CHAPTER 4: Ground Rules

Neither of us moved.

The glass walls of his office made me feel like we were in a fish tank, visible to every person on the thirty-second floor. I was painfully aware of the people walking past, the phones ringing, the normal everyday sounds of an office that had no idea their CEO was standing three feet away from the woman he had accidentally married over the weekend.

"Close the blinds," I said.

Xander blinked. "What?"

"The blinds, Xander. Close them. Unless you want everyone out there to watch me lose my mind."

He pressed a button on his desk and the glass frosted over, turning the transparent walls into solid white panels. The office became private in an instant.

The moment we were hidden, I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding and dropped into one of the chairs across from his desk. "Of all the companies in this city. Of all the offices in Manhattan. You have got to be kidding me."

Xander loosened his tie with one hand and sat down in his chair. "Trust me, I'm not laughing either."

"Your father interviewed me."

"I know. I was in Miami."

"Yeah. I know. I was there."

His jaw tightened, and for a moment, something close to a smile flickered across his face before he pushed it away. "How did you not know who I was?"

"How would I know? I was interviewing for an assistant job, not researching the family tree. Your father hired me. He never mentioned his son's name, and forgive me if I didn't g****e the entire Williams bloodline before going out for drinks."

"Fair enough."

"Fair enough?" I leaned forward. "Xander, I am married to my boss. Do you understand how insane that sounds? I haven't even been here for an hour and I'm already the office scandal."

"Nobody knows."

"Yet! Nobody knows yet!" I rubbed my hands over my face and groaned. "I should quit. Right now. I should walk out of this office and never come back."

"No."

I dropped my hands and looked at him. "No?"

"You're not quitting." He said it with the kind of calm authority that probably made boardrooms full of grown men sit up straight. "My father chose you out of dozens of applicants. He doesn't do that lightly. Whatever happened between us has nothing to do with your ability to do this job."

"Easy for you to say. You're the billionaire. If this gets out, people will gossip about you for a week and then move on. Me? I'll be the girl who slept her way into a job. I'll never work in this industry again."

"It won't get out."

"How can you promise that?"

"Because only two people in this world know about it. You and me. And neither of us has any reason to share." He held my gaze, and despite my frustration, I could see that he meant it.

I leaned back in the chair and crossed my arms. The rational part of my brain, the part that had kept me alive and employed for seven years, was telling me to think about this clearly. I needed this job. Not wanted. Needed. My grandmother's medication was expensive. Samuel's community college tuition was due next month. Khloe and Maya had been covering more than their share of the rent, and I couldn't keep letting them do that.

Walking away from this position would mean starting over from zero. Again.

"Fine," I said through my teeth. "I'll stay."

"Good."

"But we need rules."

Xander raised an eyebrow. "Rules?"

"Yes, rules. Ground rules for how this is going to work." I held up my index finger. "First, no one finds out about the marriage. Not your friends, not your staff, not the woman in the coffee shop downstairs. No one."

"Agreed."

I held up a second finger. "Second, whatever happened in Miami stays in Miami. We don't talk about it, we don't reference it, we don't joke about it."

"Agreed."

"Third, this," I pointed between us, "is strictly professional. You are my boss. I am your assistant. That is the beginning and the end of our relationship."

He studied me for a long moment, his green eyes unreadable. "Anything else?"

"Yes. Get the annulment done as fast as possible. The sooner this marriage disappears, the sooner I can pretend the worst weekend of my life never happened."

Something shifted in his expression. Just for a second, so fast I almost missed it. Was that... hurt? No. That didn't make sense. He wanted this over as much as I did.

"I'll call my lawyer today," he said, straightening papers on his desk in a way that told me the conversation was over. "Franklin is already working on it. You'll have papers to sign by the end of the week."

"Good." I stood up and smoothed my blouse. "Is there anything else you need from me, Mr Williams?"

The corner of his mouth twitched. "My coffee would be a nice start."

I turned and walked toward the door. My hand was on the handle when his phone rang. He picked it up and I heard Franklin's name come through the speaker.

"Franklin. Tell me you have good news."

I should have kept walking. I should have opened that door, sat down at my desk, and started learning the schedule. But something in the way Xander's posture changed made me pause. His shoulders went stiff. His knuckles turned white around the phone.

"What do you mean?" His voice dropped. "What clause?"

I watched his face change. The calm, controlled mask cracked open and something raw and angry poured through. He pressed his free hand flat against the desk and closed his eyes.

"You're telling me we can't get the annulment?"

My stomach dropped to my shoes. I turned around slowly.

Xander looked at me, and the expression on his face sent a chill down my spine. He lowered the phone and held it against his chest.

"Lara," he said quietly, "close the door."

I closed it. My hand was shaking.

"What's going on?" I asked. "What did he say?"

Xander set the phone down and dragged both hands through his hair, destroying the perfect style and leaving it messy and wild. He looked like a different person; younger, more vulnerable, like the man I had sat with on the hood of a car eating pizza in Brooklyn.

"There's a complication," he said.

"What kind of complication?"

He looked at me, and for the first time since I had walked into this office, he seemed unsure of what to say.

"Xander. What kind of complication?"

"The kind that means we can't end this marriage. Not yet." His green eyes locked onto mine, and the weight of what he was saying pressed down on my chest like a stone. "There's something I need to tell you, and you're not going to like it."