Chapter One: In Which She Becomes a Homewrecker

Glory sat at her cubicle sipping on her coffee while she scrolled through page after page of unread emails. Monday's were always the worst day of the week for her, after a weekend spent with one night stands and partying with friends-people came down with the monday madness. They wanted her to soothe any lingering regrets or give them encouragement to seize life by the balls-carpe diem.

A ping came through her speakers as an instant message popped up on her screen. Glory welcomed the distraction, it was only ten thirty in the morning but the bitterness was strong with her today just like the coffee in her lipstick stained mug.

LuckyLuLu: Did you get a look at Boss man today? *fans self*

GloryRoads: Not yet. Unlike you I'm not trying to see how many restraining orders I can get.

LuckyLuLu: Sweet Jesus, his slacks are perfect. They give you a complete view of that tight round ass. I swear you could bounce a quarter off those cakes. *Drools*

GloryRoads: Your obsession with butts is slightly disturbing and frankly a bit unsanitary...

LuckyLuLu: Who cares about sanitary when you could get very unsanitary with a someone with buns of steel. ;)

GloryRoads: You're incorrigable

LuckyLuLu: I love it when you use your bigs words on me baby.

GloryRoads: Get back to work before I forward Boss man a copy of this stimulating dialogue about his butt.

LuckyLuLu: killjoy...

Glory spent the next hour responding to the plethora of anonymous emails by the end she was beginning to feel a familiar ache in her fingers and she was almost certain she was well on her way to developing a hunched back. Lifting her lukewarm coffee to her mouth the sound of rising whispers began to chip away at her focus. Curiosity was always working against Glory, her need to know much stronger then her need to mind her own business.

People had begun to poke there heads up over there cubicles to get a good look at whatever was causing all the commotion. It was like every time there was a crash on the highway, everyone had to look and it was beyond irritating because it stuffed up the road unnecessarily. Yet, no one could avoid the urge to look. This was certainly one of those moments, curiosity won out and Glory pulled herself up from her seat.

Barely tall enough to see over the wall of her cubicle when pressed to tip toes, she did her best to look around all the fat heads.

After a couple minutes of struggling with her own height deficiency Glory gave up with a heavy sigh. She plopped back down in her seat and opened the instant message, quickly typing a message.

GloryRoads: What is going on out there Columbus? Do you see land?

There was a couple of minutes of impatient tapping of her ruby red nails before Glory heard the familiar ping.

LuckyLuLu: Oh Em Gee! Its better, I see a sex god known as Arden Fox clothed in an Armani suit. *fan girl screams*

GloryRoads: Should I know who that is? Is he like a model or the fifth member of a some teen boy band?

LuckyLuLu: Please tell me you're asking those questions to be funny. You can't open the newspaper or search the internet without hearing that name or seeing his beautiful mug. He is the 'it' guy in the world of finances.

GloryRoads: That's cute, I didn't know you had an interest finances. I thought your world revolved around wine, therapy shopping, and butts.

LuckyLuLu: First of all don't you dare joke about the holy trinity, thats sacrilegious. Second, it's not his business skills that have fan girls everywhere so interested if you catch my drift. *Wiggles eyebrows*

GloryRoads: I don't know how you could make your 'drift' any more obvious.

Angry voices stirred through the whispers and once again Glory rose from her seat trying to get a view of the mysterious Arden Fox. She made a note to herself to google him later tonight to see what the fuss was all about. After useless struggling she gave up in defeat, not knowing why she had even bothered in the first place.

"I would really like to speak to the person who wrote this dribble." The angry voice broke out amongst the crowd. Glory perked up immediately knowing it had to be Mr. Fox. She felt her curiosity grow, knowing that someone had written something that had offended the man. Though she couldn't imagine was could have interested him to read anything they had written. It's not as though they dealt in stock and bonds. Though Glory was no stranger to supply and demand. People demanded her expert knowledge on all matters of heart and she supplied them with the honesty they could not rely on there loved ones to give them.

"Of course Mr. Fox but perhaps we can discuss this in the privacy of my office." Our boss man -Royce Jones- deep tenor spoke over the excitement. There were a couple of tense moments followed by the heavy sound of a door closing, silence overtook the room.

