He Never Marked Me

Chapter 5: Summoned to His Office

(Isolde's POV)

Derek stared at me like I had just set the building on fire.

"What did you do?" he hissed, his voice low and tight.

"I don't know," I said honestly.

"The new CEO's first day and he's already asking for you by name." He shook his head. "That doesn't happen unless someone screwed up."

"I really don't know what this is about."

He didn't believe me. I could see it in his face.

The truth was, even I hadn't expected this. Derek clearly hadn't either. His whole face was doing something complicated, like he was trying to figure out how this affected him.

I turned to leave.

His hand shot out and grabbed my wrist.

"If you did something wrong," he said, his voice dropping even lower, "you deal with it yourself. Don't drag my name into it."

I almost laughed.

Derek had been Margaret's man inside this company for two years. Every bad review, every blocked promotion, every extra task dumped on my desk - all of it came from him, on her orders. And now he was worried about being dragged into something.

"If you're in trouble," he continued, his grip tightening, "that's your problem. But if you say one word about me to him-"

"Let go of my wrist," I said.

He didn't move.

"I mean it, Silvercrest. You say anything up there and you will not have a job to come back to."

I looked at his hand on my wrist. Then I looked at his face.

He was scared. That was all this was. He was scared I'd walk into that office and tell the new CEO exactly what he'd been doing to me for two years.

The irony was, that wasn't even why I was going up there.

I had one thing on my mind. One thing I needed to confirm with my own eyes.

I pulled my wrist free and walked to the elevator without looking back.

The doors closed behind me.

My palms were soaking wet the entire ride up.

Natalie was already waiting when the elevator opened on the top floor. She was sharp and efficient, with a sleek blonde bob and a calm expression that gave nothing away.

"Ms. Silvercrest," she said. "Right this way."

She led me down the hall and stopped in front of a heavy door at the end. She knocked twice.

A voice came from inside. Low. Steady. Unhurried.

"Come in."

My stomach dropped straight to the floor.

I knew that voice.

I pressed my hand flat against my stomach for one second, then pushed the door open.

He was sitting behind a wide desk, head down, flipping through a stack of documents. I couldn't see his face clearly from where I stood. But I didn't need to.

That posture. Those shoulders. The quiet, suffocating weight that filled the room the moment I stepped into it.

My mind jumped back to yesterday without permission. The examination room. The cool, careful hands. The steady voice telling me to hold still.

I pushed the memory down hard.

He still hadn't looked up.

I stood there, trying to pull myself together, when I suddenly felt it - a sharp, focused pressure, like a spotlight switching on.

I looked up.

He was already watching me.

His ice-blue eyes were locked on my face, calm and completely unreadable. The moment our eyes met, something slammed into my chest. My heartbeat went from nervous to frantic in less than a second.

He set the documents down slowly.

The corner of his mouth moved. Just barely.

"Surprised to see me?" he asked.

My throat closed up.

"I-" I swallowed. "Your presence is just - it's a lot. I wasn't prepared."

He raised one eyebrow. "Is that all it is?"

"Yes." I nodded too fast. "I have a lot of respect for you. That's all. Purely professional."

He looked at me for a long moment without speaking.

"How's your body?" he said. "Better than yesterday?"

The room got very hot very fast.

He had just confirmed it. Without any pretense. Without giving me any room to keep pretending I wasn't sure.

He was the doctor from yesterday. He had seen me at my worst. And now he was my CEO.

I dropped my eyes to the floor. "Much better. Thank you."

"That kind of condition doesn't clear up that quickly," he said. His voice was even. Factual. "If you need anything, you can come to me."

I didn't know what to do with that sentence.

I didn't want to know what to do with it.

Because the moment he said it, something in my body responded before my brain could stop it. The same pull I'd been fighting since I walked through the door got sharper. More insistent. It pressed against the inside of my ribs like it was trying to get out.

I pressed my knees together and forced myself to breathe.

"Thank you for your concern," I said, my voice coming out steadier than I felt. "If there's nothing else, I'll head back to my desk."

I turned around.

I made it two steps toward the door.

"Who said you could leave?"

I stopped.

His voice hadn't gotten louder. It hadn't needed to.

I turned back around slowly. "Is there something else you need, sir?"

He stood up.

He came around the desk and walked toward me. Each step was slow and deliberate. He wasn't rushing. He didn't need to rush.

He was tall. I already knew that. But watching him cross the room toward me was a different experience entirely.

Deep inside my head, Chloe stirred.

She didn't bark or growl. She made a sound I'd never heard from her before - low and soft, like something waking up after a long sleep. Like something recognizing something it had been waiting for.

*He...*

Her voice was faint. Fragmented. Like she was trying to say something but couldn't quite get there.

I shoved the thought down before it could finish forming.

He was still walking toward me.

My throat was getting drier with every step he took. The discomfort in my body was building, not fading. The closer he got, the harder it was to think straight.

He stopped when he was close enough that I had to tilt my head back to look at him.

Then he leaned down, just slightly, until his mouth was near my ear.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked.

I almost said it.

The words were right there. Right at the edge of my teeth.

"I'm thinking," I said, my voice coming out in a rush, "about how to do my job better. And what I can learn from you."

I looked up.

That was a mistake.

He was right there. The distance between us was almost nothing. His scent hit me all at once - cedar and cold iron, something deep and clean - and my thoughts scattered completely.

I looked back down at the floor.

My heart was hammering so hard I was sure he could hear it. I was certain he had noticed. I was certain he was about to say something sharp and final and I was going to deserve every word of it.

The silence stretched out.

Then he spoke.

"I happen to need a personal assistant," he said. "Starting tomorrow, you'll be taking on the role of executive assistant to the CEO."