Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 26246 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 131(@200wpm)___ 105(@250wpm)___ 87(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26246 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 131(@200wpm)___ 105(@250wpm)___ 87(@300wpm)
“You already are.”
His lips tightened.
She was right, dammit.
Lara, one. Lyrius, nothing.
He turned the page.
“She was crying when she left.”
His jaw locked.
So fucking what?
Half the women in this building had cried in the last month, and most of those tears had been about hairdressers or boyfriends or both. Why should he suddenly care just because it was Kyara who had apparently cried? And anyway, that wasn’t his problem. She had Wallace for that while he...
He was Lyrius Havington, dammit, and he had never been the type to settle for crumbs.
“I think something’s wrong.” Lara had not moved. “She looked scared.”
His pen stopped mid-stroke.
Lara wasn’t the type to exaggerate, but...that still shouldn’t change anything. Kyara didn’t want, need, or love him. Instead, she had all those feelings for someone else. Someone who didn’t and would never deserve her, but that...that wasn’t his fucking business either, was it?
“Mr. Havington—”
“Enough.”
Lara flinched at the coldness of her boss’s tone. And since Lyrius had never spoken to her like this before, she knew if she kept pushing her boss—
Think, Lara!
If Kyara was off-limits for him, then fine. But that didn’t mean something couldn’t be done to address her concerns.
The tension had just started to ease from Lyrius’s shoulders when he heard Lara clear her throat—
“May I just please ask for your permission to do one thing? Because I’m really worried about Kyara—”
“For fuck’s sake, Lara!”
His fist slammed against the desk, but Lara didn’t flinch.
“Just give me your permission, Mr. Havington. I will never bother you again after this.”
Lyrius slowly lifted his gaze to Lara. “I can have you fired for this.”
“You can,” she acknowledged, “but you won’t. I’m very good at my job, Mr. Havington, and more importantly, I’m exceptionally loyal. I’ve never asked you for anything except this so please—”
“Do whatever you want,” Lyrius snapped. “Just don’t ever mention her name in my presence again.”
Lara’s body practically sagged with relief. “Thank you. I appreciate it so—”
“Just go.”
Lyrius found himself clenching and unclenching his fist as he watched Lara walk briskly out of his office. He had no idea what his assistant was planning, but whatever it was—he wanted to do nothing with it.
He was over her, for good.
It was already a few minutes past ten when Lyrius left his office. He would’ve stayed a lot longer if he had thought that drowning himself in work would help him forget her. But...it didn’t. Nothing did, and so to keep working was pointless.
His chest tightened as he walked past what used to be Kyara’s desk, now painfully empty.
Why, dammit?
Why wouldn’t she—
Lyrius shoved the thought away. A walk, he told himself. What he needed right now was a walk, and so he headed to the stairwell, thinking that seventy flights of stairs should do it. If that wasn’t enough to make him forget her, it would kill him at least, which was just as good.
He reached for the door, but just as it swung open, Lyrius heard sounds coming from the rooftop—
Unbelievable.
While the sounds were pretty easy to identify for a man of his experience, he had zero interest in finding out which couple was behind them. What people did during their private time was their business, never mind if they were doing such things at their place of work.
“Did you hear that?”
The voice was distinctly female and slightly familiar, which gave Lyrius all the more reason to step back and let the door swing shut. But just as the shadowy corners in the hallway concealed his form, the door’s peep-window allowed him a glimpse of the couple rushing down from the rooftop—
Didi.
He recognized right away, unfortunately, and she was hurriedly fixing her hair as she ran past the peep-window while right behind her was...Wallace.
Chapter 12
EIGHT HOURS.
That was how long it had been since Kyara had been moved to Accounting, and five hours of those were overtime that wouldn’t be paid. Cyrus had told her as much, leaning over her new desk the same way he’d once leaned over a diner booth to tell her about Vegas, and Kyara could only nod because if she didn’t...
What would happen to Lyrius?
Her body felt so heavy as she finally started gathering her things. Cyrus had pretty much treated her like a slave in the past eight hours, making her run errands until her feet had blisters, and it was all she could do not to cry every time the back of her flats scraped against her ankles. By six, the floor had started emptying out. By eight, it was just her at her new desk with the overhead lights down to half-brightness and the cleaning cart parked at the end of the corridor.
Her phone rang just as she rose to her feet, and she was so, so tempted not to answer it when she saw Shayla’s name on the screen. While Shayla was one of the kindest persons she had ever known, she was just so, so tired, and she just wanted to be alone.