HANA'S POV
I stared at the red ink bleeding across my computer screen and wanted to scream.
"INADEQUATE. Redo sections 2, 5, and 9. See me immediately. - K.A."
That was the fourth time. Four times I'd rewritten this stupid report. Four times Kieran had torn it apart like I was an idiot who couldn't write a simple sentence.
My hands shook as I hit delete on the entire document.
Three o'clock in the afternoon. I'd been working on this one report for eight hours straight. No lunch break. No coffee break. Just endless revisions while my boss sat in his office doing... whatever it was he did in there. All day his door had been closed. All day I'd heard strange sounds—growling, things breaking, footsteps pacing back and forth.
Something was wrong with him today. But honestly? I didn't care anymore.
I was done.
I stood up so fast my chair rolled backward and hit the wall. I didn't even care about the noise. Let him hear. Let him come out here and yell at me. I was past the point of fear. Now I was just angry.
So angry I could barely see straight.
I grabbed my phone and walked—no, stormed—toward the bathroom. My heels clicked loudly on the marble floor. Everything in this building was expensive and beautiful and perfect. Just like Kieran Ashford.
I hated it. I hated all of it.
The bathroom was blessedly empty. I locked myself in a stall and pressed my hands over my face, trying to breathe. Trying not to completely lose it.
But the tears came anyway.
Hot, angry tears that I'd been holding back all day. All week. All month. Two years of frustration and exhaustion and never being good enough poured out of me.
I cried until my throat hurt. Until my eyes were swollen and my mascara was probably running down my face. I cried until I felt hollow and empty and completely wrung out.
This job was killing me. Slowly. One impossible task at a time.
The bathroom door opened. I went silent, holding my breath.
"Hana? I know you're in here. I saw you run past."
Sophie. Thank God.
I unlocked the stall and stepped out. Sophie took one look at my face and swore.
"That's it. Come on." She grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the bathroom, down the hall, and into the supply closet. She flipped on the light and closed the door behind us.
We were surrounded by boxes of printer paper and cleaning supplies. It smelled like lemon cleaner. But it was private, and right now, that was all that mattered.
"Let it out," Sophie said. "Say everything you're thinking. I won't tell anyone."
"I hate him," I whispered. "Sophie, I really, really hate him."
"I know."
"He's horrible. He's cruel and cold and nothing I do is ever good enough!" My voice was rising now. "I stayed up until 2 AM last night. I worked through lunch. I rewrote that stupid report four times and he still says it's inadequate!"
"He's a jerk," Sophie agreed.
"And today he was so weird! Telling me not to leave the building, looking at me all strange, using my first name—" I stopped. "He never uses my first name."
Sophie's eyes narrowed. "Wait. He told you not to leave the building?"
"Yeah. This morning. Said to trust him, that it wasn't safe." I laughed, but it sounded bitter even to my own ears. "Like he cares about my safety. He probably just wanted to make sure I couldn't escape before finishing his stupid report."
But Sophie wasn't laughing. She was staring at me with an odd expression. "Hana... what if he does care?"
"What?"
"About your safety. About you." Sophie leaned against a shelf of paper towels. "What if Kieran Ashford is attracted to you and has absolutely no idea how to show it?"
I stared at her. Then I burst out laughing. Real laughter this time, not the bitter kind. "Are you insane? Kieran Ashford doesn't like me. He barely tolerates me. I'm pretty sure if he could replace me with a robot, he would."
"Think about it," Sophie insisted. "He's been your boss for two years. In that time, has he ever actually fired you? No. Has he let you quit? No—remember when you tried last year and he gave you a massive raise?"
"That's because—"
"And he works you harder than anyone else in this entire company. Like he's training you for something. Preparing you." Sophie's voice got quieter. "What if all that coldness is just... protection? What if he pushes you away because he can't let himself get close?"
"Sophie, you've been reading too many romance novels."
"Maybe. Or maybe I'm right." She shrugged. "I've seen the way he looks at you sometimes when you're not paying attention. It's intense. Like you're the only person in the room."
