Chapter Three: Something He Shouldn't Want

Dominic

I shouldn’t have hired her.

The thought circled in my head like a vulture as I stared out the window of my office, the city skyline a cold, glittering blur of lights and glass. The sun had dropped lower, painting streaks of dying orange across the horizon, but I barely noticed.

I hadn’t been able to focus on a damn thing since she walked in.

Amelia Carter.

Nathan’s little sister.

It should’ve been easy. She was supposed to be a name on a resume, a favor I did for my best friend. A temporary assistant to fill the gap until HR found someone competent enough to survive the grind here. I’d told myself that’s all it was.

But the second she stepped into this office — wrapped in that soft blue dress that hugged every curve I shouldn’t have been looking at — everything in me tightened like a loaded trigger.

Fuck.

I gripped the edge of the desk, my jaw clenching hard enough to ache. There was no excuse for this. No room for it.

I didn’t get distracted. I didn’t get tempted.

Not anymore.

And especially not by her.

Not by the girl I used to tease in my best friend’s backyard, who used to trail after us with scraped knees and messy ponytails, demanding we let her play whatever reckless, stupid game we’d cooked up. Back then, she was a kid. A complication. And I was the asshole who knew exactly how to make her cry, just to see how long it took Nathan to throw a punch.

But now…

Now she was a woman.

And worse — she was in my fucking office.

Her voice still lingered in my head, soft but defiant. The way she squared her shoulders when she accepted the job, like she knew damn well she was out of her depth but wasn’t about to give me the satisfaction of seeing her flinch.

I liked that.

More than I should have.

A sharp knock on the door snapped me out of it.

“Come in,” I barked.

Marissa appeared, her expression perfectly cool. She was one of the few people I trusted to do their job without pissing me off. And she never overstayed her welcome.

“Your dinner meeting is confirmed for eight,” she said. “Miss Carter will accompany you.”

I nodded once. “Good.”

“Anything else?”

I hesitated. “Tell her to wear something black.”

Marissa raised a brow — the first crack in her mask I’d seen in months — but she didn’t comment. Just gave a tight nod and left.

I stared down at the city, the growing darkness bleeding into the glass.

This was a bad idea.

A reckless, dangerous fucking idea.

Because Amelia wasn’t just some new assistant. She was Nathan’s kid sister. The girl I should be protecting, keeping at a distance, not imagining with her lips parted and those defiant brown eyes clouded with something darker.

But it was already too late.

The moment I saw her, it was over.

I could lie to myself all I wanted. Pretend this was professional. That it was about trust. Convenience.

But if I was being honest — brutally, dangerously honest — I’d known exactly what I was doing the second I asked her to dinner.

And I wasn’t going to stop.

Not until I had her.