The Billionaire Alpha’s Rejected Mate

Take Me Home!

*Claire's POV*

Never in a million years would I have believed that a man would make me feel the way William did. Just a simple conversation with him and I was already imagining what it would be like to hold him, to bury myself in his chest and have him wrap his hands around me.

Clearly there was something wrong with me.

To my relief, however, I found that I wasn't the only one he affected that way. He seemed to have this charm about him that naturally drew people towards him, even though he was the most intimidating man I'd ever met. He looked like a prototype for what the male species was supposed to look like, and there was absolutely no flaw whatsoever that I could see.

When he started walking over towards me, my knees began to tremble. What was he going to say? Did he even recognise me? What would everyone think when they saw him talking to me on my first day? I knew what they would suspect, and yet that didn't bother me at all. At least not the way I was bothered about what he was going to say.

When he said, "Good morning, Miss Monroe," I felt a sliver of joy in my heart. He remembered my name. He actually remembered my name, which meant he must have been thinking about that day afterwards. Did I make a good impression? Did I occupy his thoughts as much as he occupied mine? There was no way of being certain, but the simple fact that he remembered my name meant something at least.

I hardly paid any attention to what he was saying. Instead, I kept looking at his lips, and the way they moved so easily. I wondered what it would be like to kiss them, and I could feel myself immediately flushing. He must have realised how silly I looked, and I wanted the earth to open up and swallow me whole.

As soon as he left, my knees began to tremble and I had to hold onto the counter to steady myself. I was so dazed by his appearance, and I could not believe how things turned out. Stuff like this didn't happen in real life. It sounded like the beginning of a romantic comedy, and yet there was nothing funny about that. There was no way of hiding this.

"Well, well," Nigel said with a smirk, "I believe our little minx has some secrets of her own. Were you planning on telling us that you knew him?"

I turned and glowered at him, but then I realised that all five of them were exchanging identical looks.

"It's not what you think," I said. "We met last week by accident when he nearly ran me over."

"Is that so?" Jessica chuckled. "Is that why he was staring at you like you're some sort of exotic Swiss chocolate bar?"

"That's enough, Jessica," Tony said, coming to my rescue. "I don't think it's appropriate of you to talk about Miss Monroe like that. Here's your keycard. Good luck on your first day."

I smiled at him and headed towards the elevators, but I knew they were going to talk about me and how I was probably screwing the boss. That was the last thing I needed right now.

Way to go, Claire. You haven't even started on your first day and you're already jeopardising your position.

But there will be time to think about all this later. Right now, I was over ten minutes late. And I could already imagine what it would be like once everyone found out the real reason I was late. One thing I knew for certain about the corporate world was that there was no such thing as a secret in any office.

The elevator lumbered upwards slowly, and when it opened up on the 17th floor, I already knew what to expect. It was entirely white, almost too white if truth be told. There were two massive doors on either side of the hallway, and then a large transparent one at the end of the hallway which opened up into the main office. The ceiling was immensely high, and it made me feel small and insignificant compared to everything else. Even the doors were much taller than I was, and I wondered briefly why everything was scaled up around here.

I headed straight forward, and pushed the door open. Immediately, I was greeted by a stunning silence which caused me to stop dead in my tracks. The last time I was here, there had been so much noise and chaos that it was hard to even hear myself think. But now there was a sterile silence about it, like the entire office had somehow become a morgue. Not a single sound could be heard, and even the droning of the air conditioning which I picked out easily last time was now low and discreet, and it faded into the background effortlessly now.

Surely this didn't have anything to do with William. What sort of megalomaniac would induce this sort of fear in grown men and women? How intimidating do you have to be to bully all these people into doing exactly what you wanted? It was frightening, truth be told. It made me look at him in an entirely different way.

And it reminded me that the fantasy in my head was only just that; a fantasy.

In all honesty, I had known from the start that he was an intimidating person. People like that, you can feel the confidence and the demand for respect oozing from them. It was effortless, even. And if I didn't know any better, I would say William was just another cliche boss who demanded nothing short of perfection from his employees.

But there had been a characteristic recklessness, a boyish charm which came to him easily. Surely that wasn't forced, and surely that couldn't be misconstrued as him only being like that around me.

Could it be true, or had I gotten the image of my boss entirely wrong?

The office was an open-floor plan with several cubicles in the middle, although each one looked spacious enough that no one would feel cramped inside. Even the partitions were white panels, tall enough that they wouldn't allow someone to look over and talk to someone beside them, but not so high that they would be anywhere near the ceiling.

Elegant furniture with clean, simple lines were an invitation for guests to sit, isolated right next to the doors, as though they were reminding them that their presence was only temporary and short-lived. You could always leave as easily as you came in.

A few magazines' names rested in bold black and identifiable, individual typeface along the walls that flanked the lobby. Thick, opaque glass doors protected the titles, and even from afar I could see that most of them had pictures of William (I had to remember to call him Mr Compton from now on) on the cover.

The nearest cubicle showed someone sitting with their backs turned to the door, typing furiously on their computer. Their workspace was minimalist with only a calendar on the table, a photograph of a baby and some files, but that was it. Granted, I did not know much about the corporate world, but this was certainly something else. There were no organisers, no garbage cans, and books were simply not present.

Wow!

Nothing about this office made me feel safe, nurtured or even willing to do a good job. Instead, it seemed like a place that was designed by puritans, with the sole purpose of sucking the very life out of you.

"Miss Monroe?" a quiet voice came from beside me in a small cubicle where a woman's blonde hair was just peeking out. "You're late."

"I'm so sorry about that," I said as I quickly rushed to her, having completely forgotten that I was supposed to start working here today and I had already made a bad impression. "I was..."

