“An interview is serious,” I said. “You hired your secretary for the soul purpose of fucking her.”

I settled into my chair at my desk as my brother cocked his hip against the mahogany wood. He didn’t seem to care what I was saying, though. My office was empty except for the two of us. Large expanses of dark wood floor with cream-colored walls and metal-and-leather furniture left it feeling like a second home to me.

It would be even better if my brother didn’t have a habit of popping in when he was least wanted.

“I’m just saying it would mean a lot to me if you’d give this woman a fighting chance. No scaring her away like you seem to be doing with the other women you’ve interviewed,” Sebastian said.

“You told me about this interview two hours ago,” I said.

“And you told me to send you competent applicants for the position.”

“You seem to be ignoring the ‘competent’ part.”

“She ticks off all your little boxes,” he said.

“You mean this one has a college education this time?”

“The last one had a college-like education.”

“She sucked off her professors for C+ grades.”

“Did she actually admit that? Or did you coerce that out of her somehow?”

I eyed him with the dead stare I gave all my imperfect clientele.

“Yes, that look is very unnerving,” Sebastian said. “You’ve proven your point. But look, this woman? She seems very qualified. Scarlet even says-”

“And there’s the thick of it,” I said. “If I don’t hire her, you don’t get laid anymore.”

“She’s Scarlet's best friend, and I told her I would make sure she had a fair shot despite her connection to us.”

“She has no connection to me.”

“Well she does to me. So, play nice. All right?”

I was onto his game. My brother had one weakness. One tell. And he always showed it. He always exposed it.

My twin brother wouldn’t last one hour in the world I dwelled within.

“And plus, her association to Scarlet isn’t the only reason for this interview. Have you looked at her resume yet?”

“You haven’t sent it to me,” I said.

“Then allow me to introduce you to Christie Evans.”

He pulled out a piece of paper stapled to a cover letter. I took it from his grasp and began to look it over. No recommendations. No references. No number for me to call to ask anyone anything about her.

“I’m not going to hire anyone who doesn’t deserve the position,” I said.

“No one expects you to. I only expect you to not sink your teeth into her so quickly,” Sebastian said.

Christie Evans. I rolled the name around in my head a few times. And from the looks of her resume, she seemed as energetic as her name. Run-of-the mill. Bland. Speckled with jobs varying from waitressing to managing the stockroom of a craft shop. A coffee job during her high school years. An English degree with no teaching license. Only people who didn’t know what they wanted out of life got a degree in a language they were fluent in without a teaching licensure.

I hadn’t had a secretary in over a year. My last one went on maternity leave and decided not to come back. I couldn’t blame her for it. My particular secretarial position wasn’t fit for mothers. Or people who had family. But it had become incredibly inconvenient to find someone who I could see myself trusting enough to handle any part of my business.

Much less my personal files.

“No history of secretarial work,” I said.

“You never specified that as a requirement.”

My eyes whipped up to Sebastian as he pushed off the side of my desk.

“I had to specify that applying for a secretarial position meant having secretarial experience?” I asked.

“You said ‘college degree, fast-learner, and tenacious’. You never said anything about experience.”

“Is that why you’ve been bringing me all these bobbleheads, Seb!?”

“Be careful. Your dark side is showing,” he said with a grin.

“How the hell do you run the nation’s largest technological company?” I asked.

“With employees. Look, she’s got a long history with the store she just left, and a managerial background. With no prior managerial experience or any sort of work history to insinuate that she knew how to run a stockroom. That means she picks up a job quickly and learns it well.”

“You really must enjoy that secretary of yours,” I said.

“Scarlet didn’t have any secretarial experience when I hired her, and she’s the best thing that’s ever happened to my productivity.”

“And some other things we won’t mention.”

He sold her better than her resume did. But, Miss Evans did have some qualities that could help around my office. I didn’t need her to be a rocket scientist, but I did need her to be quick. Intelligent. Intuitive. I needed someone willing to work, listen, take instruction, and put in long hours if necessary. I also needed someone who was intelligent, and my brother did have some decent points about her resume.

“You know I have to be careful with who I hire,” I said. “And I’m not the kind of man who appreciates risk.”

“Yeah, and she’s a friend of Scarlet’s. So, we know her.”

“I don’t know her. And neither do you.”

“But Scarlet does. And I trust Scarlet. Do you trust Scarlet?” he asked.

“No.”

“Well, I trust Scarlet. Plus, she’s better than hiring a more qualified stranger.”

“I don’t think ‘stranger’ means what you think it means,” I said. “Because this woman is a stranger to me.”

