Chapter 2 Jonathan
JONATHAN
Who is that?
From the moment Chase says her name, my gaze locks onto her and refuses to let go. Elizabeth Morgan. I’ve heard it in passing, a whisper among assistants, but I never bothered to attach it to a face. Now I wish I had.
That face. That mouth. Those eyes like ice cut from fire. How the hell did I walk past this woman for a year and not notice her?
I pride myself on awareness, on control, on never missing a detail. And yet here she is, standing in the middle of my conference room like some secret the universe has been holding back just to see if I’d flinch.
I do more than flinch. Something tightens in my chest, sharp and unfamiliar.
Lust, yes; but threaded with something deeper and bordering on an aching tenderness. She looks at me and for one dangerous second I forget my own rules.
My body knows her already. Heat coils low, feral, like a wolf stirring after a long sleep.
It’s been years since a woman has managed to stir anything in me beyond passing interest. Too many nameless nights, too many bodies that blurred together.
She is not nameless. She will never be.
I draw in a breath, steady, but the air tastes different now that she’s in the room. She doesn’t even realize she’s carrying the spark that could set fire to every wall I’ve built around myself.
Chase recommended her, so I know she must be competent. Still, part of me resists, wonders if she’s just another young woman chasing a paycheck. But my instincts—the same instincts that have made me a predator in business—tell me she’s more.
A challenge. A temptation. A risk.
And God help me, I want to take it.
Most days, I prefer silence to company. Silence doesn’t make mistakes. It doesn’t drop figures or forget the weight behind a signature. Assistants rarely last with me. The pace, the precision, the hours… most fold within weeks. Better to work alone than waste time watching someone unravel.
Her voice rolls over the room, and I swallow the coffee slow. It’s richer, darker somehow. Or maybe that’s just the knowing that every morning, it was Elizabeth putting fire in my cup.
She talks about front desk work, errands, the grind that keeps the office machine turning. Her voice is clear, her answers short and to the point.
Not over-rehearsed. Not scrambling.
She speaks like a woman used to being overlooked, but unwilling to be sloppy in the meantime.
And I can’t shake it. How has no one noticed her? Was it deliberate blindness? Laziness? Or worse, did everyone assume this is all she could do?
The thought irritates me. Not at her—at myself.
At my staff. At the fact that I walked past her desk for a year and never saw her.
“Why haven’t you been pulled into a higher role yet?
” The words are out before I can stop them.
My tone is threaded with annoyance, but I don’t retract. I need her answer.
My reputation and livelihood could be on the line if she pulls a fast one and tanks me.
Her eyes light up as I speak to her directly, almost as if she wasn’t expecting me to be interested.
“Oh,” she says in a low tone, and her eyes lock onto mine again, causing my body to shift again. “I don’t have an answer to that. Maybe one of your colleagues can better answer it for you.”
Her answer lands with such quiet confidence that the room actually stirs. A couple of the men glance at me, smirking like they’ve just witnessed a magician pull a rabbit out of my starched collar.
I can’t help it—my mouth curves into a smile I can’t quite wrestle back down.
“Well, gentlemen?” I drawl, letting my gaze circle the table. “Any of you care to explain how this woman has been hiding in plain sight?”
Chase clears his throat, already grinning. “Sir, I’d say we were a little… distracted.” His chuckle is quick and irreverent. “Let’s hope today fixes that.” He takes a sip of coffee to smother his amusement, though his eyes are dancing.
“Mm.” I let the sound rumble, but my smile fades into business. “The job isn’t just fetching files and keeping me caffeinated. You’ll be at my side, handling paperwork, strategy, meetings. A desk right outside my office. It’s relentless, Miss Morgan. Are you prepared for that?”
She doesn’t flinch. Instead, her eyes find mine, and for one charged beat the room falls away. Blue. Fierce, unblinking blue that slices straight through me like she’s seen the man behind the title.
My chest tightens, my pulse punches low.
I’ve stared down billion-dollar deals without a flicker. Yet here I am, undone by the way she’s looking at me.
Her lips part with the faintest smile, and I feel something shift. As if a crack just opened in the walls I’ve spent a lifetime fortifying.
She remains silent for a moment, and I worry that we’ve sprung too much on her at once. We can be an intimidating bunch of men, but that’s not who we truly are.
The holidays are a storm I’ve never escaped—companies desperate to cut ties before the year turns, contracts burning at both ends.
Normally I muscle through it alone. This year, though, I need someone. And for reasons I don’t care to name out loud, it has to be her.
Her silence pulls me back to memories I don’t often touch. My father and I at the kitchen table, ledger books open, his big hand guiding mine across numbers. “Be steady,” he’d say. “Be sharp. And never let them see you sweat.”
He gave me everything he had. My mother gave me nothing at all, unless you count the parting lesson that people you trust most are the quickest to leave.
So I built walls. Women came and went. My bed was warm enough, my office busier still, but the nights were cold and too quiet. I told myself I liked it that way—work was cleaner, steadier, less messy than love.
Until this woman with blue-fire eyes walked into my boardroom and smiled like she belonged here.
She smiles widely and stands from the chair. “I am up to the challenge. I won’t let you down, Mr. Clark,” she exclaims. She walks around the filled chairs and meets me at mine, causing me to stand and look down at her short stature.
Elizabeth holds out her hand, and I take it into mine for a gentle shake. Her skin is soft and feels perfect against mine. With a noticeably large smile, she nods at the other men and exits the office, leaving me completely speechless.
Few things in life leave me in such a state, and it’s odd not to have the normal complete control that I’m used to.
Maybe this is a sign for me to keep my head up and pay attention to things around me from now on, because she completely caught me off guard.
As I continue to stare at the door she just exited through, I feel a hand patting down on my shoulder.
“Well, what do you think? Does she meet the Clark standards?” Turning, Chase grins in my face, and it takes all I have not to laugh out loud, but as the office empties and it’s just us, I let a few chuckles out.
“Man,” I begin. “I can’t believe I haven’t noticed her for a year. I must really be on autopilot around here.”
“Well, just know that your best friend came through for you … again.” Laughing, Chase leaves the office, and I’m left alone to collect my thoughts.
Chase has been my anchor for a decade. He’s loyal, sharp, forged under my father’s hand as much as mine. I’d trust him with my life, which is why his choice to put Elizabeth in my path instead of stepping in himself feels too convenient.
He knows exactly what he’s doing. And I can’t bring myself to care. For the first time in years, I’m looking forward to Monday.
As I step out of the conference room, I catch sight of her near the front desk, animated, telling the other women about her meeting.
She glows. Not in some delicate, girlish way, but in a way that makes the air bend toward her. Laughter follows her like a current. Heads turn.
My chest tightens with a sharp, unrelenting certainty: she will never be invisible to me again. I won’t allow it.