Chapter 4 MY MOTHER'S ASSISTANT l

When people hear I'm an assistant, they picture someone fetching coffee and shuffling papers in some corporate tower. In reality, I run half of Evelyn Hayes's life-her meetings, her schedules, her flights, her social calendar, even her grocery deliveries. Without me, the woman would probably miss her own birthday party. It's not particularly glamorous work, but it pays well, comes with room and board in a house nicer than anywhere I could afford on my own, and I genuinely don't mind the order it brings to my days. Structure has always suited me.

What I do mind, however, is her daughter.

Lila Hayes. Twenty-one years old, a little wild around the edges, and far too sharp for her own good-or mine. I'd known her since she was still in high school, back when she'd trail behind her mother during summer breaks with oversized headphones looped around her neck, pretending not to care about the world spinning around her. She still pretends sometimes, but now she's grown into herself in ways that are impossible to ignore. Ways that are, if I'm being honest, deeply distracting.

It was late one Thursday night when everything shifted. Mrs. Hayes was away for the weekend at some charity retreat upstate, which meant the house had fallen into an unnervingly perfect quiet. I was in the kitchen sorting through files spread across the marble counter-expense reports, vendor contracts, the usual administrative debris that piled up when you managed someone else's entire existence. The house was dark except for the pendant lights above me, casting everything in warm amber.

Then came the soft pad of bare feet on tile.

"Daniel?" Her voice carried that same blend of curiosity and mischief she always seemed to reserve especially for me.

I didn't look up immediately, mostly because I knew that if I did, I'd notice things I had absolutely no business noticing. "Lila. Shouldn't you be asleep? Or out at some party with your college friends?"

She padded closer, her movements unhurried and deliberate. Without asking, she reached past me and stole a grape from the ceramic bowl near my elbow. "What are you doing? It's almost midnight."

"Work," I said simply, sliding another paper into its designated folder with perhaps more focus than it strictly required.

She leaned against the counter beside me, close enough that I caught the scent of her perfume-something sweet and summery, like sun-ripened peaches. It curled around me in the quiet kitchen, warm and invasive. "You're always working. Don't you ever get bored of being so... responsible?"

I risked a glance at her, which was immediately revealed to be a terrible idea. She was wearing an oversized T-shirt that barely covered her thigh, her damp hair falling in loose waves around her shoulders like she'd just stepped out of the shower. Fresh-faced, completely relaxed, utterly at ease in her own skin.

"Someone has to make sure your mother doesn't accidentally forget her own company exists," I replied, forcing my eyes firmly back to the documents in front of me with what I hoped looked like casual disinterest.

Lila's smirk was visible even in my peripheral vision. "You like it, though. Being in control of everything."

Her words landed with more weight than she probably intended, settling somewhere in my chest. I exhaled slowly through my nose, trying not to let my jaw tighten. "Order suits me. It always has."

She popped the grape into her mouth, chewing slowly and deliberately, her eyes fixed on me like she was actively testing boundaries just to see where they were. "You know, for a guy who practically runs this entire house, you're incredibly serious. Has anyone ever told you that?"

"Once or twice." I closed the folder with deliberate finality, meeting her gaze. "And you? Has anyone ever told you you're deliberately annoying?"

That made her laugh-a real, genuine laugh that filled the quiet kitchen. Her head tilted back slightly, exposing the long line of her throat, her eyes sparkling with genuine amusement. "All the time. I consider it one of my better qualities."

Her laughter should have eased the tension gathering in the space between us, but instead it seemed to pull everything tighter. The sound was warm and intimate in the empty house, wrapping around us like a physical presence. She caught me staring-of course she did. Lila never missed anything.

"What?" she asked, her voice dropping to something softer, more curious.

I shook my head, looking away. "Nothing."

But she didn't let it go. She never did. Instead, she stepped closer, her hip deliberately brushing against mine as she reached across me for another grape, even though there were half a dozen easier ways to get one. "You look like you want to say something."

I finally allowed myself to look at her properly, really look at her, meeting her gaze head-on instead of dancing around it. "You should be careful playing with fire, Lila."

Her lips curved into a smile that was slow and absolutely wicked. "What do you mean?"

For a stretched-out second, silence pressed down on us, heavy with all the things neither of us should say, weighted with possibilities we definitely shouldn't explore. My chest tightened uncomfortably, my pulse climbing in a way I couldn't quite control, and I hated-genuinely hated-how easy it was for her to shake the careful control I'd spent years building.

She took another deliberate step closer, close enough that I could feel the warmth radiating from her skin. Her voice dropped just enough to make my stomach flip. "Tell me something, Daniel. If I asked you to hold me right now, would you?"

I held her stare, every logical, responsible part of my brain screaming at me to shut this down immediately, to step back, to remember exactly who she was and who I was and why this could never, ever happen. But logic doesn't always win. Not when she looked at me like that, her eyes dark and challenging. Not when her mouth hovered just close enough for me to imagine closing the distance.

"You don't want me to answer that," I said finally, my voice coming out lower and rougher than I'd intended.

Her smile widened, clearly satisfied with that response. "Maybe I do."

Before I could formulate any kind of reply, she reached out and plucked the folder from the counter, skimming a random page without actually reading a single word on it. "This is incredibly boring, by the way. You should live a little."

She set it down again, then rose up on her toes with fluid grace. She pressed a feather-light kiss to my cheek, it happened too quickly for me to stop, too purposeful to possibly mistake for anything innocent. My entire body went stiff, every muscle locking down.

Then she stepped back with that same infuriating grin, grabbing the entire bowl of grapes as her prize. "Goodnight, Daniel."

I stood there frozen, watching her saunter out of the kitchen like she hadn't just detonated something fundamental between us, my carefully maintained composure unraveling completely in her wake.

God help me. This summer was going to destroy me.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​