“All of your applicants have been strangers to you. If you want someone you’re familiar with, dip into your pool of respective employees. I’m sure you could find someone with a gun on their hip to do your bidding if it’s that much of an issue.”

I tossed her resume onto the top of my desk and settled into my chair.

“Just give it a shot,” he said. “The worst you could do is tell her ‘no’ and be back at square one. But if she makes it through your rigorous testing, we can all go out and get a drink to celebrate. It’s been a few weeks since we’ve gone out together. We can make this an excuse.”

Sebastian had a light in his eyes I didn’t trust. Had he not been my twin brother—and had I not known him inside and out—I would’ve had him hauled out of my office by my security guards down the hallway. When we were younger, people couldn’t tell us apart. We were identical down to the slope of our jawlines. But with age and differing professions came slight changes. Sebastian kept his hair short and dyed blonde. I kept mine longer and its natural shade of black. His eyes were bright gray that turned hazel whenever he closed a massive deal and mine were slate gray with a twinge of darkness.

Like my profession.

You know, subtle differences that made my brother and I complete opposites despite our identical DNA.

“The interview is in five minutes,” I said as I glanced at my watch. “She has some qualities I could use. I’ll talk to her, but that isn’t a promise of hire.”

“Trust me, no one’s asking you to hire her. Only to give her a chance.”

“One question about her resume,” I said as Seb walked towards my door.

“Yes?”

“Did Scarlett say why she left her last place of work? It’s not designated next to her termination date.”

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “The owner of the company kept making advances on her. According to Scarlet, he cornered her in the stockroom before telling her if she didn’t sleep with him she couldn’t work for him.”

My fists tightened in my lap as I ground my teeth together. If there was one thing I couldn’t stand, it was a man with no morals.

I wondered how much he enjoyed his kneecaps.

“Good to know,” I said. “Now get out. I have an interview to conduct. And remember-.”

“No promise to hire. I get it, Maximus. I get it. But you can’t avoid secretaries forever just because of-.”

My stomach felt like a rock, and whatever look I shot him caused him to change his mind on finishing that sentence.

“Good luck,” he said.

And with that sentiment, my brother was gone.

Luck had nothing to do with any of it. I needed a secretary. Someone that wasn’t my brother. That way I would at least have some notice on when people were coming in for interviews in the future. My brother was a shit secretary. I wouldn’t have hired him to look after my dog in my own house, much less handle my private schedule. I sat down and buried myself in my emails, waiting for Miss Evans to arrive.

If my brother had half the pressure that was on me, he wouldn’t be so lighthearted about hiring for this position. Sure, he owned his own business as well. But there were definitely different risks at stake. He worked in technology and I worked in financials.

At least, that was what the world believed.

I lost myself in my work, following up on orders and making sure everything was getting where it needed to be when I needed it there. In my line of work, there was no margin for error. And the second things went missing, that meant I had a phone call to place to my head of security. But heels clicking down the hall caught my attention, and I looked up expectantly. Waiting to receive the mystery woman my brother’s secretary called her ‘best friend’.

And if I had known what she was going to look like, I would have worn a looser pair of pants to work that morning. Because she was flawless. She—Christie—looked almost meek as she knocked on the doorframe of my office.

“I’m here for an interview? I was told to come up to this floor.”

“Come in,” I said.

Her endlessly dark brown eyes were framed by constellations of freckles that fanned out across her soft cheekbones. Her dark brown hair hung down past her shoulders and brought my gaze to her full chest. Her skin was like cream stirred into the blackness of coffee and I wanted to see more of it. And those curves. The thick peaks and valleys her body held. Fuck.

I wanted to pull her into my lap and explore her enticing softness.

I glanced away to my computer screen when her eyes met mine so she wouldn’t notice my staring. I needed to have better control of myself. This position was paramount to the success of my empire, and I couldn’t be hiring it with the same ‘standards’ Sebastian kept with his own employee positions.

“I’m Christie Evans,” she said, as though I didn’t know already. “Would you like me to take a seat?”

“I would, yes.”

Starting her interview with a question. Holding her purse in front of her stomach. Diverting her eyes around the office instead of focusing on me. Flexing her toes repeatedly in her flats. Everything about her as she stood in my office screamed self-conscious. Nervous. Out of place. Unsure. She didn’t need to feel that way, however. She needn’t worry about her attire. Or the hair she kept fluffing. Or the dress she kept running her hand down. Or the nail she kept out of view as she picked at it.

There wasn’t an inch of her that wasn’t worth a second look, and there wasn’t a word that would fall from her lips I wouldn’t listen to.