The Billionaire Alpha’s Rejected Mate

The Handsome Devil

*Claire's POV*

You know that moment after you have just been zapped by a naked electrical cord, where you feel the tingle still running through your entire body and your mind goes completely blank? It's like the world just goes completely silent, and for half a second or maybe two, everything seems to be so clear around you and the only thing you can truly concentrate on is the beating of your own heart.

Yeah, that feeling you're thinking of right now. That was the same feeling that stayed with me for a very long time after I met William. I couldn't explain it, but it was as if I had been oblivious to some deep longing in my heart, and from the moment he touched me, he had jolted me awake.

Something about him was unlike any other man I had come across. With William, there was an attraction which I had never felt for any other man. With him, something just seemed to slot into place, as if I had something I had been waiting for my entire life. There was something about the way those blue eyes stared at me which made me feel vulnerable, desired and admired. And even though I hadn’t really spent a long time with him, I couldn’t stop myself from feeling like that, from trying to understand why I felt like I was falling into a deep pit each time I remembered what it felt like to be in his arms.

I regretted not letting him drop me off. Perhaps then I would have been able to get his contact information. I wanted to know more about him, because whatever happened between us was certainly not ordinary. There had been a spark there, something so powerful that I couldn't even begin to understand it.

How could this be normal after merely touching me?

If I concentrated hard enough, I could still feel the warmth of his hand on the exact spot where he had touched me. I could still see his eyes, those painfully sharp blue eyes that seemed to have become the central objects of my dreams. I saw them everywhere, and even when I tried to do something as mundane as sorting out my grocery for the week, I couldn't forget the beauty in them, and how bright and intense they had been. I could also see his lips, so full and plump as they stretched into a half-smile. He had an amused expression about him, almost as if he knew some deep dark secret about you which you wouldn’t think was possible. But he did it so effortlessly, and it left me wanting more, wanting to bask in the glory of his gaze.

Sometimes, I would wake up at night and his scent would linger in the room, and I wondered how my brain was able to recall his scent with such vivid accuracy. If I didn't know any better, then I would have said that he had broken into my room at night and rubbed his face all over my stuff. If he did, then I wouldn’t be so bothered by that.

Monday could not come sooner. I was banking on the fact that maybe once I got started at work, it would be enough to distract me from these strange feelings that were coming over me. I would surely be able to forget about him, and how much I wanted to see him again.

In one of my more ridiculous moments, I wondered whether if I mindlessly walked onto a street and nearly had a car run over me, it would turn out to be him once again.

On the morning of a very dreary Monday, I crawled out of bed to the sound of my buzzing alarm. I slammed it silent immediately, groaning as I rolled over in bed. It took a few seconds for me to force myself awake, but then I bolted up as I realised what day it was. I was going to start my job today.

The entire next hour consisted of me running around the apartment and trying to get myself ready. I curled my hair quickly after a quick shower, and I slipped into the clothes I had laid out the night before. It was nothing fancy; a plain white button-down, a black pantsuit and some black heels. I wanted to look confident and feel comfortable, but not too casual as to abuse the dress code. About fifteen minutes to seven, I ran out into the cold and slightly foggy August morning.

By the time I reached Skyline Tower, it was exactly six minutes past seven. Panting, I dashed up the stairs and went straight into the lobby, which was larger than my entire apartment. The floor was a painfully polished marble, so clean that I could see myself reflected perfectly on it. White and black patterns interchanged all across the floor, and the ceiling above me was covered with a mirror, which made the lobby feel enormous. It was like stepping into a giant kaleidoscope, where everything was multiplied and magnified. I felt nauseous even looking at everyone’s reflection, and I wondered if I was ever going to get used to this. It certainly seemed impossible, and a part of me wondered if I had chosen the right job based on the sole fact that I would have to walk through this lobby every single day. The thought of it was exhausting, and I would have turned and fled if I had any other choice.

From the last time I came here, I knew that Orion was on the seventeenth floor, and I made my way through the crowd quickly, careful not to barge into anyone and have them spill their coffee. That would not be a nice way to start off my first day here, so I made myself small and tried to weave through every gap I found carefully. Everyone seemed to be in a rush, desperate to get to wherever it was that they were going. But as I barrelled my way towards the elevators at the back, trying to keep a straight face and not look like an outsider in a corporate setting, one of the receptionists called out to me.

"Excuse me miss," he said, waving his hand to catch my attention. "Where are you going to?"

Out of breath and unable to utter more than a single syllable, I pointed up while clutching my side.

"Up," I panted. "Orion... I..."

"Oh, you must be Miss Monroe," he said with a small smile. I looked up at his round and kind face, with a few freckles across his nose and slightly fading hair around the top of his head. He wore a navy blue uniform, with a name tag that announced his name to be Tony.

"Call me Claire," I said, still out of breath.

"Welcome to Skyline, Claire," he said. "Ronald already sent down your file, and I've entered your details into the security system. As you must know by now, there are twenty different companies sharing this building, with another three soon to join us. Naturally, every employee within this building must carry a keycard at all times which grants them access to use the facilities of the building. Your keycard is how you check into your floor, and it allows you to access the elevators, the bathrooms, the cafeteria and everything else you might want to use. If you will follow me back to the front desk, I will hand over your keycard along with your ID."

