The Review Was Inaccurate

Chapter 2 – Monday Morning

Monday morning tasted like regret and cheap coffee.

I stood in the glass elevator of Kane Dynamics, stomach in knots, new black blazer buttoned all the way to my throat like armor. Executive assistant to the CEO. Dream job. Fresh start. No more Daniel. No more sitting around waiting for someone to choose me. I’d practiced my smile in the mirror this morning. Practiced the professional handshake. Practiced pretending I hadn’t spent Saturday night getting f****d by a stranger and then insulting him on a hotel notepad.

The doors opened on the top floor. Open-concept offices, sleek furniture, quiet competence everywhere. A woman named Lauren met me with a polished smile and walked me toward the corner office that took up half the floor.

“Mr. Kane is already in,” she said. “He prefers brief introductions. Don’t take it personally if he’s… direct. He’s not big on small talk.”

I nodded, clutching my portfolio so hard my knuckles went white. My heels clicked against the polished concrete. Lauren knocked once, opened the door, and stepped aside.

“Mr. Kane, your new executive assistant — Esti Reyes.”

I walked in.

And the world stopped.

The man behind the massive desk looked up from his laptop. Dark hair. Sharp jaw. Green eyes that had been between my legs less than forty-eight hours ago.

Mason.

No.

Kane.

Alexander Mason Kane, according to the nameplate on the desk. CEO of Kane Dynamics.

The same man I’d f****d until I couldn’t walk straight, the same man I’d left cash and a cruel note for, the same man whose c**k I could still feel if I closed my eyes too long.

His expression didn’t change. Not a flicker. But his gaze locked on mine and held, cold and assessing, like he was cataloguing every detail of the woman who’d paid him for s*x and called his d**k average.

Lauren was still talking. Something about orientation packets and keycards and the company handbook. I heard none of it. Blood roared in my ears so loud I thought I might pass out.

Mason’s voice cut through the noise, low and perfectly controlled.

“That will be all, Lauren. Close the door on your way out.”

She left. The soft click of the door felt like a gunshot in the sudden silence.

I forced my spine straight even though my legs felt like water. “Mr. Kane.”

“Esti.” My name in his mouth sounded different in daylight. Less heat. More warning. He leaned back in his chair, fingers steepled, eyes never leaving mine. “Close the distance. We need to talk.”

I walked forward until I stood in front of his desk. The two hundred-dollar bills I’d left on his nightstand were sitting neatly in the center of the polished wood, right next to the folded note. He must have kept them. Or found them. Either way, they were here. Evidence.

“Interesting choice of tip,” he said mildly. “Two hundred and a performance review. Most women just leave.”

Heat flooded my face so hard I felt dizzy. “I was drunk. And stupid. It won’t happen again.”

“No,” he agreed, voice still calm. “It won’t. Because starting today, you work for me. That means you will be professional. Competent. And you will never again leave cash on a nightstand belonging to anyone in this building. Understood?”

My throat tightened until it hurt. “Understood.”

He studied me for another long beat, green eyes unreadable. Then he tapped the bills with one finger.

“Take it back. I don’t need your money. And for the record—” his mouth curved, barely, the ghost of the smirk I’d seen in the hotel room, “—the review was inaccurate.”

I stared at the money. At him. At the impossible situation I’d walked straight into with my eyes open and my pride already in pieces.

“Is this going to be a problem?” I asked, voice steadier than I felt.

Mason’s gaze stayed locked on mine. The air between us felt charged, heavy with everything we weren’t saying — the way he’d held me down, the way I’d come on his tongue, the way I’d run like a coward the second the high wore off.

“That depends entirely on you, Miss Reyes,” he said finally. “Now sit down. We have work to do.”

I sat.

And tried not to think about how the man across the desk had been inside me two nights ago.