Page 2 of Theirs to Take

“I appreciate that,” he said. “You’ve got fantastic qualifications. I see from your resume that you were a paralegal for one of my competitors, Johnson and Myers,” he said. This was the part that she always hated talking about. She’d have to admit that she worked for her husband’s company. She started at the firm when she was still in law school, met her husband who was one of their junior lawyers at the time, and that’s when she got pregnant dropped out of law school, and quit the firm. Simon had convinced her that he was making enough to take care of their little family, and he did. He made partner in no time—that was the Myers part of the name. She had dropped her ex’s last name as soon as they divorced and went back to her maiden name, to try to permanently erase him from her life, but that was impossible with Jackson involved.

“Yes,” she breathed. “I worked for them before I got pregnant and then, I decided to stay home with my son. He’s four,” she said. “But I need to rejoin the workforce. You see, I’m newly divorced, well, as of last year, but I need to be able to win back custody of my son.”

“You’ve lost custody of him?” Alex asked.

“Yes,” she whispered. What the hell was wrong with her? Custody arrangements weren’t something that she should be talking about during her interview. “You see, my ex-husband makes up the Myers part of Johnson and Myers. We met when I was interning there as a law student. I was doing paralegal work, mostly, and then I got pregnant. He convinced me to quit and stay home with Jack, and well, I liked being a stay-at-home mom, but that doesn’t pay the bills.”

“So, he used his skills as a lawyer to talk a judge into giving him full custody of your son?” Alex asked.

“Basically,” she said. “It’s a long story, and I wouldn’t want to bore you with it.”

“You’re not boring me at all,” Alex assured. “I’ve met your husband. Hell, I’ve faced him in court—he’s an ass.”

She laughed, “Ex-husband and thank you. I’m afraid that I just don’t have the funds to pay for a lawyer of his caliber, and that always gives him a leg up when we have to face off in court. Honestly, I’m just trying to keep a roof over my head so that I get to see my son on weekends.”

“You’re hired,” Alex said, standing from beside her.

“Wait—what?” she asked, standing from the couch. “You haven’t even asked me any work-related questions. What if I don’t know the first thing about being a paralegal?” she asked. “What if I completely lied on my resume?”

“Are you trying to talk yourself out of a job?” he asked. “Have you lied on your resume, Nova?” he asked.

“No, and no,” she said, “I wouldn’t lie on my resume.”

“Good,” he barked. “Do you know anything about being a paralegal?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said. “In fact, I’ve taken night courses and have been able to graduate from law school. All I have to do is take the bar but doing so terrifies me.”

“We’ll work on that too. As for your ex—I’ll be your new lawyer,” he insisted.

“If I’m your assistant, doesn’t that create a conflict of interest for you and your firm?” she asked.

“No,” he said. “We can work around all of that. Just tell me that you’ll take the job, Nova. I need an assistant and a good paralegal. You fit the bill better than anyone I’ve interviewed to date. You have a very impressive resume and you’ve admitted that you didn’t lie on it, so I’m going to go out on a limb here and ask you to take my job offer. Hell, I’ll beg you to take it, if that will help,” he said.

She smiled up at him. “That won’t be necessary. I’ll take your job offer. Thank you.”

“When can you start?” he asked.

“As soon as you need me to,” she offered.

“Tomorrow,” he breathed. “Hell, I’d ask you to start now, but HR would have a fit. Do you have time to meet with them to go over all of the paperwork?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said. “My time is yours.”

He looked her over and nodded. “Good to know, Miss Ray.”

Alexander

Alex wasn’t sure what he had just done. As soon as the dark-haired beauty stepped free from the elevator, he knew that he was in trouble. Just one look at her and he wanted her—but that wasn’t why she was standing in his office. No, Nova Ray needed a job, and offering her a job as his mistress wasn’t what she was after, even if it was what his cock wanted him to offer her. He knew better than to do what his unruly cock was begging him to do. That usually led to him borrowing more trouble than he was willing to pay for, so he offered her a job as his assistant instead, even if she was overqualified for that job. She told him that all she had to do was pass the bar, and once she did, he’d be hiring her on as a junior lawyer in his firm, but for now, she was his assistant.

Hearing the trouble that she was having with her asshole ex-husband pissed him off. He had one too many cases with that jerk, and every single time, he came away hating Simon Meyers just a little bit more if that was even possible. Knowing that ass was throwing around his weight to get his way in not only their divorce but in keeping Nova’s son from his mother, made him see red. He meant it when he said that he’d help her to get himback. It would be worth it to see Simon fail at something. Alex just wanted to knock the smug look off of that asshole’s face and this would be just his chance.

He spent the day making sure that Nova was ready to start the next day. HR went over her package and benefits, and she seemed pretty happy about everything. He gave her a tour of the place, something that HR usually handled, but he made up some excuse as to them being too busy and how he’d be happy to do it. Honestly, he was just trying to spend more time with her, because starting tomorrow, she’d be hands-off. Nova would officially be his assistant and there would be no way that he’d touch her then. But tonight, all bets were off.

At the end of his very lengthy tour, he walked her to the elevator. “Thank you for everything, Alex,” she said, holding out her hand to him.

He took her hand and held it in his own. “Not a problem,” he said. “Have dinner with me tonight,” he breathed. He wasn’t sure if he was telling her or asking, but the words were already out and there was no taking them back.

“Sorry?” she asked.

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