Chapter 2

PRESENT

SELENE’S POV:

I turned slowly. I hated the way his voice still had my knees going weak.

Grayson had his eyes on me. So completely void of anything humane, I almost had the urge to do something stupid, like maybe slap him, to get rid of that emptiness in his blue eyes.

But I held my ground and instead folded my arms over my chest, fixing him with my best glare.

He didn’t look the least bit surprised on seeing me. Like I hadn’t been his biggest nightmare for those high school years as well. Like we hadn’t made each other’s lives a living hell.

Of course, he didn’t. He must have done his due diligence before hiring me. Unlike me. He must have known I was going to show up today.

And, with a sharp twist in my stomach, I realized something else. He must have also known I wouldn’t have bothered to do my research and that he was going to catch me off guard just by existing this close to me again.

After all, he spent four years mocking me for this habit of mine. Of never digging deep enough, of always relying on life to take me on all the right paths, of always trusting that things would somehow fall into place without much worry or effort.

His gaze scanned me from top to bottom, dragging over me slowly, almost sensually. A dark curl slipped free from his styled hair and fell over his forehead, and just like that, I felt that familiar, twisted heat flare in the pit of my stomach.

"Get it together, Selene," I cursed myself, biting my inner cheek hard enough to draw blood.

And then, to my horror, he started walking towards me. 

I held my breath as he crossed the distance between us—the same space it had taken me so long and so much contemplating—in three long strides.

“Running from you?” I said, my words laced with a sharp edge and lips somehow lifting into a half-smirk I didn’t feel. 

Maybe it was reflex. Or maybe it was just him. Grayson Vexley had always ignited something volatile in me—rage, defiance, a recklessness that had never belonged to me—and I hadn’t even realized I had gotten addicted to it until it was too late.

“Please,” I added coolly. “Do you not remember all the times I made you flinch in those hallways like the coward you were?”

Slowly, almost agonizingly, his lips curved upwards, a matching smirk enhancing his sharp features in an almost unholy way. His eyes glinted with something sharp, making him seem humane once again. It satisfied a part of me I had thought had died long ago

“Oh, I remember,” he said, voice confident and smooth. “But I also remember what happened afterwards. How you either ended up crying in public or moaning my name in private.”

My mouth went dry, all coherent thoughts leaving my brain for a second.

“Oo!” I exclaimed softly, swallowing down the memories he brought back to the surface. “Low blow, Vexley. Throwing all my bad decisions in my face like this. But I guess that’s always been your signature style, hasn't it?”

He shrugged, then he took another step forward, stepping into my personal space until the air I breathed had his scent in it.

Something expensive and bold and musky.

He shrugged, every movement so calm and calculated it left me shaking. “I just have a good memory. Especially about things that left a mark.”

I laughed, but there was no humor in it. “I guess I should be flattered I still make you itch.”

“Itch?” He breathed, and my heart stopped, then restarted with a jolt so fierce I was sure he heard it as his gaze dropped to my slightly parted lips and stayed there. “You burned, Hale.”

A violent shudder ran down my spine before I could stop myself, and he noticed. Of course, he noticed. His smirk widened as if he’d won this unsaid battle between us.

But I wasn’t going to let him have the last word. Not now. Not ever again. 

“Shame,” I breathed, trying not to let my nervousness seep into my voice. “It didn’t burn hot enough to turn you to ashes, considering you’re here. Still fucking breathing with no concept of personal space.”

Thankfully, my words made him take a step back. Not that it helped. There was never any amount of distance that could keep the venom—or the lust—we both tried so hard to keep caged. It always spilled over, one way or the other.

“So,” he began, tilting his head to the side as if he were a predator assessing his prey. “I’m guessing you didn’t see who you’d be working under before applying for the job?” 

I let out an exaggerated eye roll. “Obviously not. You think I’d willingly sign up to work under you?” 

His grin only widened, and it made my pulse skitter. It was a smile that promised dangerous things.

“But I’m quitting, so we don’t have to worry about seeing each other ever again,” I added quickly, just to see that grin gone. But he didn’t look the least bit fazed. Like he wasn’t registering anything I was saying. “I’m sure you’ll find someone more complacent and competent in no time.”

His eyes glinted like I had offered him a worthy challenge on a silver platter.

