All Chapters of Signed, Sealed, Sinful : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

I didn't sleep.Not a single minute. I lay in my bed staring at the ceiling, running through every possible version of Monday morning in my head, and each one ended in disaster. I imagined walking into the office and him being there. I imagined the look on his face when he saw me. I imagined everyone somehow knowing; the receptionist, the other assistants, the janitor; all of them whispering, "That's the girl who married the CEO in a drunken haze in Miami."By the time my alarm went off at seven, I had already been awake for hours. I dragged myself to the bathroom and stared at my reflection. Red eyes from no sleep. My braids needed redoing. My skin looked dull and tired. Lovely. Just the impression I wanted to make on my first day."You can do this," I told my reflection. "You are smart. You are capable. You got this job because you earned it. Whatever happened over the weekend is a mistake that will be fixed, and it has nothing to do with your ability to do this work."My reflection

The smell of coconut.That was the first thing I remembered when I woke up on Sunday morning in Miami. Not her name, not the chapel, not the ring. Just coconut and something sweeter underneath, like vanilla, clinging to the pillow next to mine.I opened my eyes and looked at the woman lying beside me. Her braids were spread across the white sheets like dark ribbons, and her skin glowed bronze in the morning light. She was on her stomach, one arm hanging off the edge of the bed, her face soft and peaceful in sleep.She was beautiful. Not in the way I was used to. Not the polished, calculated beauty of the women who circled my life like sharks smelling money. This was something different. Something warm. Something real.I sat up slowly and rubbed my face. My head was pounding and my mouth tasted like regret. I looked around the penthouse and tried to piece together what had happened. Clothes everywhere. A champagne bottle lying empty on the bathroom floor. My wallet on the dining table

Lara's POV*I stood very still.Casandra's hand was flat against her stomach, and her blue eyes were locked on Xander's face with a look that said she had been waiting a long time to deliver this news. The room was thick and heavy, like the air before lightning hits."Get out," Xander said.His voice was quiet, but it cut through the room like a blade. Two words, no heat in them, which somehow made them worse.Casandra blinked. "Excuse me?""You walked into my office without an appointment, without an invitation, and without a good reason." He picked the white envelope off his desk and held it toward her. "Take this and leave.""Xander." Her voice softened, turned honey-sweet. "Don't be like this. We need to talk like adults. What I'm carrying changes everything.""I'm not taking anything you say at face value," he replied. "Franklin will contact you within forty-eight hours. Until then, don't come back to this building."Casandra's eyes slid to me, slow and deliberate, like she was m

Lara's POV*The elevator doors opened at six forty-two, and I stepped onto the thirty-second floor alone.The office was dark except for the light already glowing behind the frosted glass of Xander's corner office. I walked toward it, my heels quiet on the marble because I had chosen flat shoes today, and the entire floor felt different without the usual noise and movement of people filling it.I pushed open his door.He was already there; jacket off, white shirt sleeves pushed to his elbows; standing beside the conference table with two copies of the contract spread open and a pen lying between them. A cup of black coffee sat beside his copy, and to my surprise, a second cup sat beside mine.He looked up when I entered. "You're three minutes early.""So are you." I set my bag down on the nearest chair. "Have you read through it again?""Twice." He tapped the margin of page four. "I added one line. I want you to check it."I leaned over the table and read the handwritten addition. It