Page 1 of Rules We Break

PROLOGUE

Greg, a year ago in Tokyo

I run into the office building, fixing my tie as I enter the elevator. Fuck, she sounded pissed on the phone. Ivy has been one hell of a boss ever since I joined this department. She constantly rides my ass, making sure I’m given all of the extra tasks that no one else seems to be able to handle.

And while that’s all well and good because I do, in fact, get paid an ample amount of overtime, it makes it so I barely have a life outside of work. When I heard she was going to be visiting the Tokyo offices at the same time I was, I knew I was in for a harder work vacation than I had originally planned.

I should be with my friends right now, taking them out to celebrate the new relationship and the others that are still growing and strong. We should be partying, living it up on this once-in-a-lifetime trip we were able to take together.

But no. I’m here. Waiting on my boss hand and fucking foot.

“Mr. Ellis!” I jump as the doors open. How the hell she timed my arrival so perfectly, I don’t know. “Just in time. Follow me, please.”

Her hair is pulled back in a severely tight bun today, and her dark blue dress is just as tight. I can’t help but watch the way her ass sways in it as she walks. As we pass everyone in their cubicles, they viciously type or file or talk into their phones at double the speed.

They know that when she’s here, they’re to be on their best behavior, constantly working even when there might be no work to do. It’s just the type of boss she is. Her reputation spread far, and it spread quickly when she was hired on last year.

And while she may be difficult to work for, every single change she made has taken the company that much further. Our profits have almost doubled, and our employee turnover is almost nonexistent.

I follow her into her office, and I close the door behind us. This office is left open specifically for her. It’s a corner office with so much natural light it almost blinds you when you walk in. Two of her walls are just floor-to-ceiling windows.

“Close the blinds,” she says as she walks around her desk. I do as she asks, effectively closing off her view into the office. While it makes me want to shit myself because now I’m alone with her, it also gives the employees a break from her laser-beam gaze.

Once all the blinds are closed, I take a seat in one of the leather chairs in front of her desk. I clear my throat and try to get comfortable, although I don’t think there’s any getting comfortable in her presence anymore.

Not after what happened.

And when she turns those harsh blue eyes on me, I swear to god I break out in a cold sweat.

Fuck, she’s going to fire me. She’s going to fire me, and I’m never going to be able to get another job again because if you’re fired by Ivy fucking Wallace, you’re untouchable in any city you try to escape to. She’s the grim reaper of corporate America.

“Greg,” she starts, her legs crossing and her eyes falling to the desk in front of her. “What happened with you a couple weeks ago…”

“It won’t happen again,” I say, cutting her off in a rush of words. “I swear. It will never happen again. From here on out, I am nothing if not the angel of the office. I will come in early and leave late. Everything is business one hundred percent of the time.”

She looks at me again, her eyes piercing into my fucking soul. She looks…worried?

“That’s what you want?” she asks.

Her question catches me off guard. What I want? What I want is most definitely not that. I don’t want to come in early and leave late. I don’t want more responsibility. I want less. Working for her is exhausting, and I feel like I’m constantly missing out on things because I have to be at the office instead of with the people I love.

“Because that’s not what I want.”

I sit there in silence, staring at her, waiting to see where she’s going with this. There’s no way she can be thinking what I think she’s thinking. There’s no way that she wants what happened to happen again. I almost laugh at the absurdity of it, but I catch myself at the last moment.

She stands up and walks around her desk, stopping when she’s in front of me to lean back on it. She crosses her legs at her ankles, and her hands go back to the solid wood behind her. I hate that I notice it makes her breasts pop out just a little bit further from the neckline of her dress.

“My eyes are up here, Mr. Ellis.”

I feel the color drain from my face as I quickly look up at her face. I didn’t even realize I was staring. Christ, I need to get ahold of myself.

“Are you going to fire me?” I finally ask.

“Fire you?” Her voice is incredulous, like it’s the last thing that was on her mind. Like she can’t even comprehend why I’m asking her that. “Why would I fire you?”

She even laughs a little.

What the fuck is happening.

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