Craving My Ruthless Ceo novel Chapter 10

Chapter 10

ROMAN’S POV

9:20 AM.

I checked my watch again, my jaw tightening. She was late.

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My assistant was supposed to be at her desk by 9:00 AM sharp. had given her a task yesterday, a full day’s report that I expected her to complete in barely a few hours. For her sake, I hoped she had finished it.

I leaned back in my chair, staring at the security feed mounted discreetly on the wall. Four small squares showed the executive floor. I was not watching for her. I never watched for anyone. But my eyes still drifted to the corner camera that captured the hallway outside my office.

The desk that should have had her sitting there, those big hazel eyes focused on her computer screen, her bottom lip caught between her teeth the way it always was when she concentrated.

Fuck.

I should not be thinking about her lips.

I had been doing that too much since last night. Thinking about things I had no business thinking about. Her mouth, her skin, the little sounds she made when I touched her.

I rubbed my hand over my face, trying to clear my head.

Anna Winters had walked into my office three months ago for an interview, and I knew the moment I saw her that she was going to be trouble. Not because she was qualified, she barely was. Not because she was professional, she was a walking disaster.

Papers had flown everywhere when she tried to hand me her resume. She knocked over my coffee mug reaching for them. She apologized so many times I lost count. Her huge hazel eyes were wide with panic behind her big glasses, and she looked like she wanted the floor to swallow her whole.

Any other assistant would have been shown the door immediately for dressing the way she did. Oversized dresses and shapeless skirts that fell past her knees. Ugly flats that had seen better days. She looked like she was trying to disappear into her clothes.

But I could not fire her.

I had been through six assistants in three months since Gretchen, my assistant who worked with me for years, retired. Six competent, professional women who could not last more than a few weeks. They either quit because I was too demanding, or I fired them because they could not keep up.

And then Anna.

Clumsy, nervous, innocent Anna, who somehow managed to anticipate what I needed before I asked for it. Who worked late without complaint. Who learned faster than anyone I had ever hired.

Who made me feel things I had no right feeling.

There was something about her nerdy innocence that drew me in. The way she blushed when I looked at her too long. How she stammered when I stood too close. The little jump she did when I appeared behind her unexpectedly.

I wanted to strip away her innocence. I wanted to see what she looked like when she stopped hiding.

And last night, I got a taste of exactly that.

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15:47 Fri, Jan 23 GG.

Chapter 10

Fuck.

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Seeing her at Zetrov’s birthday party had been unexpected. I hated parties and social gatherings. Too many people, too much noise, too much meaningless small talk. I preferred private clubs where I could control who I dealt with and when I could leave.

But Zetrov had become one of the few people I called a best friend. We had known each other since childhood. His father and mine had been business partners, and their relationship had forged ours. Through boarding school, through university, through building our respective empires, Zetrov had been there.

I could not say no to his birthday. He was one of the only people whose opinion actually mattered to me.

So I went, planning to stay an hour at most. Show my face, give him his gift, and leave.

Instead. I walked into that party and saw her,

Anna Winters.

Standing at the bar, looking nothing like my mousy assistant.

That black dress should have been illegal. It hugged every curve she had been hiding under those ugly clothes.

She looked like pure temptation, completely unaware of the attention she was drawing. Every man in that room had their eyes on her, their intentions clear.

A possessiveness I had never experienced before rose in me, dark and primal. That was why I ordered her to go home. I could not stand watching them look at her like she was theirs for the taking.

I crossed the room before I could think better of it and ordered her to leave.

She refused. Then she poured her drink over my shirt. The audacity of it shocked me.

No woman had ever dared to challenge me before. To disrespect me so publicly, to humiliate me in front of everyone. The defiance in her eyes, that glint of satisfaction, was intentional. She wanted to show me she would not be controlled.

Anyone else would have faced consequences far worse than what I had planned for her. But with Anna, the disrespect only turned me on. It took everything in me not to bend her over my knee right there and spank her hard. Punish her for that defiance. For making me lose control in front of all those people.

The moment the car door closed, she became wild, uninhibited from the alcohol. She climbed into my lap like she belonged there, trying to seduce me with those innocent eyes.

When her hand pressed against my cock, exploring with naive curiosity, I had never felt more alive.

I never lost control. Never. But last night, I gave in.

