From the moment she walked into his office, Adrian Blackwood noticed her. He noticed everything. The quiet confidence in her steps. The way her eyes met his without challenge, but without fear. She didn't tremble like the others. She didn't perform. She was composed, present — and far too tempting.
He had seen a hundred applicants before her. Polished. Ambitious. Forgettable. But something about her lingered long after she left the room.
There was nothing dramatic about her appearance. She wasn't trying to seduce. She wasn't loud. And yet, there was a softness in her features, a quiet fire behind her eyes that stirred something he wasn't used to feeling in the workplace — want. Not curiosity. Not interest. Want.
She didn't know it, but she had already become a problem. A distraction. And Adrian hated distractions.
He prided himself on control. Over his business. Over his image. Over his desires. But Amara, in all her innocence, threatened to unravel that discipline. She didn't flirt. She didn't try to impress. She simply existed — and it was enough to twist something deep in him.
There was something sensual about the way she listened, the way she sat straight with intention. She had no idea how her presence filled the room. How her voice, quiet and steady, settled in his mind long after the interview ended.
Hiring her had been a calculated risk. She was inexperienced, but she had something rare — focus. Integrity. And a subtle boldness that he both admired and resented. He told himself it was her professionalism that earned her the job. That he could keep things separate. That attraction, no matter how potent, would not interfere.
But even before her first official day, she was already living in his thoughts.
He imagined her working late in that office, just outside his glass walls, unaware of how closely he would watch her. He imagined the shape of her wrist as she typed, the tilt of her neck when she read reports, the way her blouse moved when she reached for a file. These thoughts weren't professional — they were dangerous. And yet he didn't stop them.
Adrian had rules. Lines never to be crossed. But Amara made those rules feel like suggestions. Not because she tried — but because she didn't. That was the most maddening part. She wasn't playing a game. She wasn't trying to be noticed.
And still, she was.
He told himself it would fade. That the temptation would dull once routine settled in. But in his gut, he already knew the truth.
This wasn't something that would pass.
She had just arrived, and already, Amara was more than just an assistant. She was a temptation dressed in professionalism. A desire wrapped in innocence. A storm he could not afford — but one he would eventually stop trying to resist.