The Boss' Favor

[IsabellaRose]

Kara had never hated her reflection more. No matter how many times she adjusted her collar, smoothed her skirt, or rechecked the barely-there swipe of mascara, she couldn’t shake the heat prickling just beneath her skin. Her fingers fidgeted at her hemline... too short? No, perfectly office-appropriate. Just like everything else she wore around him. Around Mr. Vale.

The name alone sent a flutter low in her stomach, though she’d never admit it out loud. It was ridiculous, really. He was her boss... polished, commanding, unshakably composed. He was thirty-seven, maybe thirty-eight, tall and fit, with the kind of angular face that belonged on a luxury watch ad... sharp cheekbones, stubble that always looked intentional, eyes like frost... cool, unreadable, and too damned observant. And his voice...

She clenched her thighs without meaning to at the memory of it: low, perfectly measured, like he’d studied how to make syllables linger where they shouldn’t. Once, when she was the last to leave a strategy meeting, he’d said something behind her, just an offhand comment about initiative, but it had landed in her spine like a strike. He hadn’t touched her. He hadn’t needed to. That was the thing about him. He didn’t have to cross any lines to make you wonder exactly how far you’d go if he asked. And now he had asked.

"My office. 5:15. Close the door."

No explanation. No subject line. No context. Just the implication... just him.

Kara swallowed hard and tried to summon her professionalism like armor. Maybe it was a reprimand. Maybe she’d blown the account. But she hadn’t, she knew she hadn’t. She’d nailed it... and maybe that was even worse. She didn’t know if she was walking in to be punished or praised. She didn’t know which she craved more, and the part of her that did crave something, craved him, was the part she’d spent months locking behind stapled reports and careful emails and power-heeled detachment. But now there were only ten minutes left. Ten minutes until she walked into his office, just the two of them, just the sound of the door clicking shut behind her.

Kara touched her lips. Neutral lipstick. Perfectly neutral. And yet, inside, everything was not.