Under Her Terms

She told herself it meant nothing.

The way his eyes lingered. The way he never asked twice.

The way he looked at her like he could see past every layer of silk, steel, and silence she’d spent years wrapping herself in.

He was her assistant.

Polite. Controlled. Too careful for his own good.

Until the night he wasn’t.

Until he stepped inside her office long after midnight, closed the glass door behind him, and didn’t say a word. Just looked at her not like a man looking at his boss. But like a man about to ruin every rule she’d written.

She should’ve fired him.

She should’ve said no.

But Nyra Quinn didn’t move.

Didn’t speak.

And when Damien Cole crossed the room slow, sure, devastating she forgot what power was supposed to feel like.

Because for the first time in her entire life, she wanted to be told what to do.