Chapter 3

"Shit. Shit. Shit." Desiree chanted under her breath as she slipped into her black blazer. It was her first day at work, and she didn't want to be late at any cost, but for some reason, her alarm didn't work.

"Ease up, Des," Sophia said as she noticed Desiree frantically combing her brown hair.

"You don't know her, Soph. He will literally suck the soul out of me if I am late," she retorted and picked up her car keys, wallet, and other essentials.

"She couldn't be that bad," Sophia commented, earning a scowl from Desiree the very next minute.

"Not that bad? He is a soul-sucking monster." Desiree looked in the mirror one last time before leaving.

"Damn, you look hot," Sophia said, handing her a peanut butter sandwich.

Desiree chuckled at her best friend's words and gulped the sandwich down in three bites. After that, she rushed downstairs to the parking lot of the building where her car was parked. Sitting inside her car, she glanced at her watch. There were still twenty-five minutes before 8, and if all went right, she would be there in fifteen minutes.

With that thought, she started her car, but the happiness didn't last long. "Fuck." She cursed when she encountered the long line of cars stuck in traffic on the main road.

"Why, God? Why me?" She tapped her feet in anxiety, imagining Elijah Rothschild unleashing his rage on her.

There was no way in hell she could reach the office before 8, so she prepared herself for the worst. What was the worst? He could fire her. There were other jobs, jobs where her boss wouldn't be a blood-sucking vampire. So yeah, maybe it was a blessing in disguise.

After five minutes sitting there in pure agony, the cars finally started moving, and Desiree released the breath she was holding. Once out of the main road, she increased her speed and drove to Rothschild Group of Industries.

Parking the car in an empty spot, Desiree scurried inside with adrenaline pumping in her veins. The sight of a closing elevator made her run faster. The opening was getting narrower and narrower, and it was about to close when she reached it and used her arms to make enough space for her to enter.

"Oh, God! Thank you. Thank you so much." A groan of happiness escaped her lips as she was finally inside the elevator. Now, she wouldn't be late, and the devil would not have any excuse to insult her.

"You are late." A voice reached her, and she rotated her neck to look at the man standing in another corner of the elevator, his head lowered into a file.

"I..." Desiree checked her wristwatch, and it was still five minutes before 8. "I am not. I am here exactly at 8."

Hearing this, Elijah shut the file in his hand and turned his head to her. He looked angrier than yesterday, if that was even possible. There was a big frown etched in his forehead, and his nose was all flushed.

"If I ask you to be here at 8, you are supposed to be here by 7. If I ask you to be here at 7, you are supposed to be here by 6. Understood?" he asked.

"But—" Desiree stopped when he raised his eyebrow. "Yes, I understand."

The rest of the journey to their destined floor went awkwardly. Once the elevator stopped, Desiree sighed in relief, but it was short-lived as she heard him call her.

"Follow me."

Without uttering another word, Desiree followed Elijah into the hallway. Just like yesterday, a pin drop silence prevailed on Elijah's arrival. He walked past everyone, radiating the aura of confidence and self-assurance, commanding their respect and attention.

Unknowingly, Desiree's eyes settled on his back. His dark hair was slicked back with perfection. His well-built muscles strained against the white long sleeves, appearing incredibly firm to the touch. Finally, her eyes rested on his calloused hands, the size of which matched his face.

Elijah suddenly stopped moving without any warning, and Desiree ended up bumping into him. Before she could back away, he turned around and glared at her, with his face inches away from hers. His rage-filled eyes threw daggers at her, but all she could think was how handsome he looked up close. It was as if he was a Greek god in a past life.

"Desiree," he said her name, and she shook her head to clear these thoughts.

"Y-Yes…?" she asked, biting her lip.

"Did you forget to wake up this morning? It's your first day, and you are already making it hard for me to tolerate you." He scowled, and she looked around to see everyone already staring at them.

"It won't… happen again," she said, faking confidence.

His jaw ticked at this, and she feared he would berate her with his hands. Thankfully, he didn't.

"It better not," he said and started moving forward. This time, Desiree made sure to keep her eyes on the back of his head and not any lower.

