If I thought working for Aiden Winters would be exciting, I would have been wrong. In the two weeks since I’d been promoted to Aiden’s newest and most unnecessary executive assistant I hadn’t done much of interest.

To tell the truth, it was boring. I was used to being busy, even more so in my job as a project manager since half the time I was scrambling to keep up while not wanting to let anyone know I didn’t know what I was doing. In contrast, answering Aiden’s phone and filing had me half-asleep.

Not so for the other four assistants, who, as Thomas had said, had their hands full working with Aiden on various projects, drafting proposals, and a variety of other tasks that put them right in the heart of Winters, Inc’s global business. I could understand now why people fought for the opportunity to sit in one of those desks. Aiden worked them hard, but they were gaining experience and making connections they wouldn’t have without his mentoring.

All four of them continued to alternately ignore and irritate me. The one who’d stuck up for Aiden that first day, Henry, mostly left me alone, but Marisela and Peter loved playing little pranks. Silly, childish tricks I would have thought too immature for two business school graduates with executive aspirations.

Maybe a part of us never grows up, because they seemed to gain great amusement from stealing my stapler, switching the sugar for salt in the break room, disconnecting my phone, and other annoyances they thought would drive me off.

I didn’t respond to their provocations. Ever. I could fight back, and if it went on much longer, I would. I was willing to put up with it for the time being, because as long as those two were occupied with their pranks, they weren’t interested in what I was doing at my workstation when I wasn’t answering the phone and filing.

Not that what I was doing was fascinating. Aiden’s email was boring. None of the business messages seemed at all shady, and his personal communications were all about rebuilding a house on their estate in Buckhead and preparations for his cousin’s wedding.

There were a few emails between Aiden and Cooper Sinclair of Sinclair Security that alluded to a search for someone I thought might be family. I couldn’t tell—those emails were worded in the shorthand friends share when they already know what they’re talking about—but nothing about them seemed particularly sinister or criminal.

Aiden was trying to find someone who’d gone missing. It was curious, but I didn’t think there was anything there I could use to get Chase back his company.

Even worse, this enforced proximity to Aiden Winters was making me doubt my whole plan. I was starting to think it might be possible that he was actually a decent person. Despite the way he’d stolen Chase’s company, I couldn’t see any evidence that he was the cutthroat corporate shark I’d imagined him to be.

Well, maybe the shark part. I heard him through the door in meetings, his voice raised, slicing through the opposition like a razor-edged sword. He worked insane hours. He was driven and ambitious, and he expected everyone who worked for him to be the same.

But so far I couldn’t find any evidence of him being underhanded. He didn’t take credit for others’s work. He always took the time to compliment his team when they did a good job, even thanked them for their dedication. The one time his younger sister Charlie had stopped by he’d greeted her with a smile of such tender affection it made me catch my breath.

I struggled to align these two visions of Aiden. The corporate shark who’d stolen Chase’s company and the hard-working, devoted head of his family. Could the man who joked with his little sister be the same man who’d tricked Chase out of CD4 Analytics? With every day that passed, I was finding it harder to believe the truth.

One evening, after the other four assistants had left for the day, I sat at my desk, a fresh cup of coffee at my elbow, scanning through contracts on Aiden’s server. I was trying to find the original agreement for the purchase of CD4 Analytics, but so far it had proven elusive. Aiden had been closeted in his office for hours on a conference call with Las Vegas, something about a real estate investment, and he’d been so quiet I’d forgotten he was there.

I managed not to jump out of my skin when the door behind me opened. Casually, I closed the document I’d been skimming and swiveled my chair around. Aiden’s brown eyes were distracted and his hair was tousled as if he’d been running his fingers through it. He looked rumpled and tired and all too human.

Aiden took in the empty desks before his eyes locked on me. “You the only one here?”

“It’s seven o’clock, Mr. Winters. I’m just finishing up myself. Is there something I can do for you?”

Say no, say no, I thought as hard as I could.

“I could use your help with something, if you can stay,” he said.

My heart sank. So far I’d avoided working one-on-one with Aiden, but it looked like my reprieve was over.

“Of course. What do you need?”

“For you to order dinner to start with. Pick one of the takeout menus in your desk, and call in the order. My favorites are highlighted on each menu, I don’t care which restaurant. Whatever sounds good to you. Let the front desk know, and they’ll go pick it up. In the meantime, I want you to compare these two contracts and highlight any differences in the second.”

He dropped two packets of paper on my desk. “When the food gets here, bring it in, along with those contracts.”

“I’m not in legal,” I started to say, but Aiden shook his head, dismissing my objection.

“I don’t need someone from legal. I just need a sharp eye to double check.”

He disappeared back into his office. I did as ordered, but I wasn’t sure I could call it an order. I usually thought on my feet better than that.

I should have told him I had plans.

A date.

Anything.

Anything except for sitting there and staring at him when he asked me to work late. He’d just looked so…oddly vulnerable. With his jacket off and his sleeves rolled up, his auburn curls in disarray and his eyes tired, I’d had the crazy urge to force him to take a break, to relax and get some rest.

The only person I ever took care of was Chase. Everyone else could fend for themselves. The last person I ever expected to want to take care of was Aiden Winters. But clearly, he needed it. He worked too much.

