A/N: Thanks everyone for the kind reviews. Please keep it up. So without further ado, here's the next chapter.

Ch. 3

Walking into the hotel suite, Haley was in awe. The living room was larger than her apartment. Rushing to look at her room, she noticed two. "Why would there be two bedrooms?" she asked herself out loud.

"Because one is for you and the other one is for me," Lucas answered for her, waiting to see what she would say next.

"Oh," replied Haley, disappointment evident in her voice. She didn't like the idea of being in such close proximity for the entire trip. Spending what she thought would be about an eight hour day was bad enough. She didn't know if she would be able to keep her feelings under control; feelings she was sure she no longer had for him or at least that's what she kept telling herself.

"Oh?" repeated Lucas, not liking her response. Why was he constantly unnerved by her responses? He never let people's thoughts and opinions affect him before, with the exceptions of his biological father and his half brother of course.

Once again embarrassed by her ability to put her foot in her mouth, she responded with, "I meant I thought we're going to have separate rooms." 'Why do I have to be so blunt with people?' Haley reprimanded herself.

"We do."

"I meant in separate suites," she explained, pushing back a strand of hair that fell to her face.

"Gotcha. Well I always share the suite with all my personal assistants. It makes things a lot easier instead of having them come to me from another suite all the time or vise versa."

"I guess that makes sense," she reasoned.

"If you feel uncomfortable, let me know and I'll arrange the necessary changes," Lucas stepped closer to her.

"No. That's fine." He wasn't even that close to her and yet she felt the heat rising in her body. Stepping back, pretending to continue her investigation of the rooms, she moved away from him.

"Fine as in you'll stay because you don't mind or fine as in you'll tolerate the situation and stay?" Lucas followed her, to the disbelief and discomfort of his company.

"The latter," joked Haley as she stopped walking and turned towards him, but she stated it in a serious tone with an expressionless face, causing Lucas to respond with, "You don't have to just because you think I'll be upset about it because I won't." But for some reason, he felt a twinge of something. Disappointment? Insulted? He didn't know and decided against analyzing his feelings any further.

"How do you know what I would be thinking?" smiled Haley, causing Lucas to take in the fact that she pulled a fast one on him.

"I can't believe you just tricked me. No one's ever been able to do that." Lucas was relieved that she was showing more of her true personality.

"Well I guess I've won that match."

"I guess so for now, but you better watch out because I'll get you back. You're just lucky that I'm such a cool and forgiving boss, otherwise I would have fired you on the spot."

"You wouldn't dare. Remember what you said? You wouldn't fire me because you wouldn't have someone to laugh at if you did." He admired the spunk she had. So she wasn't as timid as she seemed. She had fire in her and he liked that.

"I would respond to that but we really need to get to work."

"Fine." 'Use that lame excuse.'

"I heard that," Lucas was able to read her mind.

"I...I didn't say anything."

"Doesn't mean I don't know you were thinking." He smiled, surprised that he nailed her thought right on the money. He was able to tell by the shock in her eyes. "And it was not a stupid excuse."

Haley's pulse skipped a beat. If he was able to read her when she said that, then what else was he able to read?

"So what's my first task," trying to change the subject, she looked him in the eye, trying to show him that he didn't alarm her as much as he truly did.

Shaking his head as she quickly changed the topic, he pointed towards his briefcase on the floor in the living room, "Well, I need to look through these manuscripts to give the final say in what will be published."

"And what do you want me to do while you're doing that?"

"Getting us some coffee would be great. I like mine black. You can order it from room service and charge it to my account."

"Anything else?"

"And give me my schedule for the next three days. After that, I'll tell you the rest."

"Consider it done."

