Page 117 of Mafia Obsession

Feeling uneasy aboutwhowill be giving Ares my meticulouspersonal assistantattention, I ask, “And who will replace me?”

“Ares doesn’t want a personal assistant at the moment.” She leans in. “Ares kept you close to him for his own reasons.”

I wanted you the minute I saw you…

Cringing to realize I was hired because he wanted me in his bed all along, I fight to maintain my dignity. “Okay.”

“Then there are other meetings, charity galas, and business dinners,” Daria adds and slides a black credit card across the desk to me. “This is your executive corporate card. And I will text you the number of an approved stylist to purchase gowns.”

“Great.”

Only one hesitation rises to the edge of my thoughts.

“I still need to manage my sister’s care when she’s transferred here to New York,” I say, eyes on Daria. “Meetings with her therapists come first. That’s non-negotiable.”

Daria quirks a brow. “Ares said we are to accommodate whatever conflicts arise in regard to your sister.”

“Thank you.” I accept this for what it is right now and will take everything one day at a time.

Daria stands. “Now, let me show you your new office.”

Tingles race up my spine. I figured I’d be performing my new duties, like reading students’ resumes for the scholarship committee, from my desk outside Ares’s corner office.

We take the circular metal and wood staircase back up to the executive level, and she leads me to Atlas and Ambrose’s offices. They are each busy behind closed doors. Atlas dealing with finances, and Ambrose handling the legal side.

I wasn’t gone for very long, but there appears to be a brand-new empty office between the brothers.

“Right here.” Daria opens the door to that office with a code. “This is yours.”

I blink at the size and style of it. Dark, clean woods and a view of the city that usually comes with a very high salary for a mere mortal. I step inside slowly, trailing my fingers along the back of the chair behind the desk. My touch melts into the soft leather.

“Who was this office built for?” I can’t imagine Ares would rip out sheetrock for…

Before I finish that thought, Ares is there, filling the doorframe.

“I had this section renovated while you were gone,” he says evenly. “I built it for you.”

The air tightens, and Daria, reading the shift, excuses herself without another word.

His brothers now have smaller offices because of me. Ares could have given me any number of empty offices on the several floors we occupy in this building. I’ve been put into the inner circle of Zervas & Company.

As an equal.

Alone now, Ares steps inside and closes the door behind him. “Are you happy with your new role in the company?” he asks.

“I am,” I answer honestly. “I don’t want to be a kept wife. I never did.”

But without a real degree and limited office experience, myoptions for a career were narrow. I pictured I’d be waiting tables to pay for Sandrine’s care.

Nothing could be further from the reality I’m living now.

With rare amusement in his eyes, he says, “You are now, truly my face.”

Before I can respond, he closes the blinds and takes off his jacket. “Now, I want you to sit on my face.”

Heat flares across my skin in an instant. “Right here, right now?”

“Right here. Right now.” He runs a finger down my jaw. “I want to taste your cream on my lips the rest of the day.”