Just Before My Wedding: Trapped By My Ruthless Boss novel Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

KISAREL.

“You’ll come back for them after the close of work.”

Oceans‘ words kept replaying in my head as we drove to the office in his car. We sat in the back seat together, and it was as awkward as it should be going to the office straight from your boss’s house.

I wanted to take my purchases with me – even though I didn’t really know where I’d have kept all those bags here in the office – but Oceans didn’t let me.

What bothered me was the fact that he was certain I’d be thrilled to return to his house this

evening.

I had plans. With Elgin and Jace. I had plans. Elgin. Jace. A life that existed outside of this man’s orbit. There was no way I would go to his house tonight.

He sat like a wall beside me, his face set in his usual tight, professional frown that made him unapproachable to everyone.

After he stepped out of the shower yesterday, he has been wearing this frown, almost like he has a whole war going on in his head that I didn’t know of.

I’d even slept in the guest room, which I really appreciated.

I had been deeply, privately grateful for that. Sharing a bed with him after everything that had happened in that house would have required a level of emotional compartmentalization I simply did not have left in me by Sunday night.

I straightened the deep blue gown I wore as I stepped out of the car. It sat just an inch above my knee and hugged my curves in all the right places, exactly the way Noella had intended when she pulled it off the rack. Smart, polished, and everything Mr. Stark required of the woman representing his office.

But it didn’t feel like me. None of it did.

My glasses gone.

My comfortable blazers, skirts, and loose gowns – all gone.

I felt like I was walking around inside someone else’s life, wearing someone else’s clothes, heading into someone else’s morning.

It was going to take a very long time to find myself inside this version of me.

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Chapter 20

Every pair of eyes in the lobby found me the moment we walked through the doors.

My cheeks heated up immediately.

I knew, rationally, that people noticed new things. That a PA showing up on a Monday looking markedly different from the Friday before was going to register.

But it also felt like they all somehow knew that I had spent the entire weekend in Ocean Stark’s house doing things that would get me fired if they ever became office knowledge.

The way Brianna’s eyes roamed over me felt like the weekend was written on my skin in a language everyone here could read except me. I knew it was my guilt doing something dramatic and unhelpful, but knowing that didn’t make the heat in my face go away.

“Kisarel!” John whispered my name from behind the reception desk with a grin and a slow, appreciative wave, and despite everything, I smiled and gave him a small wave back.

The temperature beside me dropped about ten degrees as I felt Mr. Starks‘ eyes bore a hole through the side of my head.

“Keep up,” He bit out and increased his strides.

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The moment we stepped into the office, surprisingly, he held the door open for me to enter. And as soon as I did, he shut the door and grabbed my arm, gently pulling me back into him, and the next thing I knew, his lips collided with mine.

He kissed me, his tongue pressing into my mouth and taking its time there, his hand finding my waist and then sliding lower until his palm closed over my backside and squeezed with a possession that made my breath stutter against his lips.

It wasn’t meant to be a long kiss. But it wasn’t too brief, either.

I kissed him back with the files still clutched to my chest and my handbag hanging from one hand, because there was no dignified way to set them down quickly, and I had already stopped pretending that I had more self–control than I actually did around this man.

He didn’t seem to mind the files. He kissed me like they weren’t there.

When he finally pulled back, his eyes moved over my face with that focused, slightly furrowed expression he got sometimes – like he was looking at something he couldn’t fully classify and it bothered him that he couldn’t. But it lasted only a moment before his face smoothed back into its usual composure, the way a curtain falls.

His hand moved from my waist to my face. His thumb traced slowly across my lower lip.

“We’re going on a trip tomorrow,” he said, his voice dropping into that low, unhurried baritone that did things to my chest I was becoming dangerously accustomed to. “Sydney.

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Chapter 20

Takeoff is four AM.”

“What?” I blinked. “Four AM? That’s

that’s very early. My house is a bit too far from—”

“You’ll be sleeping at my place,” he cut me off evenly. “Wouldn’t want us to miss the flight”

The way his eyes held mine while he said it sent my heart on a sprint it hadn’t signed up for. But the instruction itself brought me back down to solid ground fast enough.

“Sir, I have plans tonight,” I said, keeping my voice as level as I could manage. “I might not be able to spend the night.”

A frown crossed his face.

“What plans? Jace?” He asked, and there was something in the way he asked the question that told me exactly how displeased he already was before I even answered.

I swallowed and nodded.

“Cancel it,” He bit out.

“But…”

“No excuses, Kiss.” His

eyes

darkened.

I tried looking away, but his gentle grip on my chin didn’t let me.

“What about Elgin?” I asked, pushing through the nerves. “I promised to visit him and his grandfather today. He just got back, and it’s been years, and I’d really like to go. Just for a few hours.”

He was quiet for a while, staring straight into my eyes with an intensity that made my knees turn to jelly.

I waited him out.

“You’ll go, and you’ll be back home by nine,” he said finally, and I had genuinely braced for more resistance than that, so the relative concession caught me off guard.

“Eleven,” I said, while I still had the nerve.

“Ten,” he said, in a tone that did not invite further negotiation. “Otherwise, the offer is gone.”

I held out for exactly one second before nodding. “Ten. Fine.”

“Good girl.”

He was already leaning back toward me when the office door swung open, and I nearly left my skin entirely.

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Chapter 20

We hadn’t locked the door.

Oceans didn’t even flinch. He simply straightened and looked toward the door with the unbothered calm of a man who had never been rattled a day in his life, while I took three very deliberate steps backward and tried to arrange my face into something that didn’t look like what it was.

I turned immediately to see who it was.

It was Mr. Hanold. The M.D.

–

His eyes found me first, and the look he gave me was the kind that didn’t need words to deliver its full meaning. It moved over me slowly taking in the new clothes, the absence of glasses, the proximity I had just scrambled away from – and settled into something that made my skin prickle with a humiliation I hadn’t done anything wrong enough to deserve.

The look in his eyes was so unsettling that I almost forgot to greet him.

“Good morning, Mr. Hanold,” I managed, keeping my voice steady, and hoping the situation didn’t look as awkward as it seemed.

He gave a single nod in my direction, walked past me like I was furniture, and stopped in front of Mr. Stark.

“We need to talk.”

If there was anything that would kill me fast, it’s for someone mistaking me for a cheap whore. And that’s what Mr. Hanold’s gaze said right now.

He just nodded to my greeting, walked past me, and stopped before Mr. Starks.

“We need to talk.”

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