early. It’d also shone a very harsh, self-reflecting light on the emptiness in her life. One she hadn’t wanted to face after that first, soul-destroying glimpse.
Luckily, having fallen in love with her new job, she’d been able to bury the emptiness. It hadn’t stayed buried. And with each passing year, the light had burned brighter until she couldn’t ignore the ache any more.
But while she’d experienced a soul-shaking satisfaction to be finally moving forward with her dream, hadn’t a part of her also felt a little shame that the dream she’d held onto for so long no longer felt enough? That a different yearning burned just as bright and it was all her fault for nurturing it?
She stared at Joao, caught the ferocious swell of determination in his eyes. They could part on acrimonious terms with a possibility of an employment tribunal in her future—depending on how difficult he chose to be. Or she could have twelve unforgettable, stimulating weeks with the most charismatic man she was likely to encounter in her whole lifetime, while guarding the deeper yearning in her heart.
‘I want to hear it, Saffie,’ Joao pressed again, spotting her weakening and going for the kill. ‘Three months of your undivided attention on the Archer deal with no talk of leaving.’
She swallowed, attempted to think through the euphoric haze shrouding her common sense. ‘Fine. I’ll stay until the Archer deal is done.’
Joao didn’t gloat.
What he did was stand to his full, imposing height, his gaze raking her frame, lingering on her hips, her breasts, before reconnecting with hers. Something shifted in his eyes, a calculating gleam that sent a spark of apprehension down her spine.
‘And, Joao?’
‘Sim?’ he prompted, intent eyes fixed on her as a muscle ticced in his jaw. ‘What is it?’
‘I want your word that you won’t stand in my way when the time comes.’
HE HAD WHAT he wanted.
She was staying. He’d bought himself the time to formulate a plan to rid himself of this issue of her leaving.
His agreement was all that was required.
And yet the yes that should’ve fallen from his lips stuck in Joao’s throat, his satisfaction at heading off disaster laced with something he couldn’t quite decipher.
Uncertainty, he finally decoded.
She had pulled the proverbial rug from beneath his feet and now he was uncertain where he stood.
Perhaps he was better off setting her free so she could go and play happy families with some faceless stranger...
The harsh rejection of that idea stopped him cold.
Absurd. The whole discussion from start to finish was absurd.
He shouldn’t be aggravated this much by the whole thing. Not when, as Saffie had pointed out, he had zero interest in most of the reasons she’d stated for her desire to leave.
While he didn’t want a child or, heaven forbid, a family, since he’d permanently erased that idea out of his life’s mission very shortly after his tenth birthday and not once spent a second reconsidering it, he’d accommodated others’ desire for it, if barely. The right gift baskets and monetary bonus found their way to each employee on the announcement of a child’s birth.
So why did the thought of his executive assistant taking a similar path grate so much? Why did the thought that one day in his future Saffie might exercise her right to walk away permanently trigger nothing but cold dread?
The answer blazed through him a second later.
Because he wasn’t ready to let her go.
Her value had multiplied over the years. And what was he if not a man who capitalised on the value of his assets?
He’d simply been caught off guard. He’d spent far too long putting out this fire when he should’ve been behind his desk, formulating better plans to add the Archer Group to his portfolio.
Just as he’d spent far too many years moulding Saffron Everhart into the perfect right hand to release her prematurely from her role.
Right or wrong, and while he knew that, ultimately, he couldn’t stop her, she belonged to him—
‘Do you agree?’
Her husky voice cut through his thoughts, retraining his focus on her.
The heat that lanced his groin was shockingly brazen and had grown in intensity ever since that night. The one he’d spent long weeks afterwards fighting to forget without success.
He’d ruthlessly disguised that hunger, enough to even take pride in his ability to watch her walk into his office without showing that he was losing his mind to that immediate groin-stirring arousal. And yes, it’d infuriated him to know his success in wrestling down his carnal demon had been fed by Saffie’s own easy dismissal of the incident.
‘Joao?’
He gritted his teeth, wishing he hadn’t insisted she address him by his first name shortly after she’d started working for him. Of course, he hadn’t divulged the fact that he detested his surname but had hung onto it purely to show Pueblo Oliviera that he wouldn’t be dismissed as easily as it’d taken him to instruct his security to throw him out of his Sao Paolo mansion that fateful day two decades ago. Never mind that he’d hated his mother for saddling him with the name of a man who’d had zero interest in assuming the role of fatherhood.
‘Are we going to discuss this or are you going to keep staring at me like I’ve grown an extra set of eyes?’ Saffie questioned briskly.
He shook off the sticky vines of his past and focused on her eyes. Alternately blue or grey depending on her clothing or mood, the wide, almond shapes were clear and direct. Intelligent. Alluring. As arresting as her full Cupid’s-bow lips currently pressed into a prim line beneath her pert nose. They hadn’t been so prim when he’d tasted them. They’d been soft, supple, mind-alteringly delicious when she’d parted them beneath his, gasped her pleasure, screamed her climax—
He flicked that torrid recollection away before it wreaked havoc on his groin. ‘You seem so certain of the future, Saffie. What makes you think you won’t be begging me to let you stay in three months’ time?’
Her breath caught, alerting him to the fact that his tone had been harsher than he’d intended.
At his continued stare, she bit her lip just as she had minutes ago, exhibiting an agitation unlike her.
Joao’s attention was once again drawn to her perfect curve of slightly reddening mouth, to the small teeth dragging over her flesh. He clenched one fist over the other as more blood rushed south.
‘I know what I want,’ she insisted, once again triggering that unnerving sensation that had arrived when he’d read that damn resignation letter
