Page 42 of The Billionaire Alpha's Assistant

Chapter Sixteen

Rafael

Alex is waitingfor me when I return to my office. She’s wearing the skirt she had on her first day here — this time with pantyhose underneath — and a white blouse that’s so seductively demure it should be illegal.

I’m pleased to see she’s got my gift on her arm. The high-end bag suits her perfectly — just like I knew it would.

“Hey,” she says, dropping her gaze the moment I walk into my office. She looks as though she expects me to yell and scream, and yet she’s still here.

“Thank you,” I tell her, letting the speech she wrote me flutter to my desk. “I needed that today. I . . . seldom say the right thing in these situations.”

“I know.”

I raise my eyebrows. One thing I love about Alex is the way she talks to me. She doesn’t kiss ass or beat around the bush. My mate speaks her mind — even when it’s not in her best interest to do so.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers, as though we’re picking up a conversation right where we left off. “It was wrong of me to take this job so that I could write some scathing exposé, but that was before I knew you. Before I —” Alex breaks off, biting her lower lip. She’s choosing her words carefully for once, and I wait with bated breath. “I know it doesn’t change anything, but I wasn’t going to write that story. I-I’d just told my editor when you . . .”

She doesn’t say when I caught her red-handed, but the implication is clear.

“What changed?” I ask, my voice hoarse with the effort of holding back everything I’m aching to tell her.

That I love her.

That I’m angry.

That how I feel doesn’t change anything. She’ll always be my mate.

Alex looks up at me through those thick dark lashes, and I know that whatever she’s going to say next means everything. “I saw you — really saw you for the first time.” She swallows. “You weren’t what I expected. You’re generous and loving and kind and —” She breaks off. “And I started to fall in love with you.”

Her voice cracks on that last sentence, and my heart is beating so hard that it feels as though it might punch right out of my chest.

“I . . . fell in love with you,” she stammers. And I know from her voice that she’s telling the truth.

Inside, my wolf is howling. Alex fell in love with me — not some idea of me. Not my money or my position. Not what I could give her.

Hearing those words, my chest feels as though it could burst. I want to pull her close and kiss her senseless, but I can’t let her off the hook that easily.

My bad little assistant was working behind my back. She was working against this company. Those deeds can’t go unpunished.

“Are you wearing a wire?” I croak.

“What?” Alex looks as though I just slapped her. “No! Of course not.”

“Show me.”

“What?”

“Show me,” I growl, taking two swift steps forward.

Alex scrambles back to keep an appropriate amount of space between us, but I don’t stop coming until her ass hits the corner of my desk. Her tits jut out as she leans away from me, and the sight makes my dick harden automatically.

Leaning forward, I bring my lips to her ear and lower my voice to a whisper. “Take off your shirt. I need to know this conversation isn’t being recorded.”

Alex jerks her head back to look at me, her face twisted in a mixture of hurt and defiance. Her bottom lip puckers into an expression of fiery rage, but then the tangy musk of feminine arousal reaches my nostrils.

I breathe it in, cock twitching, and cross my arms over my chest. I have to keep myself in check so she can’t see how badly I want to rip off her clothes and bend her over my desk.

Pursing her lips in a look of resolve, Alex starts to unbutton her blouse. My breath hitches as she gets to the swell of her breasts, revealing a lacy pink bra.

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