Becky’s POV

The office was too loud, footsteps of people walking about and doing their jobs.

Wolfe Enterprises after dark was not the sleek empire it was by day, full of boardroom chatter and the soft thrum of expensive machines. At night it was a cavern hushed, humming faintly with the echo of a kingdom at rest. And in the middle of the noises and footsteps, I was buried alive under files.

Lucian’s files.

He always trusted me with the ones no one else could touch: contracts that bent laws, mergers soaked in billions of dollars , papers that carried more secrets than most vaults could bear. And I handled them, because that was what I did ,to keep him protected from the chaos of both the business world and… the underground secrets no one knows about.

My nails tapped across the desk as I flipped another page, my eyes burning. Midnight and still, the numbers blurred together. My blouse clung to me, wrinkled from hours hunched in this chair, and my hair had long slipped out of its neat bun. Lucian demanded perfection by day, but by night? By night, I allowed myself to breathe.

The sharp click of a door unlocking snapped me upright.

I was deeply lost into the files.

The heavy oak door pushed open, spilling a bar of fluorescent light across the carpet, and in stepped Dan. His tie was loosened, his sleeves rolled, that easy grin tugging at his lips as if he owned the place.

“Still here, Becky?” His voice was smooth, teasing. “What are you, married to those files?”

I exhaled, annoyed at the interruption though my heart ticked faster. “Someone has to keep this empire from collapsing, Dan. And it’s certainly not you.”

He chuckled, closing the door behind him. “Fair. But I’m looking for something, a file on the Rosen deal. Lucian wants it ready by tomorrow morning.”

I rolled my eyes, already reaching for the cabinet. “You mean the file you were supposed to prepare two weeks ago?”

“Hey, don’t bite,” he said, raising his hands. “Unless you mean it.”

I froze for half a second. His grin sharpened.

Damn him.

I focused on the drawers, tugging them open harder than necessary. “If you spent less time flirting with the interns and more time doing your job, maybe you wouldn’t need me to save you every time.”

“My job, I just deliver and that's all.”he said.

His footsteps closed in. I could smell his warmth, spicy, faintly sinful. “Maybe I just like needing you.”

My pulse skipped. He was close enough now that I felt the heat of him at my back. His voice dipped low, playful but edged. “Or maybe you like me showing up after hours.”

The file slipped from my fingers.

I bent quickly, pretending composure, but when I rose, he was leaning against the cabinet, eyes tracing me with a hunger that wasn’t subtle.

“Dan…” I warned. My voice didn’t sound as firm as I wanted.

“Yes?” His smile was infuriating.

“This is Lucian’s office floor. Not your playground.”

“Funny,” he murmured, “you say that like the two can’t be the same.”

I hated how my body reacted to him the prickle under my skin, the way my thighs pressed together without my permission. He was trouble. Always had been. And yet… I never pushed him away.

“You came for a file,” I reminded him.

“Maybe.” He tilted his head. “Or maybe I came for both.”

My breath caught. The words were ridiculous, reckless but the way his eyes burned into me made my stomach clench.

I shoved the file into his chest harder than necessary. “Here. Now leave before ”

But he didn’t take it. His hand closed around mine instead, firm, warm, too certain.

I should have pulled back. Should have slapped him, scolded him, reminded him who I was and where we stood. But my body betrayed me, heat crawling through my veins, heart hammering like I was caught doing something reckless.

“Dan…”

“Tell me no,” he said softly. His grin had slipped; his eyes were dark now, intense. “Say no, and I’ll walk out that door.”

I swallowed. My lips parted. But the word never came.

Instead, silence.

And he knew.

His smirk returned, slow and wicked. “That’s what I thought.”

My back hit the cabinet as he pressed in closer, the file sliding to the floor. His breath brushed my ear as he murmured, “You’re too wound up, Becky. Always so perfect . Do you ever let go?”

A shiver ran down my spine. Damn him. Damn me.

“I should fire you,” I whispered, though my hands were already fisting in his shirt.

He chuckled darkly. “You won’t and you can't.”

His lips almost brushed mine , so close I felt the heat radiating. My chest rose, my control slipping. Every rational thought screamed stop, but my body… my body begged for more.

“Not here,” I gasped.

He grinned. “Then where?”

I closed my eyes. When I opened them, the words shocked even me.

“Lucian’s office.”

The thrill of saying it shot straight through me. Reckless and dangerous. And the way Dan’s grin widened told me he loved every second of my downfall.

Without another word, he grabbed my hand, pulling me across the hall. My heels clicked against the marble, echoing like a countdown to disaster. When the door shut behind us and I inhaled the sharp, intoxicating scent of Lucian’s space , power and danger wrapped into one ,I knew there was no turning back.