Page 565 of Savage Bosses

He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths.

What could I say? Nothing. It was there in black and white. My plan was to leave. To walk away and never look back. If this weekend hadn’t happened, that would have still been my plan. Maybe I was answering my own question. Would I have left if he hadn’t blown my back out? Yes.

Why?

Because it would have hurt too much to be around him every day, knowing that he would never be mine.

“Nyla? Fucking look at me,” he yelled. My eyes raised to his, and I saw everything I dreamed of, but it still broke my heart.

“Stop yelling at me, King. I left that for you on Friday because I needed to make a change in my life. I’ve wanted you for years, and you never looked at me. I thought my feelings for you were mine and mine alone. How was I to know you felt the same? You brought woman after woman around me. Wining. Dining. Giving them all the things I wanted with you. Yet, you gave it to them. All the while, I sat here looking stupid. I was just your assistant. Someone who meant nothing to you.”

King dropped the letter and took a step forward. I held my hand out to stop him from coming any closer. “That’s not… you meant everything to me.” He slammed his hand across his chest. “I wanted you every fucking day, but… you worked for me. How could I make a move on you? What if you’d told me no? Not only would I be rejected, but who’s to say you wouldn’t leave anyway?”

“I was coming to destroy that letter. I didn’t want to leave you. Maybe I never did.”

He stood across from me with his hands resting on his hips. “Yes, you did. Do you even know how many calls I received from others trying to poach you from me?” I shook my head. My face must have held a look of shock. “Yeah, I know you were looking to leave. Sending your resume out to other firms.”

My back leaned against one of the bookshelves. “But no one ever called me back. I thought my experience wasn’t good enough. I made the decision to leave northern Virginia. It was time for me to go somewhere else. But how…” as I thought about his words, I knew exactly what had happened. “You asshole! How could you sabotage me like that?”

King had the nerve to shrug. “I don’t see it as sabotage. From my perspective, you were trying to leave me. I couldn’t let you do that. Every time one of those motherfuckers called me, I told them to go fuck themselves. You would never work for them. Not as long as I have air in my lungs.” He took a step forward. “Funny thing is, the only reason I made it in before you this morning was that I missed you. My sheets smelled of you. Your perfume lingered in the air. Every time I tried to close my eyes, all I could see was you writhing underneath me. I remembered the feeling of you. My mouth watered from just thinking about the taste of you on my tongue.” His long legs paced the office from wall to wall. “So, I came in early to get some work done. Even though your presence is all over this office, I thought I could clear my head. I was waiting for you to come in so I could convince you to cancel all my meetings and play hooky with me.”

I was surprised the sound of my heartbeat couldn’t be heard in the room. If only I’d waited to leave that letter. But at the time, it was how I felt. Or at least, that’s what my heart was telling me to do. “I was hurt, King. After that night you interrupted my date, I thought…” my words faltered. “I wanted… maybe more like I’d hoped.” I sighed before walking over to stand in front of him. “You just ignored me. I didn’t know what was going on. Every day in this office, you would walk past me without a word. It’s like one day, you couldn’t operate this business without me. The next, you could hardly stand to be in my presence. What else was I supposed to think? I felt you didn’t want me. That whatever was simmering between us was a mistake. So, I made a decision. One that I now regret. I was coming to fix it.”

The height difference between the two of us was always something that turned me on. Today, it was making my panties wet. Even in his anger, he was sexy as hell. His hand lifted and brushed against my cheek. “You cannot leave me, Nyla. I need you. My only excuse is that I didn’t want to scare you away. Not sure if you realize it or not, but I can be a little… intense.”

A laugh escaped my lips. “Yeah, I’ve noticed. Did you really send away everyone who wanted to potentially interview me?”

He nodded. “I did. If you weren’t here with me, I would have lost my mind. It was the only thing I could come up with. At least until this weekend. Now, I want you to stay here because you want to be with me. Be around me.”

“I’m not going anywhere. But I don’t think I can work for you anymore. If we’re dating, it’s going to cause issues.”

King leaned back. “Issues for who?”

“The CEO and his assistant sleeping together? That’s super cliché.” From the press of his body against mine, I could feel him getting hard.

“Sweetheart, I think we can do whatever the fuck we want.” I gave him a look, and he rolled his eyes. “Fine. We can sign a sworn statement and file it with HR. We’ll let them know our relationship is completely consensual.”

His arms wrapped around my waist, and I leaned into him. It felt so good being this close to him. “If that doesn’t work, I’ll ask for a transfer to work for Jagger.”

After a long moment, he sighed. “Fine. He’s probably the only person I trust around you. But that’s only until we get married. After that, you can’t work there. Well, you can, but you won’t be anyone’s assistant. You’ll be my wife, so your role will be different.”

My body froze. Did I just hear him right? “King? What did you say?”

“You heard me right,” he said, his hands lowering to my ass as he picked me up. “You will be my wife one day. The sooner you can arrange our wedding, the better. Hell, let’s do a destination wedding. All we need is Jagger and whomever you want to bring along as your witness. Is three months enough time to plan?”

“But we’re not in love. Why would we get married so soon?” He sat me down on his desk, his body between my legs. “Wait. You haven’t asked me to marry you.”

“Sweetheart, look into my eyes and tell me you don’t love me. Tell me that you can see yourself living without me. If you can, look at me and say you don’t want to be my wife, and I’ll pull back. I’ll let you set the pace.” His hands rubbed along my bare legs, making me hotter by the second. I instinctively bit my lip as my head tilted back. “Tell me we haven’t already been each other’s better half for almost five years. You may not have realized it since I tried my best to control my need for you, but we’ve been playing a game of cat and mouse this entire time.”

I couldn’t deny his words because they were true. I did love him. I craved him. I needed him. I wanted to obey him when he asked so nicely for me to spread myself open for him. When he pressed his thick, hard length on my lips and demanded I take him inside my mouth. “I can’t tell you any of that. But I still need you to ask me.”

He leaned down, capturing my lips with his. My nipples pebbled behind my shirt, and my pussy began clenching, hungry to have him inside me again. “Marry me, Nyla. Be my wife. Have my babies. Give me what I need most in this world.”

I would be lying if I said wetness wasn’t pooling in my eyes. Yeah, I was gonna lock this man down and have all his babies… wait. “Babies? As in more than one?”

King had the nerve to smile. “Yes. As many as you’re willing to give me. Their grandparents will spoil them rotten.”

“I’ll marry you on one condition.” My shoes fell to the floor.

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