that guilt just beneath. He watched her as if he knew, or at least suspected, something was wrong.
And he was right, of course.
She didn’t want to wreck Juno’s reputation, but she didn’t think she could sustain this lie. She’d gone too public and what had been a minor error was now getting more attention than before. That online bulletin had asked again to interview her—it was ridiculous—and more people were trying to follow her online. Thank goodness Juno had shut down her social media platforms because, as it was, some of her old pictures had been recirculating. If anyone looked too closely and spotted any differences between them and the ‘Juno’ in the office now? It was a nightmare waiting to come to life.
But it was that internal battle that was the most hideous. She’d prided herself on her ability to contain her emotions, to be the calm, polite princess who could control her own thoughts and get the job done. But all that control had slid the second she’d encountered Alvaro Byrne.
And now she’d got to know a little of him? He wasn’t the autocratic bully who didn’t bother to listen...in reality he did hear, he did see. He even apologised.
Which meant he was impossible to stay mad with, impossible to say no to, impossible to ignore. But he was her boss. So she had to. Because he was so, so out of bounds.
Something still didn’t add up. And that fact that he was still obsessing over her days later? Alvaro couldn’t wait for tomorrow—Friday, finally. The office was officially closing for Christmas and it would give him a few days alone to sort out his head—and other parts. Because he did not screw around with employees. Ever. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t had the chance. He’d had to be very distanced from one former recruit who’d made a pass at him, but he didn’t like it messy in the workplace.
Outside the company? For a while seduction had been a sport like any other, and Alvaro always played to win. But he’d matured since the days when he’d taken what had been offered just because he could. And he’d swiftly learned it was simpler to stay single. With his workload he couldn’t meet the commitment or expectations of a long-term relationship. Nowadays he enjoyed an occasional brief affair with a woman willing to enjoy the lifestyle—and lack of strings—he offered. A woman unencumbered by unrealistic dreams of happy-ever-after, or drama.
But this woman? An employee. A princess—even if cast off from her kingdom... There was so much drama. So much that was forbidden.
Yet he couldn’t tear his attention from her. Couldn’t stop the urges whispering within—they’d been his constant, irritating companions every minute since he’d sparred with her first thing last Monday morning. Every day since had only added to the weight of temptation. And his curiosity—sexual and otherwise—had equally magnified as the days had passed.
Why had a supposedly streetwise ‘rebel’ struggled to unlock her own front door? Why had she fleetingly looked panicked when she had been late the other day? And he couldn’t be sure, but he suspected that for some reason she wasn’t eating much. He’d seen her pour herself too many coffees from the office filter, adding doses of sugar and cream as if to magically bulk it into a meal... He was probably projecting his own old feelings and fear of hunger on that one, but he’d ordered lunch into the meeting on Tuesday just in case. He’d done the same again every day since, calling it his new Christmas tradition. As if he knew anything about those. But he couldn’t stand to think of someone starving. Sometimes she seemed miles away—Sophy had had to call her name twice the other day. And her immediate apology, the polite smile she offered? The stillness in the way she sat? Her quietness in the office? She was a contradiction. Because he knew that, beneath that supposedly serene exterior, she was stifling a snappy fighter. He wanted that Juno to emerge again. Instead, she’d buried herself in that stupid proposal Sophy had requested.
He’d had to resist, employing every ounce of self-control not to try and provoke the feisty determination he’d discovered lay beneath that poised facade. She was too perfectly contained. Where was the wild ‘Rebel Princess’ her old social media posts showed her to be? Where was the flash of spirit she’d shown him on Monday morning?
While she looked the same, she didn’t seem the same.
But