“No,” I said, shaking my head at him.

“What?” He asked, feigning innocence. “What ‘no’?”

“I know that look, Vexley,” I said hurriedly, not even caring if I sounded desperate. All I cared about was getting out of this building, out of the air that contained his scent. Staying close to Grayson was dangerous. Dangerous in ways I hadn’t been able to recover from even after ten years.

“That wasn’t a challenge,” I said strictly. “I mean it. I’m leaving. And legally, you can’t stop me. So, don’t.”

“Legally.” His voice curled around my spine. “You’re not allowed to break the contract you signed when you took the position.”

I blinked. 

Sure, I was prone to not doing my research on things. But I wasn’t stupid. I had been in the corporate world for nine years. I had been a PA before. I never read my contracts, but I knew there wasn’t a binding term holding someone in place if they wanted to leave.

At least standard ones never did.

“God, that carelessness of yours is going to get you killed one day, Hale,” he said, his voice so smug it made me want to punch him.

This could not be happening to me.

“You did this on purpose,” I hissed helplessly, eyes flicking to Natalie from HR, who was still where I’d left her, watching us.

With a jolt, I realized that every eye in the office was on us. And Grayson didn’t seem to care.

“Of course, I did,” he said. “I knew once you saw me, you’d run like a scared little thing. So I had to take extra precautions.”

“Fuck you, Vexley,” I snapped. “I don’t care what you did. I’m still leaving.”

His smile turned dangerous. Hungrier. Wilder.

“If you resign now—or anytime before your two-year contract is fulfilled—you’ll owe the company a breach penalty.” His tone dropped to something almost intimate. “A million dollars, to be exact. And if you can’t pay… well, we’ll seize any assets under your name.”

My chest constricted. The air left my lungs in a painful rush that left me dizzy. 

The house.

My grandmother’s house.

He knew about the house. He knew it was the last thing I had left of her. He’d planned this all while keeping this in mind. He wanted me helpless under his thumb.

I felt tears gather behind my eyes, my vision getting blurry, but I wasn’t angry. I wasn’t even hurt.

This might be the least cruel thing he’d ever done to me.

It wasn’t pain, no. It was a disappointment. Bone-deep, soul-crushing disappointment.

Because a part of me—a naive, too trusting part of me that apparently hadn’t been hurt enough by this man—had expected better. Grayson had always been a menace but he’d also been just a boy hurt one too many times by people who were supposed to care for him. A boy with no one to guide him towards the right path.

I saw a glimpse of that boy back in high school. When his pain had been too heavy to hide behind sarcasm and brutality.

And maybe, maybe, I’d expected that side of him would finally shine through now that he was older and more successful. 

But I was so fucking wrong.

Of course, I was. Because this was Grayson Vexley at his finest. Calculated, ruthless, and always ten steps ahead.

“Crying, Hale?” Grayson’s younger voice echoed in my head, a sneer in his words. “Makes you look pathetic, really.”

I blinked back the tears and tilted my chin up, eyes burning. 

“Did that make you feel powerful, Grayson?” I asked softly. His facade cracked. Only a sliver, but I saw it. The way his eyes darkened and his jaw clenched. 

“Congratulations, you’ve once again proved to me you’re nothing but a little bully whose mommy dearest didn’t love him enough to stay. Except now, you wear an expensive suit and pay—or threaten—people to finally stay. Pathetic, really.”

The silence that followed was explosive, brimming with so much tension that if I breathed too loud, it might take us both down with it.

Grayson didn’t reply. But he took a step back. And he wasn’t smiling anymore either.

“Is there a clause about you firing me?” I asked suddenly. He looked up, and I felt my knees buckle. That icy blue gaze burned with something fierce, something wild.

“I won’t fire you, Hale,” he said, but his voice lacked its usual confidence.

I grinned, all teeth and vengeance. 

“Oh, yes, you will, Grayson,” I said, and with the way his spine straightened, I knew he’d heard the challenge in my words loud and clear. “You’re going to fire me in five weeks, or I’ll run your company to the ground. That’s a promise.”

His grin returned. "Challenge fucking accepted," it screamed.

If Grayson thought high school Selene was a nightmare…

Well, corporate Selene had just accepted the position as his personal hell.