Aftershock

  AFTERSHOCK

  A Fated Encounters Novella

  By: Laurie Roma

  Aftershock

  Nothing is going right for Caitlyn Watson. With a boss that harasses her, a broken shoe and a parking incident she would rather not think about, all she wants is to survive the day to celebrate her upcoming birthday. When disaster strikes, she finds herself stuck in an elevator with the man of her dreams. Too bad she has nothing but bad luck when it comes to him…

  Grayson Taggart Steele is a man who has everything, except for the woman who haunts his dreams. When an earthquake gives him the opportunity he’s been hoping for, he is finally able to claim her as his. Will Caitlyn give into the passion between them, or will the aftershock of their encounter leave them with no chance for a future?

  An Erotic Romance Novella.

  Aftershock by Laurie Roma

  Copyright © 2013 Laurie Roma

  First E-book Publication: August 2013

  Cover design by Sloan Winters

  Editing by S.L. Whitcomb

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental. It is fiction so facts and events may not be accurate except to the current world the book takes place in.

  DEDICATION

  To my fellow authors and good friends Susan, Joyee, Gabrielle and Hennessee…

  Thank you for helping me explore my options.

  ***

  Chapter One

  She was being punished, she was sure of it.

  Caitlyn Watson heaved out a deep sigh as she silently prayed that this day would be over soon. It had started out as a stellar morning when Caitlyn had gotten caught in San Francisco traffic, and the asshole in front of her hadn’t been paying attention when they had gotten the signal to turn left. After several seconds of laying on her horn, the jerk had finally moved, but she had still gotten caught at a light after he had turned just as the light turned red.

  Then the trolley had come and the she was stuck for another round as she missed the turn signal again, this time getting honked by the car behind her. Like it was really her fault that she didn’t go through the light and hit a trolley full of people. Maybe she could have, but in reality she didn’t want to go to jail for manslaughter just because she was late to work.

  She had pulled into the parking lot of Manchester Klein to find that the only spot available within a mile of the entrance was between two huge trucks that looked like they could have shit her mini coop out, and still had room for more. Once she had crawled out the driver’s side of her car, she realized that she had slammed the door on her suit jacket…after she pulled away and heard the sound of the material ripping.

  With no other option available to her, she had walked toward the building, painfully aware that the seam in the back of her suit jacket was now torn when the right heel of her favorite pair of shoes had gotten caught in a crack on the sidewalk and had broken off with a snap. At least it was Friday and she didn’t have any client meetings scheduled today.

  Inside the safety of the building, she had entered the elevator holding her poor, broken shoe in her hand. Caitlyn told herself to wait until later to lament her comfortable, basic black pumps as she limped off the elevator and made her way to her desk. Slinking over to her desk by the front window, she dropped her briefcase down next to her broken shoe and opened her lower desk drawer. Looking down, she eyed the pair of bright red shoes there with resignation and, if she were honest with herself, a little bit of fear.

  What the hell had she been thinking when she had bought them?

  Banished to the bottom drawer of her desk after the one and only time Caitlyn had worn them, she had sworn to herself that she would never, ever force her poor feet back into those pretty torture devices again. But then what choice did she have? Caitlyn knew those shoes would end up killing her feet, but she reached down anyway and took them out. Setting them down next to the broken pair, it was almost comical to see the bright red stilettos next to her sturdy, reliable, black pumps.

  Well, she thought, either way I’m going to be limping.

  Wincing slightly, she put the red shoes on and sighed.

  In a gray suit with a pale yellow shell underneath, her outfit just looked weird with the flashy red shoes. So, now everyone would think she was either color blind or a prime example of what not to wear. Sighing again, Caitlyn swung her feet under her desk as if to force herself to forget the hot mess currently gracing her feet.

  She typed in the password to her computer and waited for it to power up. Caitlyn had been working at Manchester Klein, an advertising and marketing firm in San Francisco, for almost a year now. The company was small, but when she had gotten the job she had been hopeful that it would be something she could excel at…and she did. She was one of their rising stars, or she had been until she started working for Satan himself.

  Carl Lowenbaum had taken over as the head of their department after her old boss went on maternity leave six months ago. Originally, Caitlyn had been hired on as an associate with the firm and had done excellent work for the clients she had worked with, but all of that changed when her new boss had started coming on to her.

  Caitlyn knew her curvy figure, pixie style black hair and aquamarine eyes were a stunning combination and often drew male attention, whether wanted or not. Yeah, Caitlyn wasn’t the beautiful, thin model type, but she was fine being short at five foot two and a little more plump than was the norm. She liked food and didn’t apologize for that. Caitlyn was also shy, almost painfully so, but forced herself to take the compliments thrown her way. However, in this particular circle of hell her boss had taken her shyness as a challenge for his advances.

