Chapter 2 HAUNTING EYES: CASSIDY

My breath hitched as I looked up to see the face of the man that I had just hit. The man was tall and commanding, and handsome in a way that I could not quite explain in words and from the way that everybody was looking at me like I had committed a major sin by being in the elevator with him.

A tall woman with long, blonde hair rushed over to the elevator with a cross look on her face, looking as though she wanted to pull my hairs out.

"You are not supposed to be-" She started to say, but he raise his hand up to cut her off.

"Allow her." He said and pressed the button to close the door. I saw the shock on the woman's face before the door finally closed shut. The man looked at me like he was trying to figure me out, his dark eyes roamed my body and I wanted the ground to swallow me whole. Standing next to him, I felt utterly insignificant and I wanted nothing more than for the ride to be over so I could step out of the elevator.

I swallowed hard as I tried to keep my composure, but I was too nervous. The man had barely said a word to me, and yet there was something about him that made me feel tensed. I could barely understand it, but it was hard to ignore.

I kept my hand clasped tightly in front of me to keep from fidgetting too much. I wanted to say something, but I was not exactly sure what I was supposed to say. I was not looking at him, but his silence was suffocating me. When I dared to look at him, I found him watching me. I could not read his expression-he didn't look angry or intrigued, his expression was indifferent. His cold, blue eyes swept over me in a way that made me feel more out of place than when the shallow receptionist had looked at me.

The ride felt like it lasted a lifetime. Finally, the elevator slowed to a stop on the ground floor and I found myself letting out a sigh of relief that it was over.

The doors finally opened and he stepped out before me, moving with a confident, predatory grace. He didn't acknowledge me, didn't give me any kind of indication that our brief encounter even mattered to him. Without a word, he just walked out, leaving me stunned for a few seconds before following him out.

When I walked out into the reception again, everybody was looking at me like I had lost my mind, just as the people on the top floor had done, making me wonder if there was something that I had done wrong. The receptionist who had been rude to me was now staring at me with a stunned expression on her face. She quickly recovered when the man walked by her.

"Good day, Mr. Lancaster." She muttered and he nodded in response.

I stopped walking as the realization and the gravity of the situation dawned on me. That was not just any man, that was Hayden Lancaster-CEO of Lancaster Inc., and my new boss. All of a sudden it made sense to me why everybody was staring at me. I quickly shook it off and continued to walk towards the exit, ignoring all the stares that I was getting.

Hayden was already way ahead of me and I was glad about it. I did not have time to think too much about the encounter with a man who would have probably even forgotten about my existence before the day was over. The only thing that mattered to me was that I had gotten the job at Lancaster. I decided to push all thought of him out of my mind. I needed to be home to get ready for my last day at the bar.

***

HAYDEN

I watched from my car as the girl walked out of the building with her head bent. There was something about her that caught my attention, something very different about her that pulled me to her. She was very different from what I was used to, the way she carried herself, not even the worn clothes she was wearing had dimmed her beauty. She had an air of humility about her.

Her eyes had been filled with uncertainty and I noticed that she had been trying her best the entire ride to keep herself composed. Women usually threw themselves at me, they were usually very predictable, but I looked at her and I could not tell what she thought about me. Maybe she was scared of me, maybe she was intrigued by me-I could not tell, and for some reason that grated on my nerves. I wanted to know everything that was going on in her mind.

I watched as she took a turn to the left and began to walk down the street. I started my car and followed her slowly, she was in her own little world, she still had not noticed that she was being followed. I did not even care that I was keeping a potential client waiting, all I cared about was knowing where she was going. The streets of London were a bit crowded, as it was a Monday and everybody was busy. I followed her to the dangerous part of town to a shabby looking apartment. I did not even have to wonder if the apartment belonged to her because she brought out her keys and put it in the locks. She jiggled it for sometime before she was finally able to get it open and she let herself in.

When I could not see her anymore, I leaned back in my chair, taking it all in. For some reason, I was angry about her living conditions when that had nothing to do with me. Why should I care about where she lived? As I finally drove away to my destination, I wondered what was it about a woman that I have just seen for the first time that has me so bent out of shape?