"If you want these lips, then earn them."
James's words hung in the air between them, transforming the atmosphere in Victoria's office from tense confrontation to something entirely unprecedented. Victoria sat frozen in her chair, her lips still parted in silent shock, her mind struggling to process what had just transpired.
Earn them. The phrase echoed in her thoughts, foreign and disorienting.
James maintained eye contact for another weighted moment, allowing his challenge to fully register. Then, leaning slightly closer, he added with quiet intensity, "If you want to keep tasting these lips, then you'll have to woo me."
The additional statement landed like a second shockwave. Woo him? Victoria Sharp didn't woo anyone.
With deliberate movements, James straightened and gathered his tablet and notes from her desk.
"I'll have the revised Singapore timeline ready for your review by nine," he said, his tone shifting seamlessly back to professional courtesy, though something harder lingered beneath the surface. "Goodnight, Victoria."
She watched, still speechless, as he walked toward her office door with unhurried confidence. His posture was different—shoulders back, head high, movements assured in a way that felt distinctly new. Without looking back, he closed the door behind him, leaving Victoria alone with the echo of his ultimatum still reverberating through her thoughts.
For several minutes, she remained motionless in her chair, the coffee stain on her blouse now a cold, uncomfortable reminder of the moment that had catalyzed this unexpected confrontation. Outside her windows, the first hint of dawn began to lighten the eastern sky, the gradient of night slowly yielding to morning.
"Earn them," she finally murmured to her empty office, testing how the words felt when spoken aloud. "Woo him," she added, the concept even more foreign. A short, incredulous laugh escaped her—sharp and brittle in the silence.
Victoria Sharp didn't chase. Victoria Sharp didn't woo. Victoria Sharp didn't earn anyone's attention, much less their kiss. Men approached her. Men pursued her. Men strategized elaborate ways to capture her interest—not the reverse.
She stood abruptly, gathering her things with mechanical efficiency, her movements precise despite the emotional turbulence beneath her composed exterior. The CEO mask slipped back into place, a practiced reflex after years of navigating male-dominated corporate environments where any display of emotion was interpreted as weakness.
The drive home through early morning streets provided no clarity. Her mind replayed James's words, his expression, the directness with which he'd challenged her carefully constructed control. No one spoke to her that way—not the industry partners, not her executive team, certainly not someone who had been her assistant just weeks ago.
Yet as she parked in her private garage beneath her Millennium Tower penthouse, Victoria couldn't dismiss the uncomfortable recognition that James hadn't spoken from a place of disrespect. He'd spoken from a place of honesty—addressing the complex dynamic she'd deliberately cultivated between them.
By the time she entered her penthouse, the first golden light of sunrise was streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows, illuminating the pristine white and chrome interior. The space was immaculate, professionally designed and maintained—beautiful but impersonal, like a luxury hotel suite rather than a home. Victoria had always preferred it that way, finding comfort in its ordered minimalism after days of corporate complexity.
Now, however, the perfect emptiness felt hollow.
She moved through her morning routine with practiced precision, removing her coffee-stained blouse and placing it in the laundry basket for her housekeeper to handle. In her spacious bathroom, she examined her reflection in the mirror, searching for visible signs of the internal upheaval James had triggered.
Her face revealed nothing—the same controlled features that had graced countless business magazines and corporate profiles. Only her eyes betrayed a hint of the uncertainty beneath, a question she wasn't ready to articulate even to herself.
After a shower that did little to clear her thoughts, Victoria wrapped herself in a silk robe and moved to the kitchen. She prepared coffee with mechanical precision, every movement efficient. Yet when she raised the cup to her lips, the aroma brought an unbidden memory—James preparing her coffee exactly as she preferred, the careful way he stirred it fourteen times clockwise, the subtle acknowledgment in his eyes that he knew her preferences better than anyone.
Victoria set the cup down untasted, suddenly unable to swallow past the tightness in her throat.
"This is ridiculous," she said aloud to her empty penthouse, her voice sharp with self-reproach.
She was Victoria Sharp, CEO of one of the fastest-growing tech consultancies in the country. She had navigated hostile takeovers, outmaneuvered cutthroat competitors, and built a reputation for uncompromising excellence. She did not get flustered by an employee—regardless of how perceptive his observations or how electric their brief, accidental contact had been.
Victoria carried her coffee to her home office, determined to redirect her thoughts to work. The global expansion project demanded attention, the Singaporean regulatory issues required strategic navigation. These were concrete problems with definable solutions—unlike the unsettled feeling James had left her with.
For nearly an hour, she reviewed documents with forced concentration. Yet her thoughts continually drifted back to James's confrontation—not just his final challenge, but the observations that had preceded it. The uncomfortable truth was that he had been right about her contradictory behavior. She had arranged his office personally, had defended his strategies with particular vehemence, and had watched him when she thought he would not notice.
What James couldn't know—what Victoria herself rarely acknowledged—was why.
Three years ago, when she'd hired James as her executive assistant, the decision had been purely practical. His qualifications were impeccable, his references stellar. He demonstrated the precise combination of efficiency, discretion, and anticipatory thinking she required. Their working relationship had been smooth, professional, productive.
Until that evening eighteen months ago, when Victoria had returned late to the office after a particularly contentious board meeting. James had been waiting with the quarterly reports she needed reviewed by morning, along with perfect coffee and a quiet, unobtrusive presence that asked nothing of her beyond professional requirements.
Something had shifted that night—some indefinable change in her perception of him. Not a romantic interest, certainly not a physical attraction, but something more fundamental. A recognition. A moment of seeing James not as her exceptionally competent assistant, but as a person who understood her in ways she hadn't permitted anyone to understand her in years.
The realization had been deeply unsettling.
Victoria had built her career on maintaining absolute control—over her company, her employees, her emotions, and perhaps most importantly, her relationships. Allowing someone to know her, to truly see beneath the CEO façade, represented a vulnerability she couldn't afford.
So she had done what she always did when confronted with emotional complexity: she had established strategic distance. Maintaining James's professional value while ensuring he remained firmly in a role that preserved the necessary boundary between them.
Until tonight, when her carefully constructed walls had momentarily crumbled, and she had leaned toward him with an impulsiveness that shocked her even now. Much like previous unplanned incidents. At first, it was purely on a whim but then came a second in the car and now this…
Victoria closed the document on her tablet, no longer pretending to focus on work. The silent penthouse felt suddenly confining despite its spacious design. She moved to the wall of windows overlooking the city, watching as morning light transformed skyscrapers from shadowed monoliths to gleaming spires.