Just Before My Wedding: Trapped By My Ruthless Boss novel Chapter 48

OCEANS.

We sat in an uncomfortable silence since the moment her ‘male‘ friend excused us and went

upstairs.

And every single word I had rehearsed on the drive over vanished the moment we were left alone with room to actually use them.

Fuck.

I’d never been this speechless around anyone before. I had always had the right words for every situation. Always known exactly which ones to reach for and exactly how to deliver them for maximum effect.

Using the right words to describe the exact way I felt now would be an embarrassment to me.

I could never use the word ‘nervous‘ to describe how I fucking felt sitting on the edge of a couch in a stranger’s apartment with both elbows on my knees, and my fingers laced together, staring at a patch of floor that had done nothing to deserve this level of attention, completely and humiliatingly blank.

I couldn’t even bring myself to look at her.

Looking at her right now felt like the kind of thing that would undo whatever thin thread of composure I was still holding onto, and I needed that thread. I needed it badly.

“Kisarel,” I finally began, still not looking in her direction. “How are you doing?” I asked, and a part of me recoiled and screamed the word ‘coward!‘ at me.

I had driven across the city on three hours of sleep after spending a night scouring social media platforms and ordering surveillance on taxi drivers and rehearsing entire speeches, and the best I could produce when given the floor was ‘how are you doing.”

I never inquired about how anyone was doing. Never

“I’m doing great, Mr. Stark.” She replied quietly. She was holding a throw pillow against her chest like a shield and sitting at a distance on the same couch that still wasn’t far enough from me for either of our comfort.

“You left…” I stated.

She was quiet, obviously not knowing if that was a question or a statement, which was fair because I wasn’t entirely sure either.

“Why?” I asked, and she scoffed, turning to face me.

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“Are you seriously asking me that?” She pressed her finger against her own chest. “Look I know I messed up. I missed the Sydney trip, and I deserved whatever professional consequences came with that. I’ll own that.” She held my gaze steadily. “But what you did in that meeting room? That wasn’t a professional consequence. That was something else entirely. And I guess I finally found out where my limit was.”

“It wasn’t my fault,” I bit out in a low tone.

“Of course, it wasn’t.” She said calmly, “No one’s blaming you. “You’re the boss. You have the right to run your office however you choose. You have the right to humiliate your staff in front of twenty–seven people without losing a single night of sleep over it. You have your rights.” She paused, “And I have the free will to decide I don’t want to be that staff anymore. So I quit.”

“Stop using those words,” I said, still unable to meet her gaze. I didn’t want to do something stupid in another man’s house.

“Oh. Why not? Does it also go against you? Does it offend you? Or I don’t have the right to use them around you?” She scoffed, “Well, news flash, Mr. Stark. I don’t work for you anymore. You don’t own me, my will, my time, my obedience, or my entire existence anymore!” Her voice rose slightly at that point.

“Fuck, I do…” My gaze immediately snapped in her direction, those words sitting so

completely wrong in my chest that I couldn’t let them stand uncorrected for another second. “I still do.”

Her brows narrowed, like she was trying to understand what I meant.

“I still own you and every fucking thing that makes you who you are.” The words sounded so fucking good to say. “You’re still mine, Kiss…”

Her confusion deepened, and I watched it happen and realized that I had just walked myself into a position that was going to require immediate damage control if I wanted to leave this apartment with anything resembling dignity.

“Because you aren’t quitting,” I added quickly.

I watched every tense muscle in her face release at once. The confusion smoothed into relief.

She thought I meant the job.

She had no idea I meant every single other thing I had just said alongside it.

“You’re coming back to the office, and you’re doing that now. Go and get dressed,” I added.

“No. You don’t do that to people.” She shook her head and stood up immediately, “You don’t walk into people’s houses and get to control them that way, Mr. Stark.”

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I stood up and met her glare.

Fuck. She was so small and trembling with anger, her eyes blazing, and her lips pressed firmly together like she was holding back more than she had just said.

I felt the overwhelming, completely unreasonable urge to close the remaining distance. between us and pin her somewhere between me and that wall across the room just to make her stop looking at me like that because I didn’t know what to do with the way it was making me feel.

“What the fuck do you want me to say, Kisarel?” I raised my voice a fraction, “That I’m sorry? That I desperately need my PA back in the office? That I spent four days waiting and looking for you?” The words were coming out faster than I could organize them, and I was losing the grip I had been maintaining since I walked through the door. “That I am not used to people shutting me out because I am always the one doing the shutting out?” I paused, “Or that I… Fuck.”

I turned away from her, running my fingers through my hair. I stood there for a moment with my back to her before I faced her again,

She was looking at me with glassy eyes and lips that were trembling so badly she couldn’t still them, and something in my chest broke open.

“God, I’m sorry, Kisarel.” My voice came out so quiet that it barely qualified as sound. “I took it too far. I knew it when I was doing it, and I kept going anyway, and that’s on me. Entirely on me.” I took a step toward her and watched her lift her eyes to maintain contact as I closed the distance. “I sucked at how I handled all of it.”

I lifted my hand.

My fingers found the side of her face before I had fully decided to let them, tracing along her cheekbone with a gentleness that felt almost foreign, given everything the last two weeks had

been.

“I am sorry, Miss Kisarel Harry.” I brushed the edge of her bangs back from her face and let my palm rest against her cheek, feeling her warmth against my skin, “Just come back. And I swear to you it will never happen again.”

I felt her muscles loosening as she held my gaze,

She licked her bottom lip, and fuck, a movement so small and so completely unintentional managed to shoot straight to my cock.

“And if I say I don’t want to come back?” Her voice came out barely above a whisper.

“Then I’ll keep showing up,” I said, my voice dropping further, “until you do. And that’s not a threat. That’s a promise.”

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Somehow, the gap between us kept disappearing on its own.

“Everyone will mock me,” she said softly. “After everything they saw.”

“And I’ll personally make sure they never get to work ever again in their lives.” She blinked, her gaze traveling to my lips for half a second before returning to my face.

“Mr. Stark…” She breathed a weak protest which sounded like a last, unconvincing attempt at a boundary she had already decided to step over.

“Oceans.” I brought my thumb to her bottom lip and felt her breath catch against it. “Call me Oceans, Kiss.”

I felt her pulse jump against my palm.

“Oceans…” She managed just above a shaky breath. And slowly, our lips connected. And suddenly, it was all worth it.

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