HIS SONS GIRL

CHAPTER FOUR;SIENNA

I woke up with the worst headache of my life and the memory of grey eyes staring down at me.

Not the best combination.

For about three seconds I just lay there staring at Nova's ceiling and hoping the night before had been a dream.

It wasn't.

It all came back like a slap. Jade's text. The unlocked door. The sounds. My bed. Cole's booth. His voice — easy and laughing, the words again; simp, orphan, best thing that ever happened to her. And then right at the end of it like something from a completely different story: a man catching me before I fell, steady hands, grey eyes, my address given to a driver without me saying a word.

Julian Hale.

I sat up too fast and immediately regretted it. My head pounded. My mouth tasted like bad decisions. I pressed my fingers to my temple and sat on the edge of the bed for a minute.

Then I thought about those grey eyes again.

And the headache felt a little more worth it.

Nova appeared in the doorway with coffee and a look that said she already knew I was plotting something.

"You have that face," she said.

"What face?"

"The face you get when you have decided to do something I am probably going to spend the next month worrying about." She handed me the mug. "Talk."

So I told her.

All of it. The plan that had formed in the back of that cab. Julian. Why him specifically. What it would do to Cole to see her with the one man Cole had spent his life trying to become.

Nova listened without interrupting. That alone told me she was taking it seriously.

When I finished she was quiet for a moment.

"Sienna," she said carefully. "Do you know what they call him?"

"The Ice King. Yes."

"He sent you home in a cab," she said. "Last night. When you were right there in front of him."

"I know."

"That man does not feel things."

"Every man feels things," I said. "Some of them are just better at hiding it."

Nova looked at me for a long time. I could see her going through all the reasons to talk me out of it.

Then she picked up her own coffee.

"Okay," she said. "But you are not going after anyone until you deal with Cole first."

She was right.

I had unfinished business.

I went back to the apartment that afternoon.

I didn't want to. Every part of me wanted to just block his number and never walk through that door again. But I was not going to be the girl who disappeared quietly. Not this time. Not after everything he said.

Cole was there. Lounging on the couch like it was any other Saturday, phone in hand, completely unbothered.

He looked up when I walked in.

"There she is." He actually smiled. "I called you so much last night, thought you weren’t coming back."

I stood in the middle of the living room and looked at him.

"I came to get my things," I said. "And to tell you to your face that we're done."

Cole put his phone down slowly. The smile stayed but something shifted underneath it.

"What ? Stop being dramatic,Sienna" he said.

"I heard everything you said last night," I told him. "At Lux. In the booth."

Something moved across his face. Quick. Then the easy look came back.

"So you were spying on me."

"I was sitting in the same bar," I said. "You weren't exactly quiet."

He stood up. "Sienna, come on. You're going to throw away two years over —"

"Over you calling me a simp in front of your friends?" I said. "Or over you calling me an orphan like it was something embarrassing? Over finding you in our bed with my cousin?" My voice was steady. I was proud of that. "Yes, Cole. I am throwing it away over that."

He looked at me for a second.

Then he shrugged.

"You just want to use this to get my attention. Aside from me, who will want you ? You'll be back," he said simply. "Give it a week."

That was it. That was his entire response. No apology. No guilt. Just complete certainty that I would come crawling back because that was what he expected me to do. That was what he thought I was capable of. To him I was just that annoying simp

I picked up the bag I had packed that morning.

"Goodbye Cole," I said.

And I walked out.

He didn't follow.

He really believed I'd be back.

He had no idea what was coming.

That evening I sat at Nova's kitchen table with my laptop and got to work.

Julian Hale didn't give the internet much. No personal life, no social media, barely any photos that weren't from some business event where he was in the background looking like he'd rather be somewhere else. But his company — Hale Industries — had a whole website.

I went through it carefully.

His business, his team, his recent deals. I was reading about the company's structure when I found it.

A job listing. Posted three days ago.

Personal Assistant to the CEO.

I read the requirements three times. Executive assistant. 24 hours on call. Handling sensitive documents. Discretion. Ability to manage a complex schedule.

I had spent two years doing exactly this kind of work. I had the qualifications. I had the references. I had a track record that I had built from nothing because I had no safety net and had never once been able to afford to slack off.

I looked at the listing for a long time.

If I got this job I would be ten feet outside his office every single day.

Every Single Day

I clicked apply.

Nova you applied didn't you

Sienna ...yes

Nova lord help us both

The interview was four days later.

I prepared like my life depended on it. Read everything about the company. Practised answers. Wore my navy suit — the structured one that made me look like someone who had never made a bad decision in her life.

Walking into the Hale Industries building that morning my heart was going faster than I wanted it to.

Three interviewers. I answered everything clearly and directly. Asked two questions at the end that I could tell they weren't expecting. The woman leading the panel wrote something in her notebook.

I was done in thirty minutes.

Two days later the email came.

Hale Industries HR Congratulations. You have been selected for the position of Personal Assistant to the CEO. Please report to the fourteenth floor on Monday at 8am.

I read it twice.

Then I sat back and let out a slow breath.

I was in.

I was actually in.

Nova screamed when I showed her. I covered her mouth with my hand and we both laughed for the first time in what felt like days.

But after the laughter faded and Nova went to make dinner I sat alone at the kitchen table and thought about Monday.

About walking into that building. Into his building. And sitting outside his office and seeing his face when he realised who I was.

He had sent me home in a cab like a problem that was handled.

He thought that was the end of it.

A small voice in the back of my head said: are you sure about this? He's not like other men, Sienna. You saw that. He does not move. He does not bend. What if this blows up in your face?

I closed my laptop.

I didn't have an answer for that voice.

But I was going in anyway.