Chapter 4 Exposed
Asher
My chest tightened. The parallels hit me like a physical blow. He doesn't touch me. He pulls away like I'm made of ice. It was exactly what Chloe had screamed at me in the driveway just hours ago. I was looking at a mirror of my own future marriage if I forced myself to stay with Chloe to appease my father. A hollow, frozen lie that would slowly destroy a good woman.
"I... I have never seen Mr. Sterling with another woman, Mrs. Sterling," I said, my voice thick. It wasn't a lie. Harrison was a ghost outside of work hours. "He is entirely consumed by this company. I swear."
Clara searched my face for what felt like an eternity. Finally, the tension left her shoulders, replaced by a hollow, defeated sigh. She pulled her cream coat tighter around herself.
"Right. Of course," she whispered, turning back toward the hallway. "Just a machine. Thank you, Asher. Don't let him work you to death."
"Goodnight, Mrs. Sterling," I murmured.
The heels clicked away, and the glass doors slid shut, leaving me alone with the ghost of her words. I sank back into my chair, my mind spinning. I was caught in the dead center of a crossfire. My father wanted me to marry Chloe to secure the Vance Logistics legacy, Chloe was threatening to expose my emotional deadness to my parents by the end of the week, and now my boss's wife was treating me like a confidant in her failing marriage. The walls were closing in from every single direction.
By 3:45 AM, the corporate crisis hit the fan.
A data sync error wiped out three of the compliance folders I had just formatted. Panic exploded in my stomach. I spent the next two hours in a hyper-focused, adrenaline-fueled frenzy, typing so hard my fingers ached, sweating through my clothes as the clock ticked closer to the 5:00 AM deadline. My shirt was damp with sweat, my hair a messy ruin, and the stress was making my skin crawl.
At 4:40 AM, I finally hit Upload. The progress bar filled to one hundred percent. Submission Successful.
I let out a ragged breath, slumping back in my chair. I felt filthy. My skin was slick with cold sweat, and in my exhaustion, I reached for my cold mug of coffee, bumped it with my elbow, and watched in slow motion as the dark liquid splashed entirely across the front of my light gray button-up shirt.
"Damn it!" I hissed, jumping up. The stain was massive, soaking through the fabric to my chest.
I couldn't present the files to Harrison looking like a total slob. Then I remembered the executive suite's private bathroom, the one equipped with a luxury rain shower for Harrison's late nights.
I grabbed a clean, spare white towel from the executive linen closet, rushed into the marble bathroom, and locked the door. I ripped off my ruined, sweaty clothes and threw them into the sink. The hot water felt like a savior as it rained down on me, washing away the sweat, the exhaustion, and for a brief moment, the suffocating anxiety of my life.
Ten minutes later, I stepped out of the glass shower stall. I wrapped the large white towel tightly around my waist, tucking the edge into my hip, and used a smaller hand towel to vigorously dry my wet hair.
The bathroom door was slightly ajar, venting the steam. Still rubbing the towel over my head, blinding my vision, I stepped out into the private dressing area of the executive suite to grab my spare undershirt from my bag.
I pulled the hand towel away from my face.
I froze.
Harrison Sterling was standing five feet away from me.
He had his heavy black overcoat thrown over his arm, his tailored suit immaculate, his silver tie perfectly straight. He had clearly just arrived. But he wasn't looking at his desk. He wasn't looking at his phone.
He was looking entirely at me.
His intense, dark eyes were locked onto my bare chest, tracking the water droplets as they slid down my skin, tracing the line of my collarbone, down past my stomach, to where the white towel hung low on my hips. The stoic, unreadable expression he always wore was completely gone. His jaw was tightly set, his breath coming a fraction faster than usual.
Panic flared in my chest. I took a sudden step backward, my foot catching on the slick marble threshold of the bathroom.
My hand shot out to grab the doorframe to steady myself. The sudden, jerky movement jolted my hips.
The tucked edge of the towel gave way.
Before I could react, the heavy white fabric slipped from my waist, pooling completely at my feet on the hardwood floor.
I stood there, completely naked, bathed in the sharp morning light filtering through the office windows. My heart stopped. A hot, electric shock of pure adrenaline and vulnerability spiked through my veins. I scrambled down, grabbing the towel, and desperately whipped it back around my waist, pinning it tightly against my skin with both hands.
"Mr. Sterling! I'm… I'm so sorry," I stammered, my face burning with a sudden, suffocating heat. "I spilled coffee... I needed to clean up before the deadline..."
Harrison didn't move. He didn't look away. He didn't blink.
His eyes traveled slowly from my face, back down my torso, and stopped entirely at the front of his own tailored suit trousers.
I followed his gaze, my breath catching in my throat.
There, beneath the perfectly pressed fabric of his designer slacks, was a stark, undeniable, and rigid physical reaction. The otherwise cold, ruthless, and untouchable Harrison Sterling was glaringly, heavily hard.
He cleared his throat, a low, gravelly sound, and finally forced his gaze away toward the window.
"The files," Harrison said, his voice deeper and rougher than I had ever heard it. "Are they ready?"
"Yes," I whispered, my voice barely audible over the roaring of blood in my ears. "Yes, sir. They're on your desk."
"Good," Harrison said flatly, still refusing to look back at me as he walked toward his inner office. "Change your clothes, Asher. We have a long day ahead of us."
He shut the heavy office door behind him, leaving me standing in the middle of the room, my hands trembling against the towel, the realization hitting me like a tidal wave: my powerful, untouchable boss was hiding the exact same secret I was.
