Her hands shook as the elevator rode up from the lobby to the fifth floor, and she gripped the straps of her old, beat up, black leather bag. You can do this, Belle told herself firmly as she nodded at her reflection in the doors. You made it past the hard part. You nailed it. Now’s your chance.

A loud ding echoed around her, and she exhaled loudly. “Don’t blow it.”

The doors opened, and Belle stepped out into the busy stream of workers moving across the office floor. No one stopped to look at her, but most of them smiled when she passed. She recognized some of the faces of people who had interviewed her last week, but the one person she needed to see was not among them.

She glanced at the slip of paper in her hand and looked around the bustling floor. She’d never been here before. When she interviewed, they met at a coffee shop and she was simply told where to report on her first day. No signs pointed towards the HR office, and she tapped her booted foot, worried she’d be late because she couldn’t find the right office. She whipped around and ran straight into a guy wearing an AC/DC t-shirt, black jeans, and holding what had been a cup of coffee, now spilled down the front of his shirt.

“Damn it,” Belle said as she searched in her bag for something to clean his shirt, but the guy was laughing. “Really, I’m sorry. This is my first day interning, and I’m a little lost and nervous. I hope you didn’t really like that t-shirt.”

The white fabric soaked up the coffee, but the guy with the short, curly hair shrugged. “Could be worse. You said you’re lost?”

Belle blushed at his bright, cheery smile and the way his eyes did a quick scan of her body. She wore her best dress slacks that hugged her curves, as well as a blouse. No one had told her the office dress code, though after only a few minutes she’d figured out it was much more casual than she’d expected.

“Yes, I’m the new intern. Supposed to report to HR.”

“I can show you. Going that way myself. Name’s Tim,” he said and held out his hand.

She shook it and smiled. “Belle. What do you do here?”

“I’m one of the designers for the new MMO coming out, if we can ever get our asses in gear,” he muttered as they meandered through the other employees. “Having some technical difficulties with the design again.”

“You’re one of the graphic designers?” she asked excitedly and clutched her bag tighter.

“Yeah, it’s been pretty great the last two years. This company just took off, and we can’t get enough people in here with a lick of talent,” he grumbled. “You design?”

She shrugged. “It's what I’m in school for, but I haven’t really had a chance to showcase anything yet.”

“Well, if I have a few hours where I’m not slammed with work, maybe I can show you a few tricks,” he suggested casually. “And look at your work. Do you know who you’re interning under?”

“No, not yet,” she told him. “They said they would give me all the details here, but I’m getting credit and a small stipend. I’m not going to complain too much.” The stipend meant she could quit one of her two part-time jobs. “There might be a full-time position available when I graduate in May if I impress the right people.”

He grinned and stopped outside an all-glass wall office. “I hope so. You look like a fun person to work with. Well, here’s Kelly’s office,” he said happily. “See you around, Belle, and don’t take it personally if the guys give you a hard time. They do it to all the interns.”

“Even you?” she asked, and he laughed.

“Oh yeah, even me.” He waved and hurried down the hall. Two more guys met him, and they all looked at the tablets in each other’s hands.

Belle bounced on her feet with excitement. This place was crazy, and she loved it. One day, she might be able to help design one of the new MMOs for the fastest growing gaming company in the US, Greystone Games. She’d have a stable job and a stable life, and a career doing something she loved for a change.

After composing herself, she knocked on the door. Kelly called for her to come in. “Ah, Belle, there you are. Find the place alright?”

“Yes, Tim helped me get here,” she said.

Kelly smiled. “He’s a good man. One of our first employees, actually. Come in, sit down, and we’ll get you squared away.”

As she tapped on the keyboard for a few minutes, papers spewed out of the printer behind her desk. Belle glanced around her office, grinning. Posters and printouts of the company’s projects covered the walls, along with pictures of the employees at a costume party of some sort. In the middle of them was a tall man with a full beard and short hair. He grinned like a wolf on the prowl at the camera, and Belle squinted her eyes, studying him.

“Is that Greyson Taylor?” she asked.

Kelly glanced up and nodded with a smirk. “Yeah, that’s the boss man in all his glory, and you’ll be seeing a lot more of him.”

Belle’s head turned so fast, her hair fell loose around her shoulders. “I will? I thought I’d just be working with the techs or something… an underling.”

