• • •
Rylee Danville strolled down the long and spacious wing that led to the executive quarters of Connelly Enterprises. Even though she’d been with the company for ten years, she’d never been to this part of the building and probably wouldn’t be here now if Hank Manifold--who’d worked for the company three times longer than she had, and was her boss,hadn’t taken a month-long vacation.
As the assistant manager in the IT department, she was responsible for taking care of Hank’s ongoing projects, in his absence. And one of those was to train the CEO, Frazier Connelly, on the new software that had been installed overnight.
But she’d convinced herself that today would be a good day, regardless of what happened. And according to her calendar, she had less than eight months before she could finally kiss this job goodbye. Her daughter Ireland would be graduating from college in December, and Rylee intended to turn in her resignation in January.
At that point she’d pursue her real passion—that of being an audio book narrator--on a full-time basis. Over the past five years, she’d attracted quite a following and the audio company had made her an offer she had no intention of refusing. They wanted to add more audio books to her schedule and the only way she could do that was to work for them full-time. She had done the math. Although she made a good salary here, she could make twice the amount and then some, all while doing something she truly loved.
A smile touched her lips when she thought about how she’d landed her second gig. It was all thanks to a college roommate, Sheryl Wilson, who had become a New York Times bestselling author six years ago, with a slew of thrillers. When Sheryl had decided to do audio versions of her book, she had reached out to Rylee.
Back when she’d been in college, Rylee had made extra money doing voice-overs, but it hadn’t really amounted to much. Her passion at the time had been in the field of computer technology. When she became a single mom, raising her eight-year-old daughter after her divorce, she had takena job at Connelly Enterprises. The salary was good, but it wasn’t enough to cover Boris constantly missing his child support payments, so she decided to get a second job to make ends meet. Sheryl’s call had been a godsend.
After completing the audio versions of Sheryl’s books, other publishers began contacting her, which had prompted her to get an agent. Now she had more business than she knew what to do with.
Now that Ireland was graduating, there was no reason Rylee couldn’t pursue what she really wanted—a fresh start. She didn’t think that was all bad for a thirty-eight-year-old woman.
So far, the only people who knew about her side hustle were her and Sheryl and Ireland, of course. She hadn’t even told her parents or in-laws. And both Sheryl and Ireland had been sworn to secrecy--Rylee wanted to protect her privacy and keep people out of her business. She used the pseudonym of Electra--a name Ireland had come up with after reading a lot of Greek tragedy.
Ireland was smart as a whip and had been awarded her BA in less than three years, thanks to all the college courses she’d taken while still in high school. Now at twenty, her life was all set. She’d been offered a job at Netflix, in their PR department, upon graduation from the University of Michigan. Rylee was happy for her daughter, though she wasn’t thrilled about Ireland moving to California. But she wasn’t going to rain on Ireland’s parade. Her daughter was due for a fresh start, too.
And Rylee was really looking forward to hers. She liked working at Connelly Enterprises. The pay had always been good, her promotions and advancements more than fairand she genuinely liked the people she worked with. However, it was time for her to take a chance on something else.
She walked through the revolving glass doors and was taken aback by just how beautiful the executive lobby was. She didn’t have to appreciate art to be blown away by the bold paintings on the walls and the exquisite figurines sitting on several tables. If this was the reception area, she couldn’t wait to see what the CEO’s office looked like.
When she approached the huge desk, the older woman behind it offered a friendly smile. “Yes, may I help you?”
She returned the smile. “I’m Rylee Danville from IT. I’m here to go over the new system’s software with Mr. Connelly.”
The woman’s smile widened. “Hello, Rylee. I’m Mattie, Mr. Connelly’s administrative assistant. He’s expecting you. Go right on in.”
“Thank you.”
Rylee crossed the spacious lobby to Frazier Connelly’s office. Although Mattie had told her to go right on in, she gave a light knock as she entered. Closing the door behind her, she glanced around the spacious office that was twice the size of the reception area and even more plush. She took in the multiple conference rooms and the comfortable-looking sitting area that contained a well-stocked wet bar. The wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over downtown Charlottesville offered all guests a gorgeous view from fifteen stories up.
As she moved into the office, she saw the man sitting at the massive oak desk in a reclining position, with his legs stretched out in front of him. His head was tilted back and he stared up at the ceiling as he listened to an audio versionof a book. What immediately got her attention was that she recognized the recording.
It was one of hers.
In fact, it was her newest one that had come out last week. Was this Mr. Connelly’s first time listening to her narration of a book or was he one of her followers? According to the audio company she worked for, she had more than a million of them.
At that moment, she was very glad that the voice she used for narration was different from her regular one. She didn’t ever want to worry about someone finding out she was the popular audio-narrator Electra.
When he chuckled at an amusing part of the story, she couldn’t help but study his features. She was immediately wowed by how handsome Frazier Connelly was. She had seen him before, of course, but never up this close. Rylee figured him to be in his early forties. When she began working for the company, he’d only been in his early thirties. But the man had most certainly aged well.
She wasn’t sure what got his attention, but he suddenly jerked his head in her direction, and eased up in his chair, immediately reaching to turn off the audio app on his cell phone.
Before he could ask why she was in his office, she said, “Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Connelly. I’m Rylee Danville from the IT department. Mattie said you were expecting me.”
• • •
In most situations, possibly even ninety-nine percent of the time, Mattie would be right. However, in this particularone she was wrong. Dead wrong. There was no way Frazier had expected to see the beautiful woman standing a few feet from his desk. He blinked just to make sure the person he saw was real. She was.
Dark brown hair fell to her shoulders and highlighted a very attractive honey-brown colored face. She had high cheekbones, perfectly shaped eyebrows that slanted over a pair of hazel-tinted eyes and an attractive nose. And why was he focusing so much on her lips?
Knowing he was staring at her too long and too hard, he said, “Sorry. Yes, I was expecting you. I was just killing some time listening to an audio book. I happen to enjoy this particular narrator. Her name is Electra.”
She smiled. “I enjoy listening to Electra as well.”