“You’ll have to excuse the office,” he said as he lifted his hands and displayed the mess of papers that were scattered around the desk and all across the floor. He leaned back against the desk and behind her, Amanda was aware of the door closing slowly on its own with a click.

“I’d tell you to sit down but…” he smirked and looked around at the two chairs on her side of the room. They were both covered in clothes and a mess of paperwork and she smiled, her mouth a flat line, and tried not to grimace.

“Oh,” she smiled politely. “No need to worry.”

She stood there uncomfortably as he looked at her up and down. His eyes were glinting with an amusement she couldn’t quite place, and he had a mischievous air about him that was both endearing and a little intimidating.

“So, I looked over your resume and the profile the agency sent me,” he said suddenly.

Amanda smiled and nodded her head.

The more she looked at him, the more she couldn’t help but think he seemed a little familiar.

“And I liked it,” he said. “You’ve had a lot of experience in different industries with you temping at various companies, and from what Kat told me, you’re pretty down to Earth and relaxed.”

She nodded again.

He cocked his head to the side and glared at her.

“I don’t tend to like my assistants,” he said with a hint of warning. “So let’s not get carried away just yet, but as the advert said, I probably do need to find someone permanent. There are only so many times I can stand going through the same kind of training and getting to know people, so I hope you have some balls.”

She felt herself bristle slightly and her brow instantly furrowed.

“Balls?” she asked him with a small amount of concern.

“Yeah,” he snorted. “Big, heaving balls. I hope you’ve got some oompf.”

She found herself smiling and she shrugged her shoulders.

“I’ve been told I fit that description,” she crossed her arms over her chest.

“Good,” he said as he turned and walked back toward the huge windows that were letting sunlight stream in along with a fantastic view of the river and the city skyline.

“So,” she scratched the back of her neck nervously while he wasn’t watching her and tried to keep her composure. “What is it exactly that you do?”

He turned and looked at her over his shoulder and grinned.

“Maybe this won’t work after all,” he said. “That all sounded far too innocent there.”

“No,” she said sternly as she took a step forward. “I just want to be filled in. I literally got sent to this interview an hour after I heard about the job. The least you could do is fill me in a little. Kat wasn’t exactly very forthcoming with information.”

He studied her for a moment as if she had done the right thing by standing up for herself and then a little smile played across his lips again.

“I need an assistant, Amanda,” he said sternly as he turned back to face her. “I need someone to take care of my affairs, my admin, keep my head screwed on, and make sure I don’t forget anything. I need a diary manager. A babysitter. I need someone to bounce ideas off of. Does this sound like something you could do?”

She was kind of stunned into silence, but she found herself nodding.

“Piece of cake,” she said with a wry smile.

He returned it and then he nodded his head and took a step closer to her.

“Good,” he said. “I’m glad to hear it.”

He looked her up and down and nodded in approval.

“And I’m glad you’re not a suit,” he said with a snort. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t have even made it through the door. I like to keep it casual. Who needs to prance around in a three piece or a pair of heels and a pencil skirt? If you want to wear sneakers, fucking wear them, okay?”

She smirked and nodded her head.

He was candid and rude and totally intimidating, but she was rising to the challenge and she wasn’t going to be put off.

She could already tell, working for Russell Newport was going to be all kinds of crazy and interesting. He was quite unlike anyone she had had the pleasure of meeting before.

“Here,” he passed her a cellphone and a new laptop, and it was so unexpected she took them clumsily from him and did her best not to drop them. “I think I’ve seen all I need to see.”

He turned his back on her and went back to look out the window. He was clearly churning something over in his mind, and even though they had been mid conversation, she could already tell that it had nothing to do with her and that his mind had gone somewhere else entirely.

“So, I…” she went to ask but he held up his hand as if he was having a kind of internal monologue with himself.

She watched the back of him and she couldn’t help but stare at his muscular shoulders, the way his neck was tensing and the way he looked like some kind of giant. He kept her waiting there like that, in complete silence, for what felt like a decade, and when he finally turned back around, he looked shocked that she was still standing there.

“Yes?” he asked her, as if he didn’t even know who she was.

She felt herself frowning.

No wonder he went through so many assistants if he was this erratic and rude.

“When do you want me?” she asked, trying not to be put off by the insane nature of what was occurring between them.

“Tomorrow morning,” he said snappily. “Eight-thirty, right here.”

He turned his back on her and she edged toward the door of his office. He had picked up a notepad and a pen and he was scribbling something furiously down onto it as if he had just had a flash of genius.