The excitement was over and everyone got back into the flow of work. Except Glory was still ruminating on the mysterious man who had upset the usually calm state of office. The phone next to her computer let out a piercing ring. She reached out for it as spun her chair in slow circles, "Hello! Thanks for calling 'The Red Light'. If you're looking for a wet and wild ride might I suggest hanging up and calling your nearest sex hotline-they are waiting to service your needs."

The uncomfortable deep clearing of a male voice sounded through the speaker, "Glory could I see you in my office for a moment?" Royce's voice had her stopping her chair mid spin.

"Of course." The phone line went dead and Glory contemplated running away for a moment as the nerves of the situation got the better of her. She remembered quickly that she needed this job to pay for everything in her life, including her shit hole of an apartment. A heavy sigh passed through her lips as she rose from her seat and walked out from the safety of her cubicle. Glory did her best to walk quickly towards Royce's office, using her hand to shield her face from the curious eyes of her coworkers.

She opened the door and launched herself inside with a small breath of relief. Glory could already tell that she was about to become the focus of office gossip, not that this would be the first time. In fact Glory's name was often spoken in hushed tones in the break room.

The tension in the room pulled her attention back into the present. Royce sat behind his big oak desk. His dark coffee colored eyes were boring into her and he was wearing a nervous grin that screamed 'help me'.

Forcing a smile to her lips in response, "What's going on captain?" She tried to joke in hopes of lightening the mood. Her eyes roamed to the other man in the room and she found herself momentarily lost.

He was sitting in the chair across of Royce. Jet black hair slicked back neatly, though a tiny hair had fallen free and was resting against his forehead. His suit was clearly Armani, the material looked like it was made from heavenly thread-not a stitch out of place. There were no wrinkles, everything was crisp and clean, clinging perfectly to his manly form. Her eyes drifted back to his face to find his thick brows drawn together in a deep scowl. Glory began to nibble on her lips nervously when there eyes finally met.

He had the brightest blue eyes she had ever seen but what made her nervous was the fact that they were burning like the white hot fire of a thousand suns. She swallowed hard feeling extremely uneasy about being in a room with two attractive men, one of whom may or may not want to kill her by the look on his handsome face.

"This is the person who wrote this?" Mr. Fox says the person like he's spitting rotten food from his mouth. Glory would have been felt insulted if it hadn't been for the way his husky voice caused an eruption of butterflies in her stomach. The man's voice was sounded like he had just rolled out of bed after a long weekend of sex.

Royce leaned forward, resting his elbows on his desk, "Gloriana Novacek is one of our more popular advice guru's. People seem to enjoy her humorous and down to earth responses." She felt her cheeks heat up under the praise of her boss. A small smile playing at the corners of her lips.

"Humorous? I find nothing funny about the situation your little advice guru has put me in." Mr. Fox raised his voice, which has Royce slinking back a bit.

"Perhaps one of you lovely gentlemen would be so kind as to inform of what I did exactly." She pushed her way into the conversation hoping to save her boss the rest of his dignity. Royce opened his mouth to speak but was cut off as Mr. Fox grabbed a piece of paper from the desk and shoved it towards her, "You wrote this did you not?" He accused.

Glory reached out hesitantly and took the paper from his outstretched hand. Her eyes skimming over the words quickly.

Dear UnsureFiance,

I am sorry to inform you that you might be making a huge mistake in marrying this guy. From what you've told me your fiance seems like a total control freak. I mean who organzies there clothes based off of color? Serial Killers that's who. Does he really prepare you on talking topics before you go to his business parties? Bleh, what a bore he must be. Seriously run while you still can. Did you know you have to pay 300 dollars to get a divorce? That shit is not cheap. I know you're probably worried about leaving him but you've still got things going for you, like your youth and your beauty. Hell there's loads of old rich men out there waiting and praying for someone like you to come along and prey on them. Maybe if your lucky you'll meet one who won't constantly nag you about how to properly set a table.

Sincerely

Someone who hopes your cold feet will carry you away into the arms of wealthy old men.