-----

Sitting down enjoying the mocha frappacino she was drinking after she was done reading Lucas' schedule to him, she glanced out the window at the amazing, but polluted view of downtown Los Angeles. 'Who would have thought that I would be sitting here working for Lucas Scott?' Haley James wanted to become an editor at the most successful publishing company. Unfortunately there were no openings, so on the recommendations of her parents, she took the job as an assistant to one of the head publishers in the company; the one and only Lucas Scott, although she didn't know he was even a publisher at the time. She hoped that in time, she would gain the confidence and respect from her superior and with a bit of luck in the future, a position as an editor. That was her wish anyways and when Haley sets her mind to something, she sees it through. No if and/or buts. Failure was never an option for her. And her current predicament made it more challenging for her to accomplish her goal than she first assumed.

Life sure had a funny way of working out and this only proved it.

Drinking the remainder of her coffee, she placed the empty mug on the tray, sighing from content. Then she got up and knocked on the door.

"Come in," she heard a voice reply. Slowly opening the door, she asked, "Is there anything else you want me to do?"

"Not right now," frustrated with the manuscript in front of him, he dropped it onto the dresser. "Umm...Is everything alright?" concerned, she leaned against the door frame, crossing her arms, not wanting to pressure him to talk about it.

"Oh nothing. It's just that there's something off about this chapter and I don't know how to fix it."

"Hmm...If you want, I can take a look at it."

"Thanks for the offer, but I think I just need to take a break from work." Taking his black jacket off, he threw it on the bed, to Haley's dismay. Reaching for his tie, he loosened it and tossed it next to his jacket. Lost in thought on what to do with the story, he continued undressing. He began unbuttoning his long sleeve collared dress shirt when he heard the door close behind him. Rotating towards the door, he laughed at how he was so careless as to remove his clothes in front of her. He threw a hand at his forehead as to what she thought of him at the present moment. Opening the door, he walked out of his room and into the living room where she was sitting down reading a book. Cautiously walking towards her, he softly cleared his throat. "Aaa hum."

Haley pretended to be engrossed by the book. "AAA HUM," he tried once again, this time louder. Gazing up at him, she apologized, "Sorry, I didn't hear you until now." Allowing her gaze to fall away from him and to the opened shirt, which revealed a lean, toned chest. Swallowing a lump in her throat, she was entranced by his build, not realizing she was blatantly staring. The examination ended when the owner of the body spoke, "I'm the one who should be apologizing. I didn't mean to undress in front of you. So do you forgive me?"

He couldn't help but think how adorable she looked when she was catching her breath. She looked away and simply answered, "Of course," as the apple of her cheeks turned to a soft shade of crimson.

A knowing smile spread across his face as she became flustered with her behavior. "Thanks." He walked back into his room to change. Exiting the room wearing a white beater and blue shorts, he stated, "I'm heading to gym. You can stay here or do whatever you want while I'm gone. I'll be back in about two hours."

Seeing more of his gorgeous chiseled body revealed in his workout clothes, she felt herself grow weak. She turned her attention towards checking her watch to confirm the time, nodding her head as she did so. "Sounds good. I'll see you around five." Watching him through the corner of her eyes exiting the suite, she sighed in relief when she heard the door click closed. "Haley, control yourself. He's just like any other man. I mean, he's cute but tons of guys are. Okay okay, who are you kidding, he's H-O-T hot."

Hearing the door open, she turned to see Lucas entering, "What's hot?"

"I was just saying that it's so hot in here." Pretending to fan herself with her hand, she asked, "Did you forget something?"

Shrugging his shoulders, he meekly answered, "Just my phone. Feel free to turn on the air conditioner." He grabbed his mobile from the coffee table and approached the door.

"Thanks. Bye."

"Bye."

When the door slam shut once again, she slumped down on the couch in disbelief how she was almost caught talking about how hot she thought her boss was. Luckily for her, her quick mind went to work, narrowly escaping the huge embarrassment of telling him the truth. Exhausted mentally by the turn of events that day and physically from jet lag, she decided to take a short nap on the couch since she was too tired to walk to her bedroom. She fell asleep instantly, dreaming of the person who she was so adamant in forgetting about.