kissed-by-moonlight by Rakhibul hasan (ebook reader for pc .TXT) 📕

more reasonable. “Why?”

 

Sonya shrugged. “She has the experience and talent for it. Plus, she hasn’t worked on anything but the obituaries and the crossword since she got here, so it’s not like I’ll be taking her away from anything important. So she won’t be too inconvenienced if it all turns out to be a waste of time.”

 

Sonya slapped the table like a contestant on a game show striking a buzzer.

 

“Done,” she exclaimed, beaming when the rest of the staff writers broke out into messy applause.

 

My lips tightened in growing irritation. “Sorry to break this to all of you, but you seem to be forgetting something.”

 

Blank expressions all the way around. I rolled my eyes and indicated my own face with flair.

 

“Fiery Phaedra? My face was plastered all over the place for weeks until that cult story shoved me off the front page. Some intrepid YouTubers even got the surveillance footage of me shoving the car off the roof and made a music video montage out of it.”

 

“Where are you going with this?” Georgette asked, frowning.

 

“Yeah, I don’t see the point.” This from Avery, a reporter who’d been here longest and who was the current record-holder for front page stories.

 

“My point,” I began slowly, “is that I’m no good for undercover work. Everyone already knows I’m a reporter, and after I got arrested for trespassing after the Bigfoot debacle and Dawson bailed me out, I’m pretty sure the fact that I work here is also on record somewhere.”

 

Dawson shrugged and began rocking her swivel chair.

 

“Well, we can fix that easily enough.”

 

“Oh really?” This should be good. “How?”

 

She grinned at me. “Simple. You’re fired.”

 

* * * *

 

You know those people who are completely and utterly shocked when they get hired on as a personal assistant/secretary to the most powerful man in the city? The type of person who was confident that they wouldn’t even get past the application process on account of the fact that they have an extensive police record and a shady psychiatric evaluation?

 

Turns out, I’m one of those people.

 

I woke up the morning of my first day and had to calm an instinctive burst of panic. If they found out what I was up to…if they realized that I was funneling information to Sonya and that I was still (unofficially) an employee of the Morning Oracle I could die.

 

I wasn’t even exaggerating. I was 87% positive that Gabriel Evans could, and would, have me assassinated. It almost made me back out. Almost convinced me to drop the idea of a story altogether and simply work for Evans for real. His benefits package was much better than the Oracle’s and I was being paid a hell of a lot more. But there was this…I don’t know what to call it really.

 

Something reckless in me wanted to see it through. Some wild-eyed little creature that lived beneath my skin urged me on. It was the voice that made me go faster than I should when I

 

drove. It assured me that I would make the green light, even if common sense cried out that I wouldn’t. It was what had sent me pushing that car over the edge. It was what had made me pull the trigger on my tranq gun the night I’d hunted “Bigfoot” (thereby encouraging said landowner to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law).

 

And it was that creature, that demon of recklessness, that brought a maniacal little grin to my face even as my stomach twisted at the thought of being found out. I knew I should back out. The odds weren’t in my favor.

 

But that was what made it fun.

 

I gave myself a little shake and squashed the smile as soon as I realized it was there. Then I rolled out of bed and headed for the shower. The process of choosing an outfit was trickier than usual. For one thing, I couldn’t dress as casually as I normally did when heading in to work. Instead I found myself critically eyeing the way the gray pinstriped pantsuit fit my frame. It was hard to describe my body type. I didn’t have much up top, but I was pretty curvy from the waist down. I didn’t like the way the button-up suit jacket emphasized that. I’d need a trim soon; my black hair was past my shoulders now and combined with my straight bangs and ice blue eyes, I resembled a pin-up model. I eyed my dark hair and pale face, decided I could probably rock the vampire look, and gave up primping as a lost cause.

 

No point in wasting any more time in the looks department. When I met Evans—dear god I was going to meet Gabriel Evans—I wanted to make sure that I was as innocuous as possible. With that thought in mind, I sent my reflection a quick kiss and sashayed my way out the door.

 

The drive to the Lumière Corporation took about twenty minutes. I could have taken the less scenic route, but I wanted to arrive at my new job with my wallet, all my major organs, and all four tires still in place.

 

I knew I was probably expecting a lot, but hey.

 

I liked living large.

 

By the time I stepped out of the elevator and onto the twenty-first floor, it was around 8:00 a.m.

 

Right on time.

 

Commence mental back patting.

 

The pace at the L.C. seemed chaotic in comparison to what went on in the Oracle. I knew the company dealt with stocks and bonds and international mergers, but business had never been my strong suit. Thankfully I wasn’t here to punch numbers or bully execs. I would just run some errands, file some paperwork, and try to keep my head down while spying shamelessly on every aspect of Gabriel Evans’s life.

 

Fun, fun.

 

There was a little bounce to my step as I threw myself into the fray. I sidestepped interns, mail room lackeys, and more than one pencil pusher, but no matter where I looked I couldn’t seem to find Janice.

