Page 50 of The Boss's Forbidden Assistant

She was meant to fly out the following morning, but there was no point in remaining for one extra night. With a huge lump in her throat, she opened the travel-booking browser and put in a request for a change of flight—from Rio that evening with the same helicopter pilot booked to return her who’d flown her over to the island. Once she had the confirmation email, she knew it was the right decision.

He didn’t want her to stay.

He didn’t see any value in what they’d shared beyond great sex. One more night wasn’t going to change anything.

She ploughed through her work, completing everything, tidying her desk, aware that Salvador could be watching her at all times, so being very careful to keep her expression neutral before she moved to the area that joined their offices.

She thought about leaving without saying goodbye, without explanation. Technically, she’d completed her contract, what she’d been hired to do. But, while he’d been comfortable reducing their relationship to something simple and one-dimensional, Harper knew that what they’d shared deserved more from her.

Changing direction, she moved to his door and knocked once. He took a few seconds to stop what he was doing and look up. She ground her teeth and didn’t enter his office—too much his space, with his masculine fragrance. She realised that she’d never been in his bedroom, and wondered why she hadn’t questioned that. It was yet another example of Salvador keeping a part of himself separate from her, walled off, showing her she didn’t mean enough to get all of him.

Whereas she would have given him her soul.

‘I just wanted to let you know that I’m leaving in an hour.’

Whatever response he would have made, he concealed too quickly for her to comprehend. Silence prickled her skin, stretching for several moments before he nodded once. ‘That’s fine.’

She glared at him. ‘I wasn’t asking for your permission.’

More silence, throbbing now—angry, hurt. She hated that she felt like this. She hated that she’d let another man do this to her. Digging her nails into her palm, she knew she had to hold on to her temper, her rage and her hurt, until she was off the island. Her pride wouldn’t allow her to show how badly he’d affected her.

‘What do you want me to say, Harper?’ he said, his mouth a grim line. ‘That I’m sorry? I am. I didn’t mean for you to get hurt. I truly thought you understood me, and what I could offer. We both knew you would leave and that would be the end of it.’

She looked away from him, turning her face to profile. He was like a different person. She didn’t recognise this Salvador, but maybe that was her mistake. He was renowned for his toughness and strength. She’d even heard him described as ruthless before, but Harper had discounted that once she’d come to know him. But maybe she hadn’t really known him at all. Maybe she’d been wrong about him all along, just as with Peter. She was a naïve, trusting fool.

The bottom seemed to be falling out of her world. She had to get the hell out of there.

‘I don’t think I understood you before, but I do now,’ she said with a quiet strength that would form the backbone of Salvador’s nightmares for many nights to follow. She took a moment to settle her rioting emotions, so she could speak without a wobbling voice. ‘I’ve left detailed instructions for Amanda. There shouldn’t be any issues, but naturally she can call me with whatever she needs.’ She hesitated for a beat. ‘Goodbye.’

‘Goodbye’ had such finality.

Goodbye was an ending. A permanent sunset. Not a reprieve, not a temporary farewell.

Just as he wanted, he reminded himself, watching the clock on his computer counting down the hour, knowing he wouldn’t be able to breathe properly until he’d heard the helicopter leave and knew she was gone.

Every minute until then was filled with indecision, an uncharacteristic doubt permeating every cell in his body.

How could he let her go?

How could he let her stay?

He felt as if he’d been felled at the knees. After forty-five minutes, he gave up staring at the time and closed his laptop, instead moving to the expansive windows of his office, staring out at the view of the hills, the forest, the dazzling ocean in the distance and far beyond that Rio... Salvador’s eyes hunted reprieve and peace, when there was none available to him.

What he needed was to obliterate his senses. Not to think, not to feel, not to imagine Harper packing her bag, tidying her room, boarding a helicopter and preparing to leave.

With a gruff sound, he pushed the chair against his desk and stalked out of his office. There was only one place he could be right now, and it sure as hell wasn’t here.

She’d half-expected, hoped, he’d come after her. There was no way he’d let her walk away like this. Not after what they’d shared. Not after what they’d meant to each other.

And theydidmean something to each other; she knew they did. She hadn’t imagined their connection. This was real and it was true, but one person couldn’t love another enough to make a relationship work. Taking one last look back at the house, high up on the hill away from civilisation and the coastline, Harper boarded the helicopter. It was identical to the one that had brought her here two weeks ago, when she’d been filled with a rush of adrenaline at the challenge that lay ahead. She couldn’t have known that being here would fundamentally change who she was inside.

The sun was setting as Harper lifted off the island, the colours stunning, striking, as the morning had been. So she thought about that—the way these displays book-ended life here on the island—and tears that she’d been fighting all day finally began to fall down her cheeks. Were they book-ends? Or signs of perennial hope? The sun would set and night would follow, dark and long, but always there’d be morning, a glow streaking across the sky offering a renewal. Was it always the case that day followed night? Hope followed darkness? Or could some nights be so long and so permeating that there was no escape from them, even when morning came?

Harper was about to find out.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

THEWAVESCRASHEDdown on Salvador, hard and angrily, just as he’d wanted, here on the southern tip of the island where the ocean buffeted it hard. He’d wanted to drown out everything, but especially the sound of the helicopter leaving. But at the same time his ears were subconsciously straining to hear it, so he turned and saw it as it left the pad, lifting up with blades flapping, taking its sole passenger, Harper, away from Ilha do Sonhos, away from Salvador, away for ever.

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