The Tycoon's Baby Revelation - Elizabeth Lennox
Chapter 1
Sloane stepped out of the beat up Chevy hatchback, nervously tugging her skirt down over her hips and taking a deep breath. “This is it,” she whispered, looking up at the non-descript building.
It wasn’t much to look at. Just a two story structure surrounded by a bunch of other two story buildings. “Is this the right place?” she muttered through numb lips. Pulling up the e-mail on her phone, she checked the address, then looked at the building again. Yep. This was the right address.
She walked carefully in the borrowed black heels, hoping that she wouldn’t fall on her face and land in a humiliating heap on the simmering hot asphalt. She’d never worn heels before. Sneakers had been the shoes of choice while working at the fast food restaurant where Sloane had been employed for the past four months.
Glancing down at her skirt, she smoothed out the wrinkles, hoping it didn’t look too shabby. Sloane’s youngest sister, Pepper, had miraculously presented this outfit to her this morning, her eyes shimmering with anxious pride. “I got the skirt and blouse out of the donation box at the shelter a few days ago,” Pepper had explained with a hopeful expression in her eyes. Eyes that were too old and wary for a fourteen year old. “It’s good material, although the style is dated.” She’d smoothed her hand down over the tan material. “I was able to adjust the size so that the skirt would fit you better and so that it didn’t look so…worn out.”
Rayne, the middle sister of their trio, had handed her the black pumps. “Martha gave me these,” she told Sloane. “She needs them back though. But we’ve all got our fingers crossed for your job interview today.”
Sloane swallowed past the lump of emotion in her throat, so damned proud of her sisters she could barely stand it. Sure, the three of them were homeless at the moment, sleeping at a shelter each night and eating their meals in the buffet line that the church across the street cooked for the residents. But they’d all been working hard, saving every penny and finding odd jobs so that they’d have a few extra dollars. Between the three of them, they’d almost scraped up enough money to rent a studio apartment. They wouldn’t have furniture, not for a while, but it would be really great to not have to sleep with one eye open every night, fearful of the other shelter guests stealing their stuff or…or worse.
Standing here now, in the altered suit and borrowed shoes, Sloane lifted her chin with determination. “I can do this!” she whispered fervently. “I can!”
Applying for this administrative assistant’s position had been a long shot, but Sloane had decided that she had nothing to lose by trying. Working at a fast food place just wasn’t bringing in enough money to protect her sisters and things were scary at the homeless shelter. The three of them stuck together for security, but…it was still dangerous.
Taking a deep breath, Sloane pulled open the door and, with as much feigned confidence as she could muster, stepped into the blank-looking building and…froze.
There wasn’t much in the building. No offices, no walls, no desks, or…well, nothing. It was literally a shell of a building, with even the overhead wires hanging down in some places.
But there were about ten or twelve stunningly beautiful women sitting in what looked like a space that might eventually become a lobby – but at the moment, was just a concrete floor, ceilings that revealed the electric wires and ventilation system and no walls.
The gorgeous women didn’t seem to mind the lack of an office environment, Sloane realized. In fact, most of them were too busy preening, flipping their glossy blonde or brunette hair back over their shoulders or fluffing their locks for additional volume. One woman held up a mirror, pursing her lips and batting her lashes as if practicing for some sort of audition.
This was odd, Sloane thought nervously as she took the only empty seat in the room. There were so many other women, all sitting on uncomfortable, metal folding chairs, all of them waiting impatiently to be called, all shooting covert glances at the others, as if measuring up their competition. When their names were called, they jumped up, excited and eager for their interview.
Sloane didn’t understand what was going on until one of the women, a blonde woman with red, glossy lips and a cream silk blouse that was so low