Bred By the CEO

Maybe once he learned who she really was, he’d move on and be able to return his focus to work. He was on his cell phone in the elevator, too impatient to wait the extra couple of minutes to his suite.

“Yulian, I need information on an employee.”

“What kind of information?”

“The dirt. Anything you can give me,” Darius said.

Part of him felt guilty for digging, but another part was hoping there was nothing incriminating. He gave his contact all her details and then waited.

Yulian was fast, but minutes felt like hours all night long.

Just after midnight, as he was watching the news from his bed, the phone rang. He rolled to his side and grabbed it off the nightstand. “Yeah,” he said. His heart raced in anticipation.

“No record of the father. Mother gave her up when she was six. Entered the system but wasn’t adopted because they never terminated the parental rights. She was in and out of group homes as a teen, then went off the grid for a while.”

“What about college? She’s in accounting,” Darius said.

“That’s when she reappeared. At twenty-two, she registered in college as a mature student. Strong grades.”

“And then she applied at my company?”

“Pretty much.”

Darius sat up in the bed, running his free hand through his hair. “So, she’s a foster kid, a runaway. Any criminal record?”

“You always do a full sweep for all new employs. She’s clean.”

“Where does she live?”

“Shithole. A basement apartment in the factory district.”

He wanted more. Wanted to get right inside her head. “Okay. Thanks.”

Darius tossed his cell phone.

How was she so good with kids when she had no role model of her own? She didn’t look like a jaded woman. How could she still have such a sweet aura after living such a hard life? And more importantly, why the fuck did he care? Why was he awake and sober, his mind focused on Rose Henshaw, the junior accountant in B2?

His condo was silent, no white noise, nothing. High-end soundproofing combined with a loveless life and no pets could do that. What his home needed was life, laughter, fullness. Darius knew firsthand that money couldn’t buy happiness. It created a great façade, but that was where it ended. There was nothing under his expensive Armani. He was a good actor, nothing more.

People didn’t clap for him when he succeeded.

The only family he kept in contact with was his sister and nephew. The others could go to hell. He wasn’t sure why he’d been suddenly craving more, thinking about a family and heirs. There wasn’t much he could offer besides material wealth. But maybe the girl with the big brown eyes was more like him than he cared to realize. What happened when two broken souls tried to play house? Would they crash and burn or create a beautiful disaster?

Chapter Two

Most days at work sucked. Especially when Mrs. Haywire was on the warpath, which was the same every single day after the “take the kids to work” day ended. Everyone had to catch up on the work they’d missed.

Rose wasn’t behind. She didn’t have anything to worry about because she was always far ahead of the game. This was why she deserved a raise. She wasn’t asking for the impossible, or for anything she hadn’t earned. At the very least, she’d like some acknowledgment for her hard work.

Instead, she got nothing.

She was a nameless, faceless drone on level B2 with the horrible fluorescent lighting.

Mrs. Haywire kept coming to her cubicle to point her finger and yell at her for not being present the other day. Every time Rose tried to give an explanation that she was unwittingly thrust into the position of the boss’s nanny for the day, she was shut down. She hadn’t been able to tell her what she’d been doing. Instead, she was told not to give the same old excuses and to just do her job.

She wasn’t incompetent

Taking a deep breath, she continued her work, plugging numbers, all the while aware of her floor manager’s voice rising to be heard. She was a monster.

This job was supposed to be the start of something amazing. Rose rubbed her hands together, feeling the chill inside the office. Had someone turned the thermostat down? It was probably from being in the sub-basement. There were often rumors or gossip of cutbacks when it came to heating. She never believed it, and after meeting Mr. Blackwood, she had to doubt the truth in those rumors. He didn’t strike her as the kind of guy who’d put his employees last.

What do you know?

Just because you watched his nephew doesn’t mean you know anything about the man.

She rolled her eyes at herself and got back to staring at her computer. Cricking her neck from side to side, she had a sudden overwhelming need to go to the bathroom.