Elijah stopped in front of an office that had Desiree's name on the nameplate. "This is my office, and that one is yours." He pointed at the average-sized room built right next to him. "You will find my schedule and my last secretary's planner in your desk drawers. I want you to have a look at them."

"Okay," she said. It wasn't that much work. This meant he wasn't one of those people who gave a lot of work to their workers just to assert their dominance. All she had to do was endure his harsh words, and she was good to go.

"Where are you going?" He asked as he watched her enter her office.

"To do the work?" she stated the obvious. "Do you want me to do something? Coffee?"

"Do you think that was your work?" He let out a dry chuckle, and she gulped. "Do you actually think you will be paid thousands of dollars for just this? After doing what I just told you, you are supposed to call Mr. Simons and ask about our meeting. Then, you are supposed to look for all the projects of this past month and present to me an analysis of the outcomes. Then, you will prepare the conference room for our monthly budget meeting, and after that, you will personally go to the heads of all departments and ask for their feedback on our new yearly finance policy."

For a moment, Desiree's mind numbed on hearing all this. It was her first day at work, and it was supposed to be light and easy.

Who was she kidding? It was Lucifer she was talking about. Did she honestly expect him to go easy on her?

"Can... you repeat?" She asked, pulling out a notebook from her bag. "I forgot the other things you said…"

"I have better things to do," he said and walked into his office.

She was screwed.

By lunchtime, Desiree had looked at the schedule and planner, arranged a meeting with Simons, prepared the conference room for the meeting, and met all the department heads. The only thing left was the analysis of all the projects of this past month.

On her way back from the finance department, she was breathing heavily. She hadn't taken a break for a single moment, and her head was close to exploding. There were so many files, so many meetings to arrange, so many things to do according to the planner and schedule. And it was just her first day.

Once out of the elevator, Desiree sat down on the first bench that caught her attention and took a long breath.

"Hard first day?" A masculine voice reached her ears.

Her eyes followed the source of the voice and landed on the man sitting at a desk in front of her. He had his light blue eyes fixated on the computer.

"Something like that," she replied.

"I'd say it gets easier, but it doesn't."

"I figured that out." She passed him a wide smile. He was handsome but in a more typical way; a London man.

"Nick. Nick Luther," he introduced himself.

"Desiree Hilton," she smiled at him.

"Desiree," he repeated under his breath. "You better get back to your office, Desiree. Mr. Rothschild has his eyes everywhere."

"Yeah, you are probably right," she said and stood up to go back to her office. "Nice to meet you. I thought only robots would work here."

He chuckled at this. "Join us on Friday. It's club night. I'll introduce you to everyone else."

"Sure. I'll be there," she said, and then exchanged her number with him.

With slow steps, Desiree walked towards her office, and she was about to enter inside when a voice stopped her. "Are you done with all the work?"

Turning her head to Elijah Rothschild's office, she shook her head no. "The analysis is yet to be done."

"Oh... I thought you were already done with it because you obviously had enough time to gossip around," he said, and Nick's words rang in her ears. He really had his eyes everywhere.

Instead of replying, Desiree just smiled in return. It was time for a little experiment because she couldn't spend her days here shitting her skirts every time he screamed at her.

"Do you have any idea how much I hate tardiness?" He asked angrily, and then his eyes widened. "And why the hell are you smiling?"

"I am not," she replied and kept a smile on her face.

"Stop it. You look creepy." He gritted his teeth and glared at her, and she just nodded with another smile.

"What is wrong with you?" He crossed her arms in front of his chest, an action that made his biceps more prominent.

"I read somewhere that it's hard to scold a smiling face." She smiled at him, making him scowl.

"That's so not true. I can even rebuke a kid. Try me," he shot back with a blank face.

"You are probably right," she whispered, enough for him to hear, while widening her smile.

Elijah glared at her even more, the look in his eyes enough to make anyone wet their panties. The sane part of Desiree's mind advised her to wipe off her smile before she received a slap on her face, but she kept her expression the same.

"Get out of my sight! Go take a break or something and don't show me your face for at least an hour!" He pointed out somewhere, eyes darkened at her, and walked past her into his office.

A corner of her lips lifted at her small victory, and she decided to go to a nearby Chinese place for lunch. If her day wasn't going well, her boss's day wouldn't be either.