Read RUSH (Montgomery Men Book 1) for Free Online Page B

hell. He’d punish me for leaving and for all the things I’d done since then.
    My breathing became more ragged, as if I couldn’t catch my breath.
    Everything Meghan said echoed in my mind, yet I couldn’t focus on her words. The room felt like it was spinning.
    I placed my hand on the back of the chair to steady myself. I couldn’t fall apart here. I had to hold it together long enough to call Rig and have him get me the hell out of here before Jase appeared.
    “Who’s Ashton?” Meghan’s question gained my attention, and I looked up to find her holding a card as she stared back at me.
    “What?” I croaked. My throat was so dry it burned.
    “Ashton,” she repeated as she looked back down at the card. “It says, ‘I’m patiently waiting for your peak performance. Signed, Ashton.’”
    I was instantly relieved even though I should be irritated at the audacity of this arrogant man. I should march straight over to Hampton Avenue and toss these gorgeous, over-the-top flowers through his office door. But I only felt relief and pure joy that they had been from Ashton Montgomery himself instead of the man I feared the most.
    “So do you plan to give me even a hint about this mystery man?” Meghan asked as she took a seat on the edge of my desk, peering back at me curiously. “Because I haven’t heard you mention any man since you started working here. So this tells me he’s either a new someone in your life or he’s just too damn yummy to share.”
    I wondered if I should reply strictly with a one-word answer: both? Because he was new and yummy. Instead I played it safe, because in all honestly this man wasn’t mine, nor had I planned on him ever being mine.
    “Just an acquaintance, nothing more.” I shrugged it off as I reached around her and moved the flowers from my desk to the credenza behind my chair. The arrangement was so extravagant that I knew I wouldn’t be able to work with them planted in the center of my workspace.
    “Wait, Ashton?” Meghan looked deep in thought and slightly perplexed as she closed her eyes. Silence set over the room. “Are you kidding me right now?” she squealed as realization set in and she placed her palms against the top of my desk. Her earlier confused look had been replaced with one of pure excitement. “These are from Ashton Montgomery, aren’t they?”
    Instead of answering her, because quite frankly I was a little terrified of her joy about the situation, I just shrugged and began shuffling through the files on my desk.
    “You’re dating Ashton Montgomery?” she squealed again, and the sharpness of it made me jump.
    “Shh.” I attempted to calm her. Apparently Meghan was a high school girl trapped in a woman’s body at the moment. She was entirely to giddy and doing some type of happy dance as she spun in circles. “I am not dating him. In fact I didn’t even know who he was until a day ago when I served him with papers.”
    She stopped mid-hip-shake and arched her brow in confusion. “You honestly expect me to believe he would just send flowers to someone that delivered legal documents? I think you’re holding out on me, Kiera. What did he do, bend you over his desk and do you right there?”
    I felt as if my jaw hit the floor in shock.
    “Please.” She waved her hand nonchalantly. “I’ve heard he has no shame. He’ll do it with anyone, anywhere.”
    “Well, that’s disgusting.” And maybe a little hot. Not the random girls part, but definitely the locations.
    “Please, you saw him. That man is gorgeous, and I’d definitely not question him if he spun me around in the center of his office, or any other location for that matter, and hiked up my skirt.” She fanned her face as she fell back into the chair opposite my desk.
    I hadn’t had friends in so long I’d forgotten just how freely I used to discuss things in college, or even before that. Over the years with Jase, I had learned to keep my feelings to myself and just fantasize about