying just to be able to feel, not to be so numb to my existence here and now, and not live in some dreamland. Maybe this intensity is exactly what I need, something to jolt me into joining the living in the daylight hours... I exhale a breath I didn’t know I was holding. He’s so incredibly good looking and one frigging ultimate manly package and ridiculously rich. Oh shit! We’re in totally different leagues. He’s probably got women lined up all the way into the corners of the earth considering all the places he’s been, just to get a glimpse of him or thirty seconds of his precious time. Women who are beautiful, smart, equally wealthy, confident, and with sexual prowess... My heart sinks. Qualities I don’t possess...
    “ So unlike you ...” my subconscious reminds me as if I need reminding.