  Carl was a big man, tall and fit, with a matching personality. At first he had been friendly with her and seemed to take an interest in her as a rising star in the firm, only that had changed when he started brushing up against her and lingering while he looked over what she was working on. The man didn’t seem to know what personal space was, or he just didn’t care.

  Either way it was creepy and inappropriate.

  Caitlyn had made the mistake of talking about it to a few of her colleagues. She hadn’t known at the time that Monica, who she had thought was her friend, actually had a crush on Carl, and had reported everything Caitlyn had said back to him.

  After that Carl had all but froze her out, which wouldn’t have been a problem, but he had been using it as a means to keep her from getting any new clients. Caitlyn still did excellent work, but had discovered that while Carl went golfing and had three hour lunches with clients, he had also started taking credit for all her hard work.

  Carl had also implemented a team style approach when working on client accounts, and it never failed that Caitlyn got stuck with the majority of the work with the least amount of credit as a lowly associate. That was when she learned that she really didn’t have any friends at work…except for Jesse Hanson. Jesse was an eccentric man with an eye for details, who had become her best friend since she started working at Manchester Klein. All of the other people at work seemed fine taking and sharing the credit for Caitlyn’s ideas, but as a manager, Jesse fought for her and made sure to give her credit on any project they worked on together.

  That was probably why Carl hadn’t let them work together on the last five projects.

  No matter what Jesse tried to do to help, it didn’t stop the rest of their colleagues from treating Caitlyn like shit and he could only do so much to protect her around their boss. Carl made it clear that her career
would go better for her if she learned to be a little more friendly to him. When he had mentioned it in passing to her, he had done it so casually she thought she had been hearing things. She had hoped he would forget about her, but as time went on the harassment just seemed to get worse.

  Caitlyn hadn’t led an easy life, but it hadn’t been something she could complain about too much either. Simply put, her parents just didn’t care about her. Yeah, some people would say that as a generalization, but when Caitlyn had turned eighteen her parents had actually told her they were no longer responsible for her and that raising her had taken enough of their time. Not that they had done much to take care of her when she was growing up anyways.

  Both of her parents were gifted doctors and thought it would be appropriate to pass on their genius by having a child. When they discovered Caitlyn was a normal, average child, they had lost interest in her and basically left her in the care of a revolving door of nannies and housekeepers.

  Caitlyn had been alone for so long it was difficult to learn how to depend on people. She had done her best to hide her hurt and anger from her friends, but had learned at a very young age to be self-reliant. Moving from Chicago to San Francisco after she graduated from college had been her big break away from her old life. It was a chance for a fresh start, only things hadn’t exactly turned out the way she had been hoping for.

  Still, meeting Jesse had been worth it. Caitlyn spent a lot of time with Jesse and his boyfriend George Solomon. Where Jesse was a fantastic and truly talented artist, George was as straight edged accountant. To the outside world they were a strange couple, but Caitlyn loved how they balanced each other out. Jesse was a force to be reckoned with and was the reason Caitlyn’s feet were already starting to throb in pain from the wicked pair of red stilettos.

  Damn him for talking her into buying them.

  But then again, Jesse was good at talking Caitlyn into doing all sorts of things she wouldn’t normally do. Always the life of the party, Jesse made it impossible for Caitlyn to fade into the background like she would prefer. Over the last few months, Jesse had been begging Caitlyn to quit. He wanted her to find somewhere she was appreciated, and where she wouldn’t be bombarded by the lecherous Neanderthal Carl, but Caitlyn was determined to stick it out.

  Manchester was a stepping stone that Caitlyn needed to achieve her secret dream of writing full-time as a children’s author. She just had to survive working there long enough to gain some experience, and pay off her student loans and the bills while she worked on getting published.

  It still gave her a sense of pride to know that she excelled at what she did. The last five clients had gone with her marketing ideas over all of the others on her team, not that she was ever recognized for her efforts. In fact, every victory just seemed to make her co-workers hate her even more. It served them right thought, Caitlyn thought with satisfaction as she read over an email from a former client asking her for her help on a new project.

  The rest of her morning was pretty low key, with no major incidents that made her want to slam her head into her desk. She had gone through a slew of emails, working on a new proposal for a client that she undoubtedly wouldn’t get credit for.

  Taking a break, she spent a little time covertly texting with Jesse since he was stuck in at the airport waiting for his flight back from Seattle where he just sealed the deal for another project with a repeat client. The office was a dismal place without him around, but he would be back late this evening and they would be going out to celebrate her birthday tomorrow, so she couldn’t complain…much.

  Caitlyn was briefly distracted from working by rambunctious laughter as Carl left his office with one of the project managers, Ryan. They were leaving for the rest of the day for a big meeting with a new VIP client at their headquarters across the street. Carl basically thought they had the potential account in the bag. If that were true, it would be the biggest account Manchester Klein had to date. Caitlyn had done most of the ground work for the proposal before she had been pushed aside. She didn’t care though. With Ryan in charge of the project, she didn’t want anything to do with it anymore. The kiss-ass Ryan was also Carl’s drinking buddy and an all-round asshole.