She cast a glance back over her shoulder as she left the room and he was looking back toward the skyline, holding his hand up as if he were framing something and tying to imagine what it could look like if some of it were changed.

Her heart raced a little with nerves and she rolled out her shoulders, before she let the door close and he was gone behind it.

Alone in the corridor, this time the cameras didn’t follow her. But she still watched them out of the corner of her eye, and when the doors to the next hallway slid open automatically, the girl from reception was standing right there with her hands crossed in front of her and a suspicious looking smile curling across her lips.

“All set?” she asked sweetly as she cast her eyes down to the cellphone and laptop that Amanda was clutching in her hands.

She couldn’t be sure, but Amanda did think for a moment that she had caught a hint of jealousy behind her eyes.

“Yes,” she said strongly and she felt herself straighten up as if to project the same attitude back.

“Great,” said the girl who didn’t move but kept looking at Amanda as if she were waiting for her to speak.

Amanda didn’t know if she were making the biggest mistake by asking this girl for advice, but her curiosity was piquing so much that she couldn’t resist.

“What is it exactly that you all do here?”

The girl smiled and her eyes glinted.

“When you get home, I suggest you use that,” she cast her eyes down at the laptop in Amanda’s hands. “And you google the Newports.”

That was all she said before she turned her back and walked slowly toward her desk and sat back down.

Amanda rolled her eyes and walked away.

Whoever this girl was, she clearly had a chip on her shoulder about something. Maybe it was one of Russell’s ways of testing the resolve and the so called ‘balls’ of his prospective assistants.

How much shit could they all throw her way before she caved and ran a mile, never to be seen again?

“Not me,” Amanda whispered to herself as she strode away from the girl and toward the elevator doors. “I’m not being scared off.”

When she stepped inside the elevator and it began to move down to the first floor, she couldn’t help but smile.

They were clearly trying to unnerve her with the crazy warehouse and the bad attitudes, it was no wonder his previous assistants hadn’t lasted long. But Amanda had been through worse, and there was no way she was going to be intimidated out of a job.

As she walked away from the warehouse and toward the main road where she could hopefully flag down a taxi, all she could think of was getting herself home so that she could open this laptop and do exactly what the girl at reception had suggested she do.

She was going to google Russell Newport, and she was going to learn everything about him.

When she went back the following morning, she was going to ensure that she was fully prepared. Nothing was going to throw her off guard or make her unnerved on her first day. She was damned sure of it.

 

Madison and Grace were sitting and watching the TV while Amanda was busy cleaning up the kitchen and sipping a glass of wine. Her day had been so crazy busy since she had left the warehouse, she hadn’t even had time to turn on the cellphone or the laptop to try and google her new boss.

The kids were watching a cartoon about magic horses, and they were so engrossed she didn’t want to disturb them. So as soon as she had finished sweeping away all the mess from the countertops and the floor, she grabbed the laptop and sat down at the island.

She felt a little bit of apprehension creep up inside her as the machine came to life and a myriad of colors and images flashed before her eyes. She waited for it to load and then she searched for the web browser and opened it up.

As the cursor flashed in front of her, she almost stopped herself from going any further. But she had to look at this for what it was. She wasn’t just being nosy because she didn’t know who he was… She had to know, and she had to learn as much as she could so she could do her job properly and without making a fool of herself. She didn’t even know who Russell was, so if she didn’t search for him online and see if there was any information, then she sure as hell wasn’t going to be the best assistant she could be. It would be like walking in blindfolded and expecting him to guide her.

“Nope,” she whispered. “Not my style.”

The girls giggled together and she looked over the top of the screen just to ensure that they weren’t up to any mischief. They were both so blond and pretty, and their little heads bobbed up and down as they sat side by side on the couch and watched the magic unfolding on the television in front of them.

Amanda had forgotten how much innocence a child had until she had become a mom. And now it was as if she was rediscovering all the magic and the mystery the world had to offer through their eyes. It was exciting and it was wonderful, it was almost as if she was having another childhood all over again as she began to teach them more and more about the world.

She looked back to the laptop and took a deep breath. She kept her fingers poised and raised and she began to type his name slowly and with determination.

RUSSELL NEWPORT

When she pressed enter, she hadn’t been sure exactly what she had been expecting, but the barrage of photographs, press articles, websites, profiles, and not to mention, a goddamn Forbes cover, was all kinds of overwhelming.

She raised her hand to cover her mouth as it opened in shock, and then she leaned in closer with wide eyes.

No wonder he had looked familiar.

He was Russell fucking Newport.

Of the infamous Newport family.

