Chapter 4

ALARIC

I watched the blood drain out of her face.

She looked like she would drop to the floor any second. Her lips had parted around whatever she had been about to say and the words had simply died there in her throat.

She looked different. No make-up, no ginger wig, and no eye contacts.

Just dark chestnut brown hair and honey-doe eyes.

I had spent the morning constructing reasons to contact Madame Lior again, to arrange another night. There was something she had done to me last night that could not be undone, and I was not accustomed to things that could not be undone.

And now here she was. Standing in my office doorway.

If I believed in fate, I would have called it fate.

"You look like you're going to faint."

She swallowed and rubbed her palms together. I saw the moisture against her skirt where she tried to wipe the sweat off.

"Um...I... gods... um... you... we... oh gosh." She raised her hand and smacked her own cheek. "Wake up, Sable. Wake up."

She hit herself again the second time.

I stood up from the desk, crossed the office in four strides and caught her wrist in my palm before she could do it a third time.

"If you plan to smack yourself to death, do not do it in my office, Miss Zhen."

Her breathing was shallow.

"It's really you."

"It really is." I released her wrist and stepped back. "Small world. Have a seat."

I had never met any of my night attractions outside of hotel rooms, but unlike I had sometimes imagined, this wasn't uncomfortable.

I returned to my desk. She sat across from me with the awkward movements of someone expecting the worst, perching on the edge of the chair like she might need to get up and run at short notice.

"Don't fire me." The words came out in a rush. "Please. I can pretend we've never met. I really need this job, please."

I looked at her.

"The money I paid you was a lot. Still, you sound really desperate for the job."

She rubbed her palms against her skirt.

"Madame Lior kept ninety-five percent of it. She said it went toward clearing the accumulated interest on my debt."

"So she took ninety-five percent of what I paid?"

"She took extra, actually...."

"And you were the one who did all the work."

She stayed silent.

I leaned forward.

"I sent my driver back to the hotel to check on you. He said that you had already left before seven." I continued. "I presume you left early to make it to work on time. You were limping when you came in. Are you alright?"

"I... yes." She straightened. "I twisted my heel outside. I'm fine." Then, as if remembering where she was and what was at stake, she bolted into a frenzy of worry. "Am I keeping my job? Because I really need to know that before we discuss anything else.”

She didn't answer the former question honestly. I could tell that she was still sore, each time she tried to bring her thighs together… she flinched. My gaze went back up to her.

“Yes, you will keep your job. May I call you… Sable? That's your name right?” I had never heard such a name before. But it did suit her, rare… but yet so simple.

“Yes, sir.”

“Then you may call me Alaric.”

"Christina said I should refer to you as Mr. Leighton."

"In public, yes. When it's just us Alaric is fine." I watched the way she bit the inside of her cheek before nodding. "Today's lateness won't be held against you." I opened my desk drawer and produced a folded city map, marked in three places. "I'll have my driver send you a GPS route breakdown of the city tonight. The marked routes are the ones that avoid peak traffic. Use them."

Her eyes widened a little.

"Thank you sir, uh... Alaric.”

"Good. How is the apartment?”

She seemed surprised by the question.

"It's good. Better than I expected. There's even a pool outback."

"We prefer our staff comfortable in order to produce comfortable output." I pulled a form from the stack on my desk, her onboarding paperwork, which I had reviewed a few days ago and set it in front of her. "When you filled out the application, you left the relationship status field blank."

She looked at the form.

"It was optional, wasn't... it?”

"It was. I'm asking anyway not as a condition of employment but as courtesy. When Christina started, she made it clear that she was in a relationship. I gave her the standard advisory instruction that during work hours, I expect nothing short of total professionalism, and that personal matters stay personal. Since you've left it blank, are you currently involved with anyone?"

"No," she bit her lip. "I'm not.”

I couldn't tell if she was being honest or not. She seemed to be holding back something.

"Then I won't need to give you the same advisory instruction."

"Of course." She sat up straighter. "I am extremely professional and I won't let anything interfere with my work. I promise.”

She extended her pinky finger to me. I arched a brow, concealing an amused smirk. Her cheeks flushed and she withdrew it, stuttering a string of apologies.

"One more thing...."

"Yes?"

I leaned against my seat.

"I found some blood on the sheets.”

Her fingers flexed.

"Did I hurt you at any point? Was I too rough?”

The pause that followed was very small. Her eyes dropped to her hands for just a second.

"No," she said. "It's just..."

"It's just what? Sable."

"Um… it was my first time.” Her voice went sheepishly small at the end.

My eyes narrowed.

"Pardon?"

"It... " she seemed to realize there was no version of the next sentence that made this better. "Up until Saturday night I was... you know, it was my first time."

Silence shrouded the office.

I had heard her incorrectly. That was the only explanation. I had misheard, or she had misspoken, or there was some interpretation of what she had just said that did not mean what it appeared to mean, and I held onto that possibility for approximately three seconds before her expression confirmed that I had heard everything correctly.

"Wait." I set down the pen in my hand. "You mean to tell me that up until yesterday night you were a virgin?"

She held my gaze.

"Yes, Alaric."