Page 87 of Sexting His Assistant

I study her face.

There are faint shadows under her eyes.

Her hair is loose, soft around her shoulders, and I dislike the thought that I don’t know whether she wore it that way for herself, for work, or because she knew I would see her today.

Ridiculous.

I’m forty-two years old, wounded, hunted, and currently standing in my own building trying to interpret a woman’s hairstyle like a boy.

“What is this?” I ask.

Her expression does not change. “What is what?”

“This.”

I gesture between us. A mistake.

Her eyes flick briefly down to the space between our bodies, then back up. “There is no this,” she says.

“Don’t lie to me.”

She laughs once, quietly. “That’s rich.”

My jaw tightens. “Explain.”

“No.”

“Nina.”

“No,” she says again, sharper now. “You don’t get to disappear for two weeks, come back, lie to half your staff in a polished little speech, then drag me into a corner and demand explanations like I’m one of your department heads.”

I stare at her. “You’re angry because I didn’t call you into my office?” I ask.

Her eyes flash. “God, your ego is breathtaking.”

“Then help me understand.”

The words surprise both of us.

Nina’s face shifts, anger disturbed by something softer before she covers it again.

She looks away first, toward the hall where people are still dispersing in quiet clusters. “I didn’t appreciate the way you spoke to them.”

“To whom?”

“The staff.”

My brows draw together. “I addressed them.”

“You managed them.”

“That’s my role.”

“No.” She looks back at me now, and the frustration in her face is clean and bright. “You controlled them. There’s a difference.”

I say nothing.

She continues, quieter but firmer. “They’re scared, Luka. They were in the building when men with guns entered the garage. Some of them heard the shots. Some of them saw security carry bodies out. They have spent two weeks whispering because no one told them anything real, and then you stand in front of them and say words like protocols and operations and expected to return to work.”