I look up, waiting, anticipating.
Seraphina? Being obedient?
Heels are sharp and staccato.
Then Celeste appears. Fuck it to hell. I’ve already gone a round with legal and one with Seraphina. Now my day has gone from bad to worse. “News travels fast.” Of course. Rafe. Asshole.
She barrels in, voice like a blade honed just for me. “Xavier.” She slaps her hands on my desk and leans in. “What the hell are you thinking?”
I lean back.
“Do you have any idea how much you’re paying me?”
“Since the deposit was six figures, I think I do.”
“I’m not a fucking miracle worker.”
In an easy shrug, I lift one shoulder. “I hired you because you are.”
“What the hell are you thinking in signing that girl?”
I correct her. “Seraphina Hollis.” She’s not that girl.
“She burned you down once. Your board is already questioning your judgment, and you’re giving them even more ammunition.”
“She didn’t burn me.” My palms circling my cup, I lean forward. “She exposed what I missed.”
Every bit as resolved as I am, Celeste meets my eyes. “She’s a maid.”
“Housekeeper.”
She waves away my correction. “Who I presume you were alone with in your penthouse last night?”
Maybe she got that information from Rafe too. Or maybe from her vast reach of other resources.
Since the fact is easy to confirm, I settle for tipping my head to one side.
“She’s going to work for you under duress.”
The woman is shrewd. “Ms. Hollis will be well compensated for her talents.”
“Dear fucking God, Xavier.” She’s ice cold, and she makes billionaires tremble. “You slept with her.”
“No.” I shake my head. Not that I hadn’t been tempted.
“Splitting hairs. Something happened between the two of you. And with your reputation, I can only guess.”
I take a drink of the tragically awful coffee.
“To my knowledge, before yesterday afternoon, you hadn’t seen Ms. Hollis since you fired her. Loudly and publicly.”
“Not my finest moment.”
“And the next morning, you have your legal team working on an employment contract.”
There’s a fucking leak in my legal department? My temper flares.
Celeste presses on. “This is a press nightmare.”
