Chapter 2 _

The next morning..

Ashley dropped off Keith at school and hurried to the office since she was running late. She almost forgot that her old boss was stepping down today for his son to take over. Being his personal assistant, she always had to be at the company before him to get things done before he got there.

According to the rumors she had heard of the CEO's son, it was said that he was a spoilt brat who squanders his parents money lavishly on women and drugs Abroad. The CEO was none other than Eric Black, the owner of one of the biggest company here in New York. The Black's were known to be wealthy and well respected people in the society.

She suddenly wondered why her boss would choose to make his scoundrel of a son the new CEO of the company if truly he was as bad as people say. The Black's were very private with their lives and it's no wonder almost all sites she has been to knows nothing about this son of theirs.

She quickened her pace spotting the elevator that was about to close. Some men were in there, although they saw her frantically running towards the elevator, they still chose to ignore and didn't bother to stop the doors from closing. She was a second late to stop the door.

"Damn you guys! How could you all be so heartless?" Ashley cussed at the closed door in a loud tone obviously directing her words to the men in the elevator. It would be totally pointless using the stairs to get up to the 20th floor, she might reach the floor next week tuesday. Suddenly the elevator's doors opened shocking Ashley.

Her cheeks flushed red in embarassment. She bowed her head walking in without daring to raise her head up. There was a total of five men in the elevator including Ashley making them six. She noticed one particularly stood at the front with both hands into his pants pocket while the other four stood behind him. There was a good chance that they all heard what she said a while ago.

"What floor?"

Ashley's heart skipped a beat after the deep male voice spoke next to her. She raised her head sharply only to lock eyes with the blue eyed dude standing two metres away from her. She swallowed hard at his intimidating beauty.

He stood at a massive height of 6'2 with an athletic build. His chiseled features and piercing blue eyes seemed to command attention, His dark hair was perfectly styled framing his face. He looked like one of those male lead characters usually described in romance books. 'Did he escape from an author's book?'

"Ma'am..?"

Ashley snapped out of her daze. She cleared her throat in embarrassment. 'How could I zone out like that?' She questioned herself mentally.

"Uhm..sorry..20th floor" She responded with her head facing down.

How could anyone be so goodlooking?

Along the ride, Ashley noticed that the men were oddly quiet and none of them had the intention to get off from the elevator either. A part of her started getting scared. Finally, the elevator doors opened and she almost flew out of it out of fright and didn't bother to look back for once.

Surprisingly, she has never seen those guys before. Maybe they were new employees? So she thought.

When she got to the CEO's office, she began gathering the files needed for today. A meeting that was scheduled to announce who the new CEO would be by 9:00 AM and it was almost 10:00 AM.

This had everything to do with Andrew who for some reasons wanted a full table of breakfast knowing fully well that she had to be somewhere that morning.

"The boss will be so mad at me".

Ashley left the office and proceeded to the conference room which wasn't so far away from her boss's office. She opened the door a bit to take a peep of how crowded it was in there. Most of her colleagues were inside already and there was no possible way she could sneak in without being noticed.

She finally mustered enough courage to walk into the room and as expected, all eyes fell on her as she scurried her way to the middle aged man sitting at the head of the table. Eric Black shook his head slowly at her and she mouthed a quick apology to him.

"I have no excuse to give you today boss" She whispered.

Luckily the old man wasn't in any bad mood today so he pardoned Ashley's lateness. After handing over the files to her boss, she stepped away from him and began moving towards the door when she felt an intense stare on her.

For a moment, she seemed frozen, her gaze locked on the gaze of the same man from the elevator. Her eyes sparkled with surprise and her brows arched slightly. 'Heavens! He is a business partner?!' She screamed inwardly.

She left the conference room and returned back to the CEO's office pacing around. She was rehearsing her apology just Incase the business partner tried to rat her out to her boss. She also needed to ensure that the new boss likes her enough to avoid replacing her.

Ashley had served Eric for two years and he had never complained about her work ethic in the past except her lateness to work sometimes.

Ten minutes had passed and Ashley was still rehearsing what to say to her boss when suddenly the door opened. She was quick to turn around "Sir! I can explain--

To Ashley's amazement, it wasn't her boss standing before her. It was him, the same man who she met in the elevator and also in the conference room. They both had a surprised look on their faces but Ashley's look was more obvious.

She hurriedly grabbed his hand "Mister, i'm very sorry for what I said. Please don't tell my boss" She bashed her long lashes at him hoping that he could forget what happened.

However, the man remained quiet. His eyes dropped from Ashley's face to his hand which she boldly clasped in hers. It didn't seem like she had the intention of letting him go any time soon and neither did he want her to let go either.

Ashley took his silence as 'no'. Was he that desperate to get her fired from her post?

The door opened again and this time, it was Eric Black. Noticing the arrival of her boss, she released the grip she had on the young man's hand. Ashley backed away and bowed to her boss and at the same time feeling anxious.

"I see you've met my assistant already, Cameron" Eric spoke moving closer to the two facing themselves. "Ashley, meet my son and the new CEO of the company"

Ashley's lips parted in shock. Her eyes grew large at Eric's words. This was even worse than being a business partner. He was her new boss! And according to the rumors about him, they all turned out to be wrong! He didn't look like any of those he was rumored about.

Cameron walked past her slightly bumping his body against her's to bring her out of her state of shock. His actions seemed to work immediately. He moved to the CEO's seat and touched the top of the black leather swivel chair.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr Cameron" She finally found the voice to speak after a few seconds of silence.

"Is it?" Cameron questioned back meaningfully with a sly smirk on his lips which made Ashley gulp down nervously. She couldn't afford to lose her job all because of one little slip of the tongue. In her defense, she really had no idea that he was her new boss.

Eric was a bit lost in the awkward conversation between the two. He assumed his son didn't like Ashley as his assistant.

"If you want another assistant, you're free to get someone else. I'll arrange another position for Ashley"

Ashley's heart pounded hard awaiting Cameron's response. So far being Eric's personal assistant has made her earn higher compared to other employees in the company. She was the one who sought most of the bills at home since Andrew lavishes his money on women.

"There's no need for that. This one seems so interesting" He raised his head the moment he noticed Ashley's gaze on him and their eyes met. "Right Ashley?"