“You were, but Greyson just put in a request a few days ago for a new personal assistant to help him with his work and such, so you may even get your hands dirty on his latest project. His last one quit unexpectedly,” Kelly muttered as she cringed. “I’m going to murder that man.”

The words were uttered so quietly, Belle had a feeling she wasn’t supposed to hear them. She leaned back in her chair as her hands twisted in her lap. She hadn’t expected to meet the man in charge, at least not until later. She smoothed her blouse and tucked the loose strands of brown hair behind her ears. What would he think of her? Maybe she’d get a chance to show him what she was capable of doing for his company. The idea of presenting her work to the CEO—the man who could make or break her dreams—made her heart pound, and a ringing in her ears wouldn’t go away. She tugged at her blouse again and nodded when Kelly started going over rules of the office and pointed out a few lines where she needed to sign.

“And I’ll need your banking information so we can get you setup for direct deposit,” she explained to Belle, glancing at the computer screen. “Oh, and I meant to tell you, Greyson likes our office to be casual as far as dress. He says everyone works better if they’re wearing what’s comfortable.”

“I wasn’t sure,” Belle said as her lips twisted to the side. She glanced at her professional outfit, too dressy for this office, but Kelly laughed.

“I’m glad to see you taking initiative instead of acting like half the other idiots we deal with.”

“Do you get a lot of interns from Arizona State?”

“A few. The professors know how to pick ’em, usually,” she said with a wink and encouraging smile. “Trust me, you’ll do just fine here, and hopefully, in a few months, I’ll be offering you a full-time job.” She held out her hand, and Belle shook it, smiling. “Welcome to Greystone Games. Now, here’s your badge and parking pass for the garage.”

“Oh, I take the bus,” she said. Her cheeks warmed, and she cringed internally.

“Hold onto it anyway,” Kelly told her. “Standard issue. Greyson should be in his office, so I’ll walk you down there so you can get started.”

Belle picked up her bag and followed Kelly out of the office.

“You’ll have a desk outside his office,” Kelly explained as she walked. “This floor is for designers, marketers, and our legal team, if you can even call them that.” She nodded across the room to where five guys were playing hacky sack and laughing loudly.

Belle laughed. “That’s the legal team?”

“You should go down one floor and see our IT guys,” she grinned, shaking her head. “This place runs like a well-oiled machine, but most days, I can’t figure out how.”

Belle turned when the guys let out a boo as one of them dropped the hacky sack. She was really going to love working here. Everyone had their own space, and Kelly pointed out the section of the floor designated for the designers. Hammocks hung from the ceiling, couches were placed around the room, giant pillows on the floor, and pictures and models of designs everywhere. She spotted Tim chatting with someone, and he waved at Belle as they passed. Kelly told her the conference rooms were all on the next floor up and she didn’t even know why they had them.

“Greyson enjoys calling meetings in the middle of the floor and letting everyone do a free-for-all. There’s a projector hanging from the ceiling over there,” she said, nodding her head. “I hope you weren’t looking for a typical work environment.”

Belle’s cheeks hurt from smiling so much, and her heart fluttered. Finally, she’d found a place she’d be able to fit in and be herself. “No,” she said, “no, this is perfect.”

She’d always been a little odd, seeing things in ways others couldn’t, imagining new worlds and picturing them in her mind. Sketching helped her make it through all the foster homes she’d bounced around in until she was eighteen. When she discovered graphic design and knew she had found what she was meant to do, the competition for jobs was fierce. This was her first real chance to show the world what she could do. Her professors had faith in her. She hoped she wouldn’t lose her nerve and fail. This was her last semester in college, and she needed the internship.

“Right, here’s Greyson’s office,” Kelly said.

Belle glanced past her and nodded in approval. “I like his style.”

The desk was large and black with detailing around the sides of runes and other images from the first game his company created. The walls, like Kelly’s, were covered in posters and pictures of game launches and patches they had released, awards they had won, and too many pictures to even count.

“He takes care of his employees,” Kelly told her. “That’s one good quality about him.”

“Does he have any bad ones?” Belle asked.

Kelly’s hands rested on her hips, and she tilted her head. “Depends on what you consider bad. Looks like he’s running a little behind or he’s downstairs. Here’s your desk, at least. You can get settled in and when he gets here, I’ll fill him in.”

