Read Online Zenith Falling by Leanne Davis - Free Book Online

and read, Nick Lassiter, President .
    Oh. Shit. Nick was the boss. That’s why she had to navigate all the hurdles to get back here. Why she gleaned so many stares just for asking to see him. What the hell did Nick do? He said he worked on computers. Yeah, right, no one used armed escorts in an average computer company. None of this made any sense. Could her day get any stranger? She quietly, obligingly now, got up and started to walk down the hall, hoping that Mrs. Richmond never imparted to Nick that Joelle Williams even dropped by.
    She was nearly to the end of the strange, silent hallway when a voice from behind her called her name.

Chapter Six
     
    “Joelle?”
    Joelle stopped dead in her tracks. Nick’s voice. Nick had seen her. Damn it. She turned. Nick was down the hallway, exiting through one of the now opened cherry wood doors. A group of men, and two women spilled out behind him. Nick wore an expensive-looking, gray-colored suit, white shirt, and dark tie. Mrs. Richmond looked on, her eyes wide, as if she were stunned that Nick did indeed seem to know Joelle.
    Joelle turn ed and walked towards Nick, feeling as if her feet were suddenly encased in concrete. What else could she do? Turn and run down the hall as if she were afraid of him? But suddenly, stupidly, she almost did.
    He seemed different here. He was a grown-up, powerful-looking business tycoon, and not her friend’s older brother anymore, the person he was until this exact moment. Here he had authority, power and respect. He was totally at ease with the well-dressed people looking at them, and seemed to be surrounded by his personal empire, where people didn’t so much as speak to him without an appointment and screening from an armed guard.
    Except, clueless, stupid, misfit Joelle.
    “What are you doing here?”
    “I was having coffee with your sister actually, and –” Joelle’s voice wandered off. Her gaze was vacant as she stared at the walls. She could feel Nick watching her, as well as the people around them, judging what they saw, no doubt.
    Nick walked towards her, gently taking her arm and guiding her towards his office door.
    “Why don’t you come into my office?”
    “No, you look pretty busy. I shouldn’t have dropped by. I didn’t know.”
    “It’s fine. Come in.”
    “Mr. Lassiter, you have a client meeting in ten minutes,” Mrs. Richmond reminded him, while staring at Joelle, with surprise in her eyes, but her face purposely blank.
    “Push it back,” Nick answered. With that, he opened his door, held it for Joelle and shut it on his astonished secretary’s face.
    Nick’s office was magnificent with floor-to-ceiling windows that took up one entire wall, offering a view that overlooked the city, and even included a glimpse of the water. She could see people scurrying around, and in traffic, which looked like dotted confetti from that distance as well as ships in the harbor. The sky filled up the windows with a soft, warm blue. The space was unreasonably large, with one desk on the right, occupying nearly the entire width of his office, and behind it, another desk holding a massive computer with three different flat screens surrounding it. The other end of the office had a couch, chair and coffee table, arranged to promote relaxation and exploit the panoramic view. This office, however, did not suggest relaxing, it seemed to ooze power, money, and status.
    Her black boots sank into the pristine, immaculate, beige carpet; carpet that deserved to have only pointy high heels, not black combat boots stomping over it. Nick Lassiter was huge, influential, and important. It took her until that very moment for her thick-skulled brain to get that. Nick seemed to be the guru of some kind of an empire here.
    “Sit down. Care for anything to drink? Coffee?”
    “Water.” Maybe water would lubricate her vocal chords so she could get some kind of sound past them.
    Nick walked over to his private bar and took out a sparkling crystal