The office had gone unnaturally still.
“If my presence within your company truly unsettles you, then dismiss me.” My voice softened, but only in volume, never in resolve. “But do not insult me by reducing me to a spy simply because I was born into a family whose name you dislike.”
A silence stretched between us.
Then I forced myself to continue, quieter now, more honest.
“Outside my department, my blindness becomes an obstacle most positions are not designed to accommodate.” My fingers curled more firmly around the polished handle of my cane. “I cannot read printed files. I cannot interpret visual reports or surveillance footage. I cannot navigate the pace your assistants are expected to maintain without proper accessibility systems already in place.”
I drew a careful breath.
“For those reasons...” I said steadily, “I cannot serve as your personal assistant.”
I sensed him move toward me with such suddenness that I flinched in my seat.
Too close.
His presence swallowed the space around me before I could prepare for it.
I could feel the heat of him now, the crisp scent of expensive cologne wrapping around my senses and dragging an unwanted warmth low in my stomach.
It unsettled me more because he was not unpleasant.
Not at all.
If anything, Rafael Pérez was dangerously attractive.
Even to a woman who could not see him.
“You are perfectly capable of serving as my personal assistant, and you will.”
The words were absolute.
My breath caught.
With him standing this close, I could not force a single coherent thought past my throat.
It felt deliberate, as though he knew exactly what his nearness did to people. Intimidation refined into elegance.
Then he stepped away.
A second later, I heard the quiet scratch of pen against paper.
As though he were casually signing documents while dismantling my resistance piece by piece.
“I reviewed every report tied to your name,” he said evenly. “Every project you’ve touched since the day your internship began.”
“Your efficiency exceeds that of employees who have worked here for years.”
Another stroke of ink. “You adapt faster than anyone in your department.”
“And you identify weaknesses before they become liabilities.”
Every word landed with calculated precision.
Like a man arranging pieces across a chessboard only he controlled.
“You are exactly who I want beside me.”