“What should I do until then?” she asked as she set her bag on the sleek wooden desk that was now hers. Two monitors sat on it along with a keyboard and mouse designed by the company. A printer and fax machine were behind it, as well as several small filing cabinets. There was a phone, in and out paper trays, and a few figurines of the latest characters from the dragon slayer MMO she had played nearly every night for a month when it came out.

“Get your stuff settled in, and if you have any work you need to do for yourself, have at it,” Kelly said and checked the watch on her wrist. “I’ll see where he is. Sit tight until then.”

She opened her bag after Kelly walked off and pulled out her laptop. It was the most expensive thing she owned and her prized possession. All of her work was on it, and she quickly hooked it up to the two monitors on the desk to have a go at some of her latest designs, images of a 3D models of scenarios for a game that would probably never see the light of day. If she wanted to catch the eye of a gaming CEO, she needed to show what she could potentially do on her own to prove her value to the company.

Belle got to work, her hand moving swiftly with the mouse as she became lost in her designs when a deep, growling voice reached her ears. She glanced up, and her mouth fell open before she quickly clamped it shut. Greyson Taylor stalked towards his office with three men trailing behind him, talking furiously and gesticulating wildly with their hands about something. From the stormy look on his face, it wasn’t good.

“I don’t care what they told you. They’re late, and we need those figures now so we can push forward,” he sighed heavily, his hands on hips hugged by dark denim. His button-down, southwest, black and white patterned shirt left little to the imagination. His broad shoulders and muscled chest were on display.

Belle lifted a hand to her mouth to check for drool then kicked herself mentally. Now was not the time to lose her cool simply because her new boss was an attractive bear of a man.

“What should I tell them?” one of the guys asked as he pushed his glasses up his nose.

“Tell them if I don’t have an answer by the end of this week, I’m going to terminate their contract.”

All three—who Belle now recognized from the legal team—sucked in an audible gasp. “Are you sure, Grey?”

“Yes, I’m sure. Go send them the offer again and tell them they have a time limit. We can afford not to take the deal, but they can’t.” The men walked away, muttering to themselves, and Greyson turned. He started when he saw Belle, and his eyes narrowed. “Who are you?”

Belle held out her hand, and he waited a beat before taking it. His swallowed hers, and the warmth sent a shiver down her spine. “Belle Hall, your new personal assistant,” she told him brightly. “Kelly was going to explain, but I guess you missed her.”

His eyes shot to the monitors, and Belle held her breath when his gaze narrowed. He tilted his head, released her hand, and leaned on the desk to look closer. “Hmm, guess I must’ve,” he muttered and scratched his beard. “Well, do me a favor and grab me a coffee from the break room. When you get back, I’ll have a list of tasks I need completed by the end of the day.”

Without another word, he stalked into his office and closed the door behind him, leaving Belle to stare at his back. She tapped her fingers on her desk for a second, then set off to find the break room and get him his damn cup of coffee. The break room was on the same floor, at least, with a sign lit up in neon over the door. She walked to the single serve and popped in one of the coffees, set a mug under it, and leaned back against the counter to wait.

Two women and one man she hadn’t seen yet walked in laughing and headed to the fridge. “Did you hear Stacey left?” the redhead asked with a smirk.

“What is that? Three this month,” the guy said and shook his head. “If he keeps going through assistants this fast, there’s going to be no one left in Phoenix.”

Belle turned to grab the coffee mug, eavesdropping as she moved. Three assistants in one month? What’s wrong with the man?

“Stacey left in the middle of the day, too. Didn’t tell anyone,” the other woman said.

“I don’t blame her,” the guy said. “I hear a new one started today.”

“Should we take bets on how long she’ll last?”

Belle plastered a smile on her face and turned to see them. “I’ll put a hundred on her,” she said confidently. “I say she’ll last longer than a week.”

The three stared at her then broke out in smiles. “You’re her, aren’t you?” the redhead asked.

Belle nodded. “I say a month at least. I’ll outlast the others.”

“Well, alright then,” the guy said. “I feel a pool coming on.”

Belle gripped the coffee mug tightly in her hand and grinned wider. “I’ll win,” she said and left the break room. The second she was out of sight, she leaned against the closest wall and frowned. She thought this job was going to be her step in the right direction, but if what they said was true, no one lasted with Greyson. “I’ll just have to change that,” she whispered to herself and walked back to his office.