I knew he had family to go home to. Maybe not a wife and kids of his own, but his cousin Gage lived in their family home, along with Gage’s younger sister Annalise, who office gossip said had only recently returned home.

I could see working late when there was nothing but an empty house waiting for you. I’d done that myself often enough when Chase was away. Aiden didn’t need to drive himself so hard, but he couldn’t seem to stop.

Not your problem, I told myself. You’re not here to take care of him, you idiot. You’re here to find compromising information to force him to give up Chase’s company.

Aiden Winters is the enemy.

It shouldn’t be so hard to remember that. Most of the time it wasn’t. Only when he caught me off guard.

I’d ordered dinner from one of my favorite restaurants, getting us both the spicy Ramen Aiden had highlighted. That place made old-school Ramen by hand, the broth rich and meaty, the noodles soft and filling, the meat spicy enough to make your eyes water.

It was as much comfort food as chicken and dumplings. I couldn’t stop myself from ordering something for Aiden that might help him relax.

I’d worried he might try to trip me up once he had me alone. I stayed on guard as we ate and reviewed the contracts he’d given me, but Aiden gave not the slightest hint he knew I was anything other than a regular employee. He thanked me for getting dinner, for paying such close attention to the contracts and catching a few errors he’d missed himself.

He’d been friendly, but professional, and entirely appropriate. I didn’t know quite what to make of that. The next day he acted as if I didn’t exist.

After that, I tried to avoid working late if he was in the office, even though it was easier to snoop when everyone else was gone. It’s not like I was finding anything anyway. While we were caught in this holding pattern it was hard to convince myself to give up, but as each day passed I knew my plan was less and less likely to pay off.

I still hadn’t been able to find the paperwork related to Aiden’s purchase of Chase’s company and the fact that it was missing was starting to bother me. Was it possible there was more to this than I knew? More than Chase knew? The only way to figure that out was to ask Aiden, and it was too late for the direct approach.

A week after that late dinner in Aiden’s office, I was still treading water, still searching and getting nowhere, when Aiden opened his office door to find me alone at my desk. As usual, the other four had gone to lunch without me. Every day they made a big production of agreeing on a restaurant and time as if deliberately not including me would hurt my feelings or scare me off.

Since I had no interest in eating lunch with them anyway, I ignored them. Mostly. It was hard to be the subject of such unrelenting dislike, but I tried to remind myself that it didn’t matter. They weren’t my friends, and I wasn’t going to be here long. If they wanted to act like they were still in elementary school, that was their problem. I wouldn’t let it be mine.

“Everyone at lunch?” Aiden asked.

“Yes, sir,” I said. A glint flashed in his eyes when I called him ‘sir’ and the side of his lips quirked up.

“I ordered lunch in,” he said, “the same thing we had last week. When it gets here, put the phone on voicemail, and bring it into my office. You’re eating with me, and then I want your help with the next revision on those contracts.”

“Yes, sir,” I said, trying not to notice the way the quirk of his lips bloomed into a grin. I couldn’t ignore the blush that grin brought to my cheeks. I swiveled my seat back to face my computer, but I heard a choked laugh as Aiden went back to his office.

The Ramen arrived fifteen minutes later. Dreading the meal ahead, I carried the food to Aiden’s door and rapped twice.

“Come in, Violet,” he said, still sounding amused. I was on edge, my throat tight, my stomach in a knot. I could handle playing the professional with scary Aiden, but playful, amused Aiden was a different story.

That grin knocked me off balance.

I took a deep breath and squared my shoulders, striding into the room as if I didn’t have a single worry. Aiden pushed his chair back and gestured to the seat beside him.

Crap. Why did he want me to sit next to him? It was just as easy to sit on the other side of his desk with all that heavy, thick wood between us.

Masking my nerves with efficiency, I crossed the room to the seat he’d indicated and began unpacking the cartons and covered bowls in the bag of takeout. I’d had takeout from this place enough on my own to know what to do and I busied myself combining broth and noodles with meat and seasonings until we both had a complete meal sitting in front of us.

After that, I was forced to take a seat beside Aiden. This close I could smell him, that woodsy, warm scent I thought was half soap and half him. I leaned forward and dipped my face over the plastic bowl of noodles, inhaling the salty rich broth, trying to banish Aiden from my senses.

It didn’t work. Now I was smelling noodles and soup, but it didn’t erase the man beside me. I didn’t think anything could do that.

Surprising me, he dug into his lunch and gestured for me to do the same. It felt like a stay of execution. Maybe this would be like the other night. We’d eat. We’d work. He wouldn’t grin at me like that again.

As we ate he filled me in on the progress of the contracts. He was doing some business with a friend out in Las Vegas who owned a casino, and as soon as they got these contracts wrapped up, they’d move on to the next phase of the project, a mixed-use development that combined retail and condos.

Real estate wasn’t my thing and contracts bored me to tears—I was a numbers girl—but I couldn’t help but get a little excited about the project as Aiden described it.

Not for the first time I had the feeling that Aiden didn’t work this hard for the power or the money, or not only for those things. He had a genuine enthusiasm for his work. He loved this company, not just as a means to an end. It was disarming, and it didn’t fit the rest of the picture.

We’d long since finished our lunch and were going over the contracts, line by line, re-examining changes and double checking the numbers, when the door to Aiden’s office swung open.

The outer office was still empty, and with no one to stop her, Aiden’s visitor strolled right in.