âWhat do you want from me?â
âI want you back.â
Heâd broken his âno office affairâ policy once and lost his best assistant. Now rich businessman Ayden Stewart needs Maya Richardson backâ¦at any price. Taking the job, Maya tells herself the years apart have cooled their chemistry. So why are they breaking rule number one again...and again? Ayden makes her want what she can never havereal love. Will it be different this time?
YAHRAH ST. JOHN is the author of twenty-nine books. When sheâs not at home crafting one of her spicy romances featuring compelling heroes and feisty hero-ines with a dash of family drama, she is gourmet cook-ing or traveling the globe seeking out her next adventure. St. John is a member of Romance Writers of America. Visit www.yahrahstjohn.com for more info.
ISBN: 978-1-474-09202-9
AT THE CEOâS PLEASURE
© 2018 Yahrah Yisrael
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
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www.millsandboon.co.uk
To my agent, Christine Witthohn,
for her hard work in helping me move to the Desire line.
One
Ayden Stewart stared out at the Austin city skyline from the fiftieth floor of Stewart Investments. It had taken him fifteen years since graduating from Harvard to build his company, but at thirty-six, heâd finally achieved his goal. And heâd done it all on his own. Without the help of his father, Henry Stewart, a rich man whoâd never bothered to acknowledge his eldest sonâs existence, not after his second wife had given him two heirs for his own company, Stewart Technologies. It was just as well. Heâd long ago stopped looking for love and acceptance from his old man.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
âCome in.â His office door opened and his assistant, Carolyn Foster, walked in. The statuesque blonde wore pregnancy well; barely a baby bump could be seen in the smart attire she wore.
âDo you have a minute?â
âOf course,â Ayden responded, moving away from the window. âWhat can I do for you?â
âI have some not so pleasant news to deliver,â Carolyn said.
âOh, yeah? Whatever it is, just give it to me straight, no chaser.â
âVery well...â She paused for several beats. âI wonât be coming back after my maternity leave in a few months.â
âExcuse me?â This couldnât be happening to him again.
âIâm sorry, Aydenâreally, I amâbut my husband and I have been trying for some time to start a family. And, well, I just want to enjoy the time with our first child because Iâm not sure when we might have another.â
Carolyn would make a fantastic mother because she was already putting her child first. It made Ayden think of the only person whoâd ever cared one iota about him, who was gone, taken away too soon. His mother Lillian Stewart-Johnson, God rest her soul, had passed away several years ago from a heart attack. He suspected his motherâs illness had been caused by years of stress and abuse at the hands of his stepfather Jack Johnson. Jack was a habitual smoker and a mean drunk.