* * *

Wednesday morning, Greyson walked into his office and saw a cup of coffee steaming on his desk, a stack of papers stacked neatly with a post-it on them saying they needed his signature, and another three on his calendar for the day. He set his bag down on the floor and read them all, grinning. Belle was much more organized than the last three women had been, and for the last two days, he had managed to make all his phone calls on time, responded to every e-mail waiting in his inbox, and hadn’t missed a meal.

He picked up his mug and sipped the coffee as he sifted through the papers on his desk before looking out his door for Belle. The first day they met, she had caught him off-guard with her bright, eager blue eyes and smile that lit up more than just her face. He worried she wouldn’t be tough enough for this job, but so far, she’d held up nicely. And as he spied her walking back across the open office floor, his lips twitched. She was damn nice to watch in her tight jeans, black boots, and clingy sweater. It hung off one shoulder today, and the view of such smooth skin made his hand curl tightly around his mug. Maybe this assistant would be up for a little extra. No woman could resist his charm for long.

“Belle,” he called out his door. She set a stack of files on her desk and entered his office.

“Morning, Greyson,” she said with the smile that he realized he wanted to see every morning.

“What are all these for?” he asked brusquely and tapped the stack. “They just say to sign.”

“Legal sent them over last night,” she told him and walked over. She leaned over his desk, as he inhaled, the apples and cinnamon scent filling his nose. “Looks like they’re for a deal you made with another company for rights to the new programs you bought from them.”

He frowned and stared at the papers in her hands. “Right, of course,” he said and cleared his throat.

She handed them back. “Anything else?”

“This phone call at ten… Can you push it back for me ‘til noon? I have to talk to the design team, and this one I can’t do until Friday,” he said, pointing to the last post-it on his calendar for the day. “If you have a chance, draft a new proposal for marketing to look over. We need to slow down our releases for news about the new MMO.”

Her brow furrowed before her smile returned and she nodded. “Problems?”

“Nothing you need to worry about,” he said as he sat down with a sigh. “That’s all for now.”

Again, her brow furrowed and her hands clenched at her sides, but she nodded and left his office, closing the door behind her.

Greyson grabbed his pen and signed the pages after he read them, set them in his out tray, and brought up the schedule for the new game launch. They had run into another glitch last night, and he needed to have a meeting to find a way around it. The launch date was going to have to be pushed back again.

He entwined his fingers behind his head, leaning back in his chair. His gaze lingered on the pictures around his office—his first successful game launch and every one since then. At the age of twenty-eight, he’d managed to establish one of the top gaming companies in the industry, and he did it without relying on his wealth. Now, he had a company wealthy enough to recruit some of the best talent across the country, and it was going to keep expanding if they could launch this game before the holidays. It might only be January, but they had months of work still ahead of them.

Lost in thought, he didn’t realize his eyes lingered on Belle and what he could see of her bare shoulder as he watched her work. She made one call, then another, before turning to her computer. He had seen the designs on her computer. They might’ve been rough around the edges, but the potential in them was apparent. But that was all it was. Potential. For now, he needed her as an assistant and nothing more.

He grumbled under his breath and picked up his phone. “Tim,” he said when the man answered at the other end. “Can you and Davis get to my office? I want to go over the glitch.”

“Yes, boss man, be there in two,” he said and hung up.

Belle pushed back from her desk and walked into his office. “Those papers ready? Legal’s been messaging me for the last ten minutes.”

“Right there,” he told her and pointed to the out tray.

She scooped them up and sifted through them, standing barely a foot away from Greyson, and he shifted closer, wanting to push the loose strand of hair from her face and tuck it behind her ear. He’d been wondering the past few days how he could convince her to go out with him that weekend for drinks, but the words wouldn’t come.

“Boss,” Tim said loudly as he and Davis entered the office.

Greyson frowned and pulled away from his musings of Belle—maybe without her clothes, eventually. “Tell me again why there was a glitch? I thought we figured out the design problems a while ago.”

Tim smiled at Belle as she left, and she waved before he sat down and held up his tablet. “We’re not sure, but I think it’s an error in the optimization somewhere. Must’ve missed it because if we try to run the program, the graphics are blurry as hell and it rubber-bands real bad when you try to move.”