I was losing my mind, but the sooner I got the keycard the faster I could get up there and explain myself. I was not making a good impression by being late on my first day, but I had to focus and get this over with. I could already imagine how I would look if I clambered up there right now, panting and covered in sweat. No one would take me seriously, and I could already imagine the snotty, conceited and disrespectful glances that would be thrown in my direction. But I didn’t care about that. In a way, an office was just like high school, where you needed to learn the social norm. You needed to know exactly who to avoid, who was friendly or simply cordial, who you needed to respect because they could easily get you fired, and who to tolerate because you simply couldn’t get rid of them. Today, I felt the exact same way I felt during my first day at high school. The wave of nausea, the nervousness, the jitters which I just couldn’t seem to shake off, and the uncertainty of not knowing how this day could go. Everything seemed set up against me, and I almost felt like I was doomed to fail this from the start. But I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself. So far, I hadn’t done anything that would get me fired yet. Sure, I was a little bit late, but it’s a Monday morning in New York. There was surely going to be traffic.

As Tony pulled a file out in front of me, along with a small envelope which he proceeded to cut open, I tapped my feet impatiently. The other receptionists glanced at me with curious expressions, but I tried not to pay attention to them. There were three men and two women, each of them assigned to their own stations with matching uniforms.

"I heard he's coming in today," the small and round-faced woman said. "It's been what, six weeks since he last showed up, and now he decides to come?"

"Well, at least it's not like last time," Tony chuckled as he pulled the keycard out of the envelope. "And it's just a rumour, Jessica. Mr Compton might not even show up today."

"Well I hope he does," she said. "It'll be nice to see how everyone scurries around the building when he's around. I swear, it's like they're living in an alternate universe until he shows up. Then everyone is on edge and you could even hear a pin drop on 17th."

I looked up at Tony, and he must have known that I was listening to their conversation because he smiled awkwardly. "I'm sorry. You really don't want to be hearing this about your boss on your first day."

"Actually, he's my boss's boss's boss," I said. "And I've never met him so there's nothing that can scare me about him."

That was partly due to my lacklustre attitude towards this job, truth be told. I didn’t bother to do any research on the company, and all I knew was that it was a tech company which specialised in the creation and manufacturing of tech products. Most of my knowledge of the company came from a brochure which I had read, and while I should have been doing some research, all I had done was lay on my couch and binge on all five seasons of Merlín. If anything about my first day required an extensive knowledge of Camelot and the great wizard, then I wasn’t going to find any of this difficult at all.

"Honey, you should be scared," Jessica said. "Mr Compton might look like the devil had a baby with an Angel, but beneath that handsome exterior is a ruthlessness which could shake the earth if he so much as frowned at it. And trust me, he’s always frowning. It’s a miracle he hasn’t blown a hole through the earth yet."

That was news to me. I hadn't done much research about the owner of the company as well, too pissed off at my dad to care. The brochure which I received along with my appointment letter contained nothing about Mr Compton and what he was like, except to point out how he founded the company six years ago, and was already one of the largest -if not the largest- tech companies in the country.

"Don't be modest," the second receptionist called Stephen said. "He's the devil incarnate. The last time he was here, twelve people lost their jobs within an hour. I heard that he has never laughed in this building, or even smiled."

"He is handsome though," the other man said. "I wouldn't mind seeing what's underneath that suit if you know what I mean."

Jessica laughed, and she whacked him on the arm. "Don't be silly, Nigel. Mr Compton is as straight as a ruler. You wouldn't stand a chance."

Nigel frowned at her in an endearing manner, and the two laughed it off immediately. Tony had finished with the keycard, and he was about to hand it to me when he froze up and stared wide-eyed at something behind me.

"s**t! It's him."

To say that the air itself changed immediately would have been the understatement of the century. The entire lobby instantly tensed up, and all five of them immediately stood straighter and more attentively. Everyone else seemed to move even faster, and the sound of hurried footsteps was what caused me to turn around.

And there he was, striding across the floor with purpose and a whole gaggle of smartly-dressed people hurrying along behind him. Every step was measured, every movement of his so fluid and professional. There was an energy about him, a charge which seemed to resonate in everyone else and made them want to move faster, or at least at a pace which was equal to him.

He was exactly like I remembered, copper hair, blue eyes and wide shoulders which stretched his charcoal-grey suit taut against his muscular physique. He was the statue of some Greek god come to life, and I was so stunned by his appearance that I couldn't even move. Everything else seemed to fade into oblivion, and the only thing I could focus on was the handsome man gliding across the lobby.

"Is it wrong of me to want to break my marital vows over him?" Jessica whispered.

"Honey, I don't blame you," Nigel said. "A man like that? I would break every rule on earth for him."

Surely it couldn't be; coincidences like this only happened in the movies. There was no way in hell that he could be...

"Good morning, Mr Compton," they all greeted as he walked past. It was as if a bucket of cold water had been dunked over me, and all I could do was stand and watch as the world was spun off its axis.

And then he turned to look at me, and everything else fell apart.

*