Page 46 of By His Rule

My smile grows.

“Oh, now that look is dangerous,” Melissa says with what I suspect is a wicked glint of her own in her eyes.

“You know what, Melissa,” I say, my grin still firmly in place, “I think I’m going to enjoy my time here.”

She nods as something—an understanding—passes between us. It gives me a little confidence boost, knowing that I have at least one person on this floor who has my back.

The sound of the elevator arriving stops any further conversation, and in the next breath, a nerdy-looking guy with thick-rimmed glasses and curly hair strides toward me with a laptop, tablet, and cell phone in his hands.

Melissa makes herself scarce, returning to her desk and whatever task she was doing before I interrupted her with my little freakout.

“Okay, Lorelei, is it?” the guy says, lowering everything to my desk.“I’m Paul, and I’ll get you set up and ready to start work as soon as possible.”

“Great,” I say nervously as he slides me a piece of paper with my email and login details on it. “I can’t wait.”

He glances at me as if he’s able to read between the lines.

I force a smile onto my face and do my best to listen to every word he says about the server, the printers, the email, and everything else I might need to know about the three devices he leaves me with.

“Oh, thank god.” I sigh when my third call to my best friend is finally answered.

“What’s going on? I was in a meeting.”

“Oh my god, Tate,” I cry, thankful that the ladies’ bathroom is empty. Honestly, why anyone thinks that Melissa and I need a bathroom with six stalls just for the two of us is a little insane, but right now, I’m grateful for the pacing space.

The past few hours have been nothing but a whirlwind. I’ve no idea which way is up, and something tells me that it’s only going to get worse as the day progresses.

My two-hour relief from Kian is coming to an end, and I can only imagine what is going to happen when he summons me to his office for whatever the rest of my day holds.

“What? What’s happened?”

I freeze, staring at myself in the spotlessly clean wall of mirrors that sits behind what I can only assume are hand-carved basins.

“You mean, you don’t know?”

“No,” she says in a rush. “I have no idea.”

“Fuck, Tate. I told you this was stupid.”

“Do you need me to come over there?” she offers.

“What? No,” I cry. “Do not do that.”

I can only imagine how that’ll look to Kian.

Day one and I’ve already called in backup in the form of his sister-in-law to deal with his irritating ass.

“Okay, so…”

“I’m not Martin’s assistant, Tate.”

“O-okay, but?—”

“I’m Kian’s,” I interrupt, unable to keep it in any longer.

“Y-you’re…what?”

“Exactly. That’s why I’m freaking the hell out. Do you know what happened to his last assistant, Tate? She left crying after six hours. And those before her? God only knows, but something tells me that crying is the best of it.”

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