Alpha Billionaire Obsession by Katrina Ivory Page A

even
comes in the office every few weeks or so and he barely talks to us
when he does. Like I said, he knows he’s important.”
    Great, Anna thought as she returned to
her desk and started packing up her stuff to go home. He does sound
like a jerk. But, it’s not like I expected to be friends with the
CEO anyway. It’s a job. And a good, well-paying job too, she
reassured herself.
    Just as she was saying goodbye to
Julie, Chuck, and her other coworkers whose names she was still
struggling to learn, a new emailed popped up in her inbox. An email
from Brian, in response to her email that she’d sent introducing
herself and telling him about the meetings.
    OK, the email read. Just those two
letters, OK. Wow, Anna laughed to herself as she walked down the
stairs, Chuck was right. Brian sure doesn’t seem like the
friendliest guy ever. “You’ll be fine,” she said aloud to herself,
repeating Chuck’s reassuring words from earlier. “You’ll be
good.”
    Anna knew her living situation wasn’t
the most glamorous, but she really didn’t mind it. She’d moved back
in with her parents the previous month after breaking up with her
boyfriend of three years. She had been living with her boyfriend
for the past year, and in that time it had become clear that they
weren’t meant to be together. He was a nice, fun guy and
everything, but something was missing. Romance? Passion, maybe?
Anna wasn’t quite sure exactly what she was looking for, but she
had decided that she should probably take some time to herself to
figure out what she wanted, both from a relationship and from life
in general.
    So she’d moved out of their
one-bedroom apartment in the city, quit her sales job that she
hated, and moved back in with her parents, who were still living in
the home she grew up in out in the suburbs. “25 and living with my
parents,” Anna would joke to her close friends, “I must be going
through a quarter life crisis!” But really, she felt a little
relieved at having this chance to start over, in a way, and
discover a new path to a happier life.
    When she got home from work, Anna went
on a quick run. It felt great getting outside, especially after
spending the day in the cool, air-conditioned office. Anna breathed
in the warm summer air and happily hummed along to her iPod as she
jogged through her neighborhood. After returning home and taking a
shower, she made dinner for herself and her parents and told them
about her first day.
    Later that evening, Anna’s best friend
from high school, Macy, texted to say she was stopping by. Macy
still lived in town, too, but had her own apartment. Anna soon
heard her knock on the door, and let her into the living room,
where they sat on the couch and Macy immediately wanted to hear
everything about Anna’s new job. “Sounds like kind of a jerk,” she
said about Brian after Anna filled her in on Chuck’s opinions and
the two-letter email. “CEO at only 35 though? Wow.” She sat in
thought for a moment. “What does he look like?”
    It dawned on Anna that even she didn’t
know what Brian looked like, so they pulled up her laptop and
Googled his name.
    Anna and Macy both stared at the
laptop screen, speechless, and then turned toward each other. Macy
was the first to break the silence. “Forget what I said about being
a jerk… he’s HOT!” She burst out laughing and nudged Anna. “Lucky
you! What a sexy CEO!”
    Anna giggled but tried to keep a
straight face. “Oh, who cares what he looks like. He’s my boss. And
probably a jerk. And besides, that’s probably just a good photo.”
But she couldn’t quite peel her eyes away from Brian’s picture. He
was muscular but not too big, with smooth, tan skin, dark brown
hair, and the most piercing blue eyes Anna had ever seen. He had
just a hint of a smile on his face, like he had a secret.
“Alright,” Anna finally said, forcing herself to close her browser
window and shut down her laptop. “Enough work talk!” And they