Author's POV

He didn’t yell. He didn’t grab the coffee violently. He didn’t scold me or demand an explanation.

Instead, Louis Wolf took the cup from my hand with quiet precision, held it loosely at arm’s length… and simply released it.

The porcelain cup hit the floor with a sharp crack, smashing into jagged pieces. Coffee splattered everywhere, staining the polished marble like spilled blood.

He threw away the coffee because it was late.

Because I was late.

This is my boss. So supportive. So inspiring.

I swallowed hard, feeling nothing on my face but tight professionalism. The old version of me, the one who wasn’t used to battle would have burst into tears from humiliation. But the woman standing here had lived through far worse. I’ve cried over deaths, debts, and hunger. A grown man throwing coffee at my feet didn’t even make it into the top 100 worst moments of my life.

“I’m sorry, sir… I got late. It won’t happen again.”

My voice came out steady, emotionless. Controlled. Maybe this is what irks him about me.

It was my first time being late, yet there wasn’t even a flicker of leniency in his eyes. Of course there wouldn’t be. Louis looked for excuses to tear me down even on days I did everything perfectly. Expecting generosity from him would be stupidity.

He didn’t respond. His jaw clenched, lips pressed together in silent disapproval. His greyish-blue eyes traveled down my body, slow enough to make the hair on the back of my neck rise. It wasn’t sexual. It wasn’t appreciative. It was assessing, judging, dissecting.

When his gaze dragged across the length of my legs where my pencil skirt didn’t cover, my ears burned with embarrassment. I wasn’t shy about my figure, but I had insecurities I never voiced, good height, decent chest, everything proportionate except my hips, thick no matter how much I starved or exercised or hated myself in the mirror.

Now I felt every insecurity flare under his eyes. Was he thinking I looked ridiculous in a skirt? Fat? Out of place? Ugly?

He never commented on my body, not even once so maybe I was overthinking. Maybe!

Then he spoke, each word dipped in mockery.

“The talent of earning yourself a hard day so effortlessly. Raw, unpolished talent.”

The tiny fantasy I had of having one peaceful workday was ripped apart just like the shattered cup on the floor.

He turned away, giving me a sideways look that said get out, even though his mouth didn’t bother forming the words.

I exhaled, a defeated sigh escaping me as my arms fell to my sides, the empty tray hanging uselessly from my fingers.

A fatal mistake!

He looked back sharply at the sound of my sigh, spine-freezing eyes pinning me like I’d just breathed without asking permission.

Fuck. Great job, Lisa. Haven’t you dug your grave deep enough this morning? Maybe try burying yourself completely.

But his phone rang, mercifully stealing his attention away from me.

“I’ll get it cleaned,”

I murmured, grabbing the tray tightly and escaping like a prisoner given three seconds of freedom.

His voice exploded behind me, yelling at whoever was unfortunate enough to be on the call. If he was already in a bad mood, now the devil himself was trembling somewhere.

Good. Because my day was fucked too.

I dropped into my chair outside his cabin and let out another sigh, this time one of pure defeat. The day had only just begun.

No matter. I wasn’t going to give him a second reason to come at me. I immediately started compiling the data he asked for, double checking formulas, cross-checking numbers, ensuring there wasn’t even a microscopic mistake.

“Mr. Wolf… you don’t know how thick-skinned I am,”

I muttered under my breath, my fingers flying across the keyboard like they were trying to outrun fear.

My office phone rang. One second. No hesitation.

I grabbed the documents and headed straight back into his den.

I stood before him with perfect posture.

“Yes, sir.”

“Papers?”

He didn’t look up from the screen, but the command sliced the air clean.

Did I ever tell you his voice terrifies and intoxicates me at the same time? It’s deep, rich, masculine, a voice made to command, not request. It pushes me to the edge of fear and yet there’s something in it that makes my stomach twist and my thighs clench. The woman in me wants to hear that voice again and again.

“Papers, Lisa.”

He growled the word, and I flinched, snapping out of whatever stupid trance I’d fallen into.

Fuck. I didn’t even realize I was staring like an idiot.

I stretched out the files toward him. Our fingers brushed, just for a fraction, but an electric warmth shot up my arm so fast I stopped breathing. Heat bloomed under my skin at the accidental contact, and my stupid brain started wondering how his hands would feel on the rest of my body.

I shook my head internally. Wrong. Absolutely wrong. Louis Wolf should be the last man I fantasize about. He could destroy me without even trying. I’ve already been destroyed once, by someone I loved. I don’t have the strength to gamble my heart again. Especially not with a man who sees kindness as weakness.

He flipped through the documents with the expression of someone searching for flaws. Not reading but hunting. If he found even the tiniest error, he would have annihilated my dignity without blinking.

And then nothing. His eyes lifted to me instead, cold and unreadable, confirming he hadn’t found anything to attack.

“What are you waiting for?”

His tone was terrifyingly calm, calm like a blade just before it cuts.

I left the office without another word. Because staying would have invited insult. But leaving too soon would have invited insult too.

This man had issues. Giant ones.

“What next?” I muttered sarcastically once I was outside, standing in front of his cabin door with my back facing it.

For reasons even God wouldn’t understand, I didn’t walk away. I leaned back slightly against the door, just to breathe for a second. Just to gather my sanity.

But the door wasn’t the hard, cold surface I expected.

Something warm and solid pressed against my back. Something very much human.

The door wasn’t alive.

It was him.

Louis Wolf was standing right behind me. My back was flush against his chest, firm, muscular, radiating heat through my blouse like fire licking against my skin.

I froze. I didn’t breathe. My body forgot how to exist.

His warm breath brushed the side of my neck, slow, subtle, but unmistakably there. Like a dragon exhaling on the back of its prey.

I didn’t turn around. I couldn’t. My mind shut down, my lungs locked, my heart hammered like it wanted to escape.

I wasn’t supposed to be this close to him.

He wasn’t supposed to be this close to me.

Yet here we were, my spine aligned with the chest of the most dangerous man I know, a man who could ruin my life with a single sentence.