Page 41 of The Billionaire's Masquerade Ball

Chapter 11

“Any chance I can work from home today too?” Wyatt looked hopefully at Xander across the office.

Xander gave Wyatt a scorching look. “Ask that ever again and I’ll fire you.”

“Yes, sir.” Wyatt flushed and went back to his work.

Xander knew he was being unreasonably angry with his assistant. After watching him with Cynder the day before, laughing and touching, he had a hard time even looking at Wyatt. They had sent flames of jealousy roaring through him. Xander ran a hand through his hair and dropped his pen on the desk. This day had gone from bad to worse, just like yesterday. And he thought after yesterday, he couldn’t go lower.

After he had been so rude to Cynder in front of Olivia, Xander couldn’t say no to her request to work from home today. He had seen the tears forming as she had rushed from the room and felt the sharp rebuke of guilt. Then there was the matter of asking her to find the masked woman. She had hurt written all over her face. Which made him feel terrible, but also made him wonder if that meant she really liked him. If she had liked him. There was no way she would be interested now—if she ever was. If he had wanted walls, he would get them.

How had he made such a mess of things?

It should have been a relief to have a little distance from her. He needed time to figure out how he could regain control of his life, which seemed to be spinning out of control. He should welcome the break from having to see her face across the room, flirting and talking with Wyatt.

Instead of relief, he felt her absence in the office like it was a physical loss. His mind couldn’t focus on his tasks for the week because it was tangled with thoughts of what Cynder was doing. The more time Xander had spent with her, the more addicted he felt to being near her. It had been a day of her working there. Just a few days since they had met. He felt like a different man, a weaker man.

Xander was a teenager with a crush, not the CEO of a billion-dollar company. He also felt like a total jerk.

She only worked here one day. Not even a day. Yet, here he was, smitten and wounded, totally consumed with thinking about Cynder. He thought again about the hurt that flashed across her face when he told Olivia she was no one. What a terrible thing to say! It had taken all his willpower not to chase after her when she bolted from his office. Instead he had stood, half-listening as Olivia told him that she wasn’t ready to publish a piece on the Foundation yet. She was still uncovering things.

The alarm bells about what Liv was uncovering should have been louder, but Xander knew that the charity, like the rest of his business, was clean. Olivia just wanted to stretch it out so she could have some kind of sway over him and an excuse to show up at his office. Xander had made the mistake of letting Olivia know how important the Foundation was to him. Just not why.

Xander had gone after Cynder as soon as Olivia left. He didn’t have to go far. Opening his office door, he had seen her by Judy’s desk, drinking coffee with his administrative assistant. Keeping himself mostly hidden behind the door, he watched as the two of them talked quietly. He couldn’t hear their conversation, but saw the way Cynder listened and how she made Judy laugh so easily. It had warmed him, but also made him long for that same kind of conversation with her. Cynder seemed skilled at getting people to open up easily. She was kind, fun, sincere. A part of Xander desperately wanted to open himself up to her. But it was clearly losing to the part that wanted to push her away.

Judy knocked and came to his desk. She looked as grumpy as Xander felt. “I see it only took you a day to drive Cynder away.”

“What?” Her withering look made Xander feel completely worthless.

“Your new assistant. The beautiful, sweet woman you hired yesterday. What did you do to her?”

“Why do you think I did something?”

“Oh, just the fact that I found her crying yesterday, as much as she tried to hide it. And she’s not here today. She wouldn’t tell me why, which I can only assume means it has to do with you.”

“She’s working from home.”

Judy rolled her eyes. “Maybe that’s what she said. I’d put money on the fact that she’s hiding out, trying to figure out how to tell you that she wants to quit. You’ll probably get her resignation by the end of the day.”

Xander leaned back in his chair and put his hands over his eyes. “I didn’t mean to do anything.”

“Maybe you should fix it. I rather liked having her around,” Judy said. She closed the door.

The thought of Cynder quitting sent waves of panic through him. He didn’t want her to quit because that would mean he didn’t have an excuse to see her. He didn’t want her working from home or feeling like she needed to hide from him. Would calling be enough? He could send Wyatt. She seemed to like him. The thought of sending his assistant after her made him feel sick. But if Xander went himself, would she even want to return?

Xander stalked over to Wyatt. “We have Cynder’s address in the paperwork, right?”

“I’ve got it in her forms,” Wyatt said.

“Good. I need you to go get her. Tell her to come back to work. She seems to like you.” He hoped that Wyatt didn’t catch the edge of bitterness in his voice.

Wyatt’s fingers froze over the keyboard. “You’re joking.”

“You can take my driver. Just bring her back.” Xander crossed back to his desk, feeling marginally better.

A throat cleared and Xan realized that Wyatt stood in front of his desk. “I’m sorry, but I can’t bring her back.”

Xander narrowed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. “Too difficult a job for you?”

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