She felt a chill roll over her and her mind began to race. How had she been so dumb when she had walked in there? Newport was such a well-known name around the city. In fact, it was famous around the world. She clicked on an article and opened it wide; he even had his own Wikipedia page, and the photograph in the top left corner was one of him bleary eyed and drunk, staggering out of a bar in London while he stuck his middle finger up at whoever was holding the camera.

Amanda smirked.

This guy was clearly a little bit different to the rest of his family.

She had once seen a show about the Newport’s, of how they had been one of the first families to settle in the country and of how they had made millions through the oil industry. Since they had acquired their wealth and other generations had been born, they had diversified into other industries, and as she scrolled through the articles, she could see they even owned their own NFL team.

“Yikes,” she said as she sipped her wine and leaned in closer to the laptop screen.

There was so much information about his family, but it was almost as if Russell was the one who had held the headlines on the society pages for all of the wrong reasons. He was a well-known party boy, a bachelor, and a complete disaster. He had had a high profile and very messy divorce from an actress, eight years before, and he had been snapped countless times drunk and leery on nights out across the world. It was clear he didn’t hold back when it came to his behavior, and he was the kind of person who would tell anyone and everyone what he thought of them without engaging any kind of filter.

As she scrolled through the photographs, she could see him sunbathing on beaches in the South of France, she saw him partying in New York, Budapest, and Shanghai, and the most recent snippet of news was about how Russell Newport had decided to go out on his own and develop the abandoned and derelict riverside warehouses of the city.

She felt her heart race a little.

He really was big news, and now she felt even more nervous than she had been. Before, she had been prepared for a character, but she had no idea he was going to be this famous or this much hard work. The more she scrolled, the more she realized he appeared to be a complete nightmare, and was, without a doubt, the black sheep of his family.

“Oh great,” she said as she held her head in her hands. “What have I gone and gotten myself into?”

She thought back to the way Kat had smirked when they had been chatting at the agency. Of course, Amanda was going to be the obvious choice for this kind of roll. Not only was she well held together, relaxed and experienced, she was also a mom, and it was clear that this guy needed some kind of guidance when it came to the car crash that was his life.

He had money to burn and no common sense. He had had a crazily horrific divorce which had been splashed all over the papers, and after that, he had gone off the rails and partied around the world. Now he was back and he was beginning a new chapter when it came to business. Amanda, somehow, couldn’t imagine him ever working seriously after what she had just read, but maybe he had decided it was time he grew up once and for all.

She quickly scrolled back to the Wikipedia page and looked at his details underneath the photograph. As she had suspected, he was only forty-two.

She bit her lip and tried not to look at any more, even though she had the feeling the majority of it was true, she was smart enough to know that you couldn’t believe everything you read in the press.

He was sexy as hell, damaged, arrogant, rich, and a total dick by all accounts. He was going to make her life hell, she was sure of it, but she needed the money and there was no way she was going to quit before she had even given herself the chance.

She was strong, and she was determined. She may have felt a little intimidated, but what was life if there wasn’t some trying times in it? She needed to rise to the challenge and be the badass she knew she could be.

Russell Newport sure had…

“Who’s that, Mommy?” Madeline asked as she came up beside her and put her head on the side of her arm. She stared at the picture staring back at them both, Russell falling out of a London black cab with a pretty blonde on his arm and a cigarette dangling from his lips.

Amanda swept her up onto her knee and closed the laptop lid.

“No one, sweetheart,” she smiled as she brushed her daughter’s hair behind her ears and looked into her beautiful eyes. She was so sweet and innocent, it truly didn’t matter who Russell was, or how hard he made her work, she was determined to do her absolute best because she had two little people counting on her.

“How are you both doing?” she asked as she peered through into the living area. Grace was still half sitting and half standing on the couch, in a trance with the cartoon that was still sparkling in front of her.

“I’m tired,” Madeline said. “Can we have a bath and go to bed?”

“Of course, you can,” Amanda smiled as she kissed her on the forehead and cuddled her tight.

She held Madeline in her arms as she stood up and began to walk into the living area. Grace turned and smiled at them both and handed her mom the remote control and rose to her feet too.

“I didn’t realize it was so late,” Amanda said as she turned off the TV and picked up Grace with her other arm.

Now that the girls were older, taller and heavier, it was getting harder and harder to carry them both at the same time, and her back was starting to feel the strain. She loved the little women they were becoming, but there was still a part of her that longed for the days when they were small. When Grace was a baby and Madeline was a toddler, it had been a happy time for them, even if Rob was on the verge of becoming the epic asshole he turned out to be.

