Page 1 of The Boss’s Obsession
CHAPTER1
Sienna
At 4.30 am, my alarm went off and shattered the best dream I’d had in a week. In it, I was lounging on a sunbed, and a tall, muscular man was rubbing sunblock into my skin. His face was indistinct, but I was pretty sure I knew who it was.
It was only ever one man. The worst one. The one I couldn’t have.
I groaned, pulling myself from the tropical setting and drinks on the beach, and stared blearily at the clock.
Six days a week, for nearly a year, I’d been dragged from the pits of hell by the annoying electronic chime. Six days a week, for nearly a year, I’d considered burrowing my head in the pillow, and screaming until my lungs gave out, and I lost consciousness, but today was different.
Today was the day. The day I quit.
The thought of the rest of the day sent energy through me, as I sat up and rubbed at my sleep-crusted eyes. I’d slept nearly all day yesterday, and it still wasn’t enough. Keeping up with the hours at Turner Tech was shortening my lifespan, I was certain of it, despite having no evidence except a cranky, sleep-deprived disposition. I stretched and felt the muscles of my shoulders and back twinge painfully. Hours cramped over a desk also was doing my body zero favors. I was only twenty-three and felt old before my time. It didn’t help that my peers were working low-stress jobs, fresh out of college, or at the very least, partying just as hard as they were working.
My alarm beeped a second reminder, and I scooted into the bathroom. I had very little time to get ready in the morning and I didn’t want to be late on the day I gave my boss my resignation.
Ronan Turner. CEO and founder of Turner Tech, and a certified genius. He didn’t tolerate tardiness in his employees, excuses of any kind, or anything less than 110 percent. He was brilliant and terrible, and he might or might not have been in that excellent dream I’d been rolling around in sweaty sheets over, only ten minutes ago.
He was also completely off-limits.
Not only was he too rich for me, too smart, and my boss, but he was my father’s protégé. When my father had passed last year, right when I’d finished University, and been rudderless, he’d stepped in and offered me an internship. A safe port in a storm. Considering I’d been about to take my grieving heart away on a year-long bender backpacking binge, he’d kind of saved me from myself.
Then, he’d gone on to break me in other ways.
After a year of bending to his strict will and obsessive workaholic tendencies, I felt like a husk of my former self, but somehow, in that whirlwind of long hours and hard work, I’d found myself again, and laid my father’s ghost to rest.
That was why I was resigning. I had to shove my ill-fated crush out of my heart before the talons sank too deep, and I had to claw back some semblance of a normal life before I lost my mind.
My phone rang with Ronan’s specific ringtone. I answered immediately, a Pavlovian response at this point.
“Sienna, I’ll meet you at the factory instead of the office,” Ronan said into the phone with his usual, clipped tone.
The factory? But he had meetings back-to-back in the office from 7.30 am. The man was brilliant but utterly infuriating.
Knowing better than to protest out loud, I merely gritted my teeth. “Of course. I’ll see you there.”
“It’s raining outside, so I’ve sent the car,” he said, before promptly hanging up.
Letting out a long breath, I took another, and then one more, holding it to count till four and then waiting for my heart rate to drop back to normal ranges.
Shoving on a black dress and blazer on top, wolfing down a banana, I was on the phone, rearranging his meetings as I ran through the rain toward the town car, already idling by the curb.
Today was the day I quit, and I could barely wait.
CHAPTER2
Ronan
The solution to the particularly tricky component of the new system processor came to me in the night, like a bolt from the blue. I hadn’t been sleeping, but listening to music, and looking out the window of the penthouse I lived in downtown. As the rain streaked the window, the solution popped into my head.Of course.
I never slept much usually, but after the spark of innovation came to me, I spent the rest of the night making notes on the idea. Working beat sitting alone and counting down the hours until work started. Work was my hobby, my passion, and every second I spent not engaging in it felt like a waste.
As soon as the clock edged toward 5 am, I called my assistant, Sienna. Just the sound of her voice made up for my lack of sleep. It was raining, so I sent the car for her. She didn’t like being babied, and fuck knew, I hated it when she was annoyed with me. She’d accept the town car on rainy or snowy days, nothing else.
She was already waiting for me when I arrived at the factory.
“Good morning,” I said to her, resisting the urge to stop and properly look at her. I never allowed myself too much time to stare, and never when she was watching. That way lay danger, and besides, it was hard to remember how long was appropriate to look at her. How long was acceptable? How long would I spend if I had no limit? I wasn’t ready to know the answer to that, and might never be. I had room for one thing in my life, and that was rising to the top of my field. Everything and everyone else was a distraction.
