Elena Morgan was not easily intimidated.
She had worked her way up through late nights and endless revisions, balancing architecture school with part-time jobs and her sister's hospital bills. She wasn't glamorous or flashy, but she was good at her job—good enough to land a junior architect position at Mason & Co., one of the most respected firms in Manhattan.
For three years, she had poured her heart into the work. And then, overnight, everything changed.
The day Alexander Knight walked into their boardroom was the day her carefully ordered life was upended.
He didn't enter like a man; he entered like a storm.
Six-foot-two, with shoulders that filled the doorway and a jaw cut like marble, Alexander radiated the kind of confidence that came from obscene wealth and ruthless ambition. His steel-gray eyes swept over the room like searchlights, calculating, assessing, dismissing.
Half the employees had already heard the rumors. Billionaire Alexander Knight was expanding his empire. He bought companies the way most people bought groceries—without hesitation, and with zero tolerance for waste. Mason & Co. had been profitable, but not profitable enough to resist him.
Elena had sat at the far end of the conference table that day, coffee mug cradled in her hands, her sketchpad tucked beneath her notes. She remembered the exact words he'd spoken, his voice smooth as polished stone.
"This firm," Alexander announced, "is bloated with mediocrity. Half of you are unnecessary. Prove your worth in six months, or clear your desks."
The silence in the room had been suffocating. Experienced architects stared at the table. Interns froze in their seats. No one dared to speak.
Except Elena.
Her tongue was always quicker than her sense of self-preservation.
"Funny," she had said, raising her hand like a student in class. "Mediocrity usually comes from leadership, not the employees."
The oxygen seemed to vanish from the room. Heads turned. Someone dropped a pen.
Alexander's gaze had locked onto her, sharp and unblinking. The corner of his mouth curved—not into a smile, but into something far more dangerous.
"And you are?" he asked, his tone a blade wrapped in silk.
"Elena Morgan. Junior architect. You know, one of the unnecessary ones."
The faintest flicker of amusement touched his eyes, though his voice remained smooth.
"Interesting. Remind me to review your file."
That had been the beginning.
From that day forward, Alexander Knight made it his personal mission to test her limits. He gave her impossible deadlines, reassigned her projects without warning, and cut her off mid-sentence during presentations. Yet, curiously, he never fired her.
Sometimes, Elena suspected he enjoyed the challenge.
And though she hated to admit it, part of her did too.
But she also knew one thing with absolute certainty: Alexander Knight was the last man on earth she would ever willingly spend more time with than necessary.
Which was why, when his assistant called her up to his private office six months later, Elena braced herself for battle.
She was ready for anything—another lecture, another impossible assignment, another verbal duel.
She was not ready for what he actually said.