Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Merritt~

While there were a lot of issues with working for someone like Cutter Moore, the last thing that I needed was another one of my own making. For two years, I’d done my best to ignore how gorgeous he was, but now that I was single, I had no idea how I was going to manage it. Though I’d been in love with Steven and would never cheat, my eyes still worked. Honestly, I should have seen the writing on the wall when I’d started to notice Cutter more than usual a few months ago.

At thirty-four, Cutter Moore was over six-feet-tall, had dark auburn hair, bright hazel eyes, a face that reminded you of an aristocratic heritage, and a dimple that popped out on the right side of his cheek when he was smiling or annoyed. He also had a body that saw the gym religiously, and the only reason that I knew that was because there’d been plenty of times when I’d been summoned to his penthouse to pick up papers or whatever. The man looked like a Greek god in nothing but a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt, and there’d been lots of times that I’d felt guilty for thinking that.

Granted, I was getting way ahead of myself with such foolish thoughts. Cutter was gorgeous, intelligent, ruthless, and a freakin’ billionaire, so the man could have any woman that he wanted or more than one woman, honestly. So, the last thing that he needed to do was cross the line with his assistant and possibly ruin that relationship. Any successful CEO would tell you that competent secretaries, assistants, or personal confidants were worth their weight in gold, and I was good. Hell, anyone that could keep up with Cutter Moore’s pace had to be good.

Nonetheless, I was single now, and the fact that I wasn’t that broken up about it was proof enough that my relationship with Steven had probably been over a while back. So, moving forward, all I had to do was remind myself that Cutter was my boss, a billionaire, and could do better. Plus, he didn’t strike me as the type that was looking for love at his age. He still had mountains to conquer, and I had no doubt that he’d conquer them all when the time came.

A knock on the door snapped me out of my thoughts, and a part of me wondered if Cutter had hired movers after all. When I’d gone to research moving companies, I had quickly realized that the cost hadn’t been worth the few boxes that needed moving. Plus, since I hadn’t found a place yet, most of the boxes were headed towards storage anyway, so it really wasn’t that big of a deal.

Opening the door, I was shocked to find Cutter standing on the other side, no movers in sight. “Cutter?”

“I’m here to help you move,” he announced like it was the most natural thing in the world.

“I’m sorry?”

“I’m here to help you move,” he repeated. “Since you said that you didn’t have much, I figured that I could just do it for you.”

Two seconds ago, I’d been giving myself a lecture on ignoring how gorgeous Cutter Moore was, and now he was at my place, dressed in a black Henley shirt, a pair of dark jeans, looking nothing like my boss, and all I could imagine was his biceps flexing as he lifted the boxes in the living room.

What in the fresh hell?

“I…you didn’t have to do this, Cutter,” I said for a lack of anything better to say.

“That’s a matter of opinion,” he replied easily as he looked behind me into the living room. “I rented an SUV big enough to load those boxes in if that’s all that you have.”

I glanced back over my shoulder. “Yeah, that’s it,” I replied. “Though I do have a bookshelf that needs to be taken apart and stored. A rocking chair, too.”

“Are they sentimental pieces?”

I stared up into his prism-colored eyes, and I felt like Alice in Wonderland with him standing there, insisting on helping me move. “Uhm…no…” I stammered.

“Then I can carry them outside, then call someone to come pick them up,” he stated, taking control like he was used to. “Or we can make two trips. I don’t mind.”

“Well…the mini-storage that I rented-”

“Why’d you rent a mini-storage?”

“Uh…because I haven’t found a place yet,” I told him. “I’ll be staying at a hotel until-”

“Yeah, that doesn’t work for me,” he said, throwing me further into a bout of confusion. “How the hell am I supposed to expect the best from you if you’re living out of a hotel room? I can’t imagine that you’ll be comfortable or have all that you need to be efficient, which is something that is a must if you’re expected to keep up with me.”

“What?”

Cutter waved away my confusion as he walked into my house uninvited. “We’ll just move your stuff to my place until we can find you an affordable apartment,” he announced, clear signs of dementia upon him. “Moore Industries has a real estate division and owns several rental properties, so we can see if there’s anything currently available.”

I shut the door on instinct as I turned to look at him. “Are you high?” The man arched a brow, and I grimaced with how inappropriate that was. “I’m sorry,” I stammered. “I just…I can’t stay with you, Cutter.”

“Why not?”

I could feel my eyes widen. “Because you’re my boss.”

“And you hold a position that requires your availability twenty-four-hours a day,” he reminded me. “In fact, living with me sounds like the perfect solution to our work relationship.”

He was insane.

He had to be.

“So, all your previous assistants lived with you?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he scoffed. “Lucy’s husband would never have approved such a thing.”

Cutter Moore was absolutely out of his mind. “So, now that I’m single, you think it’s appropriate for me to live with you?”

He shrugged like this wasn’t complete madness. “Look, you need a place to stay, and I need to know that you’re safe and available to do your job. Staying with me sounds like the perfect solution.”

I straightened to my full height, which wasn’t much. “Cutter, if I stay with you, people are going to think that we’re sleeping together.”

The man shot me a look. “How long have you worked for me, Merritt?”

“Two years.”

“When have I ever given you the impression that I give a fuck what people think or say about me?” he questioned, and the answer was obvious to both of us.

“Never.”

“Look, you need a place to stay, and I have plenty of room,” he said, sounding reasonable, though there was nothing reasonable about this crazy situation. “As for what people will think of you, it’s going to be hard for you to find true happiness if you begin to care too much about what other people think, Merritt.”

I eyed him. “Spoken like a man with all the power in the world to make people look the other way,” I pointed out. “However, everyone knows that it’s sleazy for a secretary to sleep with her boss.”

“You’re wrong, Ms. Dale,” Cutter said as he let out a dark laugh. “It’s sleazy for a secretary to fuck her boss when either or both of them are married. It’s sleazy for a secretary to fuck her boss when they both know that she’ll never be anything more than a piece of convenient ass. It’s sleazy for a secretary to fuck her boss for ladder rungs.” Those hazel eyes of his regarded me sternly. “However, that’s a moot point since we’re not sleeping together, don’t you think?”

“My reputation is important to me,” I muttered lamely.

Cutter cocked his head. “And what makes you think that people aren’t already saying that you’ve been in my bed?” he asked evenly. “With as much time as we spend together, you have to know that some people are already thinking that, Merritt.”

I could feel my shoulders sag with that harsh truth. “Be that as it may, staying with you will only make it look worse.”

“Well, get over it,” he ordered as he turned from me to glance at all the boxes on the floor. “If you don’t want to move in with me, fine. However, you will be staying with me until we find you a suitable place to live. I will not have you living out of a motel room, Merritt.”

“Cutter-”

“I’m finished with this conversation, Merritt,” he said, and I knew that tone, though he’d never used it on me before. “Now, make sure that you haven’t missed anything as I take these boxes to the car. It shouldn’t take too long.”

“I can carry-”

“Over my dead fucking body,” he practically snapped. “Now, do as I asked.”

Yeah.

Because he asked.

Fuck my life.