Page 43 of By His Rule

“W-with you?” I squark.

His smirk grows. “Yes,” he confirms simply before turning back to his screen.

“O-okay.”

He waits a moment, allowing me to get to the bottom of the page before sitting back in his seat, his lips parting to say something, when a knock sounds on his office door.

Kian reaches for something under his desk before calling for whoever it is to enter.

The lady Rebecca introduced me to, after we exited the elevator, steps inside the room with a tray in her hands.

“Thank you, Melissa.”

Melissa, I say to myself, making a mental note. If she works up here, then something tells me that I’m going to need her support in the coming weeks and months.

“Thank you so much,” I say when she places a mug before me.

“You’re welcome,” she replies softly before looking up at Kian. “Be nice, remember. And maybe try to keep this one a little longer than the last,” she teases.

“Thank you, Melissa. That will be all.”

I wait until the door clicks closed behind her before asking the obvious question.

“How long did your previous assistant last?”

Honestly, I’m not sure I want the answer, but I can’t not know now that it’s been brought up.

Lifting my mug to my lips, I blow across the top of the surface before taking a sip.

It’s hot. Too hot. But something tells me it’s less painful than what I’m going to experience working for Kian.

“Six hours,” he states, making me almost choke on my coffee.

“Six hours?” I balk. “What the hell did you do to make her leave after six hours?”

He shrugs one shoulder. “She didn’t have what it took. I can be…” He trails off, and I can’t help but wonder if he’s expecting me to fill the blanks.

I could. Easily. But it will probably end with me having an even shorter stint as Kian’s assistant than my predecessor.

“A lot,” he finally says.

“Oh, really? Can’t say I’ve noticed.”

He quirks a brow at me as he sips his coffee.

“Is there anything else on that list that you’d like to discuss?”

I scan the page again, trying to find something untoward that I can pull him up on. But the truth is, it’s a really good job description.

“There are a lot of financial tasks on here. Are they usually things you expect your assistant to do?”

He shakes his head once before lowering his mug.

“I’ve never had anyone working this closely with me before who has an understanding of what I do.”

“And you think that will make this partnership more successful?”

“Possibly.” He studies me as he swallows thickly, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he thinks. “I don’t trust easily, Lorelei. It’s one of the many reasons why I’ve never found an assistant I’ve connected with. But, since KC and I took over from our father, I’m finding my workload growing with tasks I’m not willing to pass down for many reasons."

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