Page 9 of Strictly Yours

I’m a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. I dominate any boardroom I’m in. I strike the fear of god into anyone who shows up late to a meeting. I am the master of this place.

But apparently, Miss Amber Fletcher didn’t get the memo. She didn’t care one single bit.

And I liked it.

It made me feel… human.

It’s lonely at the top. Heavy is the crown. Those are sayings I’ve heard over the years, but you don’t really understand them until you live it.

I’m always at work, so I’m only ever surrounded by people who see me as the boss. As someone to obey. To fear.

But not Amber. She didn’t fear me at all.

And she didn’t see me as a CEO. She saw me as a man. A man who was being awfully mean to her sister.

And the thought of her seeing me in that negative way has my hands shaking.

“Fuck,” I mutter as I rush out the door with my pulse racing.

I hurry down the hall and catch up to her near the elevators.

She’s just standing there, rolling her suitcase back and forth as she stares at my huge gold-plated sign with a look of disgust on her gorgeous face.

Seeing her staggers me. It feels like a hand is gripping my soul.

She’s the type of beauty you could stare at every day for decades and never get tired of. Ten years of admiring herand you could still find something new, like the adorable faint freckles across the ridge of her nose and upper cheeks, or the captivating way her chin tilts up just a little bit when she grins, or the way her long curved lashes can bring a man to his knees.

I swallow hard as I drag my eyes down her luscious body from her army green tank top, low-rise jeans, down to her scuffed-up Converse sneakers. She looks like she could be the girl next door. She’s so different from the prim and proper women I’m constantly surrounded by with all of their expensive high heels, pencil skirts, and crisp blouses. Amber looks like she could play baseball with the guys and then give you a kiss under the bleachers.

Just the thought of those soft tempting lips touching mine has me breathless. It has me desperate to get her eyes back on me.

“Amber,” I call out as I make my way over to her.

She turns slowly. Casually. Like she knew I’d come after her.

Of course, she did.

But of course, I would. We belong together. There’s no other way to explain the storm brewing in my chest.

“You got me all wrong,” I say with a crack in my voice.

Her mouth curls up in amusement as she tilts her head to the side. “Oh, do tell. This I gotta hear.”

“You said I work my employees too hard,” I say as I approach, feeling shaky all over. “But you don’t understand. I don’t take this responsibility lightly.”

Her eyebrow raises skeptically, that sexy grin still on her succulent lips.

“All of these people that you think I torture,” I say, keeping my eyes fixated on her, “they rely on me. They have kids, mortgages, sick parents. I know their stories. All of them.”

I know the elevator will be here soon to take her out of my life, so I talk fast.

“I’m trying to save a department right now,” I continue. “It’s underperforming and everyone wants me to shut it down, including your sister, but I can’t. That’s thirty-three people I’d have to let go. Thirty-three people who would lose their income. It’s costing me an ungodly amount of money, but I’m keeping it open. For them.”

She lets out a low breath as she watches me.

“Just so you don’t think I’m a total monster,” I whisper, dropping my eyes.

I hate making layoffs. I refuse to do it unless absolutely necessary.

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