Chapter 21

Six years of undergrad and postgrad. Crunching numbers, solving equations till dawn, reading textbooks until her vision went blurry.

All of that, only to waste a year being a secretary?

But that wasn’t the worst part.

The worst part was that she had to work directly with Lucien Sinclair, and Kendall had never spent more than an hour at a time in his direct presence, despite having known him since she was sixteen.

And now? She’d be spending nearly every moment of her day with him. In the office, riding in the same cars, taking the same flights, working closely together.

Swallowing hard, Kendall tightly clutched her bag and stared up at the high glass ceiling that domed over the massive foyer of the Ashcroft Capital headquarters. Lucien’s office occupied the top corner of Ashcroft Tower, a glass-walled sanctuary in Stamford, overlooking the Connecticut skyline in sleek, silent dominance.

It was nine in the morning, and people marched back and forth around her, already rushing through their day as they balanced coffee and spoke rapidly into phones.

She was a minute late for work, but she was too scared to go up. Sabrina had excitedly explained that her father had been so pissed when his secretary had quit her job that he’d told Sabrina herself to find him a damn secretary. So, Sabrina had, but she hadn’t told her father who it was.

Kendall sighed. She was about to go into Lucien Sinclair’s office to tell him that she was his new secretary, while he was currently waiting for her to work in his finance department after six years of tertiary education, which he paid for.

Her free hand trembled.

He was going to be livid.

She cleared her throat, tightened her grip on her bag, and walked, as confidently as she could, toward the elevator.

Her skin prickled with sweat the entire time, heat filling the inside of her clothing the closer she got to the CEO’s office.

How would he react? Would he be absolutely furious that she’d wasted his money? Would he demand a refund? Maybe, he’d refuse and send her to Finance immediately. She kind of hoped the last option would happen, so she wouldn’t have a choice but to begin immediate training for her dream job.

When she reached his floor, she walked past the empty secretary’s post and stood silently before the gigantic double doors.

She shifted her bag to her other hand and wiped her clammy hand against the skirt of her cute Chanel ensemble. She paused, glancing down at the skirt. Was it too short?

Sighing, she bit her lip as her anxiety rose. This felt worse than when she’d written her final exam.

Releasing a shaky breath, Kendall tried to gather herself. Nothing else mattered. She just needed to make sure that, when she looked at Lucien Sinclair, he didn’t look at her… and see the gigantic crush she was hiding.

Yes, she was still hiding her feelings for him. It started as a girly crush, one she’d expected to fade. After all, he was the first man who had ever genuinely cared for her and taken care of her. He’d complimented her and reminded her that she had value, which was why he hated to see her give in to Sabrina’s caprice. He’d literally mentored her since she was sixteen, so the crush wasn’t criminal.

What was criminal was the crush growing to nearly uncontrollable extents over the past eight years. She hadn’t outgrown it as she’d hoped. She still got butterflies when he looked at her, when he asked her about a book he’d lent her or about her plans for her future. He was so interested in who she was as a person, and Kendall cherished that. Now that she was an adult, she could also admit that Lucien Sinclair was the sexiest man she’d ever seen in her entire life. But that was besides the point, wasn’t it?

Anyway, she needed to hide her feelings, or die trying. Not only would learning about her feelings for him probably horrify Lucien, who saw her as nothing more than his daughter’s friend, but it would also be the greatest betrayal of her friendship with Sabrina.

Wasn’t protecting Lucien from women the reason why Sabrina had begged Kendall to be his temporary secretary? It would be absolutely wicked of her to stab Sabrina in the back by doing exactly what she’d feared other women would do.

Knowing this was why Kendall had made sure to spend as little time in Lucien’s presence as was possible. She tried to sleep over mostly when he was gone on business trips and when he wouldn’t be back for the night.

There were times when she accidentally saw him too often in a short period of time and found herself crushing harder. That was when she forced herself to take time off to subdue the wretched feelings. The detox consisted of Kendall telling Sabrina that her parents had summoned her, after which she’d hole up in her apartment for about two months.

Yet, after all that hard work to control her pathetic feelings for him, she’d allowed herself to fall into such a trap? Kendall had excellent acting skills, but were they good enough to deceive Lucien’s assessing gaze? She sighed. Whether or not they were good enough didn’t matter; they had to be good enough. The humiliating thought of being exposed was not one she was willing to entertain.

Clenching her hand into a fist, she raised her chin and squared her shoulders. There was no point stalling any further.

She raised her hand and, finally, knocked.

A moment of silence passed

And then, “Enter.”

Her heart dropped. She wanted to run away!

But she couldn’t, so she might as well get it over with. Grabbing the door handle, she opened the door and walked into the spacious office. The floors were dark grey, polished cement, smooth and cool, veined faintly with silver streaks that shimmered in the natural light pouring in through floor-to-ceiling windows. No blinds, no curtains.

There was a sitting arrangement in the centre of the room. On a thick, grey rug sat two long sofas and two armchairs surrounding a sleek, glass table. And behind the sitting area was the CEO’s table, placed in front of a wall filled with shelves. She noticed the usual heavy business texts, foreign economic reports, and rare editions of psychological theory, some of which she’d borrowed from him before.

Lucien was clicking away on his computer, which was set up on the left side of his table. “Yes?” he muttered, not turning from the screen.

She tensed. “Good morning, Mr Sinclair.”

His head turned instantly. He saw her and frowned in surprise. “Kendall?”

Pushing his chair back, he got up and walked around the table. “Is everything okay? What are you doing here?”

His fatherly concern heightened her guilt.

“Uhm… I’m reporting for work.”

He raised a brow. “In Finance? Already?”

She shook her head. “No, I’m… your new secretary.”