Chapter One

Chapter One: The Interview

The elevator ride to the thirty-seventh floor felt like a countdown to something Harper Lane wasn’t ready for. She smoothed her skirt for the tenth time, heart pounding under her blouse like a warning bell.

“Just breathe,” she whispered to herself as the polished metal doors slid open with a soft ding.

The offices of Wolfe International were nothing like the places she’d worked before. Everything gleamed—glass walls, chrome finishes, cold elegance. It screamed money. Power. Control. And somewhere at the top of it all was Easton Wolfe.

Her new boss—if she didn’t screw this up.

“Ms. Lane?” a voice called, snapping her out of her thoughts. A woman with clipped heels and a tighter bun than seemed medically safe walked toward her. “Mr. Wolfe will see you now.”

Already?

Harper followed the woman down a hallway so quiet she could hear her own heartbeat. She tried not to let her nerves show, but the truth was, she hadn’t had a real interview in months. Not since her ex-boyfriend-slash-ex-boss left her with a broken heart and a reputation she couldn’t shake.

The assistant opened the glass door, and Harper stepped into the lion’s den.

Easton Wolfe didn’t look up right away. He was behind his desk, sleeves rolled to his elbows, tie loosened just enough to be tempting. His hair was dark, his jaw sharper than it had any right to be. He didn’t need to stand to own the room—he was the room.

When he finally looked at her, Harper felt the air shift. His gaze was cool, unreadable. The kind that made you want to tell him your secrets just to see if he’d flinch.

“You’re late,” he said.

She blinked. “It’s 9:00 a.m. on the dot.”

“I said arrive before nine,” he replied smoothly, rising from his chair. “Punctual is average. I don’t hire average.”

Oh, hell no.

“I guess I’ll have to be exceptional then,” Harper shot back, chin lifting. She wasn’t going to let him rattle her, no matter how annoyingly good-looking he was.

Easton’s mouth curved into something almost like a smirk. “We’ll see.”

He circled his desk like a predator, stopping in front of her. He was tall. Intimidating. But Harper held his gaze, even when everything inside her screamed to look away.

“I don’t tolerate mistakes. I don’t repeat myself. I don’t care about your excuses, your personal life, or whether you’re having a bad day,” he said, voice low. “You work for me, you work on my terms.”

Harper didn’t flinch. “And I work by my rules. I don’t fetch coffee unless I drink it too. I don’t lie, I don’t flirt, and I don’t let men like you walk all over me.”

For a second, silence stretched between them. Then—he laughed. Not a big laugh, just a dry chuckle like she’d surprised him.

“Interesting,” Easton said. “Sit down, Ms. Lane.”

She did.

The rest of the interview was a blur of sharp questions and even sharper looks. But by the end, he said three words she didn’t expect.

“You’re hired. Temporarily.”

“Temporarily?” she asked.

“You’ll last a week, maybe two,” he said, walking back to his desk. “Then we’ll see if you’re still interesting.”

Challenge accepted, Harper thought.

But what she didn’t know—what neither of them knew—was that this was the beginning of something dangerous. Something electric. Something that would burn every rule they thought they lived by.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***