Prologue

The S.O. Publishing Industry, New York, Six Months Ago

"If someone had told me that my dream of working here would come true, I would have probably scoffed at them," Grace muttered to herself. "How I wish Mom and Dad were here to see this." She couldn't help but cry. "Seriously, Grace, not right now. Get a hold of yourself. No thinking of the past. You need to move forward," she encouraged herself.

But the fact that the boss asked her to stay behind was weird. Now, it was 8 p.m., and apart from the boss, she was the only one in the office. As if that wasn't enough, he had sent for her. "Jeez, I don’t want to lose this job. I wonder what he wants."

She stood up from her desk and went to the boss's office, standing outside the heavy gold metal door with a name boldly written in silver, "Noah Creed." she muttered to herself. Then, all of a sudden, the voice that always shook her to the core spoke.

"You don’t need to stand there, Grace. Come in."

"Oh god! That voice." With one deep breath, she pushed the metal door open.

"Good day, sir," she said calmly. She could never get tired of his amazing presence. Clearing her throat, she continued, "You sent for me, sir."

"Yes," he said, looking at the pure gold wristwatch on his arm. "It’s almost 8:30; I was wondering why you still haven’t left," he said calmly.

"What? Are you kidding me right now?" Oh, sh*t, did I just say that? "I mean, sir."

"No, Grace." He cut her off with a wave of his hand. "I'm not 'kidding you.' I just didn’t think you would listen to me. You never do, despite me being your boss," he said with a serious expression.

"Huh," she said awkwardly, looking at her hands. Seriously, Grace, just die; she cursed herself.

"But you know the funniest thing..." he said, now standing in front of her, since when, she wondered. As he traced the line of her ears with his thumb, she shivered in excitement. Boy! Who would have thought she was sensitive in that area? He forced her head up with his hand. "I am going to fuck you here, Grace, and it won’t be a joke."

What did he just say? While she was trying to figure out what was going on, he plunged his mouth into hers.

She gasped, and he dove in, exploring the deepest part of her mouth with his tongue.

"Oh my god! He was French kissing her, and because it was her first time, Grace forgot to breathe and choked.

"Are you alright?" he pulled back almost immediately and asked with a puzzled expression.

"Are you trying to kill me?" Grace asked, lost and confused. What was that? A kiss or a death sentence?

"What are you talking about, Grace? How can you die from just a kiss?" he asked again, placing his hand on her shoulder. "It’s not like it’s your first time being kissed." He said so, and she suddenly went stiff in his arms, and a great silence followed after his question.

****

Noah Creed looked at Grace, puzzled yet again. Come on! There’s no way that's her first kiss. But with the look on her face right now... Yeah, it totally was.

Relationships with coworkers in all his establishments were forbidden, and the staff found in a relationship would be fired. That's how it had always been, and there were a lot of people who fell victim to him and were fired by him.

But since this wild, crazy girl called Grace Bush came to this establishment, his mind, heart, and body had been in chaos. The fact that she had always stolen glances at him, thinking he was not aware, was a sign that she too wanted a piece of him, just like he wanted her.

Now he just wanted to satisfy his desire and send her packing by morning, but if that was her first kiss, it also meant she had never had sex.

Great! And he hated virgins with passions. They were too clingy, and with his experience, he was not looking for anything serious.

He was always quick to end things like this, but why couldn’t he do it this time? He should have apologized and sent her away, but for some reason, he could not let go.

Like someone possessed by a demon, he did something he had never done in his life. He kissed her again, this time he went more deeply than the first time.

****

Maybe time stopped when his lips met hers again, but the flutter only intensified. Grace’s heart pounded in her chest as her knees got weaker. She could only focus on how soft his lips felt against her mouth and how additively he invaded all her senses.

It still wasn’t clear if she dreamed this moment to life, but there was a raw emotion in the way his fingers curled around hers. Noah kept his eyes half open, sneaking a guilty peek at her every time he came back for air, just to make sure this wasn’t a product of his imagination. Heat rose from Grace’s stomach to her chest. The smell of him was hypnotic beyond reason; she parted her lips and felt him washing over her like a wave of warmth, curling her toes and unfurling all her senses as the taste of him nearly silenced all thoughts.

Her whole body tingled, and the feel of his frame leaning on hers as his arms wrapped around her felt nearly forbidden. He pulled her in, claiming her mouth again, hungry and intense, until her knees gave in. By the time Grace became aware of her fingers, they had already slipped under his shirt, making his skin smooth and radiating heat.

As if time had stopped right there, they stood propped against his office desk, glued to one another, as if no one else existed and there was no risk to her job or company policies. For Noah, it was as if he’d never been with a woman before. What was this new feeling? He had never felt it before, not with the women he had been with. Grace, what are you doing? If this continues, you know what's going to happen. Before her strength weakened, she pushed him away. "Sorry, sir, but I don’t think we should do this."

"What are you talking about, Grace?" he asked, confused. "You want me right now, just as much as I want you."

Yes, she couldn't deny it, but her wanting was totally different from his, and there were so many things at stake. "I’m sorry, sir, but I can’t," she said, and with one last glance at him, she ran off.

He just stood there, watching her run away like a scared cat. "We can’t?" Noah murmured, puzzled. "She said, like hell! He definitely saw the desire in her eyes, and for someone who had no experience, she was daring and wild." Though he still couldn’t put a name to this new feeling, he already missed her lips. And not until he got what he wanted, she wasn’t going anywhere. "Sorry, Grace," he said, laughing to himself in the empty office, "you can’t escape me for long; I'm Noah Creed." He declared as if his name meant more than it did; maybe it did; no one knows.

Grace just kept running until she was out of the building; she didn’t stop, but the moment she saw the security guard, she slowed down so they don't suspect anything.

“What just happened?” She questioned, still shrieking, “OMG! Grace, you are crazy; how could you succumb so easily, even if you wanted it?"

In all her weirdest dreams, she would not have imagined her first kiss to be in an office with a crazy rich, and powerful man such as Noah Creed, no less. Not in this life.

Just how the hell did this happen?