 

Janice was the woman whose job I would be taking. Janice was in her mid-thirties and as pregnant as the day was long. She was due for maternity leave and the only thing standing between Janice and freedom was my three days’ worth of training.

 

So there I was: dressed, on time, and eager to learn.

 

The only problem?

 

No Janice.

 

“Excuse me?” I grabbed the sleeve of the first person that passed me. He was an older man, salt and pepper hair seeming to defy gravity as his hairline receded while his beer gut had long since lost that fight.

 

I smiled up at him and laid on the charm.

 

“Could you help me? I’m a little turned around.”

 

His eyes had narrowed down to suspicious slits as soon as I had pulled him to a halt, but at the sight of my smile he shifted the stack of folders in his arms and relaxed.

 

“New, aren’t you?”

 

I nodded, projecting relief and just a tad bit of embarrassment. “Afraid so. I was supposed to be meeting Janice today so she could start my training but I can’t seem to—”

 

His bark of laughter interrupted my explanation and I had to stop myself from snapping at him.

 

“They didn’t tell you?” At the look on my face he answered his own question. “Obviously not. Janice went into labor a few days ago.”

 

Damn.

 

“What the hell am I supposed to do now?”

 

He shrugged, and I could see the desire to get on with his own business begin to take hold.

 

“No idea. Your best bet is to head up to the top floor and go from there. That’s where Evans keeps his office and where Janice usually worked. They should give you some leeway since it’s your first day and all, but I hope for your sake you learn fast.” He started walking. “Fair warning: The Beast has been untamed for almost a week now. Tread lightly.”

 

Hold up.

 

“Do you mean ‘Beast’ as in absent a Beauty?” I called after him, “Or ‘Beast’ as in—”

 

“Three numbers, bad temper, makes a cameo appearance in Revelations? That one. Definitely that one.” He threw the words over his shoulder and waved a hand in farewell as he disappeared inside the recess of a cubicle.

 

“Good luck,” he called cheerfully, and I scowled at his pitiful excuse of an office for a full minute before I turned on my heel and headed back to the elevators.

 

“Why hide who you are? Wolf or sheep there’s no shame in giving in to your nature.”

 

—Lana Ray

 

 

 

Chapter Three

 

 

 

 

 

The top floor was silent. Eerily so. After hearing someone compare my new boss to the Beast of the Apocalypse, I was a bit more cautious about meeting him. I examined the space around me carefully. Unlike the other floors, there weren’t different departments to take up extra space. There was just an empty desk sitting in the middle of the room and behind it were large double doors that were currently closed. The walls looked as if they were made from bamboo, and a stream with no discernible source acted like a moat spanning the perimeter. The noise it made over the rocks that had been carved into the marble floor was soothing, and for a moment I let myself admire the simplicity of the space before venturing any further within it.

 

“Hello?”

 

My voice echoed in the sparsely furnished room and I felt exposed somehow. I hurried to the set of double doors behind my new desk. I knocked, lightly at first, and when that got no response I tried the handle.

 

Beyond the door was an office fit for the most notorious man in the city.

 

Two sides of the room were made of nothing but glass. They showed a breathtaking view of the city. I imagined that you could watch the sunrise on one side in the morning and watch it set on the other side at night.

 

The room was twice as large as the one adjacent to it. The floor was made out of black marble, and against the far wall sat an antique writing desk. There were couches set along the eastern wall. They were angled so that whoever sat in them would be able to enjoy the view offered by the floor to ceiling window. In the center of the room, hanging from the ceiling, was a floating electric fireplace. All black chrome and sparkling flame on coals. On the west side, was a great table, empty now, but worn from repeated use. On the back wall near the desk was another door, and instantly sensing a chance to snoop, I hurried towards it. My heels clacked hollowly against the floor despite how softly I tried to step, and feeling more than a little exposed I reached out to open it.

 

I’d barely even turned the handle before the knob was jerked out of my hands as the door was pulled open from the other side. I took a step back and regarded the man who filled up the doorway.

 

He was broad shouldered and wide through the chest. Like a small mountain dressed in black, he sort of towered there before me, expression blank and blue eyes cold and hard. I saw that he could possibly be handsome if his mouth weren’t so pinched.

 

And maybe if he stopped scowling so much.

 

But it wasn’t my job to critique the man’s temperament. Though as far as first impressions went, I was unimpressed.

 

“Who the hell are you?”

 

I opened my mouth to respond, but he dismissed me by the simple expediency of turning his back on me.

 

“It doesn’t matter.” He spoke with his back to me as he worked to lock the door he’d just come through. “I don’t really need your name. After all, we both know why you’re here.” Finished, he stepped around me and walked deeper into the main part of his office.

 

I pulled my gaze away from his bare feet slapping against the marble floor and tried to keep from curling my lip at his back.

 

“And why is that?”

 

“For now?” He turned and leaned his hips back onto