Just Before My Wedding: Trapped By My Ruthless Boss novel Chapter 56

KISARFL

I crossed my legs for the fourth time in twenty minutes, stared at my laptop screen, and saw absolutely nothing on it.

Through the glass wall, Oceans sat at the head of his conference table with the J’erope group three men in expensive suits who had been in his office for the better part of an hour wearing the expression he reserved for meetings he could conduct in his sleep. He looked so composed, unhurried, and completely at ease.

Meanwhile, I was sitting at my desk trying to remember how to operate a keyboard.

This was the third meeting he’d had in his office today.

So unlike him. He always had his crucial meetings in the conference rooms.

And he made sure I never left his sight. Even when I pretended to use the restroom, which was also within our office, he made sure I didn’t spend more than two minutes in there.

The ache between my thighs had not improved.

If anything, it had gotten considerably worse with every hour that passed and every time his eyes found mine through the glass with that expression and every time I crossed my legs and found that crossing them was not, in fact, the solution I kept hoping it would be.

Oceans made sure to sustain my punishment.

Our gazes met, and he gave me a slow, infuriating smirk.

I looked at it for exactly three seconds, then I made a decision.

I

I closed my laptop, stood

1. smoothed my dress down with both hands, and looked directly at him.

His brow pulled together by a fraction, his smirk faltering by the same amount.

I turned and walked toward the door.

I didn’t hurry or even look back. But I felt the exact moment his attention sharpened behind me, the way you

feel a change

in temperature… The prickling awareness of eyes that had gone from amused to something very less comfortable, tracking every step I took toward that door.

I left my phone on the desk.

Let him figure out what that meant.

I pushed through the door and walked

between us, and I was in the elevator.

down the corridor, and didn’t allow myself to smile until the doors had closed

The in–house dining lounge afternoon lull had settled in

on

the fourth floor was quiet at this hour. The lunch rush had long since cleared, and the

I requested a cold drink from the counter and pressed the glass against the side of my neck for a moment before I took a sip, because the torment between my thighs had followed me into the elevator and down four floors and shown absolutely no interest in respecting the change of scenery

“Miss Harry.

16:31 Fri, May 22 JM.

Chapter 50

turned.

Tim was standing two feet away with a bottle of sparkling water and an expression of such exaggerated shock that for a moment I thought something had actually happened.

“Tim.” I said.

“Don’t.” He held up a finger. “Don’t move. Don’t speak. I need to document this.” He pulled out his phone, pointed it at me, and then immediately put it back in his pocket. “Okay, I won’t actually do that, but I thought about it.” He turned to the counter attendant. “Do you see this? This is the PA. She exists down here. With regular people. On the fourth floor.”

The attendant looked politely unbothered.

“Nobody believes me when I say I’ve seen you in the elevator,” Tim continued, settling beside me at the counter like we had a standing arrangement. “Jenkins on the seventh floor said you were probably a hologram Mr. Stark projects to make himself seem more approachable.”

I narrowed my brows, holding back the laugh that was building up in

my

throat.

“Tim? Really?”

“I defended you. I said no, I’ve seen her blink. Holograms don’t blink.” He sipped his water

welcome.

I let out the laugh. It was genuine and relieving.

r with

great dignity. “You’re

“How are you even still alive?” he asked, turning to face me with earnest curiosity. “And I don’t mean that rudely. I mean that as a — as a scientific inquiry. A study in human endurance.” He gestured broadly. “Because I spent three weeks on the same floor as that man once, and I aged, Miss Harry. I aged visibly. My mother commented. She said Tim, what happened to your face. I said, Mum, I work near Ocean Stark. She said she’d light a candle for me.”

“He’s not that bad, Tim!”

laughing so hard that I had to set my drink down.

“I’m serious,” he said, with great sincerity. “You know what they call you up on the seventh floor? The Survivor.” He pointed at me. “Capital S. As in, the only known person in recorded Stark Sovereign Capital history to survive sustained daily exposure to Ocean Stark without either quitting, crying in the bathroom, or both.” He paused. “We had a guy

last year. Senior analyst. Eight years with the company.” He shook his head slowly. “Three weeks as Mr. Stark’s temporary PA while you were

whatever you were

and the man had to go and find himself in Costa Rica.”

“He went to Costa Rica?”

–

“He’s still there.” Tim took a solemn sip of his water. “Sends a postcard every few months. Seems happy. The point is, what you do every single day-” he gestured vaguely in the direction of the upper floors, “-is not normal. It is a feat. It should be on your CV. It should be the first line. ‘Survived Ocean Stark. References available upon request.”

I couldn’t contain my laughter anymore, and it was the kind that came from somewhere uncomplicated and felt like releasing pressure from something that had been building since nine in the morning.

“So tell me.” Tim said, settling in with comfortable curiosity. “What’s it actually like? Day to day. The man. The myth. The person who made Marvin cry in the car park last February.”

“Tim. He didn’t- I started with a playful glare, but he cut me off.

“Marvin told me himself. Come on,” Tim said with a playful wave of his hand. “I need details. We all need details. You are our only window into that world, and you keep the curtains closed.”

It felt good talking to someone and relieving the tension between my thighs. Although th relocated to a slightly more manageable address.

the form

was still there, it had

22

16:31 Fri, May 22 M

Chapter 30

Some people said Tim was a lot, because he never ran out of things to talk about. But right now, I needed this companionship.

We talked for almost ten minutes, laughing and cracking jokes, until we both decided it was enough for one afternoon.

“Back to the trenches?” Tim asked as I picked up my drink.

“Back to the trenches,” I confirmed.

“Godspeed. Miss Harry.” He raised his water bottle in a solemn salute. “We’ll remember you fondly.”

I was still smiling when I stepped into the elevator.

I pressed five first. Anna in accounts had a document I needed to collect before the end of the day, and stopping there before heading back up would give me another two minutes of breathing room before I had to walk back into the tormenting atmosphere of my boss’s gaze and all that came after it.

The elevator opened on the fifth floor, and I stepped out without looking up, already thinking about which direction Anna’s desk was from the landing, when I walked straight into someone.

“Oh… sorry, I…” I looked up, and my stomach immediately dropped through the floor.

It was Jorinda.

The smile on her face widened by a fraction when my gaze met hers. And somehow, I just knew considerably more complicated.

day had just gotten

O

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