Upstairs, Amanda ran the bath and sat on the side of it as the girls splashed around and washed each other’s hair. She held their pajamas in a neat little fold on her knee, and she watched them with a smile on her face as they played with their mermaid toys and laughed together.

She truly was blessed.

Once the tub was drained and the girls were wrapped up warm in thick, waffle towels, they went through into Amanda’s bedroom and they took turns to sit at her dressing table while she dried their hair. They both had the same long blonde hair that matched their mother’s, and when they were all stood together, there was absolutely no doubt that they were all of the same blood. Amanda was proud of her girls, and she was fiercely protective over them. So much so that she made a promise to herself right there and then that she wouldn’t let Russell Newport know anything about them.

If he knows I’m a mom, he may fire me… she thought to herself as she ran her fingertips through Madeline’s hair as she rough dried it and stared into space. He even said, he doesn’t like his assistants. If he knows I have outside responsibilities, he might decide I’m not cut out to be his lap dog.

She chewed her lip and turned off the hairdryer.

“Okay, girls,” she said as her mind was swimming. “Time for bed.”

She walked through to their rooms with them one by one and tucked them in. She kissed them both on the head and turned out the light.

“Tomorrow night, we’ll have story time in my bed, okay?” she said to Grace who nodded her head. “It’s so late tonight, you two need to get some sleep.”

She closed the door halfway and then she walked through to tuck in Madeline and told her the same.

“Okay, Mommy,” Madeline smiled as she wrapped her arms around Amanda’s neck and hugged her tight.

When she closed the door to Madeline’s room and wandered down the hallway to her own, her heart felt full in all the right ways. It had been a testing time for all of them, but she could feel as if hope was on the horizon now. If she managed to smash this new job and earn plenty of money for her and the girls, then she knew that everything was going to be just fine. Rob wouldn’t be able to claim more control over her, and she would finally be free of him for good.

She closed the door to her bedroom and looked at the closet doors. They were closed but she knew inside all her clothes were waiting for her to rifle through and choose the perfect outfit for her first day on the job.

The laptop and cellphone were resting on the bed behind her and she had to resist the urge to go over to them and start looking at more Newport rumors. If she was going to make this work the way she wanted to, she was going to have to forget who he was and just pretend Russell was another client she had little interest in.

But the truth was, she did have an interest.

She was interested in his muscles… in the way he had looked at her when he cocked his head to the side… at his ice blue eyes that had pierced right through her and looked into the deepest parts of her soul.

She had been fighting the thoughts all day, but as she sat alone in her bedroom and looked down at the laptop and cellphone he had given her, and with the knowledge that she was going to be spending much more time with him as of the following morning, she knew she was screwed.

He was so sexy, and he was going to tear her apart.

She flipped her hair over her shoulder and took a deep breath.

“Choose an outfit, then tomorrow morning there won’t be any stress,” she told herself as she rose to her feet and flung open the closet doors.

He didn’t like “suits”.

He didn’t want her to dress as if she were going to work in an office. He wanted her to be casual and calm and completely relaxed and down to Earth. She had worn heels when she had gone to meet with him at the warehouse, with no clue of what she was letting herself in for. But now she did, and from what she had seen of him, and from what she had read, she had the feeling that if she turned up in heels again he was going to make her life hell.

She pulled out some flats from the bottom of the closet. They were black, plain and simple, but they would be perfect with a pair of jeans and a white, longline shirt. She picked out a necklace that was big and azure blue, and she hung it over the top of the clothes hanger and put them all on the front of the closet door so they were displayed for her to give the once over.

“Perfect,” she smiled.

She pulled off her clothes and got ready for bed, and once she had gone back downstairs and checked that the house was secure, she turned out the lights, took herself back up and crawled under the covers.

It was then she realized that she had yet to turn on the cellphone.

She leaned over and picked it up, pressing the button and letting it come to life in front of her eyes. It was pretty empty, with barely any apps added to it, but immediately, a text icon flashed up and it said that she had one new message.

The number wasn’t saved, but she opened it anyway and her heart did a little dance in her chest.

 

Don’t be late, new girl. I don’t want a reason to hate you on your first day. Russell.

 

She swallowed hard and then she smiled. He was such a jerk but he was at least a little funny.

She saved his number to her contacts and then she sighed. She placed the phone down on the nightstand and turned out the light. She was going to need a good night’s sleep and she was going to have to wake up bright and refreshed to deal with her new job.

It was exciting and intimidating, but she was so glad to have found it. She was on the right path, she could feel it.