Page 2 of Her Innocent CEO

My own firm’s partner… the man whose name is in eighteen feet letters on the building’s roof next to mine.

James Hunter. But to me, after today, he’ll only go by one name.

Traitor.

Hunter and Mapleton. I knew I should’ve had it the other way around, giving him ideas from day one by putting his name first in the partnership.

Locking the safe again and scooping up my laptop, I choose to leave everything else.

Cards, wallet, even my phone.

I want my exit to be as quiet as their inability to find me.

The more smoke I can put between me and them, the truth and the lies I’m still yet to expose fully, the better.

But right now, as strange as it seems, I only have one thing on my mind.

Jasmine.

I have to get to her, before anyone or anything else.

We need to get out of here, but before that, I need to touch her.

To feel her. To breathe her in and press her hard against me, just in case I don’t make it out today.

I can at least go down knowing I tried, that I gave it my best shot.

Maybe she’ll wait for me?

But no. I can’t think like that.

It’s her or nothing, today and every day from now on.

Always.

Chapter Two

Jasmine

Mad Maddox.

That’s what the papers call him, or anyone who’s never agreed with his unusual way of practicing law or any other business for that matter.

Me? I don’t know much about law or business. I just know a hot older guy when I see him, and Mr. Maddox Mapleton is all that and more.

Sigh.

I’m just a nobody secretary in a nothing department for the firm he runs. But secretly, knowing he’s somewhere upstairs every day is the only thing that gets me to work in the morning and keeps me going most of the day.

Mostly.

The rest of the time I stare at him as long as I can.

He’s like a guardian angel in my mind, somehow watching over me. That’s what I tell myself.

Not that he’d probably even looked twice at me, but a girl’s gotta have dreams. Wishes.

Fantasies.

His face is my screensaver on my work computer… on almost every screen in the building, but every time I look at him it feels like he’s looking right at me.

It’s just part of his charisma I guess.

One of the perks of the job is having his eye on me all day and I can’t really get in trouble for having our chief partner’s picture at my workstation, even if nothing else is happening.

My other boss, in this office anyway, is the head of some obscure online marketing division. Something I’m sure was invented for her by whoever she slept with to get the job and I know it wasn’t Maddox.

He’d never do anything so cheap.

Karen Singleton she’s taken today off, same as yesterday. Even when she’s at work it’s always on some boozy lunch with some paralegal executive, trying to sleep her sorry Barbie wannabe ass up the corporate ladder.

But I don’t mind. It leaves me with more time to look at Maddox… and maybe even do some typing before I go home for the day.

But today feels different.

The air’s tense and although cold again in the office, I have a funny feeling that those dark, brooding eyes are on me more than ever.

Maybe it’s just being alone at reception for so long, nobody ever comes up here. Maybe it’s just because I’ve been seeing his face in my dreams… Those eyes… Only leaving mine once his head disappears down there to…

“Jasmine!? Jasmine Tate?”

My heart freezes at the sound of his deep, commanding voice and I look up over the high wood veneer of the reception desk.

It’s him… it’s… really… him…

Maddox Mapleton.

My head is nodding but my mouth’s gaping and I’m taking in the double view of the man himself mixed with my eyes still on my screen.

Surely not?

His huge muscular frame fills the double smoked glass doors he’s flung open and his jet black stare that matches the shine of his thick hair summons me to heed his every word.

There’s no time to lose, I can just feel it.

“I need to get under your desk, right now!” he exclaims.

Without a thought, I feel my heels digging into the plastic carpet protector underneath.

I’m shifting my air-lift chair back, shuddering a little breath as I open my legs slightly too.

Hoping this isn’t some sort of joke.

This is really happening, it’s really him.

Without glancing back but jutting his chiseled jaw behind him for a moment, he explains things.

Sort of.

“Jasmine… Apologies… I’m in a jam. I really can’t discuss right now… and if I can just have two minutes under your desk, all will be revealed in time,” he says ominously.

I can feel my chest stiffen instantly against my blouse, pounding as I try and take all of this in. Take all of him in, while my body is throwing itself backwards on my chair and making a space for him under my desk of all places.

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