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PROLOGUE

PROLOGUE

I was fucked.

Done for.

Profoundly screwed in the head.

The issue, of course, was my assistant, Devereux.

She was slowly but surely driving me crazy. I was literally going to lose my mind.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Hiring her was supposed to bring order to my life.

Instead she’d brought disorder. Chaos. Vexation. Irritation. Malaise.

Joy. Fun. Comfort. Exuberance. Delight.

I was obsessed with her.

She was stubborn. Standoffish. Painfully honest. Take no prisoners efficient. In summary, a termagant.

And even I, oblivious bastard extraordinaire, was aware in some corner of my mind, of every well laid plan I’d ever had slowly crashing down and exploding into dust.

I was simply no match for Devereux Laurent

It all started with one innocent conversation with my good friend Dair.

“Iris found someone that she swears would make the perfect assistant for you. She’s organized, meticulous, and highly intelligent. She has management experience, but evidently has decided that she’d like a change, and is extremely interested in learning more about the literary world.”

I had assistant issues. It was a notorious and long standing problem of mine. I needed someone to pick up all of the loose ends in my life. Instead, I had a history of hiring the wrong people and then allowing that to blowup in my face.

I needed to hire someone I wasn’t attracted to, but more importantly, someone who wasn’t attracted to me.

My goal was to find an assistant I didn’t want to, and wouldn’t, fuck. Someone who would actually stick around and do their job.

“I’m listening,” I told him pleasantly. “Please tell me she’s fifty years old. No wait, sixty.”

“She’s young, but not at all your type, though she is actually Candy’s cousin. You remember Candy? She was your assistant a few years ago.”

I rolled my eyes at that, because he knew as well as I did that my memory was excellent, but I found myself confused. “How does Iris know Candy’s cousin?” I tried to wrap my mind around that strange connection.

Dair’s smile was beyond fond and into sappy. “You know Iris.” He said his wife’s name like she was the key to the universe, and I totally got it. The woman was off the charts hot and crazy enough to keep his life interesting. “She makes friends with everybody. She went out dancing with Candy and they hit it off, and they’ve remained friends. Recently, Candy invited us to a family barbecue where she met your new assistant, Devereux, who was visiting from out of town.”

“You make it sound like a done deal.”

Dair glanced around my disastrous office pointedly. “What have you got to lose? This place is a mess, and you’re behind on everything, right? Your emails, your social media, your deadlines, God only knows what else. She’s available to start right away.”

“Explain what you mean by not my type,” I said, interested. I really did need an assistant, especially one that would do some actual work.

“Not like Candy. Or the ones that have followed her. Devereux is smart. And wholesome. She’s not interested in you, she’s interested in learning about the book world, and having a job.”

My nose wrinkled up in distaste muddled with a bit of reluctant fascination. “Wholesome,” I tasted the word. It didn’t taste bad. Just utterly foreign. “That’s not something you see every day.”

Dair laughed. “No, my friend. It’s not something you see every day.”

CHAPTER ONE