"Tony just called and said there was a delay with your keycard," she said in a voice which sounded almost robotic. "I understand. But you should know that office hours will be strictly adhered to. As junior assistant, you should always be here before Andrea. She is your senior, after all. And you should be here to set up everything before she arrives."

While she spoke, she never took her eyes off the screen and she barely even moved. Only her lips were moving, but the rest of her was frozen like a statue. In fact, everyone looked like a statue, with only their fingers tapping away swiftly at their keyboards. Was that how everyone behaved around here? Was there no life in them at all, or had William (Mr Compton, damn it!) sucked the life out of them by his mere presence?

"You'll be working in there," she said, gesturing to a small office to the left with glass panels which separated it from the rest of the office. There were two desks inside, and a woman was already sitting there and talking with the phone pressed to her ear while she typed furiously on her computer. "Andrea will put you through what you're supposed to be doing. If you have any questions, you can ask her or you come here and speak to me. HR will be in touch with you by the end of the day to sort out a few formalities, and that will be all."

"Thank you," I said to her, turning to sprint towards the office. She called out to me, however, and that was when she stopped typing and looked up. Turns out there was life in her after all.

"I should tell you this," she said, dropping her voice to a soft whisper. "I understand that you're probably excited about your first day here, but this is not like every other company you know, especially today when Mr Compton is here. Over time, you will get to know him better since you'll be working so closely with him. But Mr Compton does not tolerate mistakes, even in the slightest. A slip-up might be all it takes for you to lose this job. And I'm sure you wouldn't want that, would you?"

"Of course not," I said immediately, holding my breath as if she was giving me the secrets of the universe. But I did feel grateful that she at least considered giving me a fair warning before I dived into the deep end.

"Mr Compton is rarely here," she said. "But on the days when he does show up to the office, you will need to be on your best behaviour. No unsolicited noise, no roaming about the office and certainly no breaks until he's done with you for the day."

"I will do my best to adhere," I smiled at her. She tried to smile as well, but it only turned into a grimace before she returned to her furious typing.

This was going to take a lot of getting used to.

As soon as I stepped into the office, I was greeted by the deep scent of expensive, pouty perfume mixed with the smell of fresh leather. Andrea had her back turned to me, and she was sounding very apologetic over the phone.

"I'm so sorry, Mr Willhem, but he insisted that it should be held today," she said. There was a long pause where I could hear someone screaming on the other end, and then she apologised once again before she continued. "Mr Compton deeply regrets it, but the board meeting is a necessity as you have stated yourself, and unfortunately he will not be able to hold it any other time for a month. We've tried to reschedule, but it will not be possible and I hope you will understand."

I stood there awkwardly, and she was silent again for a while before she said, "Of course. Thank you for understanding. I will inform Mr Compton of your approval."

She hung up with a groan, then stood up from her seat and turned around to face me. Her brows knitted together immediately, and I was so stunned that I didn't even know what to say. She was insanely beautiful, like to the level where I was beginning to feel self-conscious about myself.

A calf-length leather skirt hung from her hips, and her long, unruly blonde hair was piled in one of those messy but still glamorous buns on top of her head. Her skin was flawless and pale, not so much as a single freckle or blemish, and it stretched perfectly over the highest cheekbones I'd ever seen. She didn't smile. She just stood there silently and looked me over, earnestly but with little apparent interest. Perfunctory. And then, without so much as a single regard for a word, she grabbed the file which sat in front of her and walked past me, the clacking of her heels echoing long after she left.

I remained where I was, utterly bemused by what I had just witnessed. Barely ten minutes into the game, and I had already managed to piss her off. I wondered what exactly it was that made her react this way, but for the life of me I couldn't figure it out.

Rather than standing there like a statue and waiting for her to come back and make me feel even more pathetic, I headed towards the second desk and deposited myself in it. I set my bag down beside me, and I stared at the computer with my head pounding already. I had no idea what the hell I was doing, and I really wished I could go back to the woman at the desk and ask her what the hell I was supposed to be doing. But then Andrea returned, and she did not even glance in my direction as she made her way back to the desk. She dropped into the chair, and I could have sworn that I heard a moan from her lips.

Alright Claire, time to be the bigger person here.

“Hi,” I said, smiling at her. “I’m Claire Monroe, the new assistant.”

“I know who you are,” she said. “Why else would you be here?”

Taken aback by her harsh remark, I tried to smile at her. I remembered to take the high road, just because it was my first day and she was probably as confused as I was.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Andrea,” she replied. “And before you ask, I know you want to know what exactly you’re going to be doing. But I’ll handle it for today. Just sit there, stay quiet and maybe read a book or something. If there’s anything to do, I’ll let you know. And if any calls come through, you hand them over to me.”

I wasn’t going to argue with that. Who cares if she doesn’t talk to me? I was just going to sit there and not do anything for eight hours. How could that possibly be difficult?

But just as I leaned back into the chair, the phone on my desk began to ring. Andrea answered the call on her end however before I could even reach for it, and nodded quickly.

“Right away, Mr Compton,” she said. I looked up as she hung up, and with a cynical smirk she said, “He wants to see you.”

I immediately began to tremble at the knees. What could he possibly want with me? So far, I had done nothing wrong apart from being a few minutes late, which he would understand since he contributed to that a little bit. So why would he possibly want to see me?

Steeling myself, I stood up and tried to steady my breathing. Andrea directed me to the door on my left, just outside our office, and I stumbled my way towards it with my heart pounding.

Pull yourself together, Claire. He’s just a man. And he’s your boss.

And then, after holding my breath for what felt like an eternity, I lifted my hand slowly and knocked.

“Enter!”

*