My heart did a weird little flip. I ignored it. "You're wrong. Trust me. Kieran Ashford feels nothing for me except disappointment."
Sophie opened her mouth to argue, but her phone buzzed. She checked it and swore. "I have to get to a meeting. But Hana? Just... think about it, okay? Maybe he's not the monster you think he is."
She left me standing in the supply closet, surrounded by cleaning supplies, my mind spinning.
Kieran Ashford attracted to me? Impossible. Ridiculous. Completely insane.
But a tiny voice in the back of my mind whispered: *Then why did his eyes look gold this morning? Why did he sound worried? Why did he say your name like it hurt him?*
I shook my head hard. I was losing it. The stress was finally making me crazy.
I checked my reflection in my phone camera. My eyes were red and puffy. My mascara had run. I looked like I'd been hit by a truck.
Perfect.
I cleaned up as best I could with paper towels and took a deep breath. Time to go back to my desk. Back to the endless work. Back to pretending I was fine.
When I walked back to my desk, I froze.
There was a coffee cup sitting there. Right in the center of my keyboard where I couldn't miss it.
An expensive coffee cup from the fancy shop two blocks away. The one that cost eight dollars and made the best lattes in the city.
I picked it up slowly. It was still warm. Perfect temperature. I took a sip.
Oat milk latte with caramel. My exact favorite. The drink I ordered every single morning on my way to work.
There was no note. No explanation. Just the coffee.
I looked at Kieran's closed office door. Had he... no. That was impossible. Why would he buy me coffee? And how did he even know my order?
Unless Sophie was right. Unless he'd been paying attention this whole time.
My hands trembled as I took another sip. It was perfect. Exactly the way I liked it.
I sat down at my desk, staring at that closed office door, my mind racing.
Something was very, very strange about today. Strange texts. Strange warnings. Strange coffee.
And Kieran Ashford was at the center of all of it.
I opened my computer to start working again, and that's when I noticed something odd.
My report—the one I'd deleted in frustration—was back. But it wasn't my version. Someone had rewritten large sections of it. Made it better. Cleaner. More professional.
And at the bottom, in tiny letters almost too small to see, was a note:
"You were close. Just needed refinement. Submit this version. - K"
My throat tightened. He'd fixed my report? When? Why?
Before I could process any of it, Kieran's office door flew open.
He stood there, and I sucked in a breath.
He looked... wrong. His usually perfect hair was messy. His tie was gone. His shirt was wrinkled. And his eyes—those cold gray eyes—kept flickering. Gray. Then gold. Then gray again.
"Hana." His voice was rough, strained. "I need you to go home. Right now."
"What? But you said—"
"I know what I said. Plans changed." He moved toward me, and I noticed he was limping slightly. "Marcus is waiting downstairs. He'll drive you. Don't take the bus. Don't walk. Go straight home and lock your doors."
"Mr. Ashford, what's going on?"
"Please." That word again. Please. His eyes flashed gold and stayed that way for three full seconds. "Just do this for me. Don't ask questions. Just go."
My heart was pounding. "Are you... are you okay? You look—"
"I'm fine. But you need to leave. Now." He reached past me and grabbed my bag, shoving it into my arms. His hand brushed mine, and I gasped.
His skin was burning hot. Like touching a stove.
"Your hand—"
"NOW, HANA!"
The shout made me jump. I'd never heard him yell like that. Never heard that much emotion in his voice.
I ran. Grabbed my bag and ran for the elevator, my heart in my throat.
As the elevator doors closed, I looked back.
Kieran was standing in the hallway, watching me. His eyes were completely gold now. Glowing gold, like they were lit from within.
And just before the doors shut completely, I saw something impossible.
Something sprouted from his head. Something that looked like... ears? Furry, pointed ears?
No. That was crazy. I was seeing things. The stress had finally broken my brain.
The elevator descended, and I leaned against the wall, shaking.
What was happening?
What was wrong with Kieran Ashford?
And why did I have the terrible feeling that everything was about to change?