جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 20

"Is this the new assistant?"The deep voice cut through the silent executive floor, sharp and cold enough to freeze the blood in my veins. Every background conversation had died the second the elevator doors slid open, but hearing Ethan Blackwood speak directly brought a heavy, suffocating pressure into the room.He stood just a few feet away, tall, broad-shouldered, and draped in a dark, tailored suit that looked like an armor of absolute authority. His face was a mask of hard angles and cold discipline. He looked like a man who destroyed careers before breakfast without ever raising his voice."Yes, Mr. Blackwood," Vanessa said immediately. Her polished smile remained perfectly in place, but I caught the subtle, sharp shift in her posture. She stood up straight, giving me a quick, warning glare to make sure I wasn't slumping. "This is Aria Collins. She started today."I stepped forward, pulling my shoulders back and locking my eyes with his. My heart was hammering wildly against my

My first mistake at Blackwood Group happened before I had even finished my morning coffee.I sat at my terminal, fingers flying over the keys as I lined up Ethan’s morning itinerary. The floor was still quiet, the rest of the executive staff half an hour away from arriving. A pop-up notification flashed red across the corner of my screen. It was an updated meeting request marked high priority, coming directly from a department executive’s office regarding the eleven o'clock asset review.I opened the file. The note inside contained conflicting information about both the location and the time. The original master schedule had the review set for the main executive board room, but this new message insisted the meeting had been moved to the South Tower conference suite to accommodate an urgent cross-department review.Believing the latest update was correct, I immediately adjusted Ethan’s master schedule on the central system and printed a fresh copy for his desk.Ten minutes later, a sha

The first time Ethan Blackwood remembered how I took my coffee, I convinced myself it meant absolutely nothing.I found the white paper cup resting squarely beside my keyboard before I even pulled off my winter coat. Steam still curled softly from the plastic lid. Written on the cardboard sleeve in blue marker was my exact order: oat milk, two drops of vanilla, no sugar.I turned toward the reception aisle. "Vanessa, did you order this for me? You really didn't have to."Vanessa stopped typing, her fingers hovering over her keys as she looked up with a dry laugh. "I walked through the lobby three minutes ago, Aria. I haven't even unlocked my own bottom drawer yet, let alone run down to the street for your morning fix."I stared back at the warm cup. No paper receipt hung from the side. Nobody else in the building knew my specific order. Then my eyes shifted toward the heavy wall of tinted glass separating my desk from the executive suite. Ethan’s private workspace was positioned so cl

"By Monday morning, I had decided there was one thing I needed to remember about Ethan Blackwood: he was my boss, and nothing more," I whispered under my breath, adjusting the strap of my bag before stepping into the glass office suite.The intense look he had given me outside my apartment on Friday night had replayed continuously in my mind all weekend, right alongside the way he defended me against Victoria. Letting myself read into his attention was dangerous. I needed to protect my job and my heart, and that meant establishing strict, unbreakable boundaries starting right now.I walked straight to my desk, avoiding any detour. I organized my workspace, opened the morning files, and carefully set Ethan’s black coffee on the exact corner of his desk, right beside his printed schedule."Good morning, Mr. Blackwood," I said, keeping my posture rigid and my tone crisp, flat, and professional. "Your first briefing with the asset directors is at nine o'clock."Ethan looked up from his ta

I told myself the strange feeling in my chest was stress, but stress had never made me forget how to breathe.Standing by my desk, I smoothed down my skirt and tried to focus on my computer screen, but my mind kept drifting to the small, subtle ways my boss was changing. Over the past few days, Ethan had begun paying attention to details no executive ever noticed. Yesterday, he walked past my desk and placed a warm mug of black tea with a splash of milk right beside my laptop without saying a single word. He remembered my exact preference from a passing comment I had made weeks ago. Earlier this morning, he stepped out of his office, glanced at my untouched sandwich, and asked if I had skipped lunch again. When I stayed past seven last night, he lingered by the door to ask whether I was getting enough rest.I gripped my pen tightly, trying to convince myself that he was simply becoming a better, more observant boss. It was safer to believe he was just managing his personal assistant w