  No wonder they got along so well.

  “Wish us luck, doll,” Carl said with a wink as he walked past her desk. God, she would do anything to wipe that lecherous expression off the prick’s face.

  “Good luck,” she said instead of what she really wanted to say. After they left, she happily went back to work, feeling lighter now that she would have the rest of the day without her creepy boss looking over her shoulder.

  It wasn’t ten minutes later that her phone rang. She silently swore when she saw Carl’s cell phone number on the readout. She picked up the handset and braced herself.

  “Caitlyn Watson.”

  “I know who the hell I’m calling,” Carl hissed out. “I need you at the Steele Technologies meeting now.”

  Caitlyn blinked. Wait…what? “Umm, Mr. Lowenbaum, I thought you said I wasn’t working on the Steele Tech proposal anymore.”

  And why the hell was Carl whispering?

  “Consider yourself back on it,” Carl snarled. “Grab your stuff and get your ass over to the Steele Technologies building. Top floor. Ass. Here. Now!” He hung up before she could say anything else and left her staring at her phone in horror.

  Oh, no. This could not be happening…

  ***

  Chapter Two

  Oh dear god…

  Caitlyn’s hands began to sweat as she pushed through the revolving doors of the entrance to the brand new headquarters of Steele Technologies. After hanging up the phone, she threw her stuff into her briefcase and made a mad dash downstairs, almost killing herself in the process as she teetered on those stupid red stiletto heels.

  The Steel Tech building was impressive on the outside, made of steel and tempered glass, but it was even more so once she entered the main lobby. Intimidating was the first word that came to mind. As soon as she walked in, she could feel the power and money that the company represented. The building itself seemed more suited to downtown LA rather than San Francisco and had only been completed a few months ago, so it still had that new feel to it. With its streamlined contemporary furnishings and sleek interior, it made her feel even more apprehensive being there.

  Rumor had it that Grayson T. Steele, the CEO of Steele Technologies, was ready to launch a new cell phone prototype and they were shopping for a firm to market it for them. Manchester Klein was hoping to acquire the account, even though it seemed odd that Steele Tech would be looking outside their own company to do so. Still, it would be a huge win for her firm and Caitlyn knew the details to the account since she had basically drafted the proposal herself. But that wasn’t the real reason she was so damn nervous.

  No, her anxiety came from an entirely different reason...

  Somewhere in this building was her dream man, or as she personally liked to call him, Mr. Tall, Dark and Delicious. It never failed that every time she saw him her brains seemed to leak out of her head and left her a raging idiot. She had no clue who he was, but there had been several incidents where she had made a perfect ass of herself in front of him and had ruined any hope of that ever happening.

  She had first seen TD&D a few months ago while she had been walking back from the coffee shop down the street with Jesse. It had been a simple glance across the street as two men had gotten out of a town car in front of the new Steele Tech building.

  That was when she saw him.

  Both men had been wearing what looked like expensive, well-tailored suits, but she had eyes for only one of the men. He was dressed in a black suit, with a pristine white dress shirt and a bold red tie. With his black hair, golden skin and dark eyes, he looked as if he were some dark, mythical god come to life. His face was intense, with strong chiseled features. Even from a distance she could feel the weight of his penetrating gaze as their eyes met.

  “Holy sex on a st
ick,” Jesse had murmured, and Caitlyn had to agree.

  It had been as if her brain malfunctioned at the sight of the dark god and she had completely forgotten how to walk. She had tripped on her own feet and ended up spilling coffee all over herself. Mortified, she had glanced up to see that both men had seen her folly and she had quickly ducked her head in shame at their amused smiles. Jesse had tried to console her, but it was no use. She’d hurried back into the Manchester Klein building and had all but buried her red face in work for the rest of the day in a desperate attempt to forget what had happened.

  The next incident had been just as bad. Caitlyn had walked to work one morning, only the San Francisco hills had made that a very short phase of her impromptu workout plan. That particular morning had been hotter than expected and Caitlyn had been sweating by the time she had gotten to the office. She had been walking with her head down when she had run into a muscular, broad chest, literally bouncing off and falling on her ass.

  She had glanced up and saw her dream man looking down at her with unfathomable dark eyes that seemed to peer straight into her very soul. He had asked if she was alright and had helped her up, his deep voice sending shivers of desire down her spine. She had managed some sort of stuttering reply then had fled as fast as her feet would take her, not hearing what he said as she bolted for safety.

  There had been a few other brief encounters, but the latest debacle had occurred only last week. There had been a downpour of epic proportions outside when her boss had demanded she run to the post office down the street right before closing in order to get some essential client documents sent out. Usually this wouldn’t have been something she had to do, but most of the office had been out at other clients meetings so it had been left to her. Resigned to her fate, she had carefully wrapped the envelope in two plastic bags before making her way outside.