WHEN FOCUS BECOMES IMPOSSIBLE.

My workplace is holy..

     

After all, it’s where my ambition thrives. Where my plans are made and my strategies are conducted. This is where my problems disappear, where I don't have to think about anything except closing or opening a contract. 

      

This is where I come to focus and forget about the girl I left behind, and then go back late so that I don’t see her. The girl who has been on my mind for years now has taken up the whole space of my mind since we got married—the girl who makes me question everything. 

Only, she’s not a girl, is she?

      

I want to call her that to stop my cock from having ideas, but she was never that—a girl. At least, not for some time.

      

She’s a woman now. A grown-up fucking woman with wide hips and a curved up body that leads to boobs. Fuck, they weren't boobs, they were breasts, cause shit. She was fucking endowed. And she’s currently in the place where I’m supposed to be focused, not sidetracked. Her sexy self is here. 

      

Anastasia is right here, at L&K, and while it’s not her first time, she doesn’t usually dress like she’s at a business meeting. She's dressed like she came here to fight some demons that she has been battling for a while, and does she look good. 

      

And definitely not with these three fuckers—my nephew included. Xavier made it his mission to keep her away from them and their whoring ways. So I’m just taking care of it on his behalf like I promised him.

That's just it. 

      

It’s definitely not because of how I want to jam their faces into the table for breathing and being in her presence, for even looking at her. I shouldn’t be thinking about hurting three of my best attorneys. I shouldn’t, and yet that’s the only fucking urge that’s rushing through my veins instead of blood.

      

“Who’s taking whom in?” I ask all of them, not bothering to cool down my tone.

      

I don’t have the frame of mind to, I was past being cool, because she’s here in my focus zone. And she needs to be fucking gone like ASAP. 

      

“Me.” Christian places an arm around her shoulder. “Ana will be interning with me.”

He didn't just do that. 

      

She smiles up at him with those bright, bright eyes, all green and with barely any gray or even blue. She’s happy, ecstatic, and the thought of murder becomes more and more appealing.

      

And that’s an anomaly for a lawyer. A fucking error in the matrix that shouldn’t exist.

      

But it does, and the more she smiles at him, the more he has his hands on her, the redder and hotter that thought becomes. The more I want to kill him and throw his body away in an ocean or anywhere they won't be able to find him. 

      

“Remove your hand if you don’t want a harassment suit, Steele,” I say with enough nonchalance that doesn’t betray my disturbing inner thoughts. I was boiling inside, but I didn't know how I managed to stay sane and not lose my mind.

      

Liam grins, and I glare at him, so he pretends to be sipping from his coffee and going through his phone. Sebastian stands, hugs a box of pastries to his chest, then grabs my nephew by the shoulder and drags him out. As they both walked by me, I saw the box Sebastian was hugging to his chest, and I just knew that Anastasia was the one who brought it for them. 

It annoyed me. I don't know why the sudden thought of being the only one who tastes her food or anything she makes comes to mind. I closed my eyes and tuned out the intrusive thoughts, focusing on the matter at hand. 

“We’re out of here, but we’re rooting for you, Ana. Welcome to the dark side.” Sebastian winks at her, and Liam gives me a knowing, taunting look before they’re both out of the break area.

      

It’s only the three of us. Me, Anastasia, and Christian, who still has his fucking arm around her shoulder.”

“Nah, you wouldn’t do that. Right, Ana?” Christian shows her his dreamy smile, the one I’ve seen him use to charm women. “We get along, don’t we?”

Was he trying to get himself killed?

      

“Yeah,” she says readily, cheerfully, with that energy that I don’t like others to see. I don’t want others to see anything about her. Period. 

Fuck, I was going insane. She shouldn't be here. Fuck me. 

      

“No.”

      

At my closed-off tone, her smile falls, and her lips purse before she steps away from Christian and marches to me with hard, determined steps, as if coming to fight a war with me. I saw the determination lit up in her eyes when she stopped in front of me—her beautiful and determined eyes. 

      

But they’re for me. Her entire attention and those ever-changing eyes are only focused on me and me alone.

Which was the way I liked it. I hated when her attention was somewhere else and not on me. I need her to focus on me, just me.

      

“I have the right to apply for an internship.”

      

“And I have the right to refuse your nonexistent application.”

      

“But why? I have the grades to be accepted here. This is discrimination.”

      

“And you can sue for it,” Christian tells her. “With the right arguments.”

      

“You shut up before I call a board meeting about your malpractices.”

      

“Hear that, Ana?” He steps beside her. “I can sue him for that threat, too. You’ll be my witness, won’t you?”

      

“If he doesn’t let me intern, I will be.” She’s talking to Christian, but her entire attention is on me, her eyes digging holes into my face. The situation wasn't exactly appealing, but the only consoling fact here was that her attention was on me, not on Christian, but on me. 

      

I’ve had countless opponents and most of them didn’t dare to even look at me, but Anastasia doesn’t only stare, she also glares and talks back, among a lot of other fucking things.

      

“You can’t win against me in court, Steele. Maybe in a couple of decades, and only if I’m suffering from some form of dementia. And you, Anastasia, do you honestly believe threatening me is the right way to handle this?”