Just a Little Tempted (A Sterling Family Crossover #3)

Chapter One

Simon

“You’re fired.”

Sarah’s eyes went wide, her jaw dropping open. She’d been my assistant for all of three weeks, so I’d hoped she’d take the news without much fuss. But the outrage twisting her features told me I’d miscalculated. She was going to make a scene.

“Is this a joke?” Fire flashed in her eyes.

I couldn’t fathom what part of this she imagined I’d find amusing. I folded my arms across my chest and let my gaze go hard. “No. Gather your things and leave your parking pass on the desk.”

I turned toward my office, but she recovered fast, darting around her desk to plant herself in my path. If looks could kill, the one she leveled at me would have dropped me where I stood.

“You can’t just fire me,” she said, her voice sharp with anger. “I’ve been a great assistant—”

“You were adequate at first.” I cut her off, my patience already thinning. “But your performance lately has been less than impressive. I gave you a list of tasks this morning. You’ve completed half of them.”

She rolled her eyes, and any flicker of doubt I might have had about letting her go vanished. I couldn’t trust someone who couldn’t finish the work and then got defensive when I called them on their incompetence.

“That list was ridiculous,” she shot back. “It was too much. I tried to tell you that, but of course you didn’t listen. You’re too much of an unreasonable tyrant.”

It wasn’t the first time I’d heard a variation of that. You’re too demanding. You’re mean. You’re impossible to work with. You’re bossy.

That last one always grated. I was the boss. I signed the paychecks, and I expected results in return. I had standards for my assistants. There was nothing wrong with that.

And yet every assistant I’d let go lately seemed to agree on one point: I was the problem.

“Fine,” I said through gritted teeth. Staying professional while someone insulted me took effort, but I refused to let my temper get the best of me. “If you find me to be such an unreasonable tyrant, then surely you’ll agree this job isn’t a good fit. Please leave.”

It wasn’t a request. We both knew it. I stepped around her and into my office, and the moment the door clicked shut behind me, the ranting began.

Her commentary on my character was colorful and loud enough that Liam, my brother and business partner here at Powers Investment Group, was guaranteed to catch every word from his office across the hall.

Of course he was in today. He spent most of the week at GalvaTech, the electronics company we’d invested in a few months back. Any other day, there would have been no witnesses. Today, naturally, there would be.

Sarah was gone within fifteen minutes. Liam gave me five more before he walked into my office without knocking, his mouth set in a frown.

I was halfway through the quarterly report from one of last year’s investments, and I stubbornly kept my eyes fixed on the columns of numbers on my screen, hoping that if I looked busy enough, he’d take the hint and leave me alone.

Instead, he dropped into one of the chairs across from my desk. So much for wishful thinking.

“So.” He drew the word out. “That one lasted what—three weeks? Slightly longer than the last one, at least.”

I lifted my gaze from the computer screen. His jaw was set, his eyes narrowed a fraction, like I was a puzzle he’d given up trying to solve. He exhaled a heavy sigh and crossed his arms. Liam wasn’t a lecturer by nature, but everything in his posture said one was heading my way.

I leaned back in my chair and managed a shrug. “You and the staff have a bet going on or something? What’s the difference if she lasted three weeks or three days?”

Liam groaned and dragged a hand through his dark hair. “Please don’t fire someone after three days. That’s insane.”

“I was exaggerating,” I said, though I didn’t quite meet his eyes.

“Were you?” He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “Because lately it seems like you can’t hang on to an assistant at all.”

“It’s not my fault if they aren’t up to the job.”

“It is your fault if you’re impossible to work for.” He said it gently, which somehow made it land harder.

I let out a laugh that was completely devoid of humor. “Is this supposed to be tough love from my big brother?”

“This is concern from your business partner.”

Irritation settled over me. “And as my business partner, I’d think you’d appreciate that I have such high standards. I’m trying to elevate this company by demanding excellence. That’s not a flaw.”

Liam shook his head. “You’re purposefully setting expectations that are difficult to meet. That’s different.”

I held his stare and said nothing. I wasn’t going to repeat myself.

After everything we’d been through, he knew where the standards came from.

If demanding excellence made me difficult, then the problem wasn’t the standard—it was that I hadn’t found anyone who could rise to it.

Someone who’d work hard. Someone who thrived under pressure instead of folding beneath it. Someone I could trust.

“You need an assistant,” Liam continued. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed that you’re putting in twelve hour days and working weekends to keep up with your workload. If you could keep an assistant, you wouldn’t have to do it all yourself. You could delegate.”

I scoffed, even though I knew he was right.

I was chained to this desk precisely because I had no reliable help, which meant I absorbed the work an assistant should be handling.

And every new hire came with weeks of training, of covering their gaps while they learned the ropes and what the business entailed.

Then came the point where I was supposed to start trusting them with more.

That was where it always fell apart.

“This is about Carla, isn’t it?” Liam asked.

I flinched. I couldn’t help it. “Why would you think that?”

He gave me a look that said he hadn’t bought the deflection for a second. “Come on, man. I know it messed with your head when she lost us that multi-million-dollar account when we were first starting out.”

He was right, and we both knew it. Carla had been my first assistant when we launched the firm. She’d had a decade of experience and glowing references. I’d believed she was the perfect fit. I’d trusted her completely.

And that extension of trust had come back to bite me when she fumbled one of the first major deals we’d ever tried to close.

My instinct was to brush off Liam’s concern. To insist Carla’s mistake had nothing to do with my distrust of everyone that I hired to fill the assistant position. Admitting that an error from three years ago still influenced how I handled things felt dramatic.

But I could tell by the look in Liam’s eyes that he knew the truth anyway. No point in pretending or lying.

“Yeah, it bothered me then, and it bothers me now,” I replied honestly. “Her mistake could have tanked our whole business before we even had a chance to make a name for ourselves.”

Liam nodded thoughtfully. “It bothers me, too. Just not the way it bothers you. She was your assistant, so that’s bound to cut deeper. But if we’re being honest here, you’ve always been a little…”

I raised one eyebrow as he let the sentence trail off, and his gaze shifted away from mine. I could fill in the blank for him easily enough. Uptight. Grumpy. Controlling.

Any of those descriptions would have fit, and they were a fair assessment of my character when it came to business. But I was a damn good businessman, and I wasn’t about to lower the bar just because I’d cycled through a string of people who couldn’t handle the pressure of what their job entailed.

“I’ll find a new assistant,” I said, the words clipped and final, as if saying them firmly enough might make it true.

“And maybe ease up a bit, yeah?” Liam tilted his head, his voice softening at the edges. “Be a little less demanding and try not to micromanage so much.”

It would have been easy to agree just to end the conversation, but I respected my brother too much to hand him an empty promise.

Maybe other people could loosen their grip enough to tolerate a mediocre assistant.

I couldn’t. The belief was wired too deep, that if I didn’t personally ensure everything was done right, the whole business would crumble.

Liam was easygoing in a way I’d never managed to be. As co-owners, we shared the same responsibilities and the same stake in the company’s success. Rationally, I knew he felt the pressure too.

But knowing that didn’t change how heavily it sat on my shoulders. And as much as I hated to admit it, I couldn’t keep driving myself into the ground like this.

“I’ll find a solution,” I said, with no earthly idea what that might be.

Somehow, I needed to find an assistant I could actually trust. One who could meet my demands and deliver nothing short of the best work possible.

I might as well try to find a unicorn.