All Chapters of Beautifully Ruined By Him: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

The knock on the door sounded so suddenly that my entire body jerked. Cael stepped back immediately, and the pressure around me disappeared so fast it almost made me dizzy. For one horrible second, neither of us spoke. I could still feel my heartbeat everywhere. In my throat, my chest, my wrists. God. What had almost just happened?? "Sir?" The assistant's voice came again from outside the office, and I moved quickly, stepping away from the desk so fast my chair nearly tipped over behind me. Heat burned across my face as I fixed my clothes with shaky fingers, and I couldn't even look at Cael. Not properly, not after this, not after him standing that close to me, not after the things he had said. "Come in," he said calmly. Calmly, like I wasn't standing there trying to recover my sanity. The door opened and his assistant walked in carrying a tablet and several files. She stopped for the smallest second after noticing me... just one second, but I saw it. The quick glance, the

Six-thirty and the office was almost empty. I was still at my desk, going through the Meridian proposal one more time, when my phone buzzed. *Conference room B. Now. — Cael* Not "please." Not "when you get a chance." Just now, like I was a dog he could whistle for. Seriously?? I typed back: *I have a home to go to, you know.* *Conference room B.* I stared at the screen and considered ignoring it out of pure spite. Then I remembered he signed my proposal without an argument, and being difficult felt slightly less satisfying than usual. Plus, it was stupid arguing with your *boss. "Unbelievable man," I muttered, grabbing my folder. Conference room B wasn't empty when I got there. Two of the account leads were already at the table, laptops open, along with someone from finance I only recognized by face. Cael stood at the whiteboard at the front, sleeves rolled up, marker in hand like he'd been born holding one. "Good, you're here," he said, not looking up. "Sit." I sat, quiet and

Diane's POV I stood in the kitchen doorway for a full minute before Martha even noticed me there. "Ma'am?" "I want to cook something for Nora," I said. "Today. This afternoon." Martha set down the knife she was holding and gave me that look. The one she'd perfected over the fifteen years she'd worked in this house. I knew what she was thinking. *Good idea, ma'am but I'm about to disagree with you.* "Does Miss Nora know you're coming?" I frowned. "Does she need to?" "Ma'am." "Martha." She wiped her hands on her apron slowly, buying herself time the way she always did before saying something I wouldn't like. "You know how she gets," Martha said carefully. "If you just show up. She'll think something's wrong, or she'll think you're checking on her, and then she'll get that tone." "I am checking on her." Martha smiled. "I know, ma'am." "She's my daughter. What exactly is wrong with a mother wanting to see her child?" "Nothing's wrong with it," Martha said. "But you asked me w

27 I knocked once on his door, folder in hand, before letting myself in without waiting for an answer. Small rebellion. He never knocked when it came to my life, so I figured we were past that formality now. "Your ten o'clock got moved to eleven," I said, setting the schedule on his desk. "Legal team pushed the contract review to Thursday, and the board wants your notes on the Halloway situation by end of day." "Noted." I dropped the folder. "Your calendar's a mess, by the way. You keep double-booking yourself." "That's why I have you now." Something in my stomach dipped at that, quick and unwelcome, the kind of small flutter I had no business feeling over a sentence that plain. "I'm your secretary, not your babysitter." He looked up at that, one eyebrow raised slightly, but didn't say anything. The silence stretched a beat longer than it should have. I turned to leave before it could settle any further. "Nora." I stopped at the door. My hand was already on the frame, and I

Nora's POV The afternoon had settled into the kind of dull rhythm I actually didn't mind. I was tired, had emails, a stack of contracts to review, and the low hum of the office around me. I'd almost forgotten about the Meridian call entirely, trusting that it was locked in for two o'clock. I was elbow-deep in a budget spreadsheet when Priyanka breezed past my desk with a stack of files, tossing the comment over her shoulder like it was nothing. "You're still so busy. Good thing the CEO caught that scheduling thing," she said, breezing past my desk with a stack of files. "You would've walked into that client call with the wrong deck entirely." I looked up. "What scheduling thing?" She stopped. "The Meridian call. Wasn't it supposed to be at two with the old deck? Someone said he pushed it to three and had the updated numbers sent over this morning before anyone even noticed the mix-up." My stomach did something unpleasant. Cael did that? "When did this happen?" "I don't know, thi