He pulled it up and Greyson leaned over, scratching his beard. The lagging in the game had been a problem a while ago, jerking the player around, but the rubber-banding that sent them back to another area was new. “Did you ask IT?”

“They sent us a back a few options to try, but nothing’s working, so it has to be something we did.”

“Belle!” He glared at the screen as she bustled back in. “Schedule a meeting for this afternoon with everyone. We have a problem.”

“You have a call at noon,” she reminded him. “Shall I call them and reschedule it or do the meeting afterwards?”

He debated which would be better and watched as her eyes jumped to the tablet Tim held. She frowned and moved to see it better. “Reschedule,” he ordered, wondering what she was thinking. “That’s all for now.” He dismissed her roughly, and when she lifted her eyes to his, he shifted in his seat at the flare of annoyance before she nodded and left his office, closing the door behind her.

“What do you know about her?” Greyson asked Tim and Davis.

“I know she’s studying to be a designer in school,” Tim said. “She’s got some work of her own I’ve seen, and it’s not bad considering she taught herself everything before getting to college.”

“She showed it to you?”

“Yesterday. I gave her a few tips, but she’s got some great original work and has a knack for computers, too. She could be more than just a designer,” Tim told him. “Why? Has she not shown you anything yet?”

“I didn’t ask,” he said, leaving out how he’d already seen some of her work.

“Why not? You’re always looking for new talent.”

“I need an assistant right now to keep everything in order, and besides, she’s young,” Greyson said with a shrug. “She’d probably be more of a liability than an asset.”

“Uh huh,” Tim said. “Just so you know, there’s a pool going around the office.”

“About Belle?” Greyson asked.

“Yep, on how long she’ll last as your assistant.” The tone of his voice told Greyson he wasn’t too happy with his boss, but he left it alone. “What do you want me to do with our glitch?”

“If the graphics are malfunctioning, something wasn’t optimized right,” Greyson agreed quietly, his mind racing about the bet. “See if you can run it again and pinpoint exactly when the game starts to fail. We’ll go from there this afternoon.”

Tim and Davis nodded and left, deep in conversation about options for optimizing the graphics again if they were running too high for the intended platform. Greyson rubbed his eyes and stared at the coffee mug in his hand. Cold.

“Belle, when you have a second, another cup of coffee would be great,” he said sweetly into the intercom on his desk.

“Sure thing,” she said. A few seconds later, she returned to his office. “Anything else?”

Her tone was more snappish than usual, so he shook his head. “No, that’s all for now.”

He watched her leave, gripping his mug so hard his knuckles were white and muttering under his breath. He considered following her, maybe finding his chance to make a move, but an IM showed up on his computer and he groaned. Time to focus on his work and worry about women later.

By the end of the day, Greyson and his team were no closer to figuring out the problem, and he insisted everyone go home before they ruptured their brains trying to find the issue. Tim was beside himself, and Greyson patted him on the shoulder. This was his baby, after all, and he knew the man wanted to get it off the ground.

“It’ll be there in the morning,” Greyson told him firmly. “Get some sleep and start fresh.”

“We’ll have to push back development again,” he groaned. “We can’t even get the startup screen to run properly now.”

“The morning, Tim,” Greyson repeated. “Night everyone.”

He waved as they told him goodnight, too, and walked to gather his things from his office. He saw Belle at the bus stop across the street. The streetlight close by lit the corner block, but he didn’t like her being out there alone at night, waiting for the bus. He quickly grabbed the rest of his papers and haphazardly shoved them into his bag. This might be the chance he was looking for.

Once inside his new, leather-interior, dark blue Mustang, he revved the engine as he pulled out of the parking garage and drove to Belle. “Hey,” he called out the passenger side window, and she jumped. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”

Her jaw clenched. “You didn’t,” she said. “What are you doing?”

“Offering you a ride. Where do you live?”

She shook her head. “No thanks, I’m fine with the bus.”

“Where’s your car? Kelly said she gave you a permit for the garage,” he asked, debating if he should get out and find a better way to convince her.

“Really, this is fine,” she insisted. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

He gripped the steering wheel, his chances of a possible moment alone with her in his car slipping away. “See you then, I guess,” he muttered and pulled away. He hated leaving her alone, but the glimmer of suspicion in her eyes said she was not the type of woman to get by pushing. He’d just have to try a different approach.