I kissed her, and it was explosive. Her lips were soft, hesitant at first, then eager. She kissed like someone who did not quite know what she was doing, and I found myself enjoying teaching her. Showing her how to move her mouth against mine,” how to respond to my tongue.

That boyfriend she may or may not have had clearly had not taught her anything.

I wanted to erase the memory of any other man’s touch from her mind. I wanted her to forget anyone who came before me.

I slid that strap down her shoulders. The body I suspected she was hiding under those ugly clothes, I had been right. Better than I imagined. Soft skin that tasted sweet. Her breasts, perfect handfuls that fit in my palms like they were made for me. Her nipples hardened under my tongue, and the sounds she made haunted me.

I could still taste her, still feel the weight of her in my hands.

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15:47 Fri, Jan 23 DGG.

Chapter 10

I wanted more. I wanted to rip her panties off and drive into her right there.

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But I could not. I pulled back because wanting her was the first sign I was about to break every rule I built my life on.

I never dated any of my staff. Ever. Relationships with women who worked for me were off limits. That was a rule I never broke, never even felt tempted to break.

Besides, I did not do casual relationships. 1 had contracts with women who understood exactly what I had to offer, which was nothing beyond the physical.

I did not do love or committed relationships. I did not do any of that romantic nonsense people deluded themselves with.

It was always simple. Sex. They understood the terms going in. I rewarded them with cash and other luxuries, nice dinners, expensive gifts, trips if they lasted long enough. They gave me their bodies in return. No emotions. No complications. No

illusions.

It was a perfect exchange that worked for years. I did not plan to complicate my life by deviating from it.

Anna Winters pushed me to break one of my rules last night.

And I hated it.

I hated that I let her touch me. I never let women touch me. It was not part of the arrangement. They did not get to undress me, did not get to initiate contact like it was some passionate encounter. I did the touching. I was in control. They knew the rules.

But Anna, I let her touch me. I let those innocent hands fumble with my shirt buttons. I let her palm my cock through my pants.

Even if it was only for a second.

And the worst part was that I was not repulsed.

For the first time in my life, the touch of a woman did not make my skin crawl. I enjoyed it. I wanted more of it.

That was the problem. That was why I stopped.

All women were the same, no matter how innocent they looked. No matter how genuine they seemed. In the end, they always wanted the same thing.

Money.

They would lie and cheat and deceive to get it. They would smile and touch you with the same hands they used to betray you. They would look you in the eye and swear they loved you while planning their next move.

Just like my mother.

My father caught her. Found her in bed with his business associate. The betrayal destroyed him. Not immediately. It was slower than that, more insidious. He tried to hold it together, tried to pretend everything was fine, but the heartbreak ate away at him from the inside.

Six months later, he was dead. Heart attack, the doctors said. But I knew better.

Heartbreak killed him just as surely as if she had put a gun to his head.

The woman who gave me life taught me everything I needed to know about trust. About loyalty. About the lies women told.

I swore I would never be that weak. Never let a woman have that kind of power over me.

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15:47 Fri, Jan 23 GG.

Chapter 10

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I stood up and walked to the window, hoping the air would snap my brain back into place. I needed to remind myself who she was. Who I was.

Anna Winters was my assistant.

Last night should not have happened.

To make things even more complicated, she was twenty–two. Eighteen years younger than my forty years. Young. Innocent. Nerdy. She probably had not seen much of the world beyond these books she thought I did not notice her reading, the cramped apartment she shared with a friend, and whatever pathetic excuse for a boyfriend she mentioned.

I was ruthless. Mean. Dark. I built an empire on being harder and more cut throat than everyone else, and I never denied who I was. I never pretended to be anything other than what people feared.

Someone like me would crush her. Break her. Destroy everything soft and innocent about her until nothing was left but fragments.

And although I was heartless about most things, I did not want to do that to her.

I walked back to my desk and pulled out the NDA I had my lawyer draft this morning. Standard confidentiality agreement. She would sign it, and we would both pretend last night never happened.

It was better this way.

Safer.

I glanced at my watch again.

9:40 AM.

Then I heard my door pushing open.

Her scent hit me before she spoke. That same soft, sweet smell from last night that filled my car and clung to my senses.

I lifted my head.

She rushed across my office toward my desk. Her hair was messy and a bead of sweat traced her forehead. She was back in one of those oversized dresses, hiding the figure I had my hands on just hours ago.

Her voice came out breathless.

“Mr. Blackwood, I am sorry. I am late.”