THE ASSISTANT

EMILY

Day One

(Yes, it’s STILL Day One)

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I rushed off the plane once the flight attendant opened the door, and slid a pair of shades over my face. The last thing I wanted the welcoming press to see was how pissed off I looked right now.

I slipped into the closest restroom and splashed my face with cold water. I took several deep breaths and tried to calm myself down after hours of arguing with Nicholas.

We literally argued the entire flight ...

If this was day one, there was no way I was making it to day thirty. Hell, I would be lucky if I made it to day ten at this rate.

When I was sure I was calm enough to face the world again, I slung Luna’s bag over my arm and left the restroom. Nicholas was standing in the hallway waiting for me.

He looked as upset as I was, but he gently pulled my carryon bag from my hands and rolled it by his side as we walked to baggage claim.

During all the previous trips we’d taken together for business, there’d always been tension between us, but not like this. Never like this.

At the baggage carousel, Brenton rushed over to us and clapped his hands. “Ah! There you two are!” he said. “Watson will arrive a little later than planned, since he wanted to spend a couple more days with his niece, so we have some additional time to prepare.”

“Where is the welcoming press?” I asked.

“They’ll be here in a day or so. In the meantime, I have the Town & Country reporter waiting for you in the SUV. She wants to do a short prep interview before your more in-depth interview later this week. Are you up for that?”

He didn’t give us a chance to answer. Instead, he launched into another set of things we needed to do—local events, interviews, staged photos.

I tuned out his voice as we approached the dark-colored SUV. I offered my seat to the Town & Country reporter so I wouldn’t have to sit next to Nicholas, but he slipped his hand around my waist and positioned me next to him anyway.

“The Four Seasons, correct?” the driver asked.

“Correct,” Brenton said. “Mya, you can ask as many questions that can fit into this four-minute drive.”

“Thank you.” She clicked her pen and smiled at Nicholas. “Well, I guess I’ll cut straight to the chase and start with you, Mr. Wolf. Given your previous reputation in Page Six, we were quite surprised to hear about your engagement. When did you know your fiancée was the one?”

“Ask me something else.” His voice was clipped.

“Um.” Her cheeks reddened. “Sure. Are there plans for a wedding as of yet?”

“I don’t like that question either.”

She glanced nervously at Brenton, who looked as if he was about to have a heart attack. “Well, um ... Can you give us a little insight on how you proposed to Emily?”

“I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me. She said yes.”

Silence.

Brenton let out a forced laugh and clasped the reporter’s hand. “They’ve had a really long flight, and there was lots of turbulence. Can we pick up here during your assigned interview time slot? I can guarantee that he’ll be far more upbeat by then.”

“Absolutely.” She shut her notepad and looked down at her hands while Brenton glared at Nicholas.

When the SUV pulled into the turnaround at The Four Seasons, the reporter rushed out of the car without saying a word.

I started to get up, but Brenton shook his head at me. Then he asked the driver to get out so he could talk to us in private.

“Okay, look.” His tone was firm. “I’m not sure what the hell has happened between you two over the past few days, but you need to get the hell over it and fast. You only have to put up with each other for twenty-nine more days, and I would think that after working so closely with each other for two years, that this would be a fucking breeze.” He snapped his fingers. “There are five billion dollars with a new CEO image, an employee termination contract, and my fucking million-dollar bonus on the line. How hard could it be to pretend that you fucking like each other? Get it together. Now.”

He opened the doors, and Nicholas helped me out of the car.

Still not saying a word to each other, we followed the bellhop onto the elevator and took it straight up to the penthouse suite.

When the bellhop left us alone, Nicholas sighed. “There are four bedrooms in this suite. You can have whichever one you like. Luna can have his own room, if he would like as well.”

“Luna is a she.”

“Luna is a cat.” He rolled his eyes and took off his shirt, revealing his perfect set of six-pack abs. “There’s a small park outside if you want to take her there before we go to my family’s house this week.”

“Will we have our own bedrooms there as well?”

“I doubt it.” He stepped into the bathroom suite. “We’ll probably share my old room.”

“I’m not sharing a bed with you.”

“We’ll see.”

I shook my head and followed him. “I need you to promise me that you’ll sleep on the couch or—” I hesitated when I stepped into the bathroom, noticing that he was now only wearing a towel around his waist.

“Trust me,” he said, looking me up and down. “I’ll sleep on my goddamn balcony if it means I won’t have to argue with you. If I’d known you’d change so quickly after a proposal, I would’ve continued holding auditions.”

“You never proposed.” I rolled my eyes. “You wrote a contract. And you’ve changed as well.”

“My patience level hasn’t.”

“You know what?” I held up my hands in a show of surrender. “I’m going to do my best to play this sweet, caring fiancée role for the remainder of our agreement. I’m going to continue being the bigger person.”

“That’s what you really think you are?” He smirked. “The bigger person?”

Why is he always so tempting when he smirks like that?

“Yes.” I crossed my arms. “I think I’ve always been the—”

The rest of my sentence stalled on my tongue as he dropped his towel to the floor, as I caught sight of his massive cock for the first time.

I felt my jaw dropping, as my mind attempted to make sense of what I was seeing.

OH. MY. GOD.

He’s definitely nine inches ...

I cleared my throat and tried to look away from him and his cock, to pick up right where I left off, but I couldn’t.

“You were saying?” he asked. “Something about you being the bigger person in this relationship?”

I couldn’t get a single word to fall out of my mouth if I tried. I could only blush and stare.

Noticing my speechlessness, he smiled and slowly picked up his towel. “For the record,” he said, “I’m always open to adding an intimacy clause, with you ...” He looked me over one last time and stepped into the shower.

Twenty-nine more days. Twenty-nine more days ...