All Chapters of One Night Stand With My Billionaire Boss : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

(Ciara’s POV)When I finally stepped out of the room, I paused for a brief second at the door as I adjusted the dress Lucas had given me, still slightly unsure of how all of this had turned into me standing in a man’s house in borrowed clothes after an all-night work session that should have ended at the office, but the moment I took a steady breath and walked forward, I told myself I was only here because I needed rest, nothing more, nothing complicated.The hallway was quiet as I made my way toward the living room, and the deeper I walked into the house, the more I became aware of how still everything felt, like the entire space was built for silence, yet somehow his presence seemed to fill every corner even when he was not speaking.When I finally reached the living room, I stopped.Lucas was standing near the large glass window, one hand in his pocket, the other resting lightly on the edge of a chair, as if he had been thinking about something when I walked in, and for a moment, n

Ciara’s POV)For a brief second, everything in the room blurred into silence as I stood frozen at the front, my eyes still fixed on the screen that refused to make sense, because I knew without doubt that what I was seeing was not what I had written, and the realization hit me slowly at first, then all at once, like something cold settling deep inside my chest.Someone had interfered.Someone had touched my work.And the only person I needed to look at was already watching me.Taylor.She sat there calmly, her expression perfectly composed, but the faint curve of her lips, subtle enough for others to miss, was all I needed to confirm what my instincts had already started screaming at me.She did this.But I didn’t say it out loud.Not yet.Because something inside me shifted in that moment, something sharper than panic, something closer to clarity, and I realized that if I allowed myself to break here, in front of all these people, then I would be giving her exactly what she wanted.S

Ciara’s POV)For a moment, no one moved.The room felt suspended in something heavier than silence, like everything that had just happened was still hanging in the air, waiting for someone to decide what it meant, and I stood there frozen, my chest rising and falling unevenly as my eyes slowly shifted toward the door where Lucas was standing.He didn’t look surprised.He didn’t look confused.He looked… controlled.Too controlled.His gaze moved from me to the wall, taking in the pictures, the words, the damage that had already been done, and then finally, it settled on Taylor.And that was when the air changed.“What is this?” he asked.His voice was calm.But there was something beneath it.Something sharp.Something dangerous.Taylor didn’t flinch.She didn’t step back.Instead, she straightened slightly, her expression smoothing into something almost innocent, as if she hadn’t just stood there and watched me break.“I think that’s obvious,” she said lightly.Lucas didn’t respond i

Ciara’s POV)The days that followed the incident in the conference hall did not return to normal, no matter how much everyone pretended they had, because something had shifted in a way that could not be undone, and even though the pictures had been taken down and the whispers had quieted, I could still feel the weight of what happened lingering in the spaces I walked through, like a shadow that refused to completely disappear.I tried to ignore it.I tried to focus on work.I tried to convince myself that nothing had changed.But that was the problem.Something had changed.And it wasn’t just the way people looked at me.It was the way he did.Lucas had always been controlled, distant in a way that made him unreadable, but now there was something different in his attention, something more direct, more intentional, and it was impossible not to notice it when I worked just a few steps away from him every single day.That morning started like any other, with me arriving early and organiz

Ciara’s POV)There are moments in life when everything feels steady, controlled, and predictable, and then there are moments when the ground beneath you shifts so subtly that you do not notice it until you are already falling, and as I sat at my desk that morning with the early sunlight stretching across the polished floor of Lucas’s office, I had the unsettling feeling that something had already been set in motion long before I became aware of it.Vanessa had arrived earlier than usual.That alone was enough to make me pause.She was already seated at her workstation, flipping through documents with a quiet focus that seemed almost too perfect, like she had rehearsed every movement she made, and when she noticed me, she looked up with that same polite, practiced smile that never quite reached her eyes.“Good morning, Ciara.”Her voice was calm.Too calm.“Morning,” I replied, setting my bag down.There was a brief silence that followed, one that stretched just long enough to feel int