She read over it one more time before looking up from the paper to find Mr. Fox staring at her. A nervous giggle bubbled out of her but he didn't seem to find the humor in the situation. Glory cleared her throat trying to reign in the urge to laugh at a obviously inappropriate time.

"Do you realize that because of your ridiculous advice that my fiancé broke off out engagement three weeks before we were supposed to be married!" His voice booms so loud that she is certain it vibrated every atom in the room. "I've never been more humiliated in my entire life." He rubbed a hand over his face in frustration, clearly someone needed to take a chill pill.

"Look, Arden, Can I call you Arden?" Before he could response Glory continued on, "Maybe you should be thanking me instead of yelling at me. Obviously if she was so easily persuaded by my so called 'ridiculous' advice to not to marry you then you probably shouldn't want to marry her either. You're a young, attractive business man-I guarantee you that there will be another future ex-Mrs. Fox." Royce let out a heavy groan and the look on Arden Fox' face said he was contemplating strangling her to death.

His eyes were opened wide and his muscles were all tensed up as if he was trying to restrain himself. He turned his attention quickly from Glory to Royce, "I demand that you fire this woman at once."

"What?!" Glory screeched with surprise that quickly faded into anger, "You can't come in her demanding to have me fired because your relationship took a nose dive. If that was the case I would have been fired ten times over by now."

He didn't even give her a glance as she made her little speech. Mr. Fox continued to stare down her boss with the clear intention of intimidating Royce into giving him what he wanted and Royce looked like he was crumbling under the pressure. In the last ditch effort to save her source of income Glory threw her body in between the two men, blocking their view of each other. She leaned back into the desk, planting her hands firmly behind her.

"I am not about to be the scapegoat for some suited up control freak who doesn't know how to take the stick out of his ass for two-second to enjoy life. If you want to find someone to blame for your current predicament you need only look in a mirror, which I'm sure you do often enough."

Arden stands up abruptly, "No one has ever dared to talk to me like that..." His body looked like it was trembling under the force of his anger. It also didn't escape Glory's notice that there bodies were now only inches from each other. She could feel the heat of him crashing into her, creating a delicious tingle of awareness across her skin.

"Then perhaps that is the first problem on a very long list." She replied with a smug smirk.

"Be careful what you chose to say next Miss Novacek. I am not someone you want to cross." He responsed in kind with a smirk of his own, challenging her to meet him head on.

"If you think that I'm going to be intimidated by you Mr. Fox because you have a name and money, then you are sorely mistaken." Glory squared off her shoulders, "Perhaps another one of your problems is that while you should be chasing after the woman that left you, you chose to chase after the woman who wrote this." She waved the paper back and forth in front of his face like a bull with a red flag. He reached out and snatched the paper, folding it in half and shoving it into an inside pocket of his suit jacket.

He took a menacing step forward while a smirk still played on his lips, causing a shiver of fear to race through her. Thankfully the door to Royce's office opened, revealing a young man with a nervous expression, "Uh, sorry to interrupt Mr. Fox but if we don't leave now we'll be late for your next appointment."

"Thank you Henry. You may go wait for me in the car." Arden formal response took her by surprise and Glory couldn't help the small laugh that escaped her.

"Yes, Henry do wait for your master in the car." She says in her best english accent as she crossed her arms over her chest.Glory did feel sorry for the poor guy as he looked around the room in confusion before he scurried off, obviously afraid of inciting Mr. Fox's wrath.

Arden was suddenly looking down at her with amusement, "You sure have a wild mouth on you Miss Novacek. A mouth in serious need of taming." She felt her face grow hot as she watched his bright eyes drop to her lips. She couldn't help but to lick them expectantly though she wasn't sure how she would actually react if he had tried to kiss her. Glory found herself stuck between wanting to throttle the man and wanting to rip his clothes off.

He chuckled knowingly, "You should pray that we never meet again Miss Novacek because if there is next time you might not find me so forgiving." His gaze seems to speak to his own internal war over if he should strangle her or bend her over poor Royce's desk. He breaks from their heated stare to look over her, "Mr. Jones." Without anymore words he turned and strutted out of the room like he owned the place.