His Absolute Assignment - Elise's Love Story: The Billionaire's Continuum (#1) (A Contemporary Romance Novel) Read Online Free PDF Page A

going?  Some of us don't have the luxury of being able to waste time by bumping into people."
    "I'm... I'm sorry," I stuttered, stumbling on my words.  "I'm sorry, Ms. Hamilton.  I didn't mean to.  It was an accident."
    Alice Hamilton, Director of Information and Technology.  She was in charge of managing the data network within Landseer Enterprises.  Not just the computers, information, and security network in Landseer Tower, but all of those things within every system in every Landseer establishment.  Hotels, hotspots, casinos.  She'd reluctantly set up Jessika with a UNIX upload system for direct access to various online retailer's paperback, hardcover, and e-book servers, but in the end we'd decided to use different methods.
    I wasn't sure, but I thought that bothered Alice.  She didn't seem like the sort of person to appreciate someone disregarding her work or her methods.  Granted, she hadn't actually been the one to set up the entire thing; she'd just managed it and made sure it happened.  But... she still seemed angry about it for whatever reason.
    And now she was angrier still.
    "Fool," she said.  "You've wasted too much of my time.  I don't know why I expected an actual apology from the likes of you.  I don't know why he puts up with you.  The incompetence in this building is mind boggling."
    She meant Lucent.  I knew what they said about me, and usually I didn't care, but something about her tone right now really frustrated me.  Yes, so, Lucent and I were involved.  We had a relationship with one another.  Maybe it wasn't the most normal of situations, but who was she to shove her nose into it?  Who was anyone?  It was Lucent and I who could decide what we were doing.  We were adults, plain and simple, and...
    Alice Hamilton stomped off, ignoring me.  Oh well.  I didn't actually care enough to explain anything to her.  I didn't want to associate with someone like her.  She was one of the higher ups in Landseer Enterprises, somewhat on par with Lucent, but that didn't mean I needed to like her.  It didn't mean I needed to do anything with her.
    Forcing myself not to stumble and tremble because of my rage, I put one foot in front of the other, placing all my thoughts into moving instead of seething with anger, and I walked down the hall and back towards my office.
    I didn't want to be an angry person.  I thought I was usually a happy person.  I didn't know why some people needed to be so mean, though.  They could just be nice, right?  Or, at least disinterested.  I didn't do anything to her.  I bumped into her, yes, but that wasn't a reason to be rude about Lucent and I.
    I tried not to be angry, but it didn't work.  I needed to get a drink, a soda.  I wanted to drink the entire bottle in one gulp and feel the bubbles pounding down my throat and into my chest, washing away the nervous frustration digging into the pit of my stomach.  I wanted to go see Lucent and to tell him, but I couldn't do that.  I couldn't just run to him whenever I had a problem.  I couldn't just...
    I made my way towards one of the quieter break room areas so I could get a soda from the vending machine and sit down for a moment.
    ...
    After I calmed down and returned to my office, I immediately sat and continued writing my story.  The incident with Alice Hamilton had bothered me so much that I felt some searing desire to write more.  Not just more, but better; everything.
    She thought she was important?  Yes, well, maybe she was, but that didn't mean I wasn't important.  Maybe lots of people thought of me as "that girl that Lucent is doing dirty things with," but I was quite a bit more than that.  First off, we weren't just doing dirty things, we were falling in love, over and over again, every day.  Yes, perhaps there were dirty things involved, like him ordering me to give him a blowjob in his office as punishment for me intruding, but I thought that was fine.  We were monogamous.  We could do what