Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Cutter~

It was Monday morning, and like Mondays everywhere in the world, they were busy as fuck, despite working on the weekends. Again, I wasn’t one of the world’s youngest billionaires because I took time off to enjoy life. Luckily, Merritt had been good about getting with me yesterday to find out what all that she’d missed by going to that wedding.

Now, while I didn’t begrudge her some time off to smell the roses, she hadn’t signed on for easy. She’d known exactly what would be expected of her when she’d taken the job, so it wasn’t often that I felt guilty for the pace that I set. Plus, I’d also never heard her complain about it, so until she did, I was going to assume that she could keep up.

Having started my day at four this morning, I was already four hours into my workday when Merritt came knocking on my office door. Like clockwork, she knocked on it at eight o’clock sharp every morning, and she was the only one allowed to do so. For exactly fifteen minutes, I gave her a rundown of what I needed from her, and then she went and did whatever she had to in order to make it happen. To say that she was efficient was an understatement.

Without waiting for permission, Merritt walked into my office, and I looked up from my desk, my heart doing that fucked-up thing that it did whenever I saw her. At five-foot-three, Merritt was a petite version of perfection. She had platinum blonde hair that fell to the middle of her back, a cerulean shade of blue eyes that jumped out from a forest of thick lashes, and a face that reminded me of Emily Sears.

Her body was also another thing of perfection. If there was an ideal body type, then Merritt had it. She wasn’t too skinny or too thick, ideally proportioned everywhere. There was also nothing fake about her, and even though I couldn’t swear to it on a stack of Bibles, her frame appeared all natural. I often pictured her laid out on a beach somewhere, her swimsuit showcasing those subtle curves that my tongue would love to explore for eternity.

“Good morning,” she stated like normal. “I’ve got-”

“Before you get started on what you have for me, we’re flying to Japan next week,” I announced.

“Oh…uhm, okay,” she stammered as she rearranged the mess in her hands.

“Cotter found out that Heiro kept the data on the original Copper Trunk prototype, and rather than risk it getting ruined or lost in the overseas shipping, I’m picking it up myself.”

Merritt winced. “I heard about…uh, what happened.”

I couldn’t imagine that there was anyone in the company that hadn’t heard about what had happened. After reviewing the camera feed, we’d been surprised and disgusted to find out that two of our researchers had been screwing each other in the research lab that night, and though further review of our security had shown that it’d been only that one time, it’d been enough to fire them and almost bring on a lawsuit. Now, while I had no problem with employees finding love, I had a big problem with them expressing that love in the goddamn research labs that were supposed to be sanitary areas. Why couldn’t they have found a storage closet to screw in?

“Yeah, it wasn’t a good time, finding that out,” I drawled out.

Merritt gave me a terse nod. “Okay, Japan,” she said, getting back to the subject at hand. “When do you want to fly out?”

When she switched her notepad out for her tablet, that’s when I saw it.

No ring.

Unable to help myself, I asked, “Did you lose your engagement ring?”

“Oh…” Her face reddened a bit as she glanced down at her ringless finger. “Yeah…uhm…” Her blue eyes looked back my way. “Uhm…no, I…I gave it back to Steven yesterday.”

I could feel the blood rushing through my ears, among other places.

She gave back the fucking ring.

I eyed her carefully. “Is everything okay?”

Her face softened, though her eyes looked a bit wary. Granted, I didn’t blame her since I’d never asked about her personal life before now, but that’d been purely for selfish reasons. Since I wasn’t a masochist, I hadn’t wanted to hear how happy she was with her fiancé. However, I had no problem with wanting to hear about their breakup, if they were truly broken up, which made me an asshole I supposed.

“Nobody stays engaged for two years, Cutter,” she finally answered. “While I wasn’t in a hurry to get married, we’ve never even discussed where we’d like to get married.”

“Ever?” I asked, surprised a bit.

Merritt shook her head as she got comfortable in one of the chairs positioned in front of my desk. “I used to bring it up when he first proposed, but then…he just kept saying that we had time, so…I don’t know. The ring ended up just becoming a piece of jewelry with no real meaning after a while.”

I felt like I was in a boardroom, negotiating the deal of a lifetime. “What changed?”

“Well, as you know, we went to his cousin’s wedding this weekend, and…” She let out a deep sigh. “The whole time, I didn’t think about our wedding once.” Merritt shook her head again. “It was like I’d forgotten all about being engaged myself, and I took that as a sign.”

“How did Steven take it?” I asked carefully, not wanting to scare her off.

“To his credit, he tried to do the decent thing and said that we could start planning the wedding now. However, when I didn’t feel excited about the possibility of it finally happening, I knew that it was over and time to move on,” she confessed.

“How are you doing with all this?” While I wanted her for myself and always had, I wasn’t a complete asshole. “Are you okay?”

“That’s another thing,” she huffed. “I should feel way more upset about ending a three-year relationship than I am. I…honestly, I have no idea what we’d been doing these past few months.” The woman looked tired. “Even Steven hadn’t seemed that upset after accepting that it wasn’t going to work out anymore. It…it felt more like two roommates moving out on their own than a couple breaking up.”

“Wait, you’re moving out?”

Her beautiful face grimaced a bit. “Yeah, and…uhm…I was hoping that I could take some time this weekend to move. I mean, I haven’t found a place yet or anything, but I can always stay at a hotel until I find something. Steven needs to fly out Thursday for a business trip and won’t be back until Sunday, so I was going to start packing my stuff up this week to finally get all my stuff out on Saturday.”

She was moving out.

“So, since Steven will be out of town, who’s helping you move?”

“I haven’t thought that far ahead,” she admitted. “Besides, there’s not a whole lot to move. When Steven and I had agreed to move in together, I had moved into his place, so most of the furniture is his. I have like one bookshelf and a rocking chair that I found on sale.”

“Well, be that as it may, I’m not going to allow you to move your stuff by yourself,” I told her, not caring that I was crossing a line. In fact, I’d been waiting to cross this line for two fucking years, ethics and integrity be damned. “I can also help you find a place to stay.”

Her beautiful blue eyes widened. “Uh… that’s completely unnecessary,” she said graciously. “I mean, if anyone knows how busy you are, it’s me.”

“Nonsense,” I told her. “What kind of man would that make me to allow you to handle all of this on your own?”

“Uhm-”

“I can arrange a moving truck and-”

“No, really,” Merritt said as she stood up from the chair. “While I appreciate your offer, I just really need Saturday off. I can figure out the rest, Cutter.”

“Merritt-”

“If I need any help, I’ll let you know,” she offered as a way of a compromise, one that I had no intentions of honoring. “I just…I’m just still trying to wrap my mind around everything, so I…I’ve got it figured out, Cutter. Honestly.”

I gave her a terse nod. “Very well,” I lied. “Then let’s get as much done this week as we can, so that you can have your Saturday.”

She graced me with one of her stunning smiles. “Thank you,” she sighed. “I just…after asking for this past Saturday off, and then-”

I put my hand up to stop her. Little did she know that I’d give her a year off if it meant that she’d be single at the end of that year. Yeah, she was my personal assistant, but I didn’t care. I also didn’t care that she’d never shown one ounce of interest in me. She’d been in a committed relationship, so I was glad that she’d been nothing but professional these past two years. I would have thought differently of her had she’d shown me any interest.

“Merritt, if nothing else, you’ve earned this time,” I told her truthfully. “You’ve been with me for two years and have never complained about the workload, not once. At least, not to my face.”

She smiled again. “At least, not to your face.”

Yeah, she was the one.