CHAPTER 10: A Challenge On His Own

Sybil

I sat at my new desk on the top floor and stared blindly at my monitor. The screen was filled with Elias’s afternoon schedule, but I could not focus on a single word.

Every time I shifted in my ergonomic chair, a dull, lingering ache radiated between my legs.

The physical reminder was impossible to ignore. I could still feel him. I could feel the heavy weight of his body pressing me into the mattress, the rough grip of his hands on my hips, and the raw, burning heat of what we did in the dark.

It made my face burn with intense heat. I crossed my legs tight under the desk and took a shaky breath.

I was too shy to look him in the eye. I spent the entire workday actively avoiding the double doors to his office. I did not walk in to deliver his messages. I did not ask him if he needed coffee. I handled everything through the corporate email server.

To: Elias Stavros

Subject: 2 PM Logistics Call

The European team requested a fifteen-minute delay.

His reply appeared in my inbox less than ten seconds later.

To: Sybil Adams

Approved. Move the 3 PM briefing to tomorrow.

There was no mention of last night. There was no shift in his tone. It was entirely clinical. The sharp contrast between the dominant, intense man in the bedroom and the cold CEO behind the keyboard left me feeling completely unbalanced.

When the clock finally hit six, I ordered a private car back to the estate.

The mansion was heavily quiet. I ate a quick dinner in the kitchen, thanked the chef, and went looking for a place to hide.

I found the estate library on the ground floor of the west wing. It was a massive room with walls of dark mahogany bookshelves and leather armchairs.

I picked a novel off a random shelf and curled up in an armchair in the far corner. I opened the book.

I tried to read, desperate to escape my own conflicting, tangled thoughts about Elias, but I kept reading the same paragraph over and over.

"I thought I would find you hiding in here."

I jumped, dropping the book onto my lap.

Emrys walked into the library. He had taken off his suit jacket and his tie.

His collar was unbuttoned, making him look completely relaxed. He held a bottle of red wine in one hand and two crystal glasses in the other.

"I am not hiding," I said. "I am reading."

"You can do both." Emrys walked over to my corner. He set the glasses on the small side table next to my chair and uncorked the bottle.

"I shouldn't drink that," I said.

"It is a very expensive vintage," he said. He poured a small amount into one glass and a full pour into the other. "And you are currently dealing with my brothers on a daily basis. You need at least a sip to maintain your sanity."

He handed me the glass with the smaller pour. I took it.

Emrys did not sit in the chair opposite me. He sat directly on the edge of the wooden coffee table, bringing himself much closer to me. His long legs stretched out over the rug.

"So," Emrys said. He took a drink of his wine. "How did you survive day one on the executive floor?"

"I managed," I said.

"Elias did not scare you away?"

"He gave me a job to do. I did it."

"Very professional," he noted. He tilted his head, his hazel eyes watching me with bright curiosity. "But I do not want to talk about Elias. I want to talk about you."

"There is nothing to talk about."

"I highly doubt that."

"I am just an assistant, Emrys."

"Yes, you are an assistant," he corrected. "But you also live in our house. I want to know who is sleeping down the hall from me."

I took a tiny sip of the wine. It was rich and incredibly smooth. "What do you want to know?"

"Tell me about your life before you became the executive assistant."

"It was very normal."

"Normal is a myth," he countered. "Where did you grow up?"

"In the city," I said. "In a small apartment. It was loud, the heating barely worked in the winter, and the subway station was two blocks away."

"That sounds terrible."

"It was home," I said defensively.

"I did not mean it as an insult," he said quickly. His tone softened. "I am actually jealous. I grew up in boarding schools and private estates. I have never taken the subway in my life."

I looked at him in surprise. "Never?"

"Not once. Casimir claims it is a security risk. Elias claims it is inefficient."

"It is both of those things," I said. "But it gets you where you need to go."

"What else?" he asked. "What did you do on the weekends?"

"I did laundry. I bought groceries. I ordered cheap pizza and watched movies."

"What kind of movies?"

"Terrible ones," I admitted. "Action movies with bad plots."

He laughed. It was a warm sound that filled the quiet library. "I knew I liked you. Elias only watches documentaries about interest rates."

I smiled. I could not help it. His charm was effortless.

"He is very serious," I said.

"He was born serious," Emrys agreed. He leaned forward a little, resting his forearms on his knees. "But you are not. You are sitting in a billionaire's library, drinking a five-thousand-dollar bottle of wine, and talking about cheap pizza. You are incredibly refreshing, Sybil."

"I am just out of my element," I said.

"You fit in perfectly."

He asked me more questions. He asked about my favorite books, my thoughts on the city, and how I survived the strategy department for two years without dying of boredom. I answered him.

He did not talk over me. He actually listened to my answers, offering funny commentary that kept me on my toes.

I realized I was relaxing. My shoulders dropped and the heavy knot of anxiety in my stomach loosened. I laughed at a joke he made about the board of directors. It was the first time I had laughed in months.

"You have a beautiful laugh," he said.

The playful banter suddenly stopped. The atmosphere in the corner of the library shifted, becoming heavy and charged.

Emrys was looking at me differently now. The casual friendliness was gone, replaced by a dark, intense focus. His gaze dropped from my eyes down to my mouth.

"You have a very beautiful mouth," he murmured.

My heart skipped a beat. The sudden shift caught me completely off guard. I gripped the stem of the wine glass, my knuckles turning white.

"Emrys," I said. I kept my voice quiet. "I am an employee."

"You are off the clock."

"I work for your brother."

"My brother is currently on a conference call with Tokyo," he said. He set his wine glass down on the table and leaned a fraction closer to me. "He is not here."

I pressed my back against the leather armchair. "We have boundaries. There are corporate rules."

Emrys smiled. It was a slow, incredibly dangerous curve of his mouth.

"I have never let a corporate rule stop me from getting exactly what I want," he confessed softly.

He held my gaze, making his intentions absolutely clear. I sat frozen in the chair, my heart racing against my ribs.

Elias was a cold, demanding transaction, and Casimir was a hostile wall of distrust. But as I looked into Emrys’s hazel eyes, I knew the youngest Stavros brother was going to be a completely different, entirely lethal challenge on his own.