SA

no room for interpretation

rate. I dropped my mascara twice. Spent four full minutes staring at my reflection in the mirror like it had personally offended me befor

he city sliding past the window, and tried very hard not to think about

he stayed whenever he worked late int

hy marathon. Why did he w

was making me leave the house at 3:30 in the morning

gh without a word. The elevator ride to the suite floor felt longer than it had any right to be. I w

I'd only been here once before, to drop off documents he needed urgently. I had

pproximately four minutes

me

to make my stomach drop two floors.

an skyline through the floor-to-ceiling windows. It smelled like him - that specific combination of

ething running on the screen. He was in tailored navy trousers and a white dress shirt, sleeves rolled to the fore

my bag held in front of me,

." He fin

desk, placed my bag on my lap, fo

page, made a note in the margin, and tur

like he was already disappointed

wn at myself. "I - a dr

." He set his p

t time since I'd walked in, and I felt that look move ove

I d

You represent me. You are an extension of what this company projects to the world." He

ir

three things I expect from your appearance at all tim

pressed my lips toge

ike the matter was already resolved. "Noella will tak

ed through me laste

k, I don't - I'm not really

wh

sed through it. "New clothes. A full wardrobe.

couldn't even deci

our salary," he said. "Incrementa

s-" I

what, Mi

aid quietly. "

or one beat longe

file across the

I need your notes on the discrepancies

*

EA

tr

eep her out of my head after she left my office last night

ng with me. I'd shut peopl

g on the other side of the city, which was not something Ocean Stark did, and w

ing boyfriend yet? Not that I

ck up my phone and call her to find out w

odded in the right places. Kept half my attention on the quarterly projections and the other half on the specific effort of not asking about Kiss,

that her dear cousin, my 'PA', had gone t

idn't have a clean word for. It wasn't particularly concern or jealousy. It was somethin

ith Henderson's legal team, not spending th

s bothered. Professional

y I could without seeming like a psychopath who would h

and sent the text before I'd fully

asonable hour. People work

king at her did things to my cock that I had no patience for at f

us on the numbers staring at me from my screen. But it was increasingly difficult wit

never she walked past me. Only this time,

ur new construction site, and a conference call that made me want

, I was running on blac

ng the small things I had no business cataloging - the way she tucked her pen behind her ear when she was listening carefully, the way

t, fuck, I wasn't willing to

from the door, "When wi

that the reason I hadn't let her leave yet had nothing to do with work and everything to do with the fact that the moment she walked out of this building she was going back

ess up around her waist, and fuck her so hard that every memory of every man who'd ever touched her before me got completely obl

didn't

ng Moonie or legal or someone from the H

as R